Daily Archives: May 14, 2017

When I was a child and dreamed about the future, the only reference I had to go on about what society would be like was the movie Back to the Future II. Well now that it is 2017, I am seeing that we are so very far away from the possibility of interacting regularly with holograms or having flying cars. However there are some parts of the movie that are not completely inaccurate. We do have lights that can be voice command programmed and hover boards. Every day we use technology to keep our lives moving forward. There isnt a moment that you dont see someone with a cell phone or tablet. Modern technology is engrained in the fabric of our every movement in life. Sometimes I wonder how we ever got by without it all. The most important advances in technology have been in modern medicine. We have advanced medically from a culture who did know anything about the use of soap and hot water to prevent bacterial infection, to one that in recent years can use bionic limbs to help those who lost a limb. With the medical advancements we have made even in the last ten years so many more people are being helped on a daily basis. As I prepare for a surgical procedure next month, I am finding that there is a lot of new medical technology that will be very helpful. As I go through the various hoops to be cleared for surgery I was required to see one more doctor, a pulmonary specialist. I suffer from asthma, and they wanted to make sure that there would be no complications with my breathing while under anesthesia. One of the tests that they required me to participate in was a sleep study to determine if I had sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition which causes the body not to receive enough oxygen during the sleep process, therefore depriving you of reaching a deep enough sleep to allow your body to rest and heal. In earlier years the sleep apnea study was performed in a lab environment where the lab technicians could monitor your every sleep habit. Today the technology previously only accessible in a lab environment has now been condensed into a tiny monitor that you can take home and strap to your chest while you sleep. You can then sleep in the comfort of your own bed. After two nights of testing you then take the monitor back to the office and they read your results to determine whether you have sleep apnea or not. I am further amazed every day at the innovations that our world can come up with to help mankind. Who knows where we will be in even another ten years. I suppose I will have to look to the Star Trek series and imagine the possibilities.

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The Miracle of Modern Technology - Fayette Newspapers

Still, investors are right to be bullish on the company's prospects at the moment. And while I wouldn't necessarily call myself bullish on the stock, in the spirit of understanding the long-term pros and cons of any investment, let's review Micron and the factors that could derail its ongoing rally. Let's call it the bear case from a bull.

Image source: Micron Technology.

How did Micron arrive at its current situation? More importantly, what drove the earlier implosion of its stock price that laid the foundation for the rally?

Let's start with the basics. Micron is one of the world's largest manufacturersof various types of memory semiconductors used in computers, smartphones, servers, and other similar items. The company largely sells two types of memory: DRAM and NAND. DRAM is common in computers and servers, and sales of this kind of memory chip made up 58% of Micron's sales last year.NAND memory is associated with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and it comprised 37% of Micron's 2016 sales.

The memory market is highly competitive, and memory chips are a commodity, so the key to making money in this space is to keep a tight grip on managing supply. Doing so involves making accurate predictions about what demand will look like in the PC, server, and mobile markets -- not an easy proposition. Whenmemory demand is strong, companies enjoy pricing power and generate reasonable profits. But when demand softens, chip prices tend to crash across the industry, which can lead to dramatic losses among chipmakers.

That's what happened to Micron in 2016: Unexpected weakness in NAND and DRAM demand triggered an industrywide slump in chip average selling prices. Without the kind of diversified revenue stream to rely on that memory leader Samsungenjoys, the price declines annihilated Micron's profitability.

Data source: Micron Technology 2016 10-K. Numbers in millions.

Micron's stock has rallied over the past year because the market expects memory prices to rebound. The average sell-side analyst expects Micron's EPS to increase from $0.06 a year ago to $4.28 this year. However, the key question is how sustainable this return to profitability will be for Micron.

The near-term fundamentals are in Micron's favor, but history argues in favor of caution. Over the past decade, Micron has had a checkered history in terms of generating consistent profits, even as sales have soared.

