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Futures Microsoft’s European Innovation Magazine Issue n°9 December 2011 I www.microsoft.eu/futures The learning EU Commissioner for Education Androulla Vassiliou: making the grade The classroom of the future is here Europe s alarming skills gap revolution

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  • FuturesMicrosofts European Innovation MagazineIssue n9 December 2011 I

    www.microsoft.eu/futures

    The learning

    EU Commissioner for EducationAndroulla Vassiliou:making the grade

    The classroom of the future is here

    Europes alarmingskills gap

    revolution

  • DIANE HOFKINS is a writer, editor,journalist and consultant in educationand children's issues based inLondon. She was a senior editor onThe Times Educational Supplementfor many years, and now freelancesfor newspapers, charities andacademic institutions.

    MICHAEL CROSS is a London-basedfreelance writer specialising intechnology and public policy. Hebegan his career as a newspaperreporter and has correspondedfrom seven continents.

    GAIL EDMONDSON is editorialdirector at Science|Business. Shecovered European technology,industry and economics for BusinessWeek magazine for more than 20years.

    STEPHEN BAKER is a US-basedjournalist. Formerly he was a seniortechnology writer for BusinessWeek.His recent book Final Jeopardy Manvs. Machine and the Quest to KnowEverything is on IBM's Jeopardy-playing computer, Watson.

    ANDREAS SCHLEICHER is SpecialAdvisor on Education Policy to theOECDs Secretary-General. He isresponsible for the development andanalysis of performance benchmarksfor education systems and of theimpact of knowledge and skills oneconomic and social outcomes.

    MARTIN INCE is a freelance scienceand education journalist based inLondon. He is editor of the QS WorldUniversity Rankings, and his mostrecent book is the Rough Guide to theEarth. He advises organisations ontheir approach to the media.

    W R I T E R S

    If doctors could use naturaluser interfaces, like gestures,to communicate with theircomputers, surgery could bequicker and safer.

    Page 30

    Education today needs to breakwith the past. It requires newways of thinking, involvingcreativity, problem solving anddecision-making.

    Page 32

    Cover photo: EU Commissionerfor Education Androulla Vassiliouon a visit to the EuropeanTraining Foundation in Turin, Italy

    Editor in Chief, Lisa Boch-Andersen, Senior Director Communications, Microsoft Europe

    Managing Editor, Fabien Petitcolas, Director for Innovation ,Microsoft Europe

    Editorial BoardGail Edmondson, Editorial Director, Science|BusinessJan Muehlfeit, Chairman Europe, MicrosoftJohn Vassallo, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Microsoft EuropePeter Wrobel, Founding Director, Science|BusinessRon Zink, Associate General Counsel, Microsoft Europe

    Additional contributors to this editionAnn Morrison, editor. Raluca Anghel, Kate Barnes, AlexandraBirladianu, Elena Bonfiglioli, Stephan Jacquemot, ColombeMichaud, Kirsten Panton, Ray Pinto, Stewart Tansley, and Lena Tnning Pedersen.

    ProductionScience|Business Publishing Ltd

    Layout and DesignChris Jones, design4science ltd

    PrintingHolbrook Printers Ltd, Portsmouth PO3 5HX, UK

    PhotographyEuropean Commission 2011 cover, p 6, p 9 (top)Nigel Giles, Old Streete Court School, Westgate-on-Sea, p 2 (centre)Julio Verne School p 12, p 24Microsoft p 15 (top), p 25, p 30, p 31Hass Plattner Institute p 15 (bottom), p 17Thierry Monasse, Science|Business p 18Wang Jun p 20 (left)Xinhua p 20 (right), p 21ETH Zurich p 26-27Oliver Bartenschlager, Science|Business p 29Siemens (main image), p 30INSEAD p 34

    GraphicsFletcher Ward Design p 22-23

    Contact usFabien [email protected] EuropeNervirslaan / Avenue Des Nerviens 85B-1040 Brusselswww.microsoft.eu

    Circulation number / Frequency2,500 copies / Bi-annual publication

    DisclaimerThe content of this magazine, including news, quotes, and otherinformation, is provided by Microsoft and its third parties for yourpersonal information only. Views imparted by third parties do notnecessarily reflect the views of Microsoft Corporation.

    Copyright Microsoft 2011

    PRINTED ON FSC CERTIFIED PAPER

    Colophon

    ANNA JENKINSON is a seniorinternational journalist based inBrussels with 15 years ofexperience reporting and editing inEurope and Asia. Her workincludes a strong focus on EUresearch policy.

    MICHAEL KENWARD OBE is afreelance writer based in the UKwith nearly 40 years experiencecovering technology andinnovation. He edited NewScientist magazine throughoutthe 1980s.

  • All articles are also available online at www.microsoft.eu/futures

    The demand for skilledworkers is rising fasterthan the supply. Butsome companies arebetter than others attraining the people whoare available.

    Switzerland is on aninnovation roll. ETHZurich alone hascreated more than 100companies over thepast five years.

    Page 26

    Page 19

    Page 10

    Education CommissionerVassiliou is determined to improve Europes grade forliteracy as well as raise thelevels of digital literacy.

    Page 7

    Contents

    FUTURES COMMENTThe power of imagination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4UK research: in good shape for now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

    NEWSMore than one No. 1 discipline by discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5EU Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou: Remaking Europes schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

    INNOVATION IN SOCIETYThe classroom of the future is here: It is active, exciting and everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10The end of the remote control. New ways to talk to your computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14Martin Schuurmans: The EITs first three years . . . . . . . . . . . .18

    SKILLS & EDUCATIONMind the gap: Demand for skilled workers is rising faster than the supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19Report card: Global rankings confirm Europe must do better . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22Learning from the Past: Some education reform ideas are not so new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24How Microsoft programmes support education . . . . . . . . . . . .25

    ENTREPRENEURSHIP & SMESSwiss innovation on a roll: Models of government-universitypartnering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26Doctors in the cloud: Making hospital staffing more efficient . .28

    HEALTHNo mice here: Safer surgery with natural user interfaces . . . .30

    EXPERT VIEWAndreas Schleicher: Education reform means a break with the past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32Commentary: Creating an entrepreneurial environment . . . . .34

    Innovative teachers +technology + smartpolicies = the activelearning andcollaborative skillsrequired for the 21stcentury.

  • 4F

    THE STATE OF RESEARCH in the UnitedKingdom is such an important issue thattwo high-level reports on the subjectcame out at the same time in October,each measuring the output and efficiencyof the UKs research sector. Theirconclusions are strikingly similar.

    According to Thomson-Reuters, whichevaluated five developed countries andChina, UK research papers make up 20per cent of the most highly citedpublications around the world (that is,they were referred to more than 1,000times in other papers). Thats second tothe US, which produced 70 per cent of themost cited papers, but more than Franceand Germany.

    The Elsevier report, which wascommissioned by the UKs Department ofBusiness, Innovation and Skills, confirmsthat UK research papers are frequentlycited in academic papers around theglobe. The study, which considers 11 countries, also reports that UKresearch is cost-effective: its papersattract more citations per pound investedin overall research than any other largecountry. In addition, the UK also producedmore citations per researcher than theUS, China, Japan and Germany.

    But each report presents concerns. TheThomson-Reuters study finds that privatesector research investment in the UK isrelatively low behind the US, Japan andGermany and has fallen in relationshipto competitor countries. And the Elsevierreport warns: Other countries areoutpacing the UK in terms of growth innumber of researchers and spending onresearch. The UK is well positioned, butits ability to sustain its leadership positionis far from inevitable.

    Global Research Report, United Kingdom,Thomson-Reuters, 2011,http://researchanalytics.thomsonreuters.com/grr/

    International Comparative Performance of theUK Research Base 2011, Elsevier, 2011,http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/science/docs/i/11-p123-international-comparative-performance-uk-research-base-2011

    UK Researchstrong for now

    Every year since 2003, Microsoft has sponsored a globaltechnology contest for university students called theImagine Cup. The contestants, acting in teams, createtechnology solutions to help solve some of the worlds

    toughest problems such as improving road and fire safety,eradicating poverty and creating a more sustainableenvironment.

    This year, 358,000 students from 183 countries participated inthe Imagine Cup. For many of them, it was not a one-offchallenge, but a life-changing experience. The competition was very intense, but there wasa great deal of excitement among the students at the world-wide finals in New York, andTeam Hermes from Ireland walked away with 1st place.

    Participating in this competition has long-reaching benefits; these young Irish studentsand all the Imagine Cup competitors are honing their life skills. They are developing theirability to think critically and creatively; to work cooperatively; and to adapt to the evolvinguse of technology in the workplace and society as a whole. They are digitally literate, whichis as important in the 21st century as being knowledgeable in language or mathematics. Infact, according to the market intelligence firm IDC, within the next few years, nearly 90 percent of all jobs will require digital literacy. Everyone from the postal worker to the operativeon the factory floor will be interacting with technology in some way.

    I believe deeply that a quality education, including e-skills, is not only a basic right but asocial imperative. It is the key to economic opportunity, not only for individuals, but for theircommunities. Most Europeans share those beliefs, yet OECD data tells us that budgets foreducation are being cut all over the world. So here is the challenge: how to do more withless? The truth is, this problem is not unique to education. Having to achieve more with lessis the biggest challenge facing public and private sectors alike. Many policymakers andcompanies are turning to Information Communications and Technology (ICT) for theanswers.

