Technological advancements change many aspects of our lives. Sometimes technology can have a global impact. Most of the time, when we think about world-changing technology, we aren’t talking about the planet. Maybe we should. The path to a solution for some of our climate change challenges may reside with advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).

 Science and climate technology experienced significant advances over the last few decades. With these advances comes a massive amount of climate data. Climate scientists, meteorologists, and climatologists analyze this data to understand the impact of climate change better. They create advanced weather models and better prediction tools. However, leveraging AI and Machine Learning to aid this effort is a newer concept. 

 Some may still debate whether humans are responsible for significant changes in the global climate. However, it is hard to dispute the Earth’s changing climate. Disruptions to historical weather patterns, an uptick in dangerous weather, and melting glaciers are but a few data-proven climate changes. As a prominent Los Angeles iPhone app developer, we intimately understand the potentially devastating impact of climate change.

 No matter the side of the debate, we can leverage technology to understand climate change better and discover ways to reduce the impact of climate change.

AI and Climate Science

AI, and its subset of machine learning, have the power to analyze data and images at a speed and scale beyond human capabilities. From this analysis comes better prediction models and algorithms to detect patterns. These results help make informed decisions, find efficiencies, or solve complex problems. When applied to the challenges of climate change, AI and machine learning prove exceptionally beneficial. 

 Partnerships between data science and climate science create a new dynamic to combat climate change. Until recently, climate scientists relied on information collected from simulations and observations, which followed predetermined rules. With AI, and specifically machine learning, the data and imagery collected from around the planet feed into AI learning models. The process uses machine learning to ‘train’ algorithms using large amounts of climate-based datasets.

 Successful implementations of AI and climate change nationally include Japan and Brazil. Japan employs AI as an early warning against natural disasters. In the Amazon, AI monitors and predicts deforestation.

 When applied to climate change, advances in AI and machine learning create exciting opportunities for companies to innovate. Kayrros is one such example. They are a data analytics company that provides insight into climate risk by monitoring energy, natural resource, and industrial markets.

AI’s Use to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Of all the ways that AI could positively impact climate change, the goal of zero-carbon emissions may be the best bet. Many world governments and leaders across global economies pledged a goal of net-zero carbon emission by 2050. This pledge is a needed yet ambitious objective to bring global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to a net-zero solution.

 The energy sector will have the most significant impact on the success or failure of this goal. Electric power produces 25% of greenhouse gases worldwide. Using AI to gain efficiencies by optimizing energy grids is a short-term application that could provide immediate benefits. AI can integrate and increase the use and efficiency of renewable energy sources combined with current energy grids.

 AI solutions return immediate benefits on a slightly smaller scale. The successful application of AI to operate commercial buildings’ heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is one such example. On average, nearly 50% of a commercial building’s energy usage comes from HVAC systems, with more than half going to waste. Large warehouses, factories, or industrial centers see significant cost savings and emissions reduction from AI-controlled HVAC operations.

Potential Diminishing Returns Using AI

The energy and carbon emissions to power AI on the scale needed could be counterintuitive. Some analysis predicts that the data centers used to power AI could consume upwards of 25% of the world’s electricity.

 However, large tech companies are aware, and some have taken steps to mitigate the impact.  Google successfully deployed AI to mitigate excessive heat loss. Partnering with DeepMind to develop an AI recommendation system, AI systems control data center cooling. The results produced a near-immediate 30% energy savings.

Conclusion

Applying AI and machine learning could be a turning point against climate change. The collaboration of data science and climate science is still in the early stages. However, the positive impact already felt by AI’s use to run the heating and cooling of commercial buildings is a reality today. 

 AI and machine learning applications focused on combating climate change that impacts the environment are a field brimming with opportunities. If you or your company have a climate-focused idea for an AI or machine learning application, Dogtown Media is your partner to develop and deploy it. Take advantage of our free consultation to see how we can partner together to positively impact the environment.

We’re pleased to announce that earlier this month, Dogtown Media has been featured as one of the top recognized organizations in the category of Los Angeles app developers by industry-respected software and application review platform, Techreviewer! First and foremost, we’d like to give a huge thank you to all of our clients who have given us the opportunity to turn their mobile application ideas into a reality. Without your trust in our ability to turn your unique app ideas into a reality, none of this would be possible!

We also want to give a huge shoutout and thank you to our dedicated team. Spread across three continents and twelve time zones, we’ve built a dynamic and diverse team of highly skilled individuals who over the past ten years have turned this organization into a top-tier development organization. We couldn’t be more appreciative of this prestigious award and the team who have helped make this possible.

