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George-Samuel-Hurst-Touchscreen-Founder

George Samuel Hurst- One Of The First Scientists To Come Up With Touchscreen Technology

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Though scientists conducted thorough experiments and research regarding touchscreen technology, the implementations took a very long time. Theoretically, the concept of touchscreen dates back to the 1940s but the application in the real world wasn’t possible until 1980. For a long time, the ability of touchscreen didn’t cross the boundaries of the laboratory, but today the scenario is different. We can’t imagine surviving one day without using our smartphone or a tablet. But, now we have said no to the annoying “qwerty” keypads. It is amusing how bewildered we use to be seeing the high-tech touchscreen technology in science fiction. And, today we are part of the society where most of us using the technology like a jigsaw puzzle. We should be grateful to this physicist for bringing our life to a whole other technological dimension.

The early life of George: Touchscreen Founder

Born on 13th October 1927, George belonged to a very rural area of Ponza, Bell County, Kentucky. Their family had a farm where he grew up with other siblings. From a very young age, he had a very keen interest in physics and Thomas Edison in particular. But, who knew this zeal to learn new things would make this farm boy so famous one day.

Education

George attended Bell County High School and went to Berea College to acquire his bachelor’s degree. He got admitted into college at the age of fifteen and received his degree in 1947. He graduated with a degree in physics and a minor in mathematics. For pursuing higher studies, he went to the University of Kentucky and completed his master’s in physics.

While pursuing his higher education, he made a friend called Rufus Ritchie with whom he worked on various physics projects. After graduation, both of them decided to go to ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). After George’s significant contribution to the field of Physics, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee. The name of his paper was “Attachment of Low-Energy Electrons in Mixtures Containing Oxygen”.

Area of Research

In the world of science, capacitive touchscreens were invented first followed by resistive touchscreens. E. A. Johnson is known for inventing the capacitive touchscreens in the early 1960s. He published an article, “Touch display- A novel input/output device for computers”. The features and technology of such touchscreens are incorporated in some of today’s smartphones.

But, eventually, the resistive touchscreens suppressed the concept of capacitive touchscreens. And, the inventor of this type of touchscreens is none other than George Samuel Hurst. The story of his invention is very interesting and took place at Berea College.

George and some other Ph.D. scholars were working on a project of atomic physics using an overworked Van de Graff accelerator. Rigorous analysis slowed down there pace. So, George thought of using electrically conductive paper to read a few two-dimensional coordinates. This saved time and gave a spark to the idea of touchscreens for computers.

His Big Invention

When George went to the University of Kentucky, he wanted to file a patent so that his work stays secure. But, the origin of this theory and his later laboratory works weren’t that convincing. So, the chapter was slightly closed then, but he had plans in his mind. After he went to ORNL, George along with his nine other friends researched his basement.

Since what happened in the laboratory of Berea College was completely sudden and accidental they wanted to take it further. The team called this technology “Elographics” and they started working on developing a proper interacting touchscreen for computers. He finally came up with what we call today’s resistive touchscreen technology. It is called so because the computer or smartphones respond because of the pressure we exert and no electrical conductivity. Moreover, resistive touchscreen and more cost-effective and hence widely used by mobile phone companies today.

Awards and Recognitions

George Samuel Hurst is the recipient of Union Carbide (Corporate fellow) and American Physical Society (fellow). He is also a part of the University of Kentucky (Alumni Association Hall of Distinguished Alumni), received an honorary degree from Berea College (D.Sc.), etc. He also bagged the Distinguished Alumni Award of 2005 from the University of Tennessee.

He is also well-known for founding Scientists and Engineers for Appalachia (SEA) and Institute of Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy. He was a professional health physicist.

Digital river

How Digital River helps Global Commerce Flow Smoother than Ever Before?