    Microsoft is committed to working with governments and other organisations around theworld to build stronger and more innovative education systems, with the aim of building aworkforce capacity with the right skill sets for the jobs of tomorrow. We see this as the bestpossible solution to help fuel the European economy. We encourage all business andgovernment leaders to support technology literacy and entrepreneurial efforts withtechnology at their core.

    As the Imagine Cup experience shows, this support works: many Imagine Cupparticipants have gone on to create businesses based on their projects. Its for this reason,and many others, that the competition is one of my favorite events each year.

    Harnessing the powerof imagination

    Jean-Philippe CourtoisPresident, Microsoft InternationalSenior Vice President, Microsoft Corporation

    FUTURES VIEW

  • 5FF

    News

    BY ANNA JENKINSON

    COMPETITION IS USUALLYgood. But when many ofEuropes 4,000 universities tryto be tops in all academicareas, the overall quality atmost of them suffers. As aconsequence, too few Europeaninstitutions are recognised asworld class in global universityrankings (see page 22).

    Of course, a handful ofEuropean universities excelacross their areas. Among

    them: Cambridge and Oxford,which are research-intensiveuniversities. But hundreds ofuniversities do well in otherfields, say teaching orvocational training.

    To broaden the scope ofexisting rankings, the EuropeanCommission is creating U-Multirank, a listing that wouldeventually include universitiesworldwide, ordering them by thequality of their particulardisciplines rather than theoverall institutions. The list

    would consider a variety ofperformance measures, fromteacher quality to graduateemployability. U-Multirank wouldencourage each university toconcentrate on what it does well,help policy-makers supportcentres of excellence, and aidstudents in making the choice ofwhich university to attend.

    The idea is for students toselect criteria that are relevantto them and then rank theinstitutions according to theirpersonal priorities. Were

    coming up with a uniquesystem that puts the student atthe heart of the ranking, saidDennis Abbott, spokesman forthe European Commissionerfor Education, AndroullaVassiliou. It will not just statethat a particular institution isnumber 10 or number 50. It willbe more open, moretransparent and more useful.

    U-Multirank, whose nameemphasises that it is user-driven, should be available bymid-2013.

    More than one No. 1 rankinguniversities discipline by disciplineThe EU is preparing a new global list of institutions of higherlearning that will be more open, more transparent, more useful

    Oxford University: Alwaysamong the top class.

  • 6F

  • 7F

    NEWS

    BY GAIL EDMONDSON

    As an 18-year-old,Androulla Vassiliou hadher heart set onstudying fashion designin London, but her parentsinsisted she read law instead.Later, as Vassilious legal careertook off, she hoped to become ajudge. But the judiciary system inher home country, Cyprus,wasnt ready for women judgesat the time. So she switchedgears again and went intopolitics.

    Now, as EuropeanCommissioner for Education,Culture, Multilingualism andYouth, Vassiliou sees lessons forEuropes students in her owncareer history. Adaptability is avery crucial competence foryoung people, especially now aswe are going through difficult[economic] times. You have totake what is available and try tomake the best out of it. WhateverI decided to do, I put my heart in

    it. That was my principle.Vassilious passion now is

    propelling Europes schools anduniversities into the 21stcentury as quickly as possible.Rote learning and rigidcurricula are out. To succeed ina global knowledge economy,students need a raft of skillsincluding digital literacy, as wellas competence in maths,science, technology and foreignlanguages. Creativity andcritical thinking are vital. ButEuropes schools anduniversities are steeped incenturies of pedagogicaltradition, and not geared tochurning out multidisciplinarygraduates who think laterallyand creatively. We are a 4 out of10 in terms of completing thatmodernisation, says Vassiliou.We still have a long way to go.

    The good news: the EuropeanCommission is makingeducation, research andinnovation a top priority. Underthe Commission budget

    proposal for 2014-2020,education, training and youthwould jump 73 per cent to15.2 billion the highestbudget increase across allpolicy sectors while researchand innovation would get 80billion, up 46 per cent. AllEuropean leaders withoutexception realise that the wayto exit this crisis stronger is viaeducation, innovation andresearch, says Vassiliou.

    Where will the money bespent? On a panorama of newand existing programs tomodernise schools, bolstercreativity, improve teachingquality, advance studentmobility, promote campusentrepreneurship, encouragecollaboration betweeneducation and industry andsupport lifelong learning. Onekey goal is to double thenumber of young Europeansstudying and training abroad,from 400,000 per year to800,000. Such programmes

    expose students to the softskills needed to live and workin a foreign culture, saysVassiliou. A related proposal: a low-interest loan guaranteefund through the EuropeanInvestment Bank that wouldhelp 50,000 students a yearfinance a masters degreeabroad.

    But can bigger budgets andnew programmes remakeEuropes educational culture?And if so, how quickly?Andreas Schleicher, advisor tothe Secretary General at theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) on education policy,worries that Europes corecountries, including France andGermany, are not movingquickly enough, and thatpolicymakers need to takemore a more radical approach.

    Schleicher, author of theOECD Programme forInternational StudentAssessment (the Pisa study), >>

    Remaking Europes schoolsIn terms of modernising educational systems,Commissioner Vassiliou says, We have a long way to go

    Adaptability is a very crucialcompetence for young people,especially now as we are going

    through difficult [economic] times.During Literacy Week, the EUCommissioner reads to childrenin The Hague, Netherlands.

  • 8F

    as catalysts, the KICs now have30 start-ups in the works (seepage 18).

    It is the first experiment wehave in creating a triangle ofresearch, industry andeducation. In the past,education was the missingpartner. Now they all realise ithas to be included, saysVassiliou.

    Under the Commissionsbudget proposal, the EIT wouldreceive a substantial increase infunding, which, Vassiliou says,could help bring the kind ofstep-change in attitudes thatEurope needs. Six additionalKICs are planned between2014-2018

    This year the Commission islaunching two pilotprogrammes also designed tobreak down the barrierbetween academic researchand enterprise. The Europeanindustrial doctorate is aimedat giving doctoral students theopportunity to work within acompany, and to bring

    companies closer to theresearch universities a newelement of the 15-year-oldMarie Curie programme, whichhas supported 50,000researchers in Europe. Thesecond programme, EUKnowledge Alliances, will helpcreate partnerships betweenresearchers and industry tobring innovative ideas to market.

    Vassiliou is also determined toimprove Europes grade forliteracy and digital literacy. Arecent OECD study showed thatnearly 17 per cent of Europeanstudents lack the skills to moveeasily through the digitalenvironment and most studentsare not able to use informationtechnology in a critical andcreative way. Likewise, many ofEuropes educators are notprepared to take advantage ofdigital technology. There is aclear implementation gap whenit comes to using informationand communication technology(ICT) in formal education,Vassiliou said. Even now, with

    points to Shanghai as a model.Its students ranked first amongthose from 65 cities andcountries in reading, maths andscience in the most recent Pisastudy. Among Shanghaisinnovations: the best teachersand administrators are sent tothe worst schools (see page 23).

    Vassiliou insists Europe too isworking on programmes thatbreak with the past. In 2010, shelaunched Youth on the Move,an initiative designed to reducethe school dropout rate, helpyoung people gain high-levelskills and qualifications and helpthem land a first job.

    She points to a recent OECDstudy which shows that, even ifeducation systems provide highlevels of skills, its noguarantee of success in the jobmarket if countries dont havethe right innovation-friendlypolicies in place to back them up.

    The biggest challenge inEurope, Vassiliou says, isbridging the gap between

    industry and academia.Governments need to create thekind of environment thatnurtures innovation andleverages a skilled workforce.Finland is a role model both forsecondary education (it was theEuropean leader in the Pisastudy) and universities (AaltoUniversity, created from amerger of three existinginstitutions, is a pioneer inmultidisciplinary learning).Finland decided [25 years ago]education is key and thatssomething we all now realise,says Vassiliou.

    To promote a culture ofentrepreneurship, theCommission in 2008 created theEuropean Institute of Innovationand Technology (EIT), which linksuniversities and industry acrosskey technologies. The followingyear, the EIT started three cross-border Knowledge andInnovation Communities (KICs)focused on innovation in climatechange, clean energy andinformation technology. Acting

    >>

  • 9F

    NEWS

    so much unemployment,especially youthunemployment, we have about2 million vacant jobs, becausewe dont have the ICT skills tofill [them].

    To tackle that problem, theEducation Commissioner islaunching an initiative in 2012called Creative Classrooms,to encourage teachers toexperiment with newpedagogical methods. SaysVassiliou: For me digitalcapabilities are among the mostimportant tools we have,because beyond providing abasic competence, they are atool for learning more.

    With so many initiativesunder way, how will Vassilioumeasure the EducationCommissions success? WhenI see our first grads startingtheir own businesses, shesays. This will be the realindication that we are ready tomake Europe more competitiveand attractive in this globalisedworld.

    For me, digital capabilitiesare among the mostimportant tools we have,because beyond providinga basic competence, theyare a tool for learningmore.

    EducationMiddle Temple Inn of Court, London, London Institute of World Affairs

    Professional Life1968 Launches her legal career

    1978-1992 President, United NationsAssociation of Cyprus

    1991-1995 President, World Federationof United NationsAssociations

    1996-2006 Member, House ofRepresentatives of Cyprus

    2008-2010 European Commissioner forHealth

    2010 European Commissioner forEducation, Culture,Multilingualism and Youth

    ANDROULLA VASSILIOU: THE SKILL SET

  • 10F

    The classroom of the future is hereInnovative teachers + technology + smart policies= the active learning and collaborative skillsrequired for the 21st century

  • 11F

    INNOVATION IN SOCIETY

    BY DIANE HOFKINS

    Teenagers in Ghent, Belgium, trackdown farmers, asking if they canrent a chicken. Then they tweet theirclassmates to report on their hunt

    for eggs and to seek advice on growingwheat. Their assignment: produce a loaf ofbread absolutely from scratch by nextspring.