Offering verified ratings, reviews, and feedback of development firms, Techreviewer is an industry-recognized B2B service platform dedicated to helping businesses identify high-quality development organizations that match the unique financial and technical qualifications they seek in a technology partner.

From healthcare app development, to quality assurance and software testing, Techreviewer aims to provide information and rating on a wide array of development companies acting as a one-stop-shop review platform. Whether you’re looking to develop the next best IoT application or to expand on your mHealth application offering, Techreviewer can be a great place to help find the right technology partner that meets your unique qualifications. 

Throughout the year, Techreviewer provides a variety of evaluations of development companies based on segment, geographical location, development niche, and other factors. Their team of dedicated industry experts examines qualities such as client feedback, demonstrated success and expertise in the space, market adoption, quality of service, and other critical factors to determine the verified Techreviewer rating. 

In this process, hundreds of organizations are reviewed and only a select few make it into the list of top app developers in Los Angeles, so we are truly appreciative of this award! Backed by this recognition and other industry-recognized awards, we are determined to continue to provide top-tier app development services for our clients and hope to continue to receive esteemed recognitions in the future!

About TechReviewer.co
Techreviewer is an industry-trusted tech rating and review platform that compiles lists of top development, design, and marketing companies. The sim of the Techreviewer platform is to help organizations find the best development companies that align with their unique technical requirements. Companies trust Techreviewer based on their focus on providing accurate, research-backed information regarding the organization they are reviewing.

In late 2020, Alphabet – the parent company of Google – solved one of biology’s most challenging problems with the help of AI – predicting the structure of proteins. Alphabet’s DeepMind – a branch of Alphabet dedicated to the development and progress of AI – built AlphaFold, an AI designed specifically for this task and to everyone’s surprise…it worked.

Alphabet’s attempt to develop an AI that could predict protein structures was hugely successful when AlphaFold won a biennial protein-predicting challenge called CASP; something that hasn’t happened before in the history of mankind. Founder of the competition, John Moult, a computational biologist at the University of Maryland was astounded by the results noting “It was the first time a serious scientific problem had been solved by AI.”

Today, being able to predict protein structures in a repeatable verifiable method will undoubtedly accelerate the development of drugs and vaccines, reshape how organizations engage artificial intelligence app development and provide key insight into how diseases work, all thanks to AI.

AI and the Fight Against Chagas and Leishmaniasis

Flash forward 9 months, Alphabet’s DeepMind is on the hunt for another biological breakthrough, this time targeting some of the world’s most challenging diseases Chagas and Leishmaniasis. Chagas and Leishmaniasis are two of the world’s deadliest parasitic diseases transmitted by hosts known as assassin bugs. These two diseases alone are known to affect up to 23 million people worldwide.

The Challenges Associated with Deadly Parasitic Diseases

Unfortunately, today’s drugs and therapeutics are widely ineffective at treating both of these diseases and even worse “patients affected by neglected diseases like Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease rely on outdated treatments that are sometimes toxic, have serious side-effects, and are often not fit for purpose,” London-based Alphabet-owned lab known as Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative lead Ben Perry said.

For those affected, Chegas and Leishmaniasis can produce flu-like symptoms, rash, loss of appetite, Diarrhea, vomiting and in extreme cases without medical attention, death or permanent health complications. Understandably with 23 million people affected each year, primarily in underserved and neglected communities around the world, a more advanced medication or therapeutic to treat these parasitic diseases could be a game changer.

AI and the Future of Medicine

Now, after the massive scientific discovery made by AlphaFold related to predicting protein structures in late 2020, DeepMind may have the needed key to providing new advanced medication and therapeutics to fight changas and Leishmaniasis. Many diseases including these two deadly parasitic diseases are linked to the roles of proteins in catalysing chemical reactions and fighting diseases. By being able to predict and understand protein structures – specifically related to these parasitic diseases – DeepMind’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative now has the insight to provide medication or even a cure for these diseases. And AI isn’t only accelerating discovery in the world of biology and protein structures.

Just this week a new AI designed by the UAE has been proven to improve breast cancer detection, avoid unnecessary biopsies, and improve patient experience. The AI known as Mammography Intelligent Assessment (Mia) is the first AI-enabled monogram reader for breast cancer screening that is available commercially. By training the advanced AI Mia with millions of mammogram images, Mia is now producing mammogram readings that are as effective as a mammogram reading delivered by a consulting radiologist. Also Los Angeles-based UCLA’s Deepcell looks to build on these advances in AI-driven medical diagnostics to expand cell morphology to identify and sort cancer cells from clinical cytology cells.

