ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT | MARCH 30, 2018 2018 INNOVATiON AWARDS www.EastBayEDA.org 2 ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT EAST BAY INNOVATION AWARDS SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES MARCH 30, 2018 EAST BAY INNOVATION AWARDS ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT 3 A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN Contents Economic development Companies to watch .....................................4 Innovation from the bright side of the Bay .........................................................5 2018 Legacy Award Winner and artificial intelligence East Bay Regional Park District ................ 6 Catalyst Award ..........................................7 y all indications, Artificial Intel- Winner: Contra Costa Transportation ligence (AI) is everywhere – an ‘In about 30 years, Authority/GoMentum Station, Walnut era-defining technology. Last artificial intelligence Creek/Concord January, AI was the innovation Finalist: PetersenDean Roofing & Solar, Bsweeping not only the big Consumer will have an IQ of 10,000’ Fremont Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but also Masayoshi Son, CEO, SoftBank Advanced Manufacturing .......................8 the National Retail Federation’s annual Winner: Therm-x, Hayward trade show in New York. AI can be found Finalist: Bishop-Wisecarver, Pittsburg right now in a wide range of household a set of ethical boundaries to control the appliances in local stores. outcomes of technology development, Pushing the limits of manufacturing with AI is software that enables machines they do have an important role to play in additive technologies: ................................9 to recognize digital patterns, make infer- supporting and managing the change. Keith Carson ences and learn by trial and error. As data The leading edge of our economy is Clean Tech ............................................... 10 Chair, East Bay Economic inputs and computing power grow, the based on continuous innovation. To Winner: Smart Wires Inc., Union City Development Alliance; analysis, speed of decision making, and be successful, such an economy needs Finalist: GRID Alternatives, Oakland Supervisor, Alameda ability to handle complex problems be- something to integrate the system. Gov- Berkeley Lab: Public-private County, District 5 comes more powerful. Autonomous ve- ernment, education, unions, commu- partnerships lay the foundation for hicles and music streaming services use nity organizations, and other partners innovation .....................................................11 AI to teach themselves how to drive and all need to be working in harmony for what type of music to play for listeners. business to keep up with global com- Education ................................................ 12 But the greater the power to benefit, petition. This is becoming economic Winner: PilotCity, San Leandro the greater the potential for harm. De- development’s job and it must be done Finalist: Tech Exchange, Oakland mocracy may become hard to main- well to successfully compete with oth- tain if instead of a common source of er regional economies, including those Creating a diverse STEM workforce ......13 information, newsfeeds only tell each that are centrally planned. Engineering & Design .......................... 14 individual what they want to hear. The But economic development also Winner: Velodyne LiDAR, Alameda Internet of Things exposes us to cyber- means supporting the communities Finalist: Key Source International, attacks through our household appli- that support the businesses and their Oakland ances. Reportedly, China is using AI to workers. Powerful technologies such as monitor everything its citizens do on gene editing and AI can raise questions Food ......................................................... 16 the Internet and using facial recogni- about core values. When robots make Winner: Impossible Foods, Oakland tion software to monitor where people industries such as manufacturing and Finalist: Hodo, Oakland go, what they buy and whom they meet. logistics less labor intensive, our com- Judges & Facilitators ..................................17 This surveillance is then aggregated into munities are weakened unless we find a “citizen score” that determines such solutions for displaced workers. Com- Information/Communication things as what class train ticket can be munities will fail if those with generous Technology .............................................. 18 bought, the necessity of making a large tech salaries make housing too expen- Winner: Chirp Microsystems, Berkeley deposit and where one is allowed to sive for those providing services. Tech- Finalist: Beyond Lucid Technologies, shop. The scores of those in one’s social nology is forcing us to choose either Concord network also affect a person’s own score, convenience and security, or privacy so associating with those with lower “cit- and personal freedom. Building youth leaders through izen scores” endangers privileges. A dif- This is why the East Bay Economic community service ................................ 