    This coming together of old and newtechnology, part of a project at Sint-Lievenschool called Generation Y, brings newmeaning to the idea of learning by doing andnew life to the subject of geography.Welcome to the classroom of the future: afarm.

    In Hellerup school in Copenhagen, acouple of children curl up in a comfy corner,heads touching as they share a laptop, whiletrying to figure out which of the 7 millionsearch results on wind farms will providevalid information for their environmentalproject. Welcome to the classroom of thefuture: a sofa.

    If a child was asked to describe afuturistic classroom, she might talk aboutriding her jet-pack to a desk-filled spacewhere a whirring machine pumps her headfull of information. But adults like StevenRonsijn, the ICT coordinator at Sint-Lievenschool, and Lisolette Nylander, Hellerupsprincipal, recognise that learning does notneed to take place in a classroom at all.Learning can be anytime, anywhere. Itshould be active and exciting and it will beassisted not driven by technology.

    Even the most brilliant teachers, thesmartest bureaucrats and the savviestbusiness people dont know precisely whatthe jobs of the future will be. But they canidentify the attributes that successful job-seekers will need: the ability to work ingroups, to solve problems imaginatively andto think creatively skills that industrycomplains are in short supply even now.

    Schools themselves will become morelike laboratories or art studios, toencourage the innovation and open-endedthinking that Europe needs to thrive in the21st century. Hellerup school has alreadydone away with traditional classrooms; itsopen-plan building was constructed nine

    years ago with flexibility, cooperation andadventure in mind. Lessons are introducedin home areas, and then students move to aquiet corner or a busy space to learn ingroups, pairs or by themselves. Teachersact like mentors, guiding students towardways of learning that suit them and the topicat hand.

    As for the curriculum, says PrincipalNylander, We believe [the students] needto do more than just the subjects, becausesubjects today are not the same as they willbe in the future. Thats where technologycomes in. Our children are really good atcollaborating, she says.

    In policy terms, I think the single biggestthing is to stop thinking about technology asthough we are going to insert it into a staticcurriculum, says Professor Richard Noss,co-director of the London Knowledge Lab atthe Institute of Education, University ofLondon. Digital technology is different towhat came before because its possible todo things that were impossible before. Oneexample is the mathematics of change. Youused to need to understand differentialequations to visualise complicatedscenarios, like global weather patterns ordemographic growth. With animatedcomputer graphics illustrating thesevariations, a class can have a moremeaningful discussion about such crucialissues as climate change or populationgrowth.

    Change is on the wayWhile many schools and governmentsremain ambivalent about technology,experts such as Anthony Salcito, VicePresident ofWorldwide Public SectorEducation at Microsoft, are confident thattruly radical change is on the way. Onereason is simple economics. Digitaltechnology will become cheaper thantextbooks, and provide a more immersiveexperience. For instance, technology canintroduce Mandarin without a Chineseteacher, examine atoms in 3D or, withgadgets such as Kinect, help students withphysical disabilities.

    Much as the printing press transformed

    >>

    Children at Hellerupschool in Copenhagen areimmersed in learning.

  • 12F

    the world 600 years ago, IT is set to bring us into a qualitatively different era, hepredicts and policy makers across Europemust ensure their schools can make themost of it. The transformation will needteachers with top-quality training andsupport, parents who are involved andgovernments with an eye to the long haul,not the quick fix.

    Julie Munkager is a maths teacher atNordvestskolen in Elsinore, Denmark,where the local authority has provided everyprimary child with a netbook. They growwith it, she says. It helps them improvedifferent skills. Theyre sharing. Theycommunicate on a lot of different platforms.Theyre better at connecting the visualthings with the writing.

    which its okay to search the Internet foranswers.

    The smartphones that children carry intheir pockets present a similar challenge.They already enable students tocommunicate, calculate, do research anddocument their work with photos. Yet manyschools ban them in class, where they canbe a distraction, and in exams where, in aneffort to stop cheating, their possession canbe a serious offence.

    No mobile phones?Steven Ronsijn, who was named InnovativeTeacher Europe 2011 by Microsoft for hisGenY project, manages to stimulate hisstudents they give up their breaks andlunchtimes to take part in his sustainable

    access. So much of learning outcomesbetween rich and poor depends on whathappens at home, she says. Technologymeans for the first time we can actuallyaddress the kind of learning support thatchildren get at home. For me, leading-edgeschools are ones that acknowledge thatchildren learn 24/7.

    Skills development combined withuniversal access will help countries growtheir technological footprint, says Salcito.The connection between workforcereadiness and employability skills is muchtighter and much more aligned with theearly years of schooling.

    With so much innovation going onthroughout Europe, can schools andgovernment scale up innovation,broadening it to include more students inmore countries?

    Anthony Salcito argues that politiciansobsession with finding out what works is awaste of time. Informally, the Internetmakes it much easier for teachers to shareideas and to choose the ones they like. Butsystemically, its not realistic to believe youcan capture one persons ideas and plunkthem down somewhere else, where theethos, culture and children are different.Instead, we need to investigate root causethinking; what processes did the innovatorsgo through and what were the conditions?

    For policy-makers, technology shouldhelp these investigations. A Microsoft-sponsored programme called PiLSR(Partners in Learning School Research) isstudying how educational transformationactually takes place, with a focus on threeaspects: learning beyond the classroom, ITintegration into the learning process andstudent-centred learning. Governments andschools can use the online tool, which is freeand available in 34 languages, to see howtheir individual schools and local authoritiesare doing and compare them with othercountries.

    As Hellerup School and the GenY projectshow each in a different way technologyhelps students accomplish real-worldthings, with excitement, energy,collaboration and imagination. Theclassrooms of the future already exist.Europe just needs more of them.

    Learning can beanytime, anywhere. Itshould be active andexciting and it will beassisted not driven by technology.

    Research has shown that good hardwareis a wasted investment unless the teachersknow how to make the most of it a lessonthat governments have often missed. InElsinore, Microsoft has worked withteachers like Julie Munkager through itsPartners in Learning programme, helpingthem use technology more innovatively.

    If theres one thing that has an impact onthe school curriculum its probably theassessment system, says Gavin Dykes, anindependent international educationconsultant. The question is: If yourstudents have access to the Internet duringexams what questions are you going to askthem? In that one simple move you start totake on elements of 21st-century learning.Obviously, in the world of work, web accessis a given, so Denmark is piloting exams in

    energy computer-game and traffic-monitoring projects among others in spiteof the no mobile phone policy at Sint-Lievenschool. But GenY kids also go off campus, torooms and real offices where restrictions onlaptops, mp3 players and mobile phones arenon-existent. As the GenY website says, Wedo away with the taboo that learning onlyhappens within school walls.

    For Valerie Thompson, director of the e-Learning Foundation in the UK,technology offers nothing less than theopportunity to close the stubbornattainment gap between rich and poor. Thismatters not only to individual children but toEuropes economic well-being.

    Thompson argues that governmentsshould focus on providing families in needwith computer hardware and Internet

    >>

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    INNOVATION IN SOCIETY

  • 14F

    BY STEVE BAKER

    Somewhere in the world, this sceneis taking place. The lights are lowin the living room, and a couplewants to switch from a video game

    to a movie. The dialogue:

    No, its the other remote.This one?No, the one over there, under the table.Which button do I push?

    Sound familiar? These unlucky people arestruggling to communicate with a machineby poking their fingers at a poorly designedinterface. If only they could speak to thetelevision in plain language, as if it were aperson, and simply tell it to switch fromGrand Theft Auto to Avatar.

    That future is at hand. Designers on

    three continents are busy creating moreintuitive methods to interact with thegrowing ranks of ever-smarter machines.The systems they are building make senseof our words, our gestures andmovements, even our shrugs and facialexpressions. This field is known as NaturalUser Interface, or NUI, and its exploding.

    Fueling the demand is the proliferationof those information machines around us. Until recently, most peopledealt with just a few computers, maybe oneat home, another at work. These big boxeshad keyboards and mice, and usersmastered the necessary clicks andcommands. But new types of computersare on the rise, from phones to securitycameras. And in the coming years, we willbe surrounded by ever smarter machines,some the size of rooms, others practicallyinvisible. Theyll be navigating the car,

    With smarter,new interfaces,we will soon begesturing andspeakingcommands to ourcomputers, orperhaps evendirecting themwith our thoughts

    The end of theremote control

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    INNOVATION IN SOCIETY

    booking a plumber, tracking the dog,letting us into the office, adjusting the airconditioning, fine-tuning medications andhandling myriad other tasks. Most of thetime, we will be able to communicate withthem without sitting down and logging in,and often without even taking the time topick up a gadget.

    Someday, perhaps, we will be able tosend signals by pretending we are holdingthe device. At the Hasso Plattner Institutenear Berlin, researchers have discoveredthat people often remember with startlingprecision the layout of icons on their smartphones. In a new application, users cancall up an app perhaps to get directionsor hear a voice mail by simply movingtheir fingers in certain patterns in the air. These movements are captured by atiny camera in their lapel and sent to ahandset nearby. People should be able

    to control a lot in their device while its intheir pocket, says Patrick Baudisch, chairof the institutes Human-ComputerInteraction Lab.