Of course, this has far reaching implications for the medical industry, medical personnel and radiologists. Will AI augment how Radiologists diagnose and offer medical services, or will AI offer a low-cost alternative to diagnostics?

As AI continues to uncover the answers to biology’s biggest mysteries, what can we expect for the future? Could AI tackle some of mankind’s most challenging medical challenges such as cancer, aging or vaccines for tomorrow’s novel virus? It seems that only AI will be able to provide the answer to that question. With AI sweeping the competition at CASP and cracking the code of Leishmaniasis and Chagas, we are optimistic that we will continue to see massive medical and biological breakthroughs in the near future.

At Dogtown Media, we specialize in mobile app development, grounded with expert knowledge in the internet of things, fintech, medical tech and user interface design. We are determined to take on your next project and create an app that will help your business grow.

Clutch, a company that publishes unbiased reviews of B2B companies, has featured us once again in a recent press release of top California mobile app development companies.  We’re excited to share that we have been featured highly in their directory list of the top mobile app developers in California. This honor adds to our previous recognition as a top California Mobile App Development Company on DesignRush.

Clutch’s ranking algorithm takes many pieces of information into account when displaying companies on their directory pages; the most important part of Clutch’s ranking algorithm is client reviews. To date, we have received over 20 positive reviews. Our clients aren’t shy to share their successes with Clutch:

“Dogtown Media developed a solution for a project considered impossible to do in the tech world.”

“They were extremely responsive and supportive and I never felt like I was working on anything on my own.”

“Their work has made my life easier by automating features in the app that I was doing manually.”

In addition to our feature on Clutch, we were also mentioned on their sister-site, The Manifest.  We are pleased to announce that we were listed as one of the top mobile app development companies in the world on The Manifest.

Here at Dogtown Media, we are ready to improve your business by creating vital apps that will allow your business to access your consumers at all times.  Our team will work directly with your business to assess how to stand apart from competitors as well. We look forward to taking on your next project!

Each year, Clutch publishes a press release naming the top service providers within certain industries. We’re proud to announce that Clutch has named Dogtown Media among the world’s leading mobile app developers this year.

We’ve also been listed on Clutch’s sister website, The Manifest, a B2B news website that helps buyers through the process of selecting a vendor. Manifest also ranked Dogtown as one of the top app development companies in the world.

Founded in 2011, Clutch is a Washington, D.C.-based research firm that leverages unparalleled market insight to determine the leaders across numerous industries. With unbiased case studies, industry trend analysis, and business market comparisons, Clutch’s data-driven platform allows clients to find and connect with top-tier companies who can solve difficult challenges.

Clutch’s directories adhere to this meticulous, data-centric approach; it’s organized to list the most credible firms first. Credibility is gained by attaining client testimonials and market presence. Essentially, the directories allow potential buyers and clients in need of partnerships to visualize their different options with a holistic perspective of each company.

Check out some of the reviews we’ve received so far below!

Webdam is a digital asset management software company. We re-developed their platform from the ground up. Here’s what they had to say:

“Dogtown Media’s work was a massive improvement from the previous app version and received high praise from customers… They were extremely responsive and supportive, and I never felt like I was working on anything on my own.”

We also got the opportunity to help the University of Oklahoma improve its app with more student-centric functionalities and geolocation capabilities. Here’s their feedback:

Another client required an app for the University of Oklahoma. Here’s what they had to say:

“Dogtown Media’s expert team inspires confidence throughout the project by communicating clearly from the start. They bring creative ideas to the table at a reasonable value… Their work has made my life easier by automating features in the app that I was doing manually.”

The past few weeks have been surreal for Dogtown Media. Recently, we made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the United States for the second year in a row. Not long after, we were honored again by being included on Clutch’s list!

Both are incredible awards we couldn’t have imagined attaining when we first started developing in L.A. in 2011. We’d like to give a big thanks to Clutch, Inc., our team, clients, and community — none of this would be possible without you.

From humble beginnings as a mobile app developer in Los Angeles, we’re extremely proud of the work we’ve accomplished so far and we’re also very excited to see where the future takes us. We can’t wait to create more amazing mobile experiences for the world to enjoy.

If you have an idea but don’t know where to begin, reach out anytime — if you can dream it, we can build it!

Innovation keeps the world spinning. It forms the foundation for our future. The Defense Innovation Challenge is a competition held by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency to fuel the creative “fire” that keeps humanity moving forward.

For this year’s challenge, Dogtown Media was selected as a winner of the “Mobile Apps for Defense Users” category. It’s an incredible honor that words can’t possibly do justice. Our CEO and co-founder, Marc Fischer, will be receiving the award and presenting our solution in Berlin at the end of May at NITEC18.

