Meanwhile, in another room in the MEMS sensor fusion coffee house, Miss Adjacent Possible, is firing up her Italian machine,
serving expresso for some very talented new arrivals who came to talk it over

2. this folder can be read at a lesurely pace, as it tracks this along...
   
   In Nov. at MEMS congress.
   
   And last but not least, is Cambridge CMOS Sensors Gas Sensor (the CCS811), which offers a breath of fresh air in a tiny ultra-low power device. This metal oxide gas sensor co-packaged with a micro controller unit delivers a self-contained solution for assessing air quality in indoor environments. Whether embedded in a smartphone or integrated into a standalone device, CCS811 generates alerts to provide intuitive ways to evaluate air quality, opening up new application areas for improved health and wellbeing such as ambient air quality monitoring and breathe analysis in smartphones, tablets, wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This minute device has massive potential for enabling myriad applications that will have a positive impact on our world.
   
   So I hope you’ll join me soon in Napa, CA

    

   jfieb, 38 minutes agoEditReport

   #1Reply
3. 

   jfiebMember

   Air quality in Asia?
   
   
   This is a new name for me. I am happy as ams is the one that has made nice moves into this area and its nice to have competition to move it down the field.
   A very good segment for the mobile device, for sensors makers, for algo IP.
   
   
   
   
   Cambridge CMOS Sensors opens Taiwan office
   Southeast Asian office opened to capitalise on growing demand for environmental sensor solutions Cambridge CMOS Sensors (CCS), a leading manufacturer of sensor solutions for monitoring air quality, today announced that the company has opened its... More >
   North American power broker backs Cambridge technology
   Miniature, low-power CMOS gas sensors from a Cambridge innovator are being brought to a wider global market following an alliance forged between Cambridge CMOS Sensors (CCS) and global big-hitter Future Electronics. Canadian-headquartered Future... More >
   Cambridge CMOS Sensors to demonstrate air-quality monitoring and breath analysis on mobile devices at Sensor + Test 2015
   Breakthroughs in power consumption, cost and size mean that sophisticated gas sensor ICs can be integrated into phone, tablet and IoT designs for the first time Cambridge, UK, 12 May 2015 – Cambridge CMOS Sensors (CCS) announced today that it is to... More >
   May 2015 - Cambridge CMOS Sensors will be exhibiting at the Sensor+Test 2015...
   part of "The measurement fair' in Nuremberg Germany. Come and visit our team in hall 12 stand 566 and see how our unique technology is enabling a new generation of environmental sensor solutions. If you wish to speak to Cambridge CMOS Sensors... More >

    

   jfieb, 34 minutes agoEditDeleteReport

   #2Reply
4. 

   jfiebMember

   Sensors
   
   
   Cambridge CMOS Sensors MEMS Micro-hotplate technology provides a unique silicon platform for the Metal Oxide (MOX) gas sensors, enabling sensor miniaturisation, significantly lower power consumption and ultra-fast response times.
   
   The resistive Micro-hotplates are fabricated using a high reliability silicon dioxide membrane and include an embedded tungsten heater acting as a heating element for the MOX based sensing material. The micro-hotplate can be used to heat the MOX material to up to 450°C and the electrical resistance of the MOX sensing material can be monitored to detect the target gas. With extremely fast heater cycling times, temperature modulation techniques can be used to reduce the device power consumption and implement advanced gas sensing methods, resulting in class leading gas sensing performance.
   
   Can a micro hot plate make a micro cup of coffee? A smartphone as an expresso machine? ;-)
   
   Advanced algorithms support the MOX gas sensors family, for maximum sensitivity, selectivity, drift compensation, and for self-calibration; enabling easy and timely integration into a wide range of products and applications.
   
   The table below indicates the key product parameters for the CCS8xx product family of ultra-low power gas sensors
   
   
   Open question....I will track this along. We want QUIK Eos to be a host for such stuff. WIll the partner, open source, their algo chefs don't have this specialized skill set, yet.........it would be good to have. Imagine a future where environmental goes ubuitous and its in a brands flagship smartphone. It might seem like sci-fi- but we can just track along and ubiquity= a potential future engine....an environmental engine.
   