    That doesnt mean that touch screens, a

    Designers on threecontinents are busycreating moreintuitive methods tointeract with thegrowing ranks of ever-smarter machines.

    As screens get smaller, it becomesharder to see what application thefinger is touching. One solution, asdemonstrated by Patrick Baudisch of the Hasso Plattner Institute, is toplace the touch interface on the back ofa transparent screen. >>

    Hands-free: Instead of pressingbuttons, this boy is playing with Kinect.

  • 16F

    popular breakthrough in the past decade,are going to disappear. But they too aresure to evolve, especially as screensshrink. How can the user see what he orshe is doing? One design at the PlattnerInstitute puts the touch on the back of atransparent screen, so that the finger doesits work in the background.

    Other advances look to more ingrainedbody movements. At Microsoft Research,scientists are developing not only verbalcommands for televisions and gameconsoles, but also systems that recogniseeveryday gestures. Instead of hitting an OKbutton on a remote, for example, a usermight simply hold up a thumb. None of thiswould be possible without smarter, moreperceptive machines. Traditionalcomputers were deaf and blind. The onlymessages they could receive came fromkeyboards and the movements of a mouseon a two-dimensional grid. For decades,humans have been the eyes and ears ofcomputers, says Anoop Gupta,Distinguished Scientist at MicrosoftResearch. Now the sensors are gettingpowerful enough, and softwaresophisticated, so that computers can haveeyes and ears of their own.

    Starting with video gamesThe sensors are becoming very perceptive,and this opens endless opportunities fornew natural interfaces. Some of the mostdramatic come from the world of videogames. Five years ago, Nintendointroduced the Wii. Its controller containsmotion sensors that allow the user tointeract with hand gestures, whetherhitting backhands or shooting skeets. Thiswas a harbinger of NUI. People could easilyforget they were dealing with a computer.

    Microsoft created a revolution with theNovember 2009 release of Kinect for theXbox 360: the user does not need to hold acontroller any more. Equipped withprojected infrared light and other sensors,Kinect can detect the motion of playersbodies, recognise their faces and processvoice commands. It sold a record 8 million units in its first 60 days, drivinghome an important message: NUI sells.Perhaps more significantly, last June

    Microsoft released a development kit forKinect programmers, which opened thedoor for a host of new applications for thisbreakthrough sensory technology.

    One of them is on display at a home forelderly people, TigerPlace, in Columbia,Missouri, where Kinect systems monitorthe day-to-day movements of voluntary testsubjects. The data capture each person asa faceless three-dimensional silhouette.This helps to protect their sense of privacy,while providing enough detail to analysechanging patterns of walking or bending.These could be signs that the person islosing balance and faces risks of a fall.

    This may sound more like surveillancethan communication, but Eric Dishman, anIntel executive who oversees similar in-home monitoring for the elderly in Dublin,Ireland, and Portland, Oregon, says thatthis type of in-home health care technologywill increasingly interact with the people.One of Intels tools, the Magic Carpet,features a network of sensors underneaththe tiles of a kitchen floor. If it determinesby the subjects walking patterns that theyare at risk of a fall, he says, the sameplatform can literally lead them throughexercises. And while theyre doing thoseexercises, youre collecting even moredata.

    What if the person doesnt feel like doingthe prescribed exercises? The simplestsolution would be an interface thatunderstood a spoken sentence: I dontwant to today. Capturing natural languageis a crucial component of NUI. Inlaboratories around the world, linguistsand computer scientists are working toexpand the active vocabularies ofmachines, and to teach them to adapt todifferent accents and dialects. In essence,

    these computers will be going through anapprenticeship not only in Humanity 101,but in specifically comprehending eachindividual user.

    David Ferrucci headed the IBM team thatbuilt a question-answering computercalled Watson. Early in 2011, the machinedemonstrated advanced natural-languageskills as it defeated two human championsin an American televised quiz show calledJeopardy! In Ferruccis vision, computerslike Watson will soon accompany us,

    Floor sensors may detect that anursing home patient is limpingacross the kitchen floor and atrisk of a fall. But how to knowwho it is? Multitoe technology,developed at the Hasso PlattnerInstitute in Germany, createsprofiles of each users foot.

    >> Sensors are getting powerfulenough, and software sophisticated,so that computers can have eyes andears of their own.Anoop Gupta, Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research

  • 17F

    INNOVATION IN SOCIETY

    perhaps through our cell phones, listeningto complex spoken questions and providingcorrect responses. I look at it like thecomputer in Star Trek, he says. Youforget its a computer and simply ask itquestions. It works through a massive database, which only a computer can do, andcomes back with answers.

    To many, advanced speech sounds likethe ideal interface. But Bill Buxton,Principal Researcher at Microsoft, arguesthat there is no such thing as ideal. Thesuccess of each approach, whether touchscreens, hand gestures or speech,depends on its context, he says. Speech,for example, works far better than a touchscreen for delivering an importantbusiness message while driving a car. Butlets say Im landing at the San JoseAirport, he says, and I deliver that samemessage by voice. I might get fired if itturns out the guy sitting next to me is froma competitor. In that case, the best

    interface might be a touch screen oreven a venerable qwerty keyboard.

    The ultimate natural interface would bea system that directs our thoughts straightto a machine. It sounds like science fiction,but the early versions of such technologyare taking form. Already, researchers haveconnected prosthetic limbs to the edges ofpeoples nervous systems, permittingthem to move the limbs with signals fromthe brain. In European laboratories, fromthe University Medical Center in Utrecht,Netherlands, to the Institute forKnowledge Discovery in Graz, Austria,researchers are developing techniques toprocess more complex signals from thebrain, allowing stroke victims and peoplesuffering from locked-in syndrome tooperate computers. Another project,financed by the National ScienceFoundation in the United States, isdeveloping a generation of brainmicroprocessors. The goal is to have

    them ready by 2020. If successful, this brain-machine

    interface could spread to the population atlarge, eventually enabling us to controlcertain computer functions play videogames, pull up the contact list on our smartphones with our thoughts. Conceivably,messages could be sent brain to brain,creating a digital version of telepathy. Thiswould present thorny new challenges fordesigners how to protect people, forexample, from messaging their straythoughts. In the meantime, though, well bebuilding vast portfolios of words and bodysignals to tell the machines in our liveswhat were up to. Weve been yelling andgesturing at them for decades. Now, withNUI, the computers will finally be payingattention.

    More information http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/collaboration/focus/nui/default.aspx

    i

  • 18F

    BY ANNA JENKINSON

    Looking back at his three-year termas chairman of the EuropeanInstitute of Innovation & Technology(EIT), Martin Schuurmans has

    mixed feelings. While he is proud of thethree Knowledge and InnovationCommunities (KICs) that are now up andrunning, he feels that they could have beenset up faster and have achieved more.

    We have built up the financial and legalKIC structures from nothing, we haveexcellent CEOs in place, and were drivingbusiness entrepreneurship, saysSchuurmans. Weve done a decent job, butthere is much more that needs to be done.

    The KICs brief is to come up with newways in the three areas of climate change,energy and information technology forindustry, research and academia to worktogether to promote innovation. Thesecommunities had to break new ground inestablishing a model for collaboration,devising a legal structure for multi-partyactivities that are co-located in about adozen countries.

    The European Commission rules bywhich the EIT is bound made a complicatedsituation even more complex. Drawing upcontracts with partners like Nokia, SAP andHelsinki University of Technology andgetting the money flowing took longer thanmany would have wanted.

    Another complication: the way in which

    the projects are financed, with up to 25 percent of the total cost coming from the EITand the remainder from participants. TheEIT acts as a seed investor, helping projectsget off the ground. But with public moneycomes the burden of bureaucracy.

    It is the task of the headquarters, theKICs and the Commission to seek ways tomake this burden lighter and lighter, saysSchuurmans. Its like a control-basedsociety moving towards a trust-basedsociety. But trust has to be earned, he says. In the case of the KICs this meansdelivering results that have a real impact.

    The results so far: each KIC haslaunched two start-ups, and 30 more are inthe works. According to board member DariaTataj, the EIT will launch a programme torecognise the best new start-ups inpartnership with the Science/Business ACESawards. The KICs have also set up masters,PhD and post-doctoral programmes thathave already started accepting students.

    Most of last year was spent doing the

    groundwork, says Mary Ritter, CEO of theClimate KIC. But this year were reallybeginning to blossom. For the KICs tocontinue to flourish, the EIT has called for amassive increase in funding, from 309 million in the current financial cycle, to4 billion in 20142020. The increase wouldsupport the three existing KICs and nineadditional ones by 2019.

    Measurable targets, such as the numberof ideas that get to market, are crucial,according to Schuurmans. But he alsoemphasizes EITs mission: Its not a case ofcompleting programmes and then youredone; its about creating successfulinnovative communities, and newentrepreneurs being born.

    That challenge now falls to his successorAlexander von Gabain, the new EIT DirectorJos Manuel Leceta and of course theKICs themselves. That task falls to hissuccessor Alexander von Gabain, the newEIT Director Jos Manuel Leceta and ofcourse the KICs themselves.

