Aneesh Chopra is the Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for Technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology. He was sworn in on May 22, 2009 and is the nation's first CTO. He spoke to several hundred Silicon Valley folks at a TiE event early last Saturday morning. I repeat, early Saturday morning.
Mr. Chopra listed the technology areas that he and the Obama administration want to address:
Health IT: One of Chopra's "passions." He wants to "catalyze product innovation through open data standards, deliver administrative simplification, and align research and health IT."
Education Technology: He wants to ensure "continuity of learning." What happens if schools close due to, say, a flu? How do we enable nimble, easy to roll out, continuity of learning mechanisms?
And lastly and most germane to Greentech Media readers, he wants to accelerate the smart grid and energy efficiency through product innovation enabled by open standards. His office is "extraordinarily concerned about cybersecurity in the grid." and is championing open standards. According to Chopra, "FERC claims we can lower energy consumption with demand reponse by 20 percent."
After his keynote, Chopra sat on a panel along with Scott Lang, the CEO of Smart Grid poster child, Silver Springs Networks. Silver Spring has raised about $175 million in Venture Capital from investors such as Foundation Capital and KP. KP's special partner, Al Gore, is chairman of SSN's advisory board. Lang commented on how his customers, the utilities, are some of the most risk-adverse entities on the planet yet they are now working with SSN and networking about 10,000 homes a day with smart meters. Lang claimed that energy efficiency and demand response can lower our need for new generation by 50 percent.
Silver Springs recently purchased Greenbox for a rumored $20 million in an all stock deal. Greenbox had recently been looking for funding. And while we're promulgating rumors, SSN is talking about a company valuation of, sit down, $1.5 billion.
Finishing off this event was Silicon Valley icon, Steve Wozniak, looking relatively trim and upbeat despite being replaced by "The Hammer" on Dancing with the Stars. The Woz meandered enthusiastically about education and his recent stint as a teacher. He received about as much applause as the CTO of the U.S.