   
   
   Product Description Average Power Consumption¹ Heat Resistance Heater Voltage Package
   CCS801 Ultra-low power multi-gas sensor for indoor air quality monitoring ~1.3 - 2.1mW² ~50 - 66Ω 1.3 - 1.6V² 2x3mm DFN
   CCS802³ Ultra-low power gas sensor for monitoring carbon monoxide ~1.3mW ~55Ω ± 10% 1.3V 2x3mm DFN
   CCS803 Ultra-low power gas sensor for monitoring ethanol ~1.6mW ~58Ω ± 10% 1.4V 2x3mm DFN
   
   
   Notes:
   
   1. Average power consumption when operating in pulse mode, assuming a 0.5s micro-heater on period every minute
   
   2. Will vary depending on target gas being detected
   
   3. Carbon filter recommended
   
   CCS8xx Additional Informatio
   
   I want a smartphone with this stuff in it. Stay in an air B&B and sleep better knowing there is a built in CO monitor and alarm. A sentinal smartphone. A sentinal smartphone is exactly the kind of intelligence I want. Facebook apps will not save my life ( ?), but a sentinal smartphone that can tell me when the CO level is high before its too late.

    

   jfieb, 25 minutes agoEditDeleteReport

   #3Reply
5. 

   jfiebMember

   New

   This is a GOOD job. To change the whole world for the better...
   
   The company is based in Cambridge, UK and currently employs people in countries such as China, Taiwan, South Korea and USA.
   
   The following is a list of open vacancies for which we are currently recruiting:
   
   WHen I have the time I will update on ams moves in this segment and any very recent happenings for them. Maybe they will have news yet at the confabs of Nov/Dec.
   
   Would I buy a part of this English business? Yes, I would look them over carefully, but I can't. How can I invest in sensor hardware AND software?
   
   QUIKs experience in the partitioning of Sware & Hware, is so good as it is a skill set that they can use again and again. One day I hope to read of some
   partnership, open source, customer who uses Eos in the environmental MEMS sector.
   
   If you talk to QUIK, please ask them for me. If any customers who are in environmental sensing are running their algos on QUIK?
   
   Thanks in advance.

    

   jfieb, 15 minutes agoEditDeleteReport

   #4Reply
6. 

   jfiebMember

   what an interesting group of people.
   
   Did I notice anything?
   
   Yes, there is an overall trend seen these past 1-2 yrs.
   
   Of what?
   
   The talented veterans moving from the world they know, into small outfits on the cutting edge of the adjacent possible.
   
   S Whalley is one good example, Many of QUIK hires, and yesterdays news of Mr Stuart from Trimble, its not chance
   they can feel the potential here of the buzz of the sensor coffee house, of the richness of the fusion reefs...
   
   so look at where Cambridge CMos got its people
   
   
   
   Management Team
   Nat Edington
   Chief Executive Officer
   Nat has over 20 years' experience in fast paced technology companies, from start-ups and SMEs to global players. Prior to CCS, he was VP & General Manager at Wolfson Microelectronics for 8 years, managing their largest revenue businesses in excess of $100m with blue chip consumer customers. Previous roles include Board Directorship, General Management, Business Development, Strategic Marketing and Engineering in the semiconductor, electronic products and manufacturing sectors.
   Florin Udrea
   Chief Technical Officer
   Florin Udrea has over 20 years' experience in smart technologies, microsensors, MEMS, and power devices. He has an extensive track record in working with start-up companies from the University of Cambridge. For example, he is one of the two founders of CamSemi, a very successful company dedicated to energy-efficient power ICs. He is also a Professor of Semiconductor Engineering at Cambridge University and is the holder of more than 70 patents. Florin Udrea has been a consultant with several leading-edge companies in the field of sensors and power electronics.
   