    As he bows out as the founding chair of the European Institute ofInnovation and Technology, Martin Schuurmans is happy withwhat has been achieved, but says itshould not have taken so long

    A decent job, but

    A Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) is a highly integrated, creative andexcellence-driven partnership which brings together the fields of education, technology,research, business and entrepreneurship, in order to produce new innovations and newinnovation models that inspire others to emulate it. The EIT designed its first 3 KICs in 2009: Climate change: http://www.climate-kic.org/ICT: http://www.eit.ictlabs.eu/Sustainable Energy: http://www.kic-innoenergy.com

  • 19F

    SKILLS & EDUCATION

    BY MARTIN INCE

    If there is one set of statistics thatpolicy makers in Europe should alwayskeep in mind, it is this: 49 per cent,fewer than half, of individuals with low

    skill levels are employed. These labourersare trapped: they cant move up, andworse, their jobs are likely to disappear.The cost, to their countries social servicesand to the overall EU economy isenormous.

    By contrast, 84 per cent of those withhigh qualification levels, like managers andprofessionals, across the EU are working.So are 70 per cent of people with medium

    skill levels, such as clerks and serviceworkers, according to a 2010 EuropeanCommission report New Skills for NewJobs: Action Now. The demand for skillsis rising significantlyfaster than supply,says Andreas Schleicher, who is educationadvisor to the OECDs Secretary-General.You can see it in the prices paid for betterskills. Schleicher uses his nativeGermany, to make the point: In my owncountry, the earnings of people withcollege degrees have been rising 30 percent in the past ten years. That shows avery clear signal of the kind of crunches wesee in the labour market.

    While unskilledworkers face adifficult future, thedemand for skilledemployees isrising faster thanthe supply

    Mind the gap

    >>

  • 20F

    The gap is likely to widen. First, jobrequirements are changing. As Schleichersays, people can no longer assume thatwhat they learned in school will last alifetime. Second, in the global talent pool,the competition is getting stiffer withChina leading the way. Third, rapidlychanging technology makes it difficult forcompanies to find the right match betweenthe positions to fill and the skills available.And fourth, the education systems inEurope are not producing a workforce of thefuture. As Coen Olde Olthof, vice presidentof Getronics, the IT solutions arm ofNetherlands telecoms provider KPN, says: The education system spendsmost of its time training people for the oldworld of fixed roles, not the new one in

    which people have to cope with higher levels of stress and change.

    Some countries and regions do haveeducational systems that can meet 21st-century challenges. The most widelyaccepted measure of school performance isPISA, the OECDs Programme forInternational Student Assessment. It testsand analyses the reading, mathematics andscience achievement of 15-year-olds aroundthe world. The 2009 survey, the latestavailable, shows Asian children well in thelead. Shanghai has the highest-achievingschool students in all three areas, whileSingapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Koreaalso appear prominently. As the graphic onpage 23 shows, the only education system inEurope that can compete is Finlands.

    Why does Shanghai dominate? Whilemaking the point that Chinas richest city isnot representative of the entire country,Schleicher says that Shanghai does certainthings well: it capitalises on the talent ofevery student; it sets standards high; itexpects teachers to be real knowledgeprofessionals; and it is willing toexperiment.

    Jean-Marie Lazerges, a Frenchman whohas taught maths in Cambodia, New Yorkand Paris, now instructs students at theJingshan school in Beijing. There, he says,children work harder and longer than theirEuropean counterparts. FromKindergarten to Grade 12, he says, theChinese students have the equivalent offour more years of lessons than the French.So they get better calculation skills inalgebra, trigonometry and geometry. Thatshows up in better performance inmultiple-choice examinations.

    Lazerges adds that Chinas educationsystem, with its emphasis on maths andscience, allows it to assemble a highlyskilled workforce. Today the countrys mainstrength is in production, but he is surethat the Chinese will soon be originatorsand innovators as well.

    According to Seeram Ramakrishna of theNational University of Singapore, the linkbetween education and employment isstronger in Asia than in Europe. Asianemployers are getting the people they need

    The education system spendsmost of its time training people forthe old world of fixed roles, not thenew one in which people have tocope with higher levels of stressand change.Coen Olde Olthof, vice president of Getronics

    >>

    Students study English in XinjiangProvince in northwest China.

    In the national entrance exams for Chinas universitiesonly three in five students make the grade.

  • 21F

    SKILLS & EDUCATION

    more reliably from universities than theirEuropean competitors, and this trend is onthe rise, he says. European students donot appreciate the importance of technologyto their own futures. Their Asian rivals arebetter-motivated and it is easier forcompanies to employ them profitably fromday one.

    What European companies can doThe fact that Europe already has significantunemployment among engineers suggeststo Dr Jonathan Liebenau, who teachestechnology management at the LondonSchool of Economics, that the problem ispartly one of poor management. He pointsout that some companies, such as those inthe mobile phone industry, are better thanothers at training the people who areavailable: That is why they are makingbetter use of cloud computing than, say, theaerospace industry.

    In many cases, existing core skill setstransfer directly to cloud technologies,according to a white paper on cloud skillsrecently published by Microsoft. But inother instances, information technology (IT)pros need to develop new skill sets to meetthe demands of emerging cloud jobs. Thewhite paper advises companies consideringthe move to cloud computing to educatetheir IT professionals so they can build staffcapabilities and skills ahead of the change:Chief information officers who want to

    generate more business value from IT haveto be in the front line of cloud skillseducation both for themselves and tobuild training capacity for their IT staff.

    Friedrich-Wilhelm Falkenreck, head ofhuman resources at German-basedautomotive giant Continental, says hiscompany is now able to find the people itneeds in Germany and around the world.But the demographics show that the[skills] problem is going to grow, in Asia andaround the world, most critically withengineering.

    Thats why, in addition to supportingwomen employees (often underappreciatedassets in male-oriented industries), thecompany is also shaping jobs for peoplewho want to work part-time. Falkenreckstresses that Continental has a low staffturnover, and the company plans to keep itthat way. It invests in employees at the startof their careers, with such opportunities asthe Continental bachelor degree, offeredjointly with several German universities.Here students work in the company, studypart-time and complete their education witha full year at university.

    Karsten Wysk, founder of the 25-persondigital games company MobileBits (knownfor Arena Wars), is feeling the skills crunch.Firms across the industry agree that wehave a shortage of games developers andthat it is hard to recruit them fast enough,he says. Wysk makes the point that though

    university qualifications in the computergaming field have improved, he says, Weare still more interested in what people havebeen doing from the age of 16 than in theireducation.

    The Global Agenda Council on the SkillsGap, a spin-off from the World EconomicForum, regards skills shortages as aninternational issue and sees migration andmobility as key parts of the solution. Wyskwould like EU visa rules eased to allowMobileBits, located in Hamburg, Germany,to hire more widely. Every student we meetin Hamburg, one of the world capitals forcomputer games, has got an internship andwill get a job, he says. We need to be ableto recruit worldwide because the smartpeople are mobile. Continental, meanwhile,offers international apprenticeships toyoung engineers from around the world.Falkenreck says: These global schemesallow us to get an early look at young talent,stay in contact with good people and offerjobs to those we like.

    In the increasingly interdependent world,the skills gap transcends regions andcountries. There is a lot of debate on this inEurope, says Seeram Ramakrishna of theNational University of Singapore. But it needs to be followed up by theimplementation of new strategies.

    European students do notappreciate the importance oftechnology to their ownfutures. Their Asian rivals arebetter-motivated and it is easierfor companies to employ themprofitably from day one.Seeram Ramakrishna of the National University of Singapore Hundreds of students apply for admission to the

    Shandong College of Art and Design in 2011.

    More information http://www.microsoft.eu/skills-and-education/

    i

  • While the West has thebest universities...

    22F

    International rankingsconfirm Europe mustdo better

    EDUCATIONREPORTCARD

    ON MOST INTERNATIONAL RANKINGS of universities,Europe does not do very well (holding only 13 of the top50 places in the QS World University Rankings, even ifyou include Switzerland). And when it comes to 15-year-olds who take the standardised PISA test (seetable opposite page), European countries trail theirAsian counterparts, often by a wide margin. Among EUcountries, Finland has the school students who do bestin reading, math and science. One reason: for decades,all governments, left and right, have recognised thateducation is critical for economic growth. That focushelps explain why Finland moved up three places to No. 4 in the World Economic Forums most recentGlobal Competitiveness Report. The strength of theChinese education system is making the country moreinnovative, as the steep trajectory of its number ofhome-grown patents shows.

    RANK INSTITUTION COUNTRY

    1 University of Cambridge United Kingdom

    2 Harvard University United States

    3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States

    4 Yale University United States

    5 University of Oxford United Kingdom

    6 Imperial College London United Kingdom

    7 UCL (University College London) United Kingdom

    8 University of Chicago United States

    9 University of Pennsylvania United States

    10 Columbia University United States

    11 Stanford University United States

    12 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) United States

    13 Princeton University United States

    14 University of Michigan United States

    15 Cornell University United States

    16 Johns Hopkins University United States

    17 McGill University Canada

    18 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Switzerland

    19 Duke University United States

    20 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom

    21 University of California, Berkeley (UCB) United States

    22 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong

    23 University of Toronto Canada

    24 Northwestern University United States

    25 The University of Tokyo Japan

    26 Australian National University Australia

    27 Kings College London (University of London) United Kingdom

    RANK INSTITUTION COUNTRY

    28 National University of Singapore (NUS) Singapore

    29 The University of Manchester United Kingdom

    30 University of Bristol United Kingdom

    31 The University of Melbourne Australia

    32 Kyoto University Japan

    33 cole Normale Suprieure France

    34 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) United States

    35 cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne Switzerland

    36 cole Polytechnique France

    37 The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong

    38 The University of Sydney Australia

    39 Brown University United States

    40 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong

    41 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States

    42 Seoul National University Korea, South

    43 Carnegie Mellon University United States

    44 New York University (NYU) United States

    45 Osaka University Japan

    46 Peking University China

    47 Tsinghua University China

    48 The University of Queensland Australia

    49 The University of New South Wales Australia

    50 The University of Warwick United Kingdom

    QS World University Rankings, 2011-2012

  • ...China has the bestschool students

    ...and Chineseinnovation isgrowing fast

    23F

    SKILLS & EDUCATION

    READING MATHEMATICS SCIENCE

    SHANGHAI - CHINA

    NEW ZEALAND

    SINGAPORE

    FINLAND

    JAPAN

    KOREA

    AUSTRALIA

    CANADA

    HONG KONG - CHINA

    BELGIUM

    UNITED STATES

    NETHERLANDS

    FRANCE

    SWEDEN

    ICELAND

    NORWAY

    SWITZERLAND

    UNITED KINGDOM

    OECD AVERAGE

    GERMANY

    ISRAEL

    POLAND

    IRELAND

    HUNGARY

    ESTONIA

    ITALY

    LUXEMBOURG

    GREECE

    DUBAI (UAE)

