NY Times on Gridwise: "These Apps Are an Uber Driver’s Co-Pilot"

Driving for ride-sharing companies is a juggling act. To maximize their income, drivers often keep Uber on one screen and Lyft on another.

These two apps are the giants in the field, but a smaller ecosystem is sprouting around them, to help ride-share drivers get the most out of their shifts, and also to help passengers save money and time.

Seventy percent of ride-share drivers hit the road part time, so an important first question many ask is “when should I drive?” said Ryan Green, chief executive of Gridwise, a mobile app that provides important data for drivers. That information can include detailed airport traffic trends, weather forecasts, traffic conditions, local event schedules and how many other ride-share drivers are on the road, and earnings performance reports. Knowing these things, a driver can try to find the best spots to make the most money.

Drivers have different preferences, Mr. Green said: “We want to equip them to make the best decisions.”


FluidForm's Patented 3D Printing System Creates Functional Components of the Human Heart

Scientists have taken a major step closer to being able to 3D bioprint functional organs, after researchers devised a method of rebuilding components of the human heart, according to a study published in the August 2nd edition of Science.

The team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University developed an advanced version of Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technology, to 3D print collagen with unprecedented complexity and construct components of the human heart spanning from small blood vessels to valves to beating ventricles.

Recently awarded US patent 10,150,258, FRESH technology is now licensed to FluidForm, a startup committed to dramatically expanding the capability of 3D printing. “We now have the ability to build constructs that recapitulate key structural, mechanical, and biological properties of native tissues,” said Prof. Adam Feinberg, CTO and co-founder at FluidForm and Principal Investigator of the Regenerative Biomaterials and Therapeutics Group at Carnegie Mellon, where the research was done. “There are still many challenges to overcome to get us to bioengineered 3D organs, but this research represents a major step forward.”