MU Revenue (Annual) data by YCharts

More to the point, Micron has generated net losses in five of its past 10 fiscal years.Sometimes, such as during the financial criss, the losses seem understandable. However, weak chip demand caused Micron to lose roughly $1.2 billion in 2012,when the economy was recovering. The same could be said for 2016.

The bottom line is that investors need to know Micron has a track record of dramatic swings from profit to loss. That lesson seems to have been lost in the current bullishness around the stock.

In investing as in life, it pays to evaluate important decisions from as many angles as possible. To that end, Micron seems to have the wind at its back today, but history suggests things will change. Invest with caution.

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Micron Technology, Inc.: The Bear Case From a Bull - Bloomington Pantagraph

Education in all phases of life is changing, and local technology businesses are leading some of that revolution.

Provo-based Imagine Learning is one of those that offer an individualized learning software platform. They cater their technology to English Language Learners and those struggling with math literacy in preschool up to high school. Because of the speed of technology, the company is growing at a significant rate, and expanding its reach further.

We reach about four million kids out there on a weekly basis, said CEO Joe Swenson.

Swenson explained that Imagine Learning does not replace classroom teachers. Through learning technology, teachers have more time and ability to reach each individual child, because the software can pinpoint exactly what concept a child struggles to understand.

In a regular classroom, especially with larger class sizes, you are losing kids at the top, and the kids at the bottom. Youre stuck teaching only to the kids in the middle. But digital education allows you to teach them all where theyre at, Swenson said.

The companys approach has made them very successful financially. Imagine Learning was founded in 2004 by a small group in a living room in a Provo home. From that start, the company now employs almost 500, with representatives in every state, and even a few countries. Swenson said the company annually does about $100 million in business.

Imagine Learning celebrated another milestone Thursday, holding a grand opening for their new offices on Park Boulevard in Provo. They moved into Qualtrics old digs during March. Their offices include a full production facility for their learning software including a content creators, animation area, a dedicated video team, fully outfitted recording studio, green room with a professional puppeteer, and even two virtual reality spaces.

But though success is good for the bottom line and for those employed there, helping individual children is the most important part.

The answer is the kids. We started by wanting to help kids, and thats what appeals to our employees. They dont care about numbers, but when I translate $1 million in revenue translates to this many kids helped, they get excited, Swenson said.

Imagine Learnings story is part of a bigger trend happening in learning technology today and its not just happening with youth. Utah has seen the growth of many local technology learning software businesses like Instructure, Pluralsight and Degreed that focus on creating individualized learning paths for lifelong learning.

According to a white paper by GSV Acceleration, Its a Breakout: Capital Flows In the Learning and Talent Technology Market, learning and talent technology has become a $75 billion technology sector, and is only expected to grow even further. The industry has boomed significantly in the past decade so much so that it is garnering venture capital funding like never before.

And Silicon Slopes is uniquely poised to be a leader in the sector. Just this week, thousands of educational and business technology minds gathered in Salt Lake City from all over the nation to discuss the learning technology industry at the ASU GSV Summit. With topics revolving around all aspects of lifelong learning and technologys role, the summit highlighted many Utah educational technology companies success.

Deborah Quazzo, founder and managing partner for GSV Advisors, complimented Degreed and Pluralsight for giving all types of professional learners ways to customize and implement learning that is unique to their needs.

Aaron Skonnard hit a nerve, he hit the right place, she said of Pluralsights co-founder and CEO. His business is the poster-child for what has to happen in the workforce.

With the speed of technology and the subsequent speed of change in todays workplace, workers need to be constantly learning, Quazzo explained. And what they need to learn has become more and more individualized. This is why education centered on custom learning paths is successful.

People are having to completely upskill or reskill, with some entire industries having to completely reskill, she said. You need to be a constant learner if you want to be active in todays workforce.

Jeff Weber, senior vice president of people and places at Instructure, agrees. Todays technology has necessitated the need for consistent training, but it has also made learning easier, and Weber envisions further expansion of technology in all areas of education.

Like Imagine Learning, Instructure focuses on creating interactive learning experiences for each user. While the companys work has netted them success they recently added a new office in Pleasant Grove Weber sees the benefits for all learners.