    CHINESE TAIPEI

    CZECH REP

    AUSTRIA

    PORTUGAL

    DENMARK

    LIECHTENSTEIN

    SLOVENIA

    SLOVAK REP

    SPAIN

    CROATIA

    RUSSIAN FED

    LATVIA

    LITHUANIA

    MACAO - CHINA

    BULGARIA

    TRINIDAD & T

    TURKEY

    URUGUAY

    QATAR

    BRAZIL

    CHILE

    ARGENTINA

    SERBIA

    ROMANIA

    MONTENEGRO

    COLOMBIA

    PANAMA

    PERU

    MEXICO

    KAZAKHSTAN

    THAILAND

    JORDAN

    TUNISIA

    ALBANIA

    KYRGYZSTAN

    INDONESIA

    AZERBAIJAN

    SHANGHAI - CHINA

    SINGAPORE

    HONG KONG - CHINA

    CHINESE TAIPEI

    KOREA

    SWITZERLAND

    FINLAND

    JAPAN

    BELGIUM

    NETHERLANDS

    NEW ZEALAND

    CANADA

    LIECHTENSTEIN

    GERMANY

    MACAO - CHINA

    AUSTRALIA

    SLOVENIA

    FRANCE

    ICELAND

    AUSTRIA

    OECD AVERAGE

    SLOVAK REP

    ESTONIA

    CZECH REPUBLIC

    DENMARK

    SWEDEN

    LUXEMBOURG

    POLAND

    NORWAY

    HUNGARY

    UNITED STATES

    UNITED KINGDOM

    PORTUGAL

    ITALY

    SPAIN

    LITHUANIA

    IRELAND

    DUBAI (UAE)

    ISRAEL

    GREECE

    LATVIA

    TURKEY

    RUSSIAN FED

    CROATIA

    BULGARIA

    SERBIA

    TRINIDAD & T

    URUGUAY

    QATAR

    CHILE

    THAILAND

    ROMANIA

    KAZAKHSTAN

    AZERBAIJAN

    MONTENEGRO

    ARGENTINA

    BRAZIL

    MEXICO

    PERU

    ALBANIA

    PANAMA

    JORDAN

    TUNISIA

    COLOMBIA

    INDONESIA

    KYRGYZSTAN

    SHANGHAI - CHINA

    SINGAPORE

    FINLAND

    NEW ZEALAND

    JAPAN

    HONG KONG - CHINA

    AUSTRALIA

    GERMANY

    NETHERLANDS

    CANADA

    KOREA

    UNITED KINGDOM

    SWITZERLAND

    ESTONIA

    BELGIUM

    SLOVENIA

    LIECHTENSTEIN

    UNITED STATES

    CHINESE TAIPEI

    IRELAND

    OECD AVERAGE

    CZECH REP

    FRANCE

    SWEDEN

    AUSTRIA

    POLAND

    ICELAND

    DENMARK

    LUXEMBOURG

    NORWAY

    SLOVAK REP

    ITALY

    DUBAI (UAE)

    HUNGARY

    MACAO - CHINA

    LITHUANIA

    RUSSIAN FED

    PORTUGAL

    SPAIN

    ISRAEL

    CROATIA

    LATVIA

    GREECE

    BULGARIA

    TRINIDAD & T

    URUGUAY

    QATAR

    TURKEY

    CHILE

    SERBIA

    ARGENTINA

    THAILAND

    BRAZIL

    JORDAN

    ROMANIA

    KAZAKHSTAN

    MONTENEGRO

    PANAMA

    PERU

    MEXICO

    TUNISIA

    COLOMBIA

    ALBANIA

    KYRGYZSTAN

    AZERBAIJAN

    INDONESIA

    0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 300 5 10 15 20 25

    Countries are ranked in descending order of the percentage of top performers (Levels 5 and 6).Source: OECD PISA 2009 Database.

    LEVEL 5LEVEL 6EU countries

    BASIC PATENT VOLUME 2003-2009

    JAP USA EPO KR CHN

    350

    300

    250

    200

    150

    100

    50

    02003

    (x 1

    ,000

    )

    2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

    Patents issued for home-grown innovations. Thomson Reuters: Patented in China II, 2010

  • 24F

    The 17th-century philosopher andecclesiastic Comenius hadimportant things to say about 21st-century education. More than 300

    years ago, he favoured learning throughplay, arguing that the successfulacquisition of knowledge was active, notpassive and that it should be a pleasure, nota task. That guy was ahead of his time,notes fellow Czech Jan Muehlfeit,Microsofts Chairman for Europe.

    While some traditionalists still findComeniuss ideas controversial, Muehlfeitsees them as a springboard for developingideas about the future of education inEurope.

    Europe doesnt have huge naturalresources or cheap labour, he points out.We can compete only by selling ideas.From a commercial standpoint, Microsoftwill only be successful in Europe if thecommunity itself is able to succeed in theglobal market. This is the reason we areheavily investing in technology ineducation.

    While technology is an essentialingredient, it is not sufficient, Muehlfeitadds. It needs to be mixed with creativethinking, a disposition to learn throughoutlife and an entrepreneurial spirit. We haveto change the educational process. We need

    the ability to unlock human potential. To these ends the company is supporting

    a range of education-related programmesin Europe. One of the biggest is Partners inLearning, with a $500 million (375 million)investment worldwide over ten years tosupport teachers, schools and governmentsby providing equipment, training and moneyto aid innovation.

    Part of this is the Partners in Learning forEducators Programme, designed to fosterthe sharing of ideas through networking,both online and in local and internationalmeetings. At last years Partners inLearning European Forum, teachers fromthe Julio Verne School in Valencia, Spain,

    described how children had taken laptopsinto the woods to research the plants theyfound during a nature walk, usingmaterials staff had uploaded. Participantsin this years event in Moscow learned howthe Viktor Rydberg Gymnasium inStockholm used high-tech forensics tobring the wow factor into science andmaths.

    One of Muehlfeits favourite schemes isthe Imagine Cup, which encouragesinnovation and entrepreneurship amonguniversity students. Entrants to this globalcompetition find technical solutions to real-world problems such as road safety,eradicating poverty and creating a more

    Some revolutionary ideas forschool reform are not so new

    Learning fromthe past

    Johan Amos Comenius, 1592 1670BY DIANE HOFKINS

    Students from the Julio VerneSchool take their laptops on anature walk in Valencia, Spain.

  • 25F

    SKILLS & EDUCATION

    sustainable environment. In the industrial era, you might have one

    job for your whole life. In the future, you willneed to learn as you go, says Muehlfeit.Within five years, 90 per cent of jobs inEurope will require basic e-skills.

    The factory-as-model for the school mustalso change. Although human beings havedifferent talents, school is the same foreveryone, says Muehlfeit. Instead, highlyskilled teachers should address the needsand capacities of each child. Seventy percent of the curriculum should be based onthe talents and strengths of individualstudents, he says. Then perhaps they willget good jobs. Not only will society benefit,they will be happier. Comenius wouldapprove.

    Shape the FutureHelping governments imagine and attainuniversal technology access for all their citizens.The programme helps build Public/PrivatePartnerships that lead to greater employability,economic recovery and a better future.http://www.microsoft.com/industry/publicsector/pta/

    Imagine CupThe worlds premier student technologycompetition.Now in itstenth year, this global competitionfocuses on finding solutions to real-worldissues, from reducing child mortality to creatingdisaster communications systems. Whilecompeting for cash and prizes, students fromsecondary schools and universities gain real-lifeexperiences and make new friends.