   
   If you have some expertise in low power it is natural to move in this general direction, just like QUIK....
   Julian Gardner
   Chief Scientist
   Julian Gardner is a highly experienced CTO, a Professor of Electronic Engineering and Director of Cognitive & Neural Systems Centre at Warwick University. He is also a Senior Fellow of Cambridge University. He is Head of the Sensors Research Laboratory with 25 years of experience in microsensors, signal & data processing and micro/nanoengineering. Prof. Gardner has been a consultant with several start-ups in microsensors, such as AlphaMOS (France), Nanotecture Ltd UK, Cyrano Sciences (USA), Health & Safety Executive (UK), Hewlett-Packard (USA), and Honeywell (USA). Prof. Gardner is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK).
   Simon Stacey
   VP of Engineering & Operations
   Simon Stacey is a seasoned operations director with 20 years' semiconductor experience within fully integrated IDMs such as Fujitsu and Agilent Technologies, as well as high volume fabless environments like Cambridge Silicon Radio. He brings an extensive network of senior level relationships within, predominantly, Asian wafer fabs, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test houses (OSATs). Simon has held senior level positions in manufacturing and test operations where he has managed new product developments and production ramps to achieve a 100% on time delivery record for shipments in excess of 1Mu per day to consumer and automotive markets.
   Paul Wilson
   Marketing & Applications Director
   Paul Wilson, joined Cambridge CMOS Sensors December 2013 and has over 20 years' international experience in marketing, product management, applications and development gained at Cambridge Silicon Radio, Wolfson Microelectronics, Freescale Semiconductor and Philips. Paul has a proven track record of managing and developing new business with Tier 1 OEMs and ODMs in Asia, EMEA, Japan and USA in highly competitive markets including Audio, Consumer, Enterprise and Mobile.
   Mohamed Foysol Chowdhury
   Director of R&D Projects
   Foysol Chowdhury, has more than 20 years' industrial experience in integrated circuits designs gained from Marconi Defence Systems, LSI Logic, Micron Technology Inc., and more recently worked as a Technical Lead, with Cambridge Semiconductor Ltd. (CamSemi), from early stage of the company start-up until a very successful first product launch.
   Jim Patterson
   Quality Director
   Jim Patterson has worked in Quality roles within the semiconductor industry for more than 30 years. This has included working at IDMs such as Filtronic (GaAs semiconductors) and GEC Plessey Semiconductors and finally a period of 7 years at the fabless semiconductor company, Cambridge Silicon Radio. Over this time, Jim has had responsibilities associated with all aspects of the Quality role including implementation and maintenance of ISO9001 management systems, supplier quality management, within a fabless manufacturing environment and product reliability ownership.
   Jess Brown
   Sales & Marketing Director - Industrial
   Jess Brown has over 20 years’ experience in the semiconductor industry having been involved in multiple areas including research, applications, regional marketing, business development, product line management and sales. Having a strong technical background combined with excellent commercial understanding, he has a proven track record of driving development, company strategy and directing multi-disciplinary teams to deliver state-of-the-art products. Extensive knowledge of the complete product development cycle with a proven track record in growing product revenue at companies such as Intelligent Energy, Wolfson Microelectronics, Volterra Semiconductor and Vishay-Siliconix.
   Sean Dixon
   Programme Director
   Sean has over 20 years’ experience working with advanced technologies, predominantly in project and programme leadership roles in leading edge companies in and around Cambridge, spanning product design and fabless semiconductor businesses. Previous companies include Nujira, Frontier Silicon, SiGe Semiconductor and Symbionics.
   
   
   
   Very impressive?
   
   QUIK, can you get these guys onto your silicon, and then help them with the partitioning of the algos....it might seem like sci-fi, but this is where the hardcoded engines of Eos 3 lie, this IS the form they are in. If its ubiquitous in a mobile device it becomes a future engine.
   THat for me is how the risk is getting taken out of this investment. QUIK takes NO risk in trying to anticipate ubiqity. Maybe its a Cambridge CMOS sensor in package? I think it may well be.
   
   I would already enjoy owning a small part of this business, very gratifying.
   If you have $$ to invest, where better to put them? This is it for me.
   
   everybody has their own subjective probabilities, but they do change every day, wk, and month, so please recalulate them frequently.