Accelerating Digital Endeavors

The Defense Innovation Challenge is a challenge “aimed at accelerating transformational, state-of-the-art technology solutions from small businesses and academia in support of NATO C4ISR and cyber capabilities.” Open to small and medium enterprises as well as academic institutions from all 29 NATO Nations, competition is fierce, to put it mildly.

This is fair, however, when you consider the monumental ambitions of the initiative. “We are seeking to broaden engagement with innovative technology drivers as NATO undergoes its largest technological modernization in decades,” explains Kevin Scheid, the General Manager of the NCI Agency.

The third Defense Innovation Challenge focused on digital innovation. The breadth of fields this topic touches upon is basically infinite; autonomous sensors, IoT security, natural language processing, and cutting-edge mobile app development are just a few of the examples that are fair game.

Competition and Collaboration Spurs Innovation

Winners for this year’s challenge are invited to receive their rewards and showcase their solutions at NITEC18, an annual three-day tech summit held by the NCI Agency. Taking place in Berlin, Germany from May 22nd to May 24th, the theme of this year’s event is ‘NATO’s Digital Endeavour: Expanding the Ecosystem’.

The event was organized between NATO, the NCI Agency, and the Federal Ministry of Defense of Germany. With well over 600 military, political, security, and tech pioneers in attendance, NITEC serves as an opportunity for these world leaders to examine the current technological quandaries facing NATO and how to address them.

This is absolutely crucial; the plethora of problems facing NATO make it practically impossible for the organization to keep up with technological advancements, so this collaboration in the form of competition between academia, businesses, research institutions, and other entities is virtually the only way NATO can stay ahead of the curve.

Berlin Is the Place to Be

Keeping in line with the subject matter of this year’s NITEC, much of the attention will be focused on myriad aspects of revamping NATO to be ready for the digital age. Attendees will gather at the German Ministry of Defense for the conference kickoff. From there, the next three days will be jam-packed with presentations, workshops and discussion sessions between government officials, procurement officers, and thought leaders in the tech space.

Among the speakers will be NCI Agency Manager Kevin Scheid, Roger Krone, the CEO of Leidos, and Thomas B. Modly, the Undersecretary of the U.S. Navy. Saying this list of prestigious guest is just “the tip of the iceberg” is an understatement. Workshops on successful project bidding, NATO procurement procedures, and commercialization of products will also be given.

Disrupting the Status Quo of Soldier Safety

Marc will be flying out from Dogtown Media’s development studio in Los Angeles to receive Dogtown Media’s award and present our unique solution to improve soldier health and well-being. It’s indisputable that the battlefield is a brutal environment, and any aid a solder receives is an integral advantage.

By utilizing facets of the Internet of Things, encryption, and mobile technology, Dogtown Media conceived a wearable device that would allow for soldiers to send out a distress signal during dire times. The signal would notify medics of their location while keeping this information concealed from enemies. Initiatives could then be carried out to administer life-saving treatment for the person in need.

The wearable can be used during training as well as real battle scenarios. And besides the distress beacon, the device is also outfitted with sensors and scheduling mechanisms that make it easy to keep contact with the wearer and monitor different health variables like hydration. Currently, a prototype has been constructed, but there is still room to include other sensors or equipment so that other useful features can be added to the device.

Making the Future a Reality Today

The Defense Innovation Challenge and NITEC are part of NATO’s largest initiative to modernize the organization’s technology since the end of the Cold War. There is immense innovation going on in numerous fields to bring everything up-to-date, but this is still just the beginning.

It is an honor of the highest prestige for Dogtown Media to be recognized by NATO for our wearable solution. We know there were thousands of ingenious innovations submitted, so it’s been a truly surprising and humbling experience. 2018 has been a fantastic year for us, and we can’t wait to see where this event and the coming months take us next.

Stay tuned for updates, and in the meantime, keep innovating!

60 million Americans live in rural areas. Like their urban and suburban counterparts, these remote regions have millions of Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries. Unfortunately, the healthcare delivery system for these communities is in need of some serious improvement.

On May 8th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released their plans for a more proactive approach to fixing this longstanding problem. Dogtown Media is in full support of this legislation. You should be, too — it could give millions of Americans access to affordable, high-quality healthcare.

A Chronic Problem for a Big Community

With higher proportions of people experiencing chronic conditions, a greater possibility of being uninsured or underinsured, and increased chances of poverty, rural communities in America face a plethora of problems as it is. The fact that our healthcare system is extremely overworked and the workforce for this industry is shrinking only piles onto the existing problems.

