World Economic Forum Names 2015 Technology Pioneers

This year’s World Economic Forum announced a number of companies that they designated as Technology Pioneers in three categories: Information Technology, Life Sciences & Health, and Energy Environment & Infrastructure. Fourteen of these were in the last category, several of which have some very innovative and potentially significant products.

For example, Blue River Technology has developed smart machines that deploy a highly sophisticated form of targeted agriculture that can increase production while providing an alternative to the chemical-intensive agriculture used today that is so costly and environmentally damaging. These machines use imaging technology, robotics and machine learning to analyze each plant and identify weeds that are then removed mechanically. Blue River began with the "LettuceBot" in California and will be expanding to other crops soon. They envision a future where robots "make every plant count", allowing a farmer to individually care for each plant in their field. Of course these robot will need power to run, which could come from solar or biofuel, but using them could increase yields and reduce or eliminate the need for many herbicides.

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RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post.