We like to say were building smart software that makes people smarter and makes the learning experience more engaging, Weber said. Personalized learning makes learning easier for students and teachers.

The classroom of yesteryear is changing, and Utah companies are some of those leading the charge. According to a 2017 National Education Technology Plan Update, Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education, these changes are needed.

It is now more apparent than ever that the courageous efforts of educators to embrace the role of thoughtful, reflective innovators who work collaboratively with each other and alongside their students to explore new learning models, new digital learning environments, and new approaches to working, learning, and sharing is essential if we want technology to be an effective tool to transform learning, wrote Joseph South, director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education.

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Learning technology in Utah is good business - Daily Herald

This week, we salute the techies who are leading the revolution by internet companies and bring you the new, improved YourStory website. Log in for a new reading experience.

Not so long ago, the tag of a techie was a coveted one. Being a techie and working in an IT company meant one was instantly elevated in their position in life.

If you lived in Bangalore in the 90s, it would have been difficult not to miss this transition. Armed with their computer degrees, young boys and a few girls from middle-class families were blazing a new trail. Though today the trail has run dry what with the mass layoffs and the H1-B visa row, the techie still remains the backbone of the new internet companies.

At YourStory, we accord the techies a special place. Every Tuesday, our in-house techie-at-heart Alok Soni dives deep into an individuals life to decode what makes them tick.

Most of the recently featured techies on the column believe that (programming) languages are mere tools used to solve a problem and they arent married to any single one specifically. They look at the problem and then see which one can solve it most effectively, and go ahead with it, observes Alok.

Since the column began, we have profiled more than 150 techies. Our this weeks techie is Ajey Gore. A commerce graduate from the University of Allahabad, he is a brilliant example of the fact that you dont need a formal degree to chase your dreams. Hailing from Banda in Uttar Pradesh, today hes the group CTO of Indonesias first Unicorn, Gojek.

Find out how he made this journey in the article titled: How a small-town commerce graduate became CTO of a multibillion-dollar company.

And if you want to read some more, you can always go here.

And speaking of techies, our very own led by the inimitable Gaurav Tiwari are burning the midnight oil to bring a new and improved YourStory website. We are still fixing a few things, so any feedback from our prized readers will be a welcome one.

Do sign up on the website, and help us bring you stories and content that you like to read.

Today is Mothers Day, and we have a big spread of stories brought to you by the HerStory team. A special story by Tanvi Dubey is the one where a few entrepreneurs recount their memories of growing up and the influence their mothers had on them.

Find out which entrepreneur calls his mother, Jhansi ki Rani in the story titled: My mom is Jhansi ki Rani: entrepreneurs remember their mothers.

We had some interesting new startups profiled this week by Sindhu Kashyap. In case you missed those you can read them here. But if you sign up on the new website there will be fewer chances of missing the new startup stories.

Next week looks like a lot of action after Paytms bid to acquire Freecharge. Stay logged in to read all about SoftBanks strategy, Snapdeals fate, Flipkart and Paytms growing ambitions, and much, much more.

Till next Sunday then.

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[Weekend wrap] Decoding the people behind technology and other stories - YourStory.com

Never mind tracking steps and burned calories.

A recent initiative from Ochsner Health System uses wearable technology with built-in health-tracking features to help patients with chronic diseases better manage their condition in real time.

For health care providers like Ochsner, the success of efforts like this could have real results: Nationwide, chronic diseases are tied to 7 of 10 deaths annually, and the related treatment accounts for 86 percent of the nation's medical care costs, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition to collecting up-to-date health data, wearable technology like smart watches and fitness bands can let some patients avoid an extra doctor's visit simply to collect a reading a convenience that serves as another potential incentive.

"These diseases are called chronic diseases for a reason: For most people, it's for the rest of their lives," said Dr. Richard Milani, Ochsner's chief clinical transformation officer. "Things about you change, so that now everything is peachy, but maybe the next month it's not, depending on what's happening in your life, and we need to be able to course-correct.