    

1. jfieb, 15 minutes agoEditDeleteReport

   #3Reply
2. 

   jfiebMember

   New

   ANyone hungry at lunch time in Scottdale please go here....thanks in advance.
   
   
   
   The food will be good, but the presentation will make it go down really,really nice.
   
   What lunch you ask?
   
   Its this one
   
   
   
   
   
   

   • 
     

   
   
   
   
   
   
   Tim Saxe Topic Table
   
   
   Designing Wearable Technology for Maximum Flexibility, Performance, and Power Efficiency
   
   Moderated by Tim Saxe, Chief Technology Officer, QuickLogic
   
   A key challenge for software and hardware designers of wearable electronics is to provide advanced processing capabilities in a small form factor while minimizing power consumption. Given that wearable technology is still an emerging market, it is also critical that developers maintain flexibility to meet changing market needs. For example, devices must be able to support advanced signal processing capabilities to reliably extract sensor data from low level signals in noisy environments. Devices must also be able to adapt to new types of peripherals such as motion sensors woven into clothing as well as implement increasingly sophisticated algorithms that can determine, for example, whether a person is running, bicycling, or cross-training. This session will discuss the use of hybrid device architectures and explore how developers can combine software programmability with application-specific accelerators and reconfigurable hardware to achieve the performance, power efficiency, and integrated functionality needed to enable next-generation devices ranging from low-end activity monitors to high-end sports watches.
   
   If anyonbe in the forum is at this great confab, please check it out for us.
   THanks in advance.
   
   That Dr. Saxe, he in demand now.

    

   jfieb, 7 minutes agoEditDeleteReport

   #4Reply
3. 

   jfiebMember

   So many lunches, so little time
   
   Always On MEMS 24/7
   
   Moderated by Will Tu, Director of Embedded Software, ARM
   
   Today MEMs and sensor devices are thought to be the key differentiators for IoT. The belief is that Moore’s law is nearing its end and now More than Moore’s law is taking over. We have heard the terms such as contextual awareness, prognostic system maintenance, and layer intelligence when talking about IoT, but what enables these devices to come to life is digital processing. Perhaps Moore’s Law is reaching an asymptote of diminishing returns, but computing is still need to provide edge processing and communication for these sensor networks. In fact, we want our sensor devices to be on 24/7, this idea of Always-on changes the expectation of low-power. Why should we be inconvenienced to have to activate our vehicle voice recognition with a push of a button, why can we not simply talk to the car and have it “listen” to us at all times, to know when we are wishing to talk to the vehicle? Wearable medical devices are always-on, our body has many involuntary functions that don’t stop when we go to sleep, and similarly technology needs to support us 24/7. Digital processing needs ultra-low power capabilities to support the always on requirement of the future.

    

   jfieb, 5 minutes agoEditDeleteReport

   #5Reply
4. 

   jfiebMember

   New

   The format?
   
   “Topic Table” Luncheon
   Thursday, November 6, 2014 | 11:45 AM – 1:00 PM
   
   The MEMS Executive Congress US 2014 “Topic Table” networking lunch provides a relaxed setting for attendees to share their knowledge and insights on the most relevant topics in MEMS commercialization today. By signing up for Thursday’s “Topic Table” lunch session, you can join this unique, intimate setting to discuss, debate, and share knowledge on pre-selected hot topics in the MEMS industry. Each table will be chaired by industry experts who will help guide and facilitate these focused gatherings of like-minded professionals. This year, we encourage you to maximize your time by joining more than one topic table. You will have the option to register for two separate topic table discussions. Your first choice, will take place during the first half of lunch and then you will move to the table of your second choice during dessert! Please note: Topic Tables are limited to only 12 attendees per table; registration is on a first come, first serve registration basis. If you are interested in joining a topic table, please indicate so during registration. The option to not participate in a topic table is also available
   
   So I would go to the 2 I have listed here, the one with Dr. Saxe and the one of 24/7.

1. 
   
2. 
   