19 ferent concern of some Silicon Valley lu- Development Alliance (East Bay EDA) Life Sciences .......................................... 20 minaries is the “singularity,” the point at has been structured as an organization Winner: RefleXion Medical, Hayward which machines become smarter than of cross-sector, stakeholder leaders. Finalist: POC Medical Systems, Inc., humans and make decisions that hu- To avoid a future we don’t want and to Livermore mans can’t understand or control. AI is create the future we desire will require already surpassing humans in complex more investment from everyone. It will List of Nominees .........................................21 games such as chess and Go. require the creation of a common vision While economic development orga- and motivation. I hope you will join us Profiles by Aaron Welch and Richard Berman nizations do not have ready answers nor in achieving that. Publication design by Carol Collier Cover design by Jackie Keliiaa About the East Bay Economic Development Alliance For more information, contact: The East Bay Economic Development Executive Director Government Affairs & Economic Development Analyst Alliance (East Bay EDA) is a public/private Darien Louie Communications Director Celina Chan partnership serving Alameda and Contra (510) 272-3874/(510) 418-8605 Adrienne Ursino (510) 208-3996 [email protected] (510) 272-3885/(510) 679-8556 [email protected] Costa Counties. We are the regional voice [email protected] and networking resource for strengthening Technology & Trade Director Economic Development Analyst Robert Sakai Senior Economic Development Michael Northam the economy, building the workforce, and (510) 272-3881 Analyst (510) 272-3889 enhancing the quality of life in the East Bay. [email protected] Jackie Keliiaa [email protected] (510) 272-6843 General Information: We welcome your engagement! [email protected] [email protected] www.EastBayEDA.org (510) 272-6746 4 ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT EAST BAY INNOVATION AWARDS SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES Companies to watch THE EAST BAY IS HOME TO MANY QUALITY CONTENDERS FOR INNOVATION AWARDS BY ROBERT SAKAI, $2 trillion fashion industry, and the 60% of our clothing that contains Technology & Trade Director, East Bay Economic Development Alliance polyester. It could be used to replace plastic in children’s toys, electronic casings, water bottles and food packaging. In addition, Mango’s process he East Bay’s creative energy is diverse and it’s been around for uses waste methane that is produced by the breakdown of organic quite a while. The world’s first cyclotron was invented here by material in landfills, and the plastic costs no more than petroleum-based T Ernest Lawrence at the University of California, Berkeley. The plastic. Today, Mango is working on a specific plastic formulation to solve Sierra Club was cofounded by three Berkeley professors. The cooking the environmental problem created by the waste of 250 billion plastic philosophy known as “California cuisine” was born here. Some historians container caps that are produced annually. say the East Bay’s Cetus Corporation, established in Berkeley and oper- Pleasanton’s 10x Genomics has created a powerful system of tools, ated in Emeryville in 1971, was the world’s first biotechnology company. including reagents, instrumentation, and software, for studying the dy- Tesla cars and award-winning Pixar motion pictures are produced here. namics of gene expression more efficiently and in more detail than with More recently, CRISPR, a gene editing technology characterized as hav- previous tools. Using 10x Genomics’ tools, researchers can now quickly ing a transformative power equivalent to the discovery of the transistor, analyze thousands of cells individually to measure how RNA, ribonucleic was co-discovered here. The list goes on and on. acid present in all living cells, affects the expression of an organism’s So it’s no surprise that each year the East Bay Innovation Awards com- genes in different tissues, under different conditions, and at different petition makes it very difficult for the judges to select only one finalist and points in time. 10x Genomics’ tools quickly eliminate millions of pipette one awardee for each competitive category. In truth, there are no losers. steps that would otherwise be necessary to categorize cells, identify rare This year is no different, and it is a testimony to the quality of the competi- cell types and isolate significant genes. This information can then be tion that the two companies below