    This year, among the 358,000 studentsrepresenting 183 countries who participated inthe Imagine Cup, a team from Ireland walkedaway with the 1st place prize. As part of theImagine Cup competition, Microsoft launched athree-year, $3 million (2.2 million) competitivegrant programme to help students get theirideas off the ground and turn them into realbusinesses.http://imaginecup.com/

    DreamSparkProfessional tools for students at no charge.Allows current university or high schoolstudents to download professional Microsoftdeveloper, designer and gaming software at nocharge.http://www.dreamspark.com/

    Partners in LearningIncreasing access to technology and improvingits use in learning.Microsoft works with governments, schoolleaders, teachers, NGOs and other industrypartners in 114 countries to increase access totechnology and skills in the classroom, raise thelevel of ICT literacy among school staff andenable better integration of technology into thecurriculum. In the EU Microsoft has signed morethan 400 Partners in Learning agreements, andprovided certified ICT skills training to over halfa million teachers. http://www.microsoft.com/education/pil/

    The Partners in Learning Network allowseducators to share best practices worldwide andprovides case studies on improving educationoutcomes, as well as practical advice, like tips toprevent cyber bullying. (http://www.partnersinlearningnetwork.com)

    The Innovative Teaching and Learning Researchprogramme is studying the innovative teaching practices that provide students with 21st-century skills. This will make use of casestudies to investigate the national and school-

    level factors that shape teaching practiceswithin particular countries, drawing from theminformed recommendations on the future ofteaching and learning.(http://www.itlresearch.com/)

    Microsoft IT AcademyProviding a complete 21st-century training andcertification solution for teachers, students andacademic staff.The Microsoft IT Academy programme providesa complete IT education solution that bridgesthe world of education with the world of work.The programme helps drive employability,digital literacy and 21st-century workforcedevelopment and is available to all academicinstitutions (including libraries). The annualsubscription-based programme provides acomprehensive package of benefits forstudents, teachers and staff includingcurriculum, courseware, online learning andcertification instruction, certification examsand other resources focused on employabilityand life-long learning.http://www.microsoftitacademy.com/ Microsoft Faculty ConnectionAddressing the challenges faced in teachingtechnology students.Microsofts Faculty Connection is an onlinecommunity providing access to news, eventsand curriculum resources contributed byMicrosoft experts or faculty teachingtechnology-related courses worldwide. TheFaculty Connection programme has over115,000 registered members.http://www.microsoft.com/facultyconnection/

    Microsoft Research PhD ScholarshipProgrammeSupporting the next generation of scientists.Microsoft Research supports nearly 100 ofEuropes brightest scholars taking researchpositions at Europes leading academicinstitutions. Students receive a three-yearbursary and invitations to the annual MicrosoftResearch Summer School in Cambridge, wherethey learn about research projects, generaltransferable and key skills, as well as shareand discuss ideas with researchers.http://research.microsoft.com/phdscholarship/

    Student-to-Business (S2B)Internship positions for students.This programme is designed to connectMicrosoft partners and customers withqualified students for entry-level andinternship positions. The programme inspiresstudents to begin a career in technology either working in a company using technology to innovate, or by starting their owntechnology-based business. S2B has connectedthousands of students to jobs and internshipsin the Microsoft ecosystem.http://www.microsoft.com/S2B/

    How Microsoft programmes support education

    We have to change the

    educationalprocess. We need

    the ability tounlock human

    potential.Jan Muehlfeit,

    Microsofts Chairman for Europe.

  • 26F

    BY MICHAEL KENWARD

    It may be known for snow-coveredmountains and cold-weather sports, butin terms of innovation, Switzerland ishot. The Alpine country with apopulation of 7.6 million is home to 61technology parks, and its universities churnout dozens of science-based start-upsevery year.

    Consider the case of GlycArtBiotechnology, a spin-out from the SwissFederal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZurich). In 2005, the pharmaceuticals giantRoche acquired the biotech company, whichengineers antibodies to produce new drugs,for CHF 235 million (around 190 million) .

    That sum for a five-year-old company caught the eye of global investors. It put uson the radar for venture capitalists

    overseas, says Silvio Bonaccio, head ofETH Transfer, the universitys technologytransfer organisation. There were evencold calls from venture capitalists.

    GlycArts success highlights how smartpolicies can create an entrepreneurialenvironment relatively quickly. Switzerlandonly began to develop federal and localprogrammes to support campusentrepreneurship in the mid-1990s.

    Those policy efforts are paying off. Todaythere is a nicely developed ecosystem withrepeat entrepreneurs, role models andwell-organised business angels, as well asstate funds for seed financing, saysChristian Nagel, managing partner atEarlybird Venture Capital in Hamburg,Germany. Its not yet on a par with SiliconValley, but they are on the right path.

    ETH Zurich alone has created more than

    Swiss innovation on a rollIn just 15 years,Switzerlandsgovernment anduniversities haveworked to makethe country aleader inentrepreneurship

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    ENTREPRENEURSHIP & SMES

    100 companies over the past five years.Since the late 1990s, its spin-outs haveraised more than CHF 200 million in seedand early-stage funding. They have had an88 per cent survival rate after five years,have created some 1,500 jobs, and havereturned some CHF 500 million in capitalgains to founders, angels and venturecapitalists.

    Coaching entrepreneursAnother thing that Switzerland excels at isputting money into coaching entrepreneurs.In 2004, the Swiss Commission forTechnology and Innovation (CTI), whichbrings together business angels, venturecapital and universities, set up venturelabto provide free training for those wholaunch start-ups. Its goal: to help toincrease student awareness of

    entrepreneurship and trigger a new wave of Swiss entrepreneurs.

    Since its inception, venturelab has seenmore than 13,000 students and otherentrepreneurs develop start-up projects.This is a very cost-effective initiative forthe government, says Walter Steinlin,president of CTI. According to a recentstudy, from 1998 to 2007, 130 ETH Zurichspin-outs generated estimated taxrevenues of CHF18 million per annum.

    Government stamp of approvalOne of the cheapest but most effectivethings government can do is put a stamp onsomething and say it is good. People willbelieve you and put their money on it, saysSteinlin. While CTI does not invest in start-ups, it has strong connections to financialinstitutions and investors that can. We justhelp [start-ups] find the money, he says.As you might have heard, there is moneyaround in Switzerland. And not just in thebanks.

    A national programme calledVenturekick, which raises funds fromprivate Swiss foundations to invest innational start-ups, offers campusentrepreneurs three phases of funding andcoaching support, starting with CHF 10,000to help them to develop a business idea.Founders compete, and Venturekick judgesselect eight winners a month to go on to asecond phase, in which winners receiveCHF 20,000. The final competition is for acompany with a viable, ready-to-launchbusiness plan. In addition to CHF 100,000,winners get coaching from a serialentrepreneur.

    Alongside this national scheme, ETHZurich launched its own fundingprogramme for campus entrepreneurs inthe 1990s. The so-called pioneerfellowship offers proof-of-concept funds,starting with a CHF 150,000 grant for thefirst 18 months of development. This moneyallows students to verify their research,particularly by contacting potential users ofthe new technology, says Roland Siegwart,ETHs Vice President of Research andCorporate Relations. Siegwart believes toomuch venture capital too early can stifleuniversity spin-outs, putting them under

    enormous pressure from investors todeliver revenues and profits.

    ETH has also added support mechanismsfor start-ups, including providing universityspace, as well as access to scientificequipment. But these breaks have two-yeartime limits, partly to avoid any accusation ofsubsidising businesses. We have to becareful, Bonaccio explains. You can skewthe market with public money.

    Size mattersSize is another important factor inSwitzerlands success, says Bonaccio. WeSwiss have realised that we are too smallfor each university to fight for itself. Thetechnology transfer offices know each othervery well and exchange best practice ideasand so on.

    Strong government and institutionalsupport for technology spin-outs mayexplain why four of the 15 finalists in theScience|Business 2011 AcademicEnterprise Awards (ACES) were Swiss andtwo of those four won in their categories atthe finals Mirasense, which has developedScandit, a barcode-based social shoppingapplication for smart phones, in the FastStart category, and Dybuster, whichdeveloped therapy software for people withlearning disabilities, for ICT.

    Switzerland is a good breeding groundfor start-ups, says CTIs Steinlin. In thiscountry, you are not alone if you are anentrepreneur.

    Universities, like ETH Zurich,left, churn out start-ups. Silvio Bonaccio is head of theuniversitys technology transferorganization, ETH Transfer.

    ETH Zurichalone has createdmore than 100companies overthe past fiveyears.

    More information http://www.sciencebusiness.net/aces/i

  • 28F

    BY MICHAEL KENWARD

    As junior doctors at the BristolRoyal Infirmary, a busy hospital inBritains eighth-largest city,Jonathan Bloor and Jonathon

    Shaw had first-hand experience trying tofind people to fill shifts at short notice. Thatprocess, which can be rich in mislaid faxes,overlooked e-mails and stray bits of paper,revealed what Bloor describes as the direfinancial and human consequences ofcommunication and organisationalbreakdown in health care.

    Rather than just moaning, the pairdecided to fix the breakdown. Building onShaws programming skills and Bloorsresearch on healthcare andcommunications technology, theydeveloped Doctor CommunicationsSolutions Ltd (DocCom for short), a start-up that blends the ease of socialnetworking with the ubiquity of cloudcomputing.

    Hospitals may keep a close watch onpatients, but they do not always knowwhere staff members are or when theymight be available. So Shaw and Bloorcame up with a social network for healthcare professionals to stay in touch withmedics and to know where and when theywere working. People get lost, saysBloor. You dont know where to get hold ofthem. Many hospitals turn to agencies tofind the doctors and nurses to fill shifts, aprocess that can be three or four times asexpensive as managing it in-house.

    DocComs first move was to createDoccom.me, an invitation-only socialnetwork where doctors, nurses and otherhealthcare professionals can communicateand socialise. Since its launch in March2010, Doccom.me has attracted around7,000 members. Bloor expects it to reach100,000 within a year. We have a fewthings in the pipeline that will help withthat, he says. Among them: specialistnetworks and mobile applications.

    The idea behind the network, says Bloor,is to enable medics to collaborate, connectand share information effectively. Theybecome, in effect, a pool of qualifiedworkers who can fill temporary positions.For such an approach to work, says Bloor,you have got to engage the front-lineworkforce by offering them a network theyare eager to consult regularly.

    Finding replacementsThe company plans to supplement itssocial networks with applications thatsolve specific health care problems. Forexample, DocCom Locum, launched inDecember 2010, tackles the issue offinding locums temporaryreplacements from within existing staff.