   As things move forward and QUIK unveils the wearable Eos platform. I wanted to read this again…
   
   
   
   
   
   
   August 4, 2015
   
   SoC Everywhere
   Is the Future All One Thing?
   by Kevin Morris
   
   Sometimes, while wrapped up in the day-to-day minutia of technology trends, we can lose sight of the big, slow movements. Underneath the fast-paced, frenetic world of next-node Moore’s Law chaos are some giant trendline tectonic plates - slowly sliding, shifting along fault lines that are barely visible in our normal tech lives.
   
   Let’s fire up our future-facing seismometers and see what electronic bastions are poised to slide off into the ocean when the next “big one” hits.
   
   For the past thirty years, there has been extreme diversity in chips and in chip makers. We have processor companies making processors, of course; memory companies, microcontroller companies, FPGA companies, analog companies, RF companies, interface companies - every specialized type of chip hosts a mini-market of semiconductor specialists, competing for points of market share in their own little tightly-walled technology arena.
   
   Intel squares off against the likes of AMD. Xilinx and Altera feud like the Hatfields and McCoys, Linear Technology, Texas Instruments, and ADI spar with each other in the analog world. Samsung, Micron, and others dominate the memory game. Each of these contests exists almost in a bubble, oblivious to the gyrations in the adjoining market spaces.
   
   Deep down below the surface, however, Moore’s Law pushes the forces of integration and consolidation forward, gradually stressing the landscape above. The poster child for this movement is the never-more-appropriately-named “System on Chip” (SoC). We started calling chips SoCs before we had any right to. As soon as we could put a processor and - just about anything else - on a single chip, we called it a “System.”
   
   Now, however, SoCs are starting to actually deserve the label. SoCs from Xilinx and Altera can have numerous 64-bit applications processors, graphics processors, MPUs, memory, FPGA fabric, non-volatile storage, high-speed IO, and even a little analog - all on one device. 3D packaging techniques promise to make this type of integration go even farther - with the potential to put silicon from completely different processes on the same interposer. It’s not inconceivable that we’d have RF, analog, heterogeneous processors, digital logic, memory, non-volatile storage, high-speed IO, and even MEMS - all in one package or on one silicon interposer.
   
   If you look at the various specialized silicon vendors, you’ll start to notice that - at some level - almost all of them are now producing SoCs. We may be heading for a time when there is only an “SoC” market, rather than a fragmented collection of specialized silicon vendors. What we might see, then, is a re-partitioning of the market - into the application areas served, rather than the type of chip architecture being delivered. Automotive systems engineers would get their SoCs from one vendor, telecommunications and networking from another, and cloud computing from yet another. While the silicon will still be differentiated, the primary way that companies will need to compete will be on the things surrounding the silicon - support, reference designs, development boards, hardware and software development tools, IP, and so forth.
   
   If we look at the trajectories of the various elements, we can divine even more. For example, random logic is becoming essentially free. You can put multiple applications processors, MCUs, graphics engines, DSP processors, and other types of specialized processing elements on your chip for virtually no incremental cost in silicon area. So - why wouldn’t everybody throw them in? Even FPGA fabric is headed down the curve toward zero cost in silicon area. You can put more FPGA fabric than most applications could use on a chip for very little incremental cost.
   
   Memory is a different story. Today’s applications have a voracious appetite for memory, and it looks like it will be a long time (or never) before “more memory than you will probably use” will be small and cheap enough to throw onto every chip. As Moore’s Law progresses, and we put as much of the non-memory gunk on our chip as anyone could want, we’ll probably use the rest of the space for memory.
   
   By the same token, IO does not follow the curve of Moore’s Law. The amount we spend to route a single signal from our chip to a board hasn’t dropped all that much, and our appetite for more IO pins has grown rapidly, although not nearly at a Moore’s Law pace (thank goodness, or we’d have devices with a billion pins by now). The pace of increased integration helps offset the pin glut, however, as the more signals we can route between connected blocks inside our chip or module, the fewer we have to bring out to the real world on our board. 
   