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Technology has had an impact on almost all spheres of our lives. While making it easier to do things, not even considered doable before, advancements in technology also lead to better commerce and economy. One of the most important fields in which technology has had a lasting impact is that of commerce. Technical solutions and online marketing have changed the way companies interact with their customers. Furthermore, since the entire world has moved into a digital stage, we see that almost all the major companies in the world have their own digital presence.

This helps them interact with their clients online and poach potential new customers. In this digital world, companies that offer tech-support in the field of commerce are greatly valued. Today, we will be taking a look at one of the largest global leaders in the field of commerce solutions- Digital River. This giant in the field of tech-solutions has been around for over 25 years and has helped some of the largest companies in the world with their commercial problems. Here’s a look at how Digital River helps companies manage their commercial applications effectively and efficiently.

A Look at Digital River

The company has over 25 years’ worth of industry experience, being a global partner to some of the world’s biggest corporations. They have during their long career in the field of e-commerce mastered the art of global commerce and economic stratification, specializing in brand valuation, image building, and customer service. Over the years, Digital River has helped global brands relate to their customers and build their brand loyalty, by formulating the right policies and strategies to deliver what their customers want from them.

Most of the world’s most famous software firms, electronics companies, and digital brands have utilized the executive prowess of Digital River sometime during their growth. The company makes use of a high-tech commerce cloud to store data and utilizes advanced tools to create personalized e-commerce solutions for its clients. Furthermore, it also formulates strategies regarding online sales, management of stores and even helps with processing payments. On the whole, the company provides services related to almost every field in e-commerce management, making them the true complete package. They also help companies with regards to disturbance handling, taxes, compliance, billing, and even fraud detection.

About Adam Coyle

In 2018, Digital River announced that Adam Coyle will succeed David Dobson as the Chief Executive Officer of the company. Coyle has been in the field of commerce-solutions for the past two decades or so and has been a valuable member of the company since early 2015. He began as an executive as Siris Capital, which is an investment partner of Digital River.

He began his term as Chief Operating Officer in 2018, before transferring to the role of CEO to oversee company strategy and policymaking. Before joining Siris, Adam worked as VP at Vantiv, prior to which he worked as the President of National Processing, which is a Vantiv subsidiary. He was also a partner at Advent International and began his career at First Data Corporation. He has also served as the director of establishments such as FirstBank, NYCE and the First Financial Bank.

Success and Growth

The company headquarters is in Minneapolis, and they have offices all across the US, Europe, South America, and even Asia. Founded in 1994 by Joel A. Ronning, Digital Rivers has come a long way to become one of the world’s largest e-commerce solution providers. One of the major strategies that Ronning wanted to inculcate in his business is accountability and responsibility.

The firm has a great understanding of the ever-changing e-commerce environment and does its part to stay updated and relevant with regards to new technologies. Furthermore, the company has over sixty patents to its name, and its annual transactions go over $3 billion regularly. Another important thing about Digital River is its outstanding employee and customer satisfaction, with most employees having stayed with the company for more than 2 decades.

Over the years, the company has grown and acquired other heavy-weights in the field of e-commerce such as CCNow, eSellerate, Fatfoogoo, and Journey Education Marketing. These valuable assets have helped Digital River build a hugely popular and respected business model that is truly unique from its competitors. The growth has been so phenomenal that the company processed over $30 billion through online transactions in the year 2013.

Ronning stepped down from the post of CEO in 2012 and was succeeded by Dave Dobson, who in turn, handed over the reins to Coyle in 2018. Some of their biggest clients include Lenovo, Media INC, Microsoft, Avast, Samsung, Kaspersky, and Adobe. Their annual income amounts to an impressive 400 million USD! With over two decades’ worth of experience in the field of e-commerce, it is safe to say that this giant is here to stay!

amdocs

Amdocs: Started As A Phone Directory Company Which Is Providing Multiple Miscellaneous Services

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There are many companies that deliver more than one service. Perhaps, only a few of them meet customer satisfaction as well as provides miscellaneous services. In such a case, one of the names come into mind is Amdocs. A company providing multiple ranges of services since 1982. Amdocs represents a great example that small ideas with great potential tend to grow into something bigger. Also, the company showed that with great execution everything is possible to stand out in the corporate world.