Rural areas in the United States often lack access to numerous specialty services as well. Considering that one in five Americans live in rural areas, saying that this is a substantial problem is an understatement. To address this, the CMS released their first Rural Health Strategy recently.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma elaborates on the strategy’s goals: “For the first time, CMS is organizing and focusing our efforts to apply a rural lens to the vision and work of the agency. The Rural Health Strategy supports CMS’ goal of putting patients first. Through its implementation and our continued stakeholder engagement, this strategy will enhance the positive impacts CMS policies have on beneficiaries who live in rural areas.”

A Cause Near and Dear to Our Hearts

Although we’re based in the urban sprawl of Los Angeles, bringing better healthcare to American citizens in rural areas is an endeavor that Dogtown Media has been working on behind-the-scenes for quite some time.

During his recent trip to Washington, D.C. for AppCon 18, our CEO Marc Fischer discussed how to tackle this exact problem with numerous politicians. We also recently developed a MedTech app with Allina Health and the Minneapolis Heart Institute that allows the healthcare workforce to access emergency protocols for cardiovascular problems, even if they’re offline in rural areas.

The fact that 20 percent of America’s population faces this problem is unacceptable. That’s why this strategy is so necessary to implement. And that’s why we’re so excited by the potential behind it. Everyone should be given a fighting chance in the event of an illness. And it shouldn’t depend on where they live.

Giving Rural Areas Equal Footing

This Rural Health Strategy was based on input from both beneficiaries and healthcare providers in rural areas. When all is taken into account, the plan boils down to five objectives to make it a success.

First, the CMS wants to gain a clear perspective on the situation by applying a “rural lens” to its programs and policies, and what they currently can and can’t do for patients. Second, the CMS wants to work with providers to improve access to care and medical support.

In turn, this will help with the third objective of furthering the implementations of telehealth and telemedicine. Fourth, the CMS wants to leverage its many partnerships to increase this strategy’s chances of succeeding. Last but not least, all of these objectives combined will hopefully empower the citizens in these rural areas to make better, more informed decisions regarding their healthcare.

A Work in Progress

While it was only released a few days ago, work on implementing the strategy has already begun. So far, CMS is focusing on the telehealth aspect by investing in additional services and streamlining how providers bill Medicare.

Verma explains that the people of rural America come first in this plan: “This Administration clearly understands that one of the keys to ensuring that those who call rural America home are able to achieve their highest level of health is to advance policies and programs that address their unique healthcare needs.”

The agency is also in talks with many other agencies like the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to collaborate on improving the strategy’s chances for success. “HRSA is excited to see CMS spell out a strategy to better serve rural populations that was informed by rural stakeholders who have a unique lens on the issues in their communities,” says George Sigounas, HRSA Administrator. “This builds on our long-standing collaboration with CMS and will highlight key issues for rural safety net providers like rural hospitals and community health centers for CMS and HHS.”

We’d like to give a special thanks to ACT, the app association, for pushing this forward and giving it the attention it deserves. We’re extremely excited to see what this strategy leads to! For more information, check out the complete strategy here.

The Defence Innovation Challenge is a competition created with the intent to bring innovative technology solutions to reality for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to utilize. Each year, it’s held by the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency.

We’re extremely proud and honored to announce that, out of thousands of entrants, Dogtown Media has been selected as one of the winners of the third annual Defence Innovation Challenge!

Setting the Standard for “State-of-the-Art”

“We are seeking to broaden engagement with innovative technology drivers as NATO undergoes its largest technological modernization in decades,” says Kevin J. Scheid, General Manager of the NCI Agency.

Open to academic institutions as well as small and medium enterprises from all 29 NATO Nations, the challenge is “aimed at accelerating transformational, state-of-the-art technology solutions from small businesses and academia in support of NATO C4ISR and cyber capabilities,” per a statement on the official website.

For this year’s challenge, the NCI Agency decided to focus on digital innovation. This included areas like mobile app development for both defense and government organizations, data science for natural language processing and analytics, and the Internet of Things for security and autonomous sensors to be used in battle.

Bringing the Cutting-Edge to the Frontlines

Keeping a colossal organization like NATO on the cutting-edge is easier said than done. There are many facets, departments, and moving pieces in general. Between communication, data privacy, cybersecurity, military system optimizations, and improving soldier capabilities, it’s easy to see how even the governments of 29 nations could have their hands full. But these categories are just the tip of the iceberg.