   Following these three trends, we can visualize ending up in a world where processing and logic are basically free and ubiquitous, analog is present in sufficient quantities on most devices, memory is a commodity, and IO pins are at a premium. Even using the rules of that world, we could end up with far fewer different chips than we have today. A small number of different SoCs could be adapted to solve a huge variety of problems in a wide range of applications. The people buying those SoCs would be much less interested in the hardware and its capabilities than in the software, support, and application-readiness of the ecosystem surrounding the SOCs.
   
   If the world of chips may become less diverse and specialized, the world of applications continues to expand. That means that opportunities for “silicon” companies could be much more related to their ability to understand and serve particular applications than to their ability to build differentiated chips. Look for silicon vendors to spend more time understanding your actual challenges and less time bragging about how their max DSP performance is umpty-gazillion teraFLOPs and their power consumption is “3x lower” than their nearest competitor.
   
   In this world, software IP will also take on a very important role. If the chips are not particularly differentiated, and the development tools are fairly similar from different vendors, the way to your heart will be with software stacks and reference designs that do a lot of your grunt work for you. In that world, you may just have to grab the dev kit and start work right away on your magic secret software sauce. The rest may already be done.
   
   
   So this was written before we had reading material on Eos, but it fits very, very well into this essay.
   
   1.Its an SoC, not a fusion module ( INVN so far).
   
   2. Look for silicon vendors to spend more time understanding your actual challenges and less time bragging about how their max DSP performance is
   
   software IP will also take on a very important role.umpty-gazillion teraFLOPs and their power consumption is “3x lower” than their nearest competitor.
   
   
   
   Makes the move to talented algo chefs at QUIK so important. Many of the MCU folks will have a weakness here.
   
   
   
   Use this essay and the material we already have, with more material and news items to read yet this yr.
   Consider a mind shift soon, that QUIK IS not behind, leapfrogged, but just the opposite…
   
   they have a SoC, they have software IP, if its ubiquitous they will hard code a new engine in the roadmap with no risk to its acceptance ( it ubiquitous)
   
   Subjective probabilities ( Bayesian analysis) of success are shifting.

On this snip


make me wonder what other partnerships have STMicro and Invensense already established that QUIK has not yet established
STMicro and Invensense already established that QUIK has not yet established... in order to meet minimum competitive requirements.

Consider that there are 59 companies that have joined up to form the inlocation alliance. QUIK being one of them. THey have been involved for 1 yr maybe 1.5 yrs. Could be as long as 2.

list of names is here

http://inlocationalliance.org/members/current-members/.

Note the BIG guns under this tent. Note who IS NOT there yet.

Commentary.

THis group is very solid, but no Goog, who is really solid in this area also.
No MCU people. NO INVN, no ST no Bosch. No DSP people. ( PNI is there)

QUIK really wants this stuff to move into the market as the Eos will shine at this task, so we can track along.
Has QUIK EVER once said we are working on this; No- like the FFE they are just working away at it.

Just the slide that shows the compute intensity step up for 10 axis fusion for inlocation.
We have the very capable Steve W. along with PMCW on the advisory board. 
Take it as a given that he, and others like him within QUIK, will help to insure
they are spot on in allocation of resources.

QUIK is working on things quietly that are, compute intense, platform in scale; use inlocation as the mental model, the TAM is huge tomorrow, not today.

Sensory jobs are so interesting to read.

http://www.sensory.com/company/employment/

QUIK has done better than most could imaging with their implementation of always listening.


There is another thing which I have learned from reading with the Eos/Sensory in mind.

Many implement always listening mostly in the cloud, beam it up and they beam it back.
From their early days Sensory has had a focus on NO cloud, keep it local, one phrase for this- deeply embedded.
With a focus on low power.

So QUIK/Sensory is a very good match.


ONe other thing I really like is that Sensory has a road map, of adding in more/better compute intense items related
to noise cancallation, so it works better in poor conditions, etc, so the Eos prt 2 will have some of this in it.

Ubiquity in algos= what? Hard coded engine, and QUIK does not have to make the wager as to what becomes ubiquitous, or even when,
THe roadmap has real substance to it more than I had grasped till Sensory.