About Amdocs

A company that was originally set up in Israel and thereafter shifted its headquarter in Missouri. Also, its development centres are in all corners of the earth. Includes, Israel, India, Ireland, Austria, Brazil, and Canada. Morris Kahn an Israeli businessman set up the company in 1982.

Amdocs is expertise in providing software solutions and services. Like media, communications as well as financial services. Additionally, it offers mobile financial services, big data analytics solutions, media products and many more. However, the organisation doing its business in more than 90 countries. In fact, 250+ companies all over the world are satisfied and regular customers of Amdocs.

The Backstory- How Amdocs Founded?

It will be interesting to know that Amdocs start the journey as a phone directory company as a Golden Pages offshoot. It is founded in 1982 by Morris Kahn. After that, the company developed a billing software program so that they can fulfill the demand of phone directory companies. Previously, the company called Aurec information.

However, after southwestern Bell corp. acquired a 50 percent stake of the company, it renamed Amdocs in 1985. The period between 1990-1995 was the golden time for the company. Amdocs started diversification and expand the service into communications. Initially, it started wireline telephone service and then step up into mobile phones. Since then Amdocs is providing new services and products as per the changing technology.

Over the period, it acquired many other firms like Cramer, Clarify, Celcite, Comverse BSS assets and many more. In 1998, Amdocs made it public as well as in 2014 it entered NASDAQ.

What makes Amdocs Unique?

As said earlier, many firms offer multiple services as this company offers. But Amdocs stand unique in between all of them due to its unique features. First of all, Amdocs is providing superior execution since its foundation. Later, Amdocs’ consistent delivery, software, other implementation services are world-class. And most importantly, the business model of the company is unique. Also, customer satisfaction must be considered. However, it will be an injustice to the company if its superior customer experience is neglected.

Other Special Features of the Company

Amdocs is well-known for its superior customer experience. Also, the smart operations at the company successfully speed-up the procedures and time to revenue. Additionally, it offers services and software solutions that are adaptable to new technology. Thus, ensures the client’s business growth. These are some special services clients can experience with Amdocs however the company does more than this.

Amdocs knows Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The firm has taken a proactive approach to CSR with several materiality assessments’ conduction. With these assessments, the company identifies the Corporate social responsibility issues which are matters to the company and its collaborations. Also, it considers customers and shareholders. For this purpose, four core CSR heads are established. As well, high-level goals formulated within each of them.

Glimpse to Founder’s Life- Morris Kahn

He was born in 1930 in South Africa to a Jewish family. Today, he is known as a billionaire entrepreneur of Israel. Apart from Amdocs, he founded Golden Pages, Coral world, and several other companies. In fact, he did a great contribution to the foundation of various marine parks across the continents. Apparently, being a diver inspire him to do so. Furthermore, he also founded Coral World International in Eliet. Also, Kahn is a principal investor in Aurum ventures as well as in Atlantium.

Bottom Line

Since the foundation, Amdocs delivering miscellaneous services across the world. The company set an example of how to satisfy the customers with superior service. Also, it showed the world that no matter how small the idea, with great execution everything is possible!

IRobot

Irobot: American Advanced Technology Company Founded By Three of Mit’s Ai Lab Members

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iRobot is an American advanced technology company. Three of MIT’s AI lab members set up the company in 1990. It has been working in robot design for space exploration as well as military defense. Also, the company creates a wide range of consumer robots that can perform both outside and inside works of home. For example, its robots Roomba and Braava. These are robots as a vacuum cleaner and floor moppers respectively. 