    When DocCom opened for business in2007, the world outside the IT sector hadlittle exposure to cloud computing. Today,DocCom uses distant servers for most ofits operations. The use of cloud technology specifically, Microsofts Azure system

    A start-up created by two British medicscombines social networks and cloud computingto make hospital staffing more efficient

    Doctorson call

  • 29F

    ENTREPRENEURSHIP & SMES

    means that DotCom can grow withdemand: Cloud computing, says Bloor,is the obvious solution to give usscalability.

    While cloud computing raises concernsabout security and reliability, Bloor pointsout that cloud-based systems areprobably safer than existing systems and no less reliable. As a front-linehospital doctor, Bloor says, he is all toofamiliar with the quirks of conventionalsystems. Our hospital's go down all the time.

    DocCom, which makes money by sellingits applications to healthcareorganisations, has grown steadily since itscreation, but is not yet prepared to revealits revenues. The IT department, whichoriginally consisted of Shaw, now numberseight software developers, about a half thecompanys workforce. The developers arecurrently working on mobile applicationsfor smart phones.

    As medics with no real business

    experience, Shaw and Bloor sought helpfrom the SETsquared Partnership, whichbrings together the entrepreneurial-support activities of Bristol and four otheruniversities in the southwest of England.SETsquared helped develop DocComsbusiness plan, served as incubator andeven offered office space at its BusinessAcceleration Centre. It also providedbusiness mentoring and networkingopportunities with potential investors.

    Raising capital remains a challenge forDocCom. The company has obtainedfinancial backing from angel investors andfrom two UK venture capital funds, EdenVentures and Pentland Group. DocComslatest round of financing, recentlycompleted, raised around 1.2 million.Still, says Bloor, the UK financial crisis hasmade finding investment difficult.

    DocCom has also received backing inother ways. It was designated the businessapplication with the best cloud potential inMicrosofts 2010 national BizSpark

    competition, an award that facilitated thecompanys move to Azure. DocCom wasone of 15 start-ups to win a place that yearat Microsofts European BizSpark Summit(the Summit provides a unique platform todebate the issues facing techentrepreneurs in Europe and for some ofthe best start-ups in Europe to pitch theirbusiness ideas to possible investors). Thecompany was shortlisted for the 2011Science|Business ACES awards. The UKsTechnology Strategy Board invited DocComto be one of 20 healthcare technologycompanies in the boards Future HealthMission to California. Launched and backedby Microsoft, the mission was anopportunity for DocCom to show off itstechnology to the healthcare community inSilicon Valley, potential investors andpartners. DocCom is looking to develop itsservices in other countries and is talking toa number of potential collaborators,including Microsoft and the UK TechnologyStrategy Board.

    Boor and Shaw have gone in just fouryears from junior doctors to seniorpioneers in social networking and cloudcomputing. Yet both still practise medicinepart-time at the Bristol Royal Infirmary,where they continue to gain experiencewith the problem of filling shifts at shortnotice. Now, however, they have bettertools for the task.

    You have got to engage thefront-line workforce byoffering them a network theyare eager to consult regularly.Jonathan Bloor, Co-Founder, Doctor Communications Solutions Ltd.

    More information http://company.doccom.info/ andhttp://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ andhttp://www.sciencebusiness.net/aces/

    i

  • 30F

    BY MICHAEL CROSS

    Wordlessly, with infinite care, ateam of highly specialisedclinicians weaves a catheterthrough a conscious patients

    blood vessels towards a blockage. Whenthe catheter reaches the precise spot, atiny balloon will be inflated to open up thevessel. A radiologist injects a contrast andtakes a run of images as it flows throughthe blood vessels.

    Then she moves to a bank of screensdisplaying the continuum of X-ray images.Time is of the essence. Automatically, sheflips her sterile gown over her gloved handand, with the non-sterile inside surface,clasps the computer mouse to scrollthrough the images and assess whether

    the flow through the vessels is normal.The gown routine is an everyday less-

    than-ideal workaround demanded whenclinicians move between sterile operatingtables and their information systems. Butwouldnt it be quicker and safer if theradiologist didnt need to use a mouse, butrather could find and manipulate theimage with voice commands, or a handgesture?

    They are among the possibilities offeredby putting natural user interfaces to workin healthcare. Others include therapy forchildren with cerebral palsy, helpingpeople living with long-term conditions tomanage their care at home and givingsurgical robots a real human touch.

    The term natural user interface (NUI)covers a spectrum of ways to communicatewith IT devices using more intuitive meansthan mouse and keyboard [see page 14].

    The concept is already familiar inentertainment; an example is MicrosoftsKinect for Xbox 360. Kinect incorporatesfacial recognition along with gesture-basedand voice control. It has taken the gamesindustry by storm since its launch last year.

    Now something similar looks set tohappen in the healthcare and medicalsectors. Its going to be huge, says DrBill Crounse, Senior Director, WorldwideHealth at Microsoft. Theres been anexplosion of interest in Kinect. Every doctorwho has seen the device immediately

    Getting the mice out ofthe operating theatresIf doctors could use natural user interfaces, likegestures, surgery could be quicker and safer

    Computers are now essential surgical tools. The screen (below)demonstrates the difficulty of using amouse in sterile environments, suchas operations involving interventionalradiology.

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    HEALTH

    understands how it might one day relate totheir work.

    Crounse says that healthcare has laggedother sectors in IT transformation becausethe user interface keyboard and mouse is awkward in the extremely demandingenvironment of the operating theatre.Besides, he says, that of all industries,healthcare applies the most exactingcriteria to IT: portability, security and theability to absorb and make sense ofintensive streams of data ideally allwrapped up in a graphical user interfacethat is intuitive and doesnt require lots oftraining. Doctors want it all, he says, andits only recently that informationtechnology has matured enough to deliver.

    Hence the interest in NUI, especially intouchless interactions. Researchers atMicrosofts labs are investigating a numberof concepts (see panel). Among the mostinteresting work is a collaborative effortbetween social science and computervision researchers at Microsoft Research inCambridge, UK. One of its projects, led byKenton OHara, a researcher at MicrosoftResearch, takes us into the world ofinterventional radiology, and the possibilityof controlling computer images by gesturesduring the course of surgical procedures.

    Precise proceduresInterventional radiology involves operatingon patients circulatory systems from theinside, by inserting wires and cathetersthrough the veins. Procedures requireabsolute precision. Radiologists navigatewith real-time images, produced byangiography techniques such as X-rayfluoroscopy (the use of injected dyes thatshow up under X-rays), computedtomography and magnetic resonanceimaging.

    Its a demanding procedure, physicallyand mentally, and requires closeteamwork. The patient, who is awakethroughout, often has to be reassured andwarned of discomfort. In such settings,members of the team may communicate bymeans of gestures out of the patients lineof sight. IT is an essential element, withimages displayed on a bank of screensabove the patient, with the computers and

    keyboards set to one side, in a non-sterilearea behind a radiation screen.

    Working with colleagues at the OpenUniversity and Addenbrookes HospitalCambridge, OHara studied howradiologists juggled the tasks of managingthe procedure while manipulatingfluoroscopy images to get the best possibleview. The whole idea is to get anunderstanding of how surgeons interactwith people and technology in theoperating room, OHara says. You canttouch certain things when youre scrubbedup. Were looking at what that means forhow you coordinate teamwork and whatwould it mean if some of these obstacleswere removed.

    Results of the study were presented atthe CHI 2011 conference, generallyconsidered the most prestigious in the fieldof humancomputer interaction. Theconclusion: though there is strongpotential for controlling the images by

    gesture, building a touchless system is notgoing to be as simple as wiring theimaging systems up to an Xbox. Furtherresearch is needed into the way surgeonsalready use movement to communicate,in order to delineate the gestures aimed atthe computer and those aimed at othermembers of the surgical team.Possibilities include making the systemrespond only to gestures in closeproximity, or to commands from only onehand. The next phase of the project willbegin shortly at a London hospital. Andwhile the final design of the touchlessarchitecture is still far from settled,OHara predicts a major for role consumerdevices: Kinect technology has made NUIcheap and acceptable.

    Doctors newassistants Microsoft Surface (right) can

    help doctors explain complexprocedures to patients. Bytouching the Surface table-likedisplay, or putting a relatedobject on it, the doctor can call up graphics and other information todescribe the patients treatment in a dynamic, easy-to-understand way.Since Surface is multi-touch, the patient can ask questions by alteringthe image on the display or by calling up additional information.

    Researchers from the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and theHarvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, both inMassachusetts, have adapted Microsoft Surface table technology tohelp children with cerebral palsy. The table, programmed with custom-developed games, puzzles and even a piano keyboard, encourageschildren with limited motor skills to enjoy their therapy.

    For all its benefits, robotic surgery has one drawback: surgeons sittingat computer consoles have no sense of feel for the vessels, muscles andorgans they are working on. So students at the University ofWashingtons Biorobotics Lab have used Kinect to improve thatsituation. The idea is that a software system could provide a surgeonwith information on no-cut zones, allowing the doctor to feel thosebarriers during surgery.

    More information http://www.xbox.com/kinect/ and http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

    i

  • 32F

    BY ANDREAS SCHLEICHER

    While the world is focused onthe current economic crises, amore serious long-termdisaster is brewing. Thegeneration born this year in OECDcountries is likely to lose 190 trillion ineconomic output over their lifetime. Why?Because most school systems in theindustrialised world are not deliveringwhat the be