Silicon Valley Awards Tech-Minded Idealists

In its eighth year, the Tech Awards celebrates technology that helps humanity.

ByABC News
November 17, 2008, 4:03 PM

Nov. 18, 2008— -- In its eighth year, Silicon Valley's Tech Awards again proved that inspirational platitudes can also be demonstrably true.

In the words of Mike Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials, the program's founding sponsor, the awards showcase entrepreneurs "applying technology to translate hopes and dreams into real solutions for a better world."

Presented last Thursday, the awards recognized a select group of 25 global innovators "using technology to benefit humanity."

The most difficult part of writing a column about these awards is choosing which of the winners to highlight.

The awards cover five disciplines: The Intel Environment Award, The Accenture Economic Development Award, The Microsoft Education Award, The Swanson Equality Award and The Fogarty Institute Health Award.

For each category, five laureates, including one winner of a $50,000 cash prize, are selected from hundreds of nominees -- this year representing 70 countries. Each of them inspires for many reasons, not the least of which is how much these amazing entrepreneurs accomplish with so very little.

Laureates this year include Arcadia Biosciences, based in California and operating in China. The company was honored for developing NUE (Nitrogen Use Efficiency) biotechnology to increase the amount of nitrogen absorbed by certain plants roots. When they absorb more nitrogen, these plants need less fertilzer to produce specified yields.

Reduced fertilizer use has two benefits. First, the farmer saves money. Second, not all fertilizer is absorbed by the crops. From the excess, nitrous oxide leaches into the air, water and soil. Therefore, using less fertilizer reduces the release of this greenhouse gas.

Sticking with the fertilizer theme, SKG Sangha, based and operating in India, also focuses on producing value from natural waste. The company teaches women in rural India how to turn abundant organic material into biogas, a cooking fuel, by showing locals how to anaerobically ferment cow dung.

As the cowpies ferment, they release biogas suitable for cooking stoves. Furthermore, the solid refuse that remains once the gas has been extracted is mixed with other biowaste and fed to worms. What comes out the other end of those worms turns out to be an organic, available, effective fertilizer that the producers can use or sell.