After serving at MIT’s AI lab, H. Greiner, R. Brooks, and C. Angle set up the company in 1990. 

iRobot 

It is an American advanced tech company that works in the field of Robotics. However, the company started the development of PackBot in 1998. Just after receiving the DARPA research contract. In 2002, iRobot started designing home robots. As of the year 2004, its home robot the Roomba sold a million units. Also, in 2005, the company began being traded on the NASDAQ. Until the year 2012, the company sold 8+ million home robots. Additionally, it has deployed more than 5000 defense & security robots. 

Best Home Robots

iRobot designing home robots since 2002. Roomba, Braava, Create, Mirra, and Terra are well-known and mostly sold robots of the company. The robots Roomba and Brava operate as an automated vacuum cleaning robot and floor mopping robot respectively. However, the company’s robot Create is designed as a hobby robot. Mirra is designed to clean swimming pool floors, while Terra is designed for mowing the lawn using mapping.

Founders of iRobots

Colin M. Angle

He is the CEO and iRobots co-founder. Under Colin’s policies, the company is at the leading robot enterprise. Also, he showed the world an example of team empowerment and innovation to deliver market-friendly robots. In addition, under his guidance, the company has built a strategic network with many companies like Boeing, Clorox, etc. Together, these companies are delivering new and innovative robot solutions.

Education 

Colin Angle is an honorable student at MIT. He holds a tech bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering as well as a master’s degree in computer science. During his master’s, Angle’s thesis assisted to produce a six-legged autonomous walking robot called Genghis. Presently, it is at Smithsonian National Air and Science Museum, Washington D.C. 

Career

In 1990, he was Artificial Creatures’ president. Also, he worked at the AI Laboratory of MIT. At that time, he first met Helen Greiner and Dr. Rodney Brooks. Later, they turned as partners in the foundation of iRobot. Earlier, just after the formation of iRobot, Colin and his team worked for NASA. For NASA, they designed behavior-controlled rovers. In fact, the team won the NASA Group Achievement award. As well, the Angles name is inscribed on the spirit case of the Mars exploration rover. 

Awards and Recognition 

Colin M. Angle has been honored with numerous professional awards. Also, the Mass Technology Leadership Council honored him as CEO of the year. He marked the name in the list of Best Bosses, the list declared by Fortune Small Business Magazine. Besides, Ernst and young honored him New England Entrepreneur of the year. 

Helen Greiner

She is iRobot co-founder and teammate of Rodney Brooks and Colin Angle at MIT AI Lab. Also, she served as CTO of Aria Insights. 

Early life 

She was born in 1967 in London. At the age of five, Helen’s family shifted to Southampton, New York, USA. Helen decided to work with robots when she was ten-year-old. It was the Star-War movie that inspired her.

Education

Helen is a Mechanical engineer studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, she earned a Master’s in computer science. Apart from that, Greiner holds an honorary degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clarkson University. 

Achievement

At iRobot she assisted in designing the first-ever version of iRobot called Roomba. However, she served as chairman of the company until 2008. Also, she served as an iRobot president until 2004. Under her guidance, the company released a PackBot, Roomba and military robot called SUGV.

Other Achievements 

Helen served the United States Army as an advisor in Logistic and Technology. Also, she affirmed as highly qualified Expert for Robotics, Autonomous Systems & AI for the Army.

Awards and recognition

In 2000, the World Economic Forum honored her as one of the Global leaders. Also, she named Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneur of the year. Helen also set the name in Fortune Magazine list of “Top Ten Innovators”. She also awarded as Entrepreneur of the Year by Good Housekeeping. Furthermore, she honored as one of America’s best leaders by Kennedy School at Harvard. Apart from that, she had been honored with many such awards and titles. Recently, in 2018, Wentworth Institute of Technology awarded her as “Women of the Year”.

Rodney Brooks

He is an Entrepreneur and co-founder of robotics companies iRobot and Rethinks Robotics. Presently, he is the Rethink Robotics CTO and Chairman. Brooks also served at MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. 

Education

He studied at Flinders University in Pure Maths. Also, he has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford. At Carnegie Mellon and MIT, he held research positions. Brooks has published many papers in computer vision as well as in artificial intelligence and robotics.

