The Memex Poland conference took place on the 6th of October. It brought together many guests who could share their insights and discoveries in many areas of technology solutions and digital technologies, like deep tech and artificial intelligence, and how they affect everyday lives. One of the guests presenting at the conference was none other than our R&D Communications Advisor, Yash Chawla. In his presentation “New DNA of innovation: from shallow tech to deep tech”, Yash talked about the challenges and importance of innovation and deep technology and the different challenges deep tech companies and deep tech startups face nowadays.
At the end of this short introduction, you can watch the video with the full presentation.
What is deep tech?
In the presentation, you will find the definition of the term deep tech as “a group of emerging technologies based on scientific discoveries or meaningful engineering innovations, offering a substantial advance over established technologies and seeking to tackle some of the world’s fundamental challenges”.
It means that finding groundbreaking, innovative solutions lies in the nature of deep tech.
Key points on deep technology and its challenges
Let us briefly summarise the key points covered in the presentation.
The development of innovation
In the first part of the presentation, the key focus was the evolution of innovation and how technological growth increased and significantly sped up after the 1950s. This rapid growth started the conversation on shallow and deep tech.
Shallow tech and deep tech
In the initial part of the presentation, you will hear about the most important differences between those two types of technologies: shallow tech, which brings the digitalisation of repetitive tasks that we do and deep tech, which aims to bring deep tech into the world. The deep tech involves original technologies that can contribute to finding solutions to problems of the modern world.
What’s next to drive deep tech forward?
An important factor that has driven most popular companies to success, such as Netflix or Microsoft, was that they were founded and developed towards their success during a crisis. We could observe a similar situation during the peace of the Covid-19 pandemic when a previously not-that-famous life sciences company Moderna became well-known worldwide thanks to their successful vaccine development. Crisis provides opportunities and companies often thrive on the problems and solutions it may provide.
The five Cs of innovation
- Celerity: the speed of technology adoption
- Complexity: the rise of deep tech innovations
- Concentration: concentration in the industry, R&D and scientific outputs
- Costs: moving towards a paradigm of “zero marginal costs” in the digital age
- Consumers: driving innovative ideas and change in organisations
Deep tech companies and startups facing challenges
Developing a successful technology product that could be a true game changer faces many engineering challenges and requires significant money. Corporate ventures often invest in startups that can create products for them rather than go on with the development of their ideas, as those ventures perceive it more as an investment for better profits rather than an expenditure. Developing deep tech startups forces funding for scaleups, fostering, attracting and maintaining diverse talent. There are different mechanisms and international EU-wide initiatives to help address those needs and drive innovation.
Listen to the entire presentation
Find the video below and listen to the whole Memex presentation “New DNA of innovation: from shallow tech to deep tech” by Yash Chawla, PhD.
Memex Poland 2022
The conference took place in Gdańsk on the 6th of October 2022. It brought together international experts and enthusiasts of technological innovation. Speakers covered an array of topics like artificial intelligence, computer vision, the future of ads in video games and more. They could later share their insights and answer the guests’ questions in expertly moderated panels. It was the first Polish edition of Memex in Poland but we’re looking forward to the next ones in the future.
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