Innovators poised to lead economic recovery with cutting edge jobs
Its largest clients are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. At NOAA, DB Consulting is in the fourth year of a nine-year contract to manage CLASS, the NOAA facility to distribute operational environmental satellite data, estimated to exceed eight petabytes by 2013.
The Boyds are among the 12th annual 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology, gathering Sunday, Jan. 15 on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, to demonstrate the growing value proposition from cutting edge inclusion in education, entrepreneurship, investment, procurement and policy.
INNOVATION&EQUITY 2012: Capitalizing Creativity: Job Creation and Innovation focuses on how DB Consulting and other firms can dramatically affect the pace of job creation in the American economy, particularly among African-Americans facing 15.8 percent unemployment in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
Working from the 11th annual report on the 455,000 strong African-American technology workforce, they’ll examine how more of the 31,000 black cutting edge companies can grow the $2.7 billion in federal IT contracts; increase their capital base with angel and venture investments and motivate advanced math and science studies from grade to graduate school among the next generation of technologists.
John William Templeton, creator of the 50 Most list in 1998, says the Boyds are among the fourth generation of black innovation as more than 1,000 African-Americans each year gain new patents. In this phase, increasingly those firms will create supply chains, in the words of a top business researcher, as manufacturers and prime contractors.
In the past fiscal year, DB Consulting garnered more than $50 million in federal contracts. Among the other successful 50 Most selectees discussing procurement on Jan. 15 are Dr. Jean Orelien, founder and President of Research Triangle Park, N.C. based SkiMetrika; Nancy Scott, President of Rockville-based Powertek, Albert Woodard of Business Computer Applications in Atlanta; Miranda Bouldin of Huntsville-based Logicore and Joey Hutchins of Right Direction Technology of Baltimore.
New Presidential awardee Dr. Juan Gilbert, chair of human-centered computing at Clemson University and picked by President Obama for his mentoring in STEM subjects, will join educational equity finance specialist Sheilah Vance, Esq. in an examination of how schools are preparing African-American students for these careers. The new report on the state of African-Americans in technology notes that fewer than 0.6 percent of black high school students take calculus each year.
Sharon Barner, Esq., until recently deputy undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and now a partner at Foley and Lardner; joins Phillip G. Hampton II, Esq. partner at Dickstein Shapiro and former assistant director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; and D.C. Bar President Darrell Mottley, principal shareholder of Banner Witcoff in a monumental discussion of the America Invents Act and its impact on patent law.
For inventors like ChloroFill’s Michael Hurst, creator of a formaldehyde-free building panel to meet new EPA standards for reducing carcinogens, from San Diego; Afrokids’ Leo Sullivan, a veteran Hollywood animator and developer of a new mobile application game based on the Tuskegee Airmen; Charlene and Michael Coleman of Orinda-based Sensory Acumen, an olfactory sensation delivery system maker for therapeutic and gaming applications and the newly public Amarantus BioSciences of Sunnyvale, where CEO Gerald Commissiong and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. John Commissiong are advancing potential therapies for Parkinson’s disease and diabetes in clinical trials; the insights of the powerhouse patent panel can determine their ability to sustain their discoveries into companies which endure like AT&T and General Electric for more than a century, both firms which grew thanks to patents developed by just one inventor, Lewis Latimer.
They will be able to have detailed individual conversations in an IP Bar, including opportunities for law students to take an interest in the growing field of intellectual property law.
With sufficient capital, Templeton, former editor of the San Jose Business Journal, expects the fourth generation to change the script of history and remain in ownership and management roles, unlike many black inventors of the 19th and 20th centuries. A panel on venture and angel investment will address how to raise funds for firms like MyMediaTones, a disruptive digital coupon firm founded by Carl Kent and Dr. Marc Hannah, former co-founder of Silicon Graphics Inc.
These innovative companies and others have participated in Catapult Innovation and Learning, a year-found process of showcasing promising black innovators with the most experienced African-American technology standouts with more than 40 years experience in the industry. Veteran mentors have included Roy Clay Sr., Chairman of Rod-L Electronics; Ken Coleman, chair of two publicly-traded firms, Accelrys and MIPS Technologies; venture capitalist Mike Beasley of Nobska Venture Partners; and Bill Stewart, President of Apollo Programming.
The learning phase of Catapult involves dissemination of the significance of black technological excellence through exhibitions, books and a new television network, ReUnion: Education-Arts-Heritage, launching Feb. 1. Documentaries to premiere for broadcast include A Great Day in Gaming: From Queens to Silicon Valley: The Gerald A. Lawson Story and Freedom Riders of the Cutting Edge.
The Innovation & Equity symposium is the basis of a four-hour mini-series on the 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology.
Following Jan. 15, Catapult activities will take place in cities around the country beginning with a Jan. 23 display on black maritime heritage for the National Park Service in San Francisco; a Jan. 25 screening for the national headquarters of the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.; a Feb. 14 video presentation to Region 9 of the Environmental Protection Agency on environmental justice and economic development and a March 4 screening of A Great Day in Gaming in San Francisco.
“Students should understand that many decisions about their future are being made by scientific and technical policy makers such as NASA Administrator Charles Bolden; EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg; Deputy Education Secretary Anthony Miller; Dr. Danny Harris, CIO of the Department of Education; Jerry Davis, Deputy CIO of the Veterans Affairs Department; Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy Melvin Williams; Assistant Secretaries of Commerce Dr. Larry Robinson and Nicole Lamb-Hale; FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn; Air Force Maj. Gens. Ed Bolton and Ronnie Hawkins; Vice Adm. Cecil Haney and Rear Adm. Earl Gay; Dept. of Defense small business director Andre Gudger and Dr. William Coleman, chief scientist at the Center for Minority Health and Health Disparites,” said Templeton.
INNOVATION & EQUITY 2012: Capitalizing Creativity: Job Creation and Innovation takes place in the historic and beautiful B. Smith Union Station,50 Massachusetts Ave. inWashington,D.C.. Late registration is available at souloftechnology.com.
