Tech Roundup - September 20, 2021

Mon, 09/20/2021

Welcome to ‘Tech Roundup,’ where we highlight some of the most significant tech news items from Nebraska and the surrounding area. If you have a news item you would like to see in the Roundup, please email neil.rutledge@unl.edu.


 

Local/Regional 

First-of-its-kind research study could yield clues to climate-change impacts

Nebraska Today

  • With a nearly $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Nebraska’s Ross Secord will take part in a first-of-its-kind study that explores community ecology trends during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, or EECO, which took place roughly 52 million years ago and marks the warmest interval of the past 70 million years. Secord and his collaborators at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, CUNY Brooklyn College and Brown University are analyzing fossil records from that era to shed light on how climate change affected the environment, ecosystems and organisms.

 

Registration open for Virtual Water for Food Global Forum

Nebraska Today

  • The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute will hold the Water for Food Global Forum, a free and virtual series of events throughout October. The event will convene leading international experts, growers and organizations to work towards achieving global water and food security. The forum will focus on integrating knowledge and practice.
  • For more information, or to register, click here.

 

Nebraska Television Pioneer Leta Powell Drake Passes Away

Nebraska Public Media

  • Leta Powell Drake died Wednesday morning after a long career in local television at KOLN/KGIN in Lincoln and Nebraska Public Media. She hosted a popular children’s show and also acted in many plays.
  • Leta Powell Drake hosted the popular children's television program "Cartoon Corral." She played the part of Kalamity Kate on the show.

 

Nebraska's Largest Farm Show Returns In-person This Week

Nebraska Public Media

  • After a COVID-19 induced hiatus, Nebraska’s largest farm show returns this week in Grand Island. Husker Harvest Days was virtual last year, but the 44th year will return to a one-thousand acre layout starting Tuesday.
  • Matt Jungmann is National Events Director for Farm Progress, which organizes the show. He said he’s excited for the agriculture industry to get together in Nebraska.
  • Hundreds of exhibitors from more than 20 states will meet in Grand Island to showcase the latest innovations in agriculture.


Aspiring entrepreneurs, take note: Lincoln’s JumpStart Challenge 2021 kicks off next week

Silicon Prairie News

  • Starting next week, aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators are invited to participate in the 2021 JumpStart Challenge, an entrepreneurship competition sponsored by the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development, the University of Nebraska Athletics Department and ALLO Communications, an internet service provider headquartered in Lincoln.
  • Open to teams and solo entrepreneurs alike, the JumpStart Challenge connects corporations with entrepreneurs to solve business problems and spin up new startups. The winning participant(s) will receive $1,000 from the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development, three months of free coworking space at FUSE or Turbine Flats, one year of free internet from ALLO, and a partnership with either ALLO or the University of Nebraska Athletics Department.

 

Hemp-based composite could facilitate soil-free farming

Nebraska Today

  • Mixing hemp fibers with other materials can form multifunctional biocomposites suitable for growing plants via hydroponics, a type of soil-free horticulture that substantially reduces land, water and pesticide use, among other benefits.
  • Nebraska chemist Barry Cheung and his colleagues recently introduced an approach that chemically couples a structure-granting component of hemp fibers, lignin, with “linking molecules” that fortify the resulting biocomposite. Unlike prior techniques, the team’s approach requires only water as a solvent, yielding harmless inorganic salts rather than VOCs as byproducts.

 

Technology fueled the rise of election skepticism. Now, experts say it could help reverse the trend (maybe).

Silicon Prairie News

  • To Brian Kruse, the top election official in Douglas County, the most populous county in Nebraska, the loss of faith among the electorate is paramount to any other election issue today. It’s an issue Kruse says will be felt by far more than the county’s estimated 571,327 residents.
  • According to Election Systems & Software spokesperson Katina Granger, systems manufactured by the Omaha-based election technology company “support evidence-based elections” to the tune of what Halderman suggests.
  • Granger said ES&S voting systems feature six layers of security that include physical security, encryption, and the generation of verifiable audit trails.

 

150 years on, NU museum keeps growing, changing

Nebraska Today

  • From its humble beginnings as a “Scientific Cabinet” in 1871, the University of Nebraska State Museum has continued to grow and evolve into a world-class museum that includes three sites across the state and boasts about 13 million specimens and cultural artifacts in its collections.
  • In 2019, the museum opened its newest and most interactive exhibit yet, Cherish Nebraska, which traces the state’s natural and cultural history over hundreds of millions of years. The exhibit takes up the entire fourth floor of Morrill Hall. The floor had to be renovated to allow for the 11,000-square-foot project, which includes a “visible lab,” where visitors can watch scientists examine plants, animals and fossils.

 

Local Startup Spotlight

Breeze

  • Breeze offers smart, affordable income protection through a simple online process. Get a quote in seconds, and if approved, same-day coverage.
  • “We’ve been a small, scrappy insurtech team based out of Omaha, Nebraska, and we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else to grow this company. It’s an ideal location to build the new age of insurance.”

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