He also served as a member of the International Scientific Advisory Group of National Information & Communication Technology, Australia. Presently, Rodney is serving at Xconomy.

Awards and Recognition

In 1991, Brookes won the Computers and Thought Award at the Int Joint Conf on Artificial Intelligence. Apart from that, he worked as the Cray Lecturer at the University of Minnesota. Also, the Mellon Lecturer at Dartmouth as well as Forsythe Lecturer at Stanford. Brookes works actively in Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, he appeared in the movie called “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control” in 1997. That movie was named for one of Brookes’s scientific papers.

F5-Networks

Dominating The Technical Industry F5 Networks Acquired Nginx For $670 Million

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I think a major part of success depends on the time you start it. For example, when the internet was gradually grasping our world, then start-ups are now a part of the unicorn club. Similarly, the businesses which started growing just before the dot-com boom mostly vanished in no time. So, time is a major factor.

But, exceptions always happen in the business world. Everything is uncertain here. F5 Networks is a technology company that was founded in 1996. Jeff Hussey founded the company and then John McAdam joined him shortly. Both stepped down after serving the company for a long time. F5 Networks is a Seattle based company.

What is F5 Networks?

The term “technical” is a very wide domain. So, what are the specific products of F5 Networks? The company is mainly thriving in the networking area since the beginning. F5 Networks mainly provides ADN (application delivery networking).

ADN uses a series of technologies which when incorporated together secures the network, provides visibility and acceleration. Initially, the company was focused on load-balancing products (distributed network). But, Jeff modified and expanded the company with time. It also includes services like DDoS defense.

About the Founder

Jeff Hussey has a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Seattle Pacific University. He also went to the University of Washington for acquiring his MBA degree. After he graduated in 1991, he joined Pacific Comlink in 1993. He served as the President of the company for a couple of years and then he shifted to Alexander Hutton.

Jeff Hussey
Image Source : Google

In 1996, Jeff founded F5 Networks and served as the CEO of the company for six years. But, this wasn’t the end of his passion. In 2012, Jeff started another start-up in the same area. And, he founded the company, Tempered Networks in August 2014.

John McAdam

John McAdam joined the company in 2012 as the President and CEO. He left the company in 2015. Under John’s leadership, the company expanded and made big acquisitions.

John went to the University of Glasgow and studied Computer Science. He served as the Board Member of Apptio and Tableau Software before joining F5 Networks. From 2015, John is a Board Member at Nutanix as well. Even after John resigned from the company in 2015, he still serves as the Board Member of F5.

Initial Stage of F5 Networks

When Jeff thought of starting a tech start-up, he was more inclined towards the economic part than the part where technology was implemented. Well, his main motive was to invest in something that would become a billion-dollar company someday.

In the meantime, some developers in Seattle started working on virtual reality. This idea was much ahead of the time and unfortunately, the serves didn’t support it. But, they didn’t give up and rather came up with an algorithm for load balancing. Jeff saw potential in this product and bought it from them.

This is how Jeff founded F5 Networks in 1996 and launched its first product in 1997 using that algorithm.

Picking up the momentum

After a couple of years, when the dot-com burst hit the market, it didn’t seem to affect F5 much. Because of the uniqueness of F5 was much advanced and it helped the company to survive the big crisis. In 1999, F5 Networks was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

It was around 2000 when Jeff decided to hire an experienced tech geek for the company. And, John was perfect for the job. F5 Networks offered him the position of the President when he working for IBM. After he joined the company, John predicted the loss it might suffer due to the boom. So, next year he along with his tech team wrote a whole new algorithm for a new market.

Success and Acquisitions

Eventually, F5 Networks started provided security services as well. And, after the next couple of years, it started making huge profits. In 2003, the company acquired uRoam for $25 million. In 2007, the company made one of the biggest acquisitions in its history for $210 million.