"It's a major convenience factor," he added. "We're making their lives easier, not harder."

For medical providers, embracing an already popular technology has advantages. In a survey last year of 1,000 people, the accounting firm PwC reported that 49 percent owned at least one wearable device, up from 21 percent two years earlier, while 36 percent had multiple devices.

Because data are gathered regularly in real time rather than during occasional checkups, medical staff can analyze them to help patients regulate their condition and improve their numbers.

Through a 2015 pilot program, Ochsner targeted high blood pressure, or hypertension, which occurs when blood is forced through arteries with too great a force.

In the U.S., one in three American adults has high blood pressure, which can cause blood vessel damage and increase the risk of a heart attack, stroke, kidney problems and death.

High blood pressure typically has been treated in a doctor's office, but some experts, including Milani, say that approach relies on a small and often infrequent number of readings, which restricts medical staff from making fast adjustments.

Walter Lane, an associate professor at the University of New Orleans who studies health care economics, said Ochsner was "definitely one of the early adopters" of the idea of using wearable technology to track health data.

"Around the country, there's some experimental things starting out, but I think Ochsner really is on the forefront of this," he said.

Ochsner's pilot program, which it boasts was the first of its kind in the U.S. that helped patients manage a chronic condition using an Apple Watch, tracked 156 patients with uncontrolled hypertension starting in 2015.

The group, which was identified by clinical visits within an 18-month span, used a home-based, digital-monitoring program to track their blood pressure. Using cuffs that were enabled with wireless technology, patients measured their blood pressure, and the readings were transmitted to their Apple Watch, as well as Ochsner's electronic medical registry.

The group's results were compared with those of 400 other patients matched by age, sex, body mass index and blood pressure who received standard care.

During the trial period, Ochsner monitored the patients in real time and made adjustments and recommendations as needed. The patients who used the cuffs averaged about 4.2 blood pressure readings each week.

After 90 days, Ochsner found that 71 percent of the digital-medicine patients had reduced their blood pressure to within a targeted range, compared with 31 percent of the control group. The findings were published this year in the American Journal of Medicine.

"We're engaging our patients more efficiently," Milani said.

Next, Milani plans to explore using the technology to monitor patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes.

To raise awareness about emerging technologies that could improve patient care, Ochsner has expanded its O Bar concept, which showcases popular health apps that are vetted by medical professionals.

The concept, a nod to Apple's Genius Bar, has expanded to four hospital facilities: the Ochsner Center for Primary Care and Wellness on Jefferson Highway, Ochsner Health Center in Covington, Ochsner Medical Center on the West Bank and Ochsner Baptist Medical Center in New Orleans.

More than 1,100 patients used the O Bar in 2016, the hospital said.

Andres Rubiano was Ochsners first patient to subscribe to the Apple Watch program.

Rubiano, 56, was surprised when he was diagnosed with hypertension in his early 30s. He wasn't overweight, didn't smoke, watched what he ate and had an active lifestyle. He tried medication, but his condition worsened over time.

A former Ochsner employee, Rubiano, who lives in Old Metairie, said his blood pressure readings have improved dramatically, which has given him "a tremendous peace of mind."

"The best part of it was they were monitoring me on a regular basis," he said, "and they were able to tweak my meds to the point where my blood pressure is no longer an issue."

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Ochsner using wearable technology to help combat chronic diseases - The Advocate

The 2020 census was supposed to be the decennial survey that finally embraced technology, a much-needed victory for the U.S. Census Bureau that, about a decade ago, suffered a costly setback in its attempt to modernize.

However, the agency is in danger of repeating the past by conducting the census the old-fashioned way, with pencil and paper.

Last week, the Commerce Department announced that the Census Bureau, the agency charged with collecting data about the American population, will soon be without its top official. Director John Thompson, who has led the agency since 2013, will leave the Census Bureau on June 30. His five-year term was slated to end in December.