1. jfieb, Oct 7, 2015EditDeleteReport

   #33Reply
2. 

   jfiebMember

   • Doni.......................................

   HOW IDEAS ARE CREATED AT RUNTASTIC – DAY OF NEW IDEAS
   Runtastic Insights | 14.10.2015
   
   
   Every first Thursday of the month is a very special day for us Runtastics. It is the Day Of New Ideas – or as we lovingly call it, our DONI. On this special day the whole company presses pause on their regular activities and routines to collaborate on exploring new ideas, creating something new or improving something already in existence.
   
   
   
   DONI was first introduced in 2012 and has been held ever since. While there have been changes through the years, it has always remained an integral part of Runtastic. DONI has resulted in many cool projects and improvements for the company, like a treadmill with a desk for laptops (allowing employees to exercise and workat the same time), the integration of a new programming language (Swift) for our iOS team or Runtastic’s team page (an interactive room plan in which you can see where every employee is seated in the office including contact details and photos).
   
   To give you a first-hand experience, we talked to one of our Runtastics about her experience with DONI. Marlene is doing an internship in Human Resources at the moment and participated in DONI for the first time last month. The first time she heard about it she got really excited: “What a cool idea to step away from your daily tasks for a while and focus on new ideas, improvements, inventions and changes, no matter how farfetched they might sound.”
   
   Setting a foundationThree days before every DONI, all ideas are collected so that everybody can choose the project they want towork on beforehand. Anyone can share their ideas. It could be a thought that has been floating around in your head for quite some time and that you now want to put into practice, a project that has been worked on before or something completely new. There are no limits to the topics – they just have to be somehow related to Runtastic. Luckily, our staff are full of ideas, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t come up with a project yourself. You can just join one of the other project teams.
   
   
   
   It may even be the case that there are so many interesting ideas that it is hard to decide which you want to workon, like it was for our intern Marlene: “It wasn’t easy for me to choose. I mean, would you rather help create an office wish list, make a really cool video about Runtastic or work on collaborations with interesting companies?” We agree, making choices can be difficult!
   
   Let the games begin
   When DONI finally starts, all Runtastics meet in our lunch area at 8:00 am (yes, we all fit in there – no, it’s not easy). Stefan, our Head of iOS Development and basically the father of DONI, quickly goes through the topics to make sure everybody is assigned to one. It is also a chance for last minute project changes. Then the magic starts happening and the teams get together, grab a coffee
   
   
   The S Johnson coffee house, exchange of ideas, in practice here, and QUIK is in the coffee house too now...that swimming app may get added to the Moment, it IS waterproof, why not show the Apple device in its weak spots...you can't take it for a swim....
   and choose a place to work. A team mostly consists of three to five people and often includes colleagues from different departments, so you also get the chance to work with and get inspired by people you do not get to see that often during your normal work day.
   
   
   
   Marlene’s team for example consisted of Backend Development, Advertising, Translations, Customer Support and Human Resources – so it was a pretty diverse mix. Since all team members were quite new to Runtastic, it was the first DONI for all of them. “Working with people from different departments creates a really unique working atmosphere,” Marlene reported.
   
   Turning thoughts into actionNow it is time to get started and try to develop a project as far as you can on one DONI. Each team is free to organize the work the way they want. One idea can lead to another and the output can be entirely different than what you had in mind at the beginning.
   
   
   
   
   
   Unfortunately, Marlene and her team’s project came to an end quite soon. Due to legal questions, they had to abandon their plan of collaborating with other companies. “We were all a bit disappointed,” Marlene said, “after all, we had been looking forward to working on this project.” Still, they tried to make the best of it and decided to split up and join different projects. Since everybody at Runtastic is really open and nice, it was not hard for them to find a new group to work with and in the end they were all quite satisfied with their new teams and topics.
   
   We proudly present…At about 3:30 pm, people start to present their results. Every team has exactly three minutes to do so and that is a challenge in itself. It is always really exciting to see what the other teams have come up with. DONI finally ends with pizza and the chance to talk to colleagues about their projects, how their day went and what they think of the different outcomes.
   