Regardless of the size and number of problems to tackle, each is a necessary endeavor. Updating NATO’s fighting force to be technologically superior, to handle all matters of threats and enemies, and to run leaner, greener, and meaner than ever before requires deep innovation and expertise in each subject matter.

That’s why the Defence Innovation Challenge is a natural fit to help spur new technological adoption.

Our Solution to Improve Soldier Safety

We are extremely proud to be considered winners of the “Mobile Apps for Defense Users” category. There were undoubtedly hundreds of ingenious innovations entered into each focus area; it’s been a truly humbling experience.

Our proposed solution aims to improve health and wellness for those in the battlefield through a unique combination of IoT, encryption, and wearables. Essentially, soldiers wear a wearable device that allows for a medic to be deployed to their location and administer life-saving treatment during emergencies.

The solution is made to be used out in the field, either in training or in real battle scenarios. The distress beacon deployed is encrypted so that enemies cannot receive the message; only allies (field commander, medical tech, etc.) in a remote monitoring station do.

The wearable is also equipped with sensors, notifications, and scheduling mechanisms that ensure a soldier’s wellness parameters, like hydration, are at healthy levels. Currently, we’ve put together a prototype, but there are still a few factors we’d like to work out before revealing much more!

We’re Going to Berlin!

The winners of this year’s Defence Innovation Challenge have been invited to showcase their solutions at NITEC18, an annual flagship tech-centric conference held by the NCI Agency. Lasting three days, the event is meant to give insight into NATO’s technological needs and connect leaders of the organization with innovators who can solve those problems.

This year’s theme is “NATO’s Digital Endeavor: Expanding the Ecosystem.” The event will be held in Berlin, Germany, from May 22nd to the 24th. While it may be more than a hop and a skip away from our HQ for development in Los Angeles, we wouldn’t miss it for the world! Dogtown Media will be sending a representative to receive our award and present our solution to the NATO leaders and stakeholders in attendance.

We’d like to give another thanks to NATO and the NCI Agency for selecting us! This has already been an amazing experience so far, and we’re even more excited to see what the future holds for our solution.

From April 23rd to the 25th, Appcon 2018 took over Washington, D.C. The annual event serves as a great opportunity for tech innovators, app developers, and entrepreneurs to open a dialogue with the preeminent leaders in politics. It’s a time to discuss and shape the future of different technologies and, in turn, their impact on society.

Marc Fischer, our CEO and co-founder, attended AppCon this year. He got the chance to speak to a dizzying number of political leaders at Capitol Hill, the FCC, and the White House! We’ve gathered some highlights from Marc’s experience below, just for you.

Three Days of Non-Stop Action

In total, 54 tech leaders representing 29 different states flew in to discuss the tech industry’s impact on humanity’s future. AppCon is hosted by the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), also known as the App Association. ACT is one of the foremost public policy organizations in Washington, D.C.

ACT represents tech companies, startups, entrepreneurs, and developers so that our voices are heard and our concerns are met with productive solutions. It aims to protect and foster the tech industry by instilling smart regulation so it can thrive in a competitive global economy.

The first day of AppCon centered around a conference discussing where the mobile app industry is and where it’s going. Currently, the global app ecosystem is worth $950 billion. Expect exponential value growth from enterprise applications and the use of IoT. But whether the app economy (or tech industry, in general) keeps succeeding or begins to falter depends on a few crucial variables.

The Importance of Education

Over dozens of meetings, Marc found one to be particularly salient: his stop at the White House. There, he had the opportunity to speak with representatives from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Together, they explored both the positive and negative impacts that disruptive technologies like automation, AI, and drones would have on our economy.

Marc and the OSTP representatives also focused on another topic near and dear to the future of society and tech — education. The United States could be facing a job crisis, unlike anything we’ve seen before. ACT projects that the app economy will create half a million more job opportunities in the U.S. alone by 2024. Other niches in the tech industry are estimated to experience similar growth.

So, why’s this a problem exactly? Because last year, only 59,000 U.S. college students graduated with a computer science degree. There are currently 503,000 computing jobs across the U.S. So only one out of every eight computing jobs is getting filled right now. Only about 40 percent of K-12 schools tech modern computer science skills. This figure dwindles down to 20 percent if you’re only considering high schools.

Education and Innovation Go Hand-in-Hand

Marc and the OSTP discussed the importance of apprenticeships and improving computer science programs in school. But this is far too big of a topic to tackle in one meeting. So, going forward, Marc and Dogtown Media will work with the OSTP to engineer smarter education! Specifically, we aim to build smarter legislation for the apprenticeship and computer science programs that will be rolled out in public schools nationwide over the next few years.Marc Fischer with Representative Ted Lieu meeting on Capitol Hill on the sidelines of a congressional vote in progress.