For two consecutive years, the company’s name came under the section of Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies. The headquarters of F5 Networks was shifted to the F5 Tower in 2017. The latest news F5 is discussing about is the acquisition of Shape Security. F5 Networks has more than 4,000 employees.

Toppr Logo

Toppr-Evolution of Indian Education System With E-Learning

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The Indian education system does honestly not impress the world or Indian students itself. High competition among students especially after the 12th standard has opened a source of business for private tutors. This is the biggest reason why offline education is so costly in India.

But, we know the major population of our country cannot afford proper education. So, it has a negative impact mostly on the students appearing for a joint entrance examination or a medical examination. To overcome this urgent crisis suffered by mediocre students of our nation, Zishaan Hayath came up with Toppr.

Toppr is an e-learning platform launched in 2013. It assists a student in gaining proper knowledge about the competitive exams who can also watch videos and solve questions. Zishaan along with his ex-classmate Hemanth Goteti launched this innovative and helpful website. Since then a massive amount of students have signed in and made brilliant outcomes.

About the founders of Toppr

Zishaan Hayath went to IIT Bombay and graduated in 2005. His first step into the corporate world was with ITC Limited where he joined as an Assistant Manager. In April 2006, he joined Opera Solutions as an Assistant Consultant. He co-founded Chaupaati Bazaar, a phone-commerce start-up in 2008.

Futurebazaar.com acquired Chaupaati Bazaar and Zishaan became the VP Product of Futurebazaar eventually. In April 2013, he co-founded Toppr with Hemanth.

Hemanth studied Aerospace Engineering in IIT Bombay. He worked in many companies before co-founding Toppr. Hemanth also worked at Futurebazaar.com as Head of Engineering.

How did it start?

Zishaan knew Hemanth from college and working together before co-founding Toppr made a good understanding between them. Both of them were tech geeks and their idea was to use technology into a sector with a massive audience. In India, most of the youngsters are highly devoted to gaining proper education. So, what could be better than implementing high tech in the educational system?

This led the co-founders to come with Toppr. Toppr received its initial funding from Kasyap Deorah and Abhisekh Jain. Within one year of launching Toppr, 8000 students signed up for the preparation courses of JEE, medical exams, and foundation courses.

At this time, many websites like this already came in the market but Toppr clearly steered the right direction.

The Positive Side

The middle-aged children’s population seeking education has outnumbered even China. This opened a huge potential for the platforms of e-learning. And, now that the age of the internet has come everyone prefers learning from websites. Because going to coaching classes is both expensive and time-consuming.

Moreover, different cities have different quality of education. For example, we all know Rajasthan has the best coaching facilities for JEE and medical entrance exams. But, with the help of a mobile app, every student at every corner of India received the same quality education.

Currently, there are around 8 million users that pay for their courses in Toppr. And, for a start-up, it is a pretty impressive number of paid users. The revenue keeps increasing thrice every year for the last three years.

The Expansion

In May 2014, Toppr raised a funding of $2 million from SAIF Partners and Helion Ventures. Zishaan announced that all the funds raised will be invested to improve the existing modules. In April 2015, Toppr acquired EasyPrep, a platform that served the same purpose as Toppr.

Within a year, the team of Toppr comprised of 100 members and served more than 150,000 students. The rate of success also increased every year since the study materials were made by freelancers from IITs. The Mumbai-based start-up also acquired Manch in 2015. Zishaan announced that the main reason behind the acquisitions is making education more affordable.

In 2017, Toppr raised $450 million from SAIF Partners, Helion Ventures and FIL Capital Management. And, it raised another $155 million from Alteria Capital. In the last three years, Toppr received a massive amount of funding from the existing investors and also $35 million from Kaizen Private Equity. This was the latest round of funding.

The Success

The company so far has reached out to students from twenty-five different cities. By 2020, their target is to reach thirty cities and also to thrice its annual revenue. The app approximately has seven million total downloads to date. The subscription charge of Toppr is also very affordable which adds a big plus point in its list.