   
   
   At Runtastic you can always give your input and bring your ideas to the table, whether you are an intern or a team lead. This is even truer on DONI. Marlene definitely enjoyed her first DONI: “It is a unique opportunity to create something new, to work with different people and to think outside the box. I think it is a very beneficial experience, one which you don’t often find in Austrian companies.” She is already looking forward to participating in the next DONI.
   
   Do you have some ideas we should definitely pursue on the next DONI? Tell us in the comments!
   
   HR Team
   The Runtastic HR Team has significantly grown throughout the past months in order to recruit more and more proactive, motivated and skilled employees from all over the world. The talents we are looking for should identify strongly with our corporate values and intercultural spirit. On our blog, we want to give you insights into the working atmosphere of Austria’s most successful start-up and highlight the various benefits of working for such a dynamic company!
   
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   jfieb, 18 minutes agoEditDeleteReport

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   jfiebMember

   New

   Keep the DONI item on your mind. Realize that QUIK's talented algo chefs can make custom Beta algos for any hware that comes out of Runtastics DONI.
   
   Commentary. Adidas really did well for their ecosystem with their purchase of Runtastic. Everything points to them being exactly what S Johnson would want them to do...they are a TEXT book for his ideas...
   
   
   
   Chance Favours the Connected Mind
   by Tim Kastelle
   
   
   
   Steven Johnson is a fantastic author, and his next book is about innovation. It is called Where Good Ideas Come From, and it comes out next month. It is the result of a few years of study, where he has investigated creative, innovative environments. He explains the key points from the book in this TED talk:
   
   
   
   There are a few key points that are important for people trying to encourage innovation within organisations:
   
   

   1. Ideas are networks: Johnson maintains that innovative ideas at their most basic level are the result of new, novel connections within the mind. Just as important is the environment in which people are working. Those that regularly come into contact with people having diverse interests and viewpoints are more likely to come up with innovative ideas. Innovation = Connections – one of the key themes that we repeatedly come back to here.
   2. Runsastic
   3. A team mostly consists of three to five people and often includes colleagues from different departments, so you also get the chance to work with and get inspired by people you do not get to see that often during your normal work day.

   
   

   • If we want to encourage innovation, we need to design workspaces to support it: this conclusion follows directly from the first point. If good ideas depend on interactions between people, we need to take a network view when we design the spaces in which we’ll work. How can we regularly interact with those that are working on different problems? How can we encourage diverse viewpoints? The physical space has a significant impact on these issues, and we need to take this into account.

   
   Runtastic
   
   Runtastic’s team page (an interactive room plan in which you can see where every employee is seated in the office including contact details and photos).
   

   • Good ideas are more likely to result from slow hunches: one of the points that Johnson makes is that even when an idea seems to come to us in a flash of inspiration, it usually actually has a longer history behind it. He uses the example of Darwin, who in his autobiography says that the idea for natural selection came to him in a flash one day while he was reading Malthus. However, recent research based on his notebooks shows that the theory had been developing for months prior to that.

   Johnson closes the talk with a great story – he tells how GPS developed from the work of two guys that were initially just curious about whether or not they could track the signals from Sputnik. They figured that out. Then they figured out how to use the doppler effect to figure out where Sputnik was. And through a series of similar small steps, we ended up with GPS.
   
   The GPS story demonstrates how ideas generate interactively, and how they can have wildly unexpected outcomes once you execute them. It is a great innovation story – and it shows how chance favours the connected mind.
   
   Note: Here’s another video that has been made to promote the book. It is shorter than the TED video, and uses a completely different set of examples. Both are worth watching. I’m looking forward to the book!
   
   
   I don't think its just chance...the match is almost an exact copy, S Johnson has a fan of his work at Runtastic, who has gone and built the foundations of their company of his precepts. They have been successful and will NOT stop, and we are in store for a great ride.
   They can help Adidas make up any ground they have lost and then some. Adidas, just leave them alone send people to DONI and listen and then execute.
   
   Runtastic is a company that S Johnson can use as an example...really like this.