Education played an important part in many of Marc’s conversations. In his meeting with Congressman Ted Lieu, the two focused on getting more funding for computer science programs in the Los Angeles school system. It was great to see a familiar face in D.C.! Lieu is the Representative for California’s 33rd congressional district. Dogtown Media and Mr. Lieu’s office will collaborate more on this endeavor through a tech community involvement event in Los Angeles this summer, so stay tuned!

To round out Marc’s discussions on education, he also got the chance to meet with Congressman Danny Davis, U.S. Representative of Illinois’s 7th congressional district. Davis is a huge supporter of the CHANCE in Tech Act (Championing Apprenticeships for New Careers and Employees), and so is Marc. It aims to incentivize private companies to expand their workforce through the form of apprenticeships. It will serve as a great opportunity to train workers with no technical skills to become experienced knowledge workers in one of the many burgeoning niches in the tech industry.

Protecting the Potential at Stake

Besides education, cybersecurity was also a crucial conversation starter at many of Marc’s meetings. Cybercrime costs consumers a global total of $3 trillion. And the app industry is in serious need of an upgrade. Current security protocols are sub-standard at best. As apps begin to play a more integral role in all of our lives, it’s important that we address this shortcoming now.

During their talk, Congressman Lieu and Marc discussed how it’s necessary to make it easier for businesses to cooperate with the federal government when it comes to defending ourselves against national and international cyber threats. Not only is fostering such a dialogue important for both of these parties, but also for the average consumer whose data they hold.Marc Fischer with Congressman Joseph Kennedy, Representative of Massachusets.

This topic also came up during Marc’s talk with Congressman Joseph Kennedy III, U.S. Representative of Massachusetts’ 4th congressional district. Besides discussing the need for Congress to legislate new net neutrality rules, the two also focused on ways to improve the implementation of the Small Business Cyber Act, which helps mandate regulations for government support of small businesses that have experienced a hack. Guidelines on how to manage such circumstances where data may be stolen or breached are absolutely necessary to figure out before you need them.

Of course, cybersecurity is moot if the ones holding your data in the first place are using it in questionable ways. This was the main agenda of Marc’s visit to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office. Internet service providers (ISPs) currently have the ability to monitor our habits virtually anywhere. They then sell this data to third parties. In an effort to protect user data from ISPs, Marc’s main request of Feinstein’s office was to draft regulations that would prevent cases like this from occurring.

On a similar note, we also got the chance to voice our adamant opposition to the Burr-Feinstein bill. This would force companies large and small to build backdoors into all of their technology for law enforcement to utilize. This opens up immense issues around the cost of compliance, as well as a great risk that these forced access points could be exploited by malicious hackers.

Everyone Deserves to Be Connected

NOTE: Dogtown Media is strongly against any threat to an open, free, fair Internet. We FULLY disagree with the FCC’s decision to rollback net neutrality regulations. If you don’t believe us, just check out our recent articles in support of it here, here, and here.

It’s hard to fathom, but many people in the United States are missing out on the numerous advantages that modern technology offers, simply because of the fact that they don’t have a fast enough connection to the Internet. 34 million Americans across the rural United States are in this predicament. This was the main topic of discussion between Marc and Ajit Pai, the now-infamous Director of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Okay, now that we got that out of the way… back to the meeting! Just because two people don’t agree on one subject doesn’t mean they can’t find common ground with another. In Pai’s and Marc’s case, this happened to be improving nationwide Internet access. The two mostly focused on the rollout of 5G access nationwide over the next decade. Part of the infrastructure program involving this also includes room for speeding up Internet access for households and businesses, but Pai and Marc specifically focused on the best ways to bring technologies out to rural communities.

Leveraging Mobile MedTech More

Congressman and physician Michael C. Burgess, U.S. Representative of Texas’s 26th congressional district, decided to focus his talk with Marc on current medical issues facing the country. In particular, Burgess and his office were interested in learning how our healthcare system could utilize mobile technology more, and how it could reform Medicare and Medicaid.

Drug adherence is a big issue in preventative medicine. Mobile technology offers a plethora of positive regulation possibilities, like remote monitoring and scheduled reminders. Burgess and Marc touched upon the unique fact that this could also be used inversely to treat addiction problems, specifically the current opioid addiction crisis.

Mobile technology has the potential to transform how preventative medicine is represented in Congress. Currently, when a budget is put together, only the cost of the proposed legislation is shown — not the cost savings or return on investment. This holds back many great proposals from being passed that could reduce costs and improve patient outcomes. Burgess wants to change this, and he thinks that implementing cost-effective and innovative mobile solutions could help do it.