The timing of his early departure is problematic as testing for the 2020 population survey begins in August. Thompson's exit leaves "a real leadership vacuum" at the Census Bureau, said Phil Sparks, a former census official who is now co-director of the Census Project, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. He told the Washington Examiner that it typically takes about six months for a replacement to be chosen and go through the nomination process and that it's "not going to help" the agency if it lacks the "political clout" of its top advocate on Capitol Hill when the budget process for fiscal 2018 ramps up this year. An acting director will step in once Thompson departs, but it's not yet clear who that will be.

The Census Bureau is already facing the increasingly onerous task of making the 2020 decennial head count the first to rely primarily on the Internet and IT services. Thompson raised red flags last week when he told lawmakers during a hearing that the agency's new IT system, the Census Enterprise Data Collection and Processing (CEDCaP), is now expected to cost more than $300 million above the original estimate of $656 million, a jump of nearly 50 percent.

The agency's technology woes now are uncomfortably reminiscent of the problems it faced 10 years ago. Technical issues and delays during the 2008 test phase led the Census Bureau to abandon its push for census takers, who are sent out to collect data from people who didn't submit mail-in forms, to use handheld devices that could verify street addresses with GPS software in favor of relying on a paper, pencil and clipboard. This setback cost the agency an extra $3 billion.

Now members of Congress and watchdog groups are concerned about a 2010 census repeat.

"It's distressing to see the 2020 Census look like it's going the same direction as the 2010 Census," said Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, and chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, at a recent oversight hearing on the 2020 census.

Each decennial survey, which is mandated by the Constitution and is used to reapportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislatures, is more expensive than the last as the U.S. population rises and demographics change. The census cost $9.4 billion in 2000 and $12.3 billion in 2010, in 2020 dollars, and the cost of counting each housing unit has ballooned from $16 in 1970 to about $92 in 2010, in constant 2020 dollars, according to the Census Bureau.

CEDCaP is one aspect of the Census Bureau's push to modernize, which also includes allowing U.S. citizens to complete the survey online or by phone, providing mobile devices for field enumerators and streamlining field operations. The IT push would digitize much of the data collection process and help supplement information on U.S. citizens from other government agencies.

Thompson said the IT upgrade would "cost far less than repeating the outdated processes used in 2010" and would save $5 billion, containing the cost of the 2020 survey to $12.5 billion, a mere $200 million more than in 2010. A new cost estimate is expected this summer, but officials from the Government Accountability Office, as well as the Commerce Department Office of Inspector General, expect the bill to get higher.

In a recent report, the GAO praised the Census Bureau's innovations as showing "promise for controlling costs," but also cautioned that they "introduce new risks" due to a lack of testing of nearly half of its 50 IT systems. This year, GAO dubbed the 2020 census a "high-risk" government program because of its rising costs and IT issues. "Since 2014, GAO has made 30 recommendations related to this area; however, only 6 have been fully implemented as of January 2017," the report notes. The 2010 census was also deemed "high-risk" in the years leading up to it.

A key field test set to begin in August, the 2018 End-to-End Census Test, will take place at 700,000 households in Rhode Island, Washington state and West Virginia and will help the Census Bureau determine its readiness and plan for 2020.

Questions about CEDCaP's success weigh on the agency as it also faces a budget crunch. In April, Congress approved a $1.47 billion budget for the Census Bureau for fiscal 2017, and the Trump administration's proposal for fiscal 2018 calls for $1.5 billion for the Census Bureau's 2020 effort, which experts and advocates worry may be inadequate.

"If not properly funded, this is not going to be an accurate census," Sparks warned. The Census Bureau has already had to make adjustments over funding concerns. For instance, last year the Census Bureau canceled field tests and delayed the opening of field offices due to uncertainty over funding in Congress.

Sparks said providing a boost to the 2020 census effort could be an easy win for President Trump in a tense political climate or that it could look bad if he doesn't ensure adequate resources are provided. Asked if he had a message for Trump, Sparks' reply was: "You own the census for 2020."

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2020 Census costs put technology hopes in question - Washington Examiner