Acroscape: Research and development

At Acroscape, we develop innovative ideas with technological, economical and social significance. Therefore, an idea under development must have the potential to make a technological breakthrough, generate an large impact on the economy, and deliver significant benefits to the society.

Our philosophy on problem solving is to look at the problem from different perspectives and search for a global solution. A research and development project starts with a problem and ends with a solution in the forms of patents, know-hows and other intellectual properties. A technology developed at Acroscape will either be licensed to existing companies or become the basis for starting a new company.

The research at Acroscape is quite different from conventional corporate research. Roughly speaking, our work ends at where corporate research starts. While researchers at a large company are working in a defined area, we are constantly pursuing ideas in the uncharted territories.

Thomas Edison and other independent inventors made significant impacts on American industries and economy. This eventually led to the establishment of major corporate research labs. However, there are several significant changes in the technology and economy. Corporate research labs alone can no longer effectively address the business needs of modern enterprises. 1) The complex nature of technology is such that disruptive technologies often come from outside the industry. 2) The complex nature of technology requires the team work of researchers from different disciplines. 3) An effective team can only be organized by management after the fundamental idea is developed. Therefore, companies with an open mind to acquire outside technologies are in a better position for growth and profit. We also see successful companies with their R&D activities more on engineering and process improvement.

On the other hand, information technology enables creative individuals and small groups to develop revolutionary ideas. This new species of knowledge-based independent inventors cross the boundaries of academic disciplines. We will see a computer scientist develops a new medicine, a biologist develops a new material, a material engineer develops a new transportation system, a transportation expert develops a cure for heart disease. Then entrepreneurs, investors, and existing companies take the ideas to commercial successes.

We perform theoretical, computational and experimental research. We use theoretical approach to investigate the possibility, computational approach for modeling and simulation, and experimental approach to actually verify the concept.

Some of the ideas are solutions to long existing problems. For example, the need for a commercially viable method to make high temperature superconducting wires has been known since the discovery of high temperature superconductors in 1986. This is the key to large scale industrial applications of superconductors. Another example is the development of Autoway, an automatic transportation system for people and light freight. This is a global solution to traffic congestion, air pollution and energy shortage.

Other ideas reflect our ability to see problems that are not so obvious to people in the industry. Before the crisis in the telecommunication industry, we have seen the problem of a location-orientd communication system. That led to the development of the idea of a people-oriented universal communication system.

Acroscape looks forward to working with investors and business leaders to commercialize these technologies. These technologies can be started small with relatively small funding and a small team, but in a few years they will grow into big businesses.