A Brighter Future, One Step at a Time

Dogtown Media is 100-percent committed to bringing empowerment to communities nationwide through our advances in technology. Marc genuinely felt like the tech industry’s voice was heard in Washington, D.C. over the course of AppCon. While the trip was undoubtedly exhausting, it was completely worth it. The dialogues that were opened could end up shaping our future.

From what we see, that future just got a little brighter!

Will self-driving cars ever be safe? Unfortunately, the first pedestrian fatality involving autonomous vehicles just occurred in Tempe, Arizona. And it has cast a long shadow across this burgeoning industry once viewed as an inevitable part of our future.

Now, everyone involved is left to pick up the pieces and answer the one question on the general public’s mind — is this something still worth pursuing?

Comparing Apples to Oranges

The above question isn’t just for AI developers, autonomous car engineers, or the investors funding these initiatives; it’s a question for everyone. Because self-driving cars are poised to play such an integral role in our future society, it’s vital that we all consider the repercussions as well as the benefits.

To start, it’s crucial that we view all facts fairly without influence or forced perspective. In response to this recent tragedy, many social media users were quick to point out that 37,000 people lost their lives due to human-driven vehicles in 2016. Putting this up against the one recent pedestrian fatality makes it seem obvious that AI-piloted cars are doing pretty well. But this is actually an overly-simplified way of skewing the data.

To be objective, we have to compare both categories in the same units of measurement. For instance, human-piloted vehicle fatalities are measured in “vehicle miles traveled.” For 2016, this equates to roughly 1.18 fatalities every 100 million miles driven by Americans. Americans drove approximately 3.2 trillion miles in 2016. This still surpasses 30,000 fatalities.

Now, let’s do autonomous vehicles. While they looked great before at a superficial level, the truth is, they’ve driven far less than 100 million miles before this first accident. Uber had just reached 2 million miles in its self-driving program. Waymo recently logged 4 million miles for its initiative. And we won’t count Tesla’s autopilot because it’s not completely autonomous. So adding up all of these miles actually makes autonomous driving look very bad compared to human-piloted vehicles.

It’s Never Been About the Numbers, It’s About the Potential

But before you get your pitchfork, it’s important to remember why so many organizations have embarked on the endeavor to make autonomous vehicles. The potential — what could be if we get it right — is what caused so many people to pour so much time and money into this effort.

Self-driving cars could change transportation from the bottom up. Traffic jams in cities like Los Angeles would be non-existent. Hours you spend driving every week could be put to use in a variety of other productive ways. The elderly who are vastly unequipped to still operate a vehicle could get to where they need to go in a much safer way. Drunk driving accidents could plummet.

It isn’t fair to pass judgment on something in the middle of its creation. That would be like taking a cake out of the oven halfway through its baking time, deciding it tastes bad, and trashing it.

A great example of this actually happens to be the release of the regular automobile as we know it. In 1921, every 100 million miles traveled brought 24 deaths. It may have taken some time, but that figure dropped to only 1 because of persistence and constant refinement. That is exactly what self-driving cars need.

Assessing the Situation for What It Is

Clearly, how you view self-driving cars to human-piloted cars dictates your judgment of the two. But to more accurately decipher how dangerous self-driving cars really are, we’ll need them to drive billions of more miles. They don’t have enough miles on the road to know how dangerous they really are, just that they can be dangerous.

This isn’t to say that they will most certainly end up being safer than human drivers. After more miles are logged, we may find ourselves with other obstacles facing self-driving cars that we never envisioned. But only time on the road will elucidate these problems, and the sooner we do, the sooner we can start working on solutions.

Being Right Is Better Than Being First

Uber has pulled the plug on its public autonomous car venture in light of this tragedy. If the company hadn’t, the immense public pressure probably would have made it in a few weeks from now. This unfortunate accident may have done lots of damage to the reputation of self-driving cars, but it wouldn’t have been possible if autonomous vehicle enthusiasts and companies weren’t acting like the technology was already here to use.

Self-driving cars are still very much in a state of experimentation and refinement. It’s likely that many tech companies are putting their bottom lines before the public interest and see this whole thing as a race to get to the money first. Let’s recall the moral of The Tortoise and the Hare: it’s better that we take our time with this and get it right rather than rushing to the finish line. And if this means taking self-driving cars off of public roads and revamping them, then so be it.

There are some races that nobody wants to be the winner of, and unfortunately, Uber just became first in this one.