Interview

Dad:

1.       His company is “Solutions Plus LLC”, and works within the VA (Veterans Administration) health care system.

2.       He is the owner/consultant.

3.       They do health care, performance improvement consulting.

4.       He got a Master’s in business and administration.

5.       Yes he enjoys his job, and is happy when he is getting ready to go to work.

Mom:

1.       She works at Ford Motor Company, (Dearborn, MI)

2.       She is a market research manager.

3.       She does market research, surveying car customers about their values and attitudes to help the company update and develop new vehicles.

4.       A four year college degree is necessary and she also got a master’s degree in business and administration.

      5. Yes, she enjoys her job so she looks forward to going to work most days.

Emerging Technology Part 1

     Ultra-Efficient Solar is about solar panels and the growing urge to make them more widespread. To do this, they also need to be much cheaper than what they are, as well as more efficient. Semprius, a solar company, have discovered and made solar panels which converts almost 34 percent of the light that hits the panels into electricity. The previous record was about 23 percent. But Semprius' panels use a new material called gallium arsenide, which is more efficient than the standard semiconductor, silicon. But, gallium arsenide is much more expensive than silicon. So, Semprius is trying to figure out ways to make up for the cost of the gallium arsenide. Some of these ways include shrinking it's solar cells, and putting the cells under glass lenses which concentrate the sunlight about 1,100 times. Even if Semprius can make their highly efficient panels more affordable, solar panels are still purely dependant on sunlight, which is something we cannot control. But, even so, Semprius hopes to expand to producing 30 megawatts by the end of 2013.
     What surprised me the most is the advances in solar panels and possibility of creating greener ways to mass-produce electricity in just a few years. The possibilities of this product are replacing fossil fuel and natural gas power plants entirely across the country likely within the next decade or two.
     Back in 2009, the Siri personal assistant was an emerging technology. Now, just within the past year or two, Siri is becoming more of a widespread technology. It is used mostly/especially in all iphone models now.