"Leonardo da Vincis Telescope - Lessons From History"

Andre Buys, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Leonardo da Vinci is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualized aircraft, the parachute, the battle tank, machine guns, clocks, the automobile, the submarine and a host of other inventions decades before they became realities. A project that investigated his work on the astronomical telescope, including a replica telescope built and tested according to his drawings and notes, will be presented. The tragedy of Leonardo lies in the fact that although he made many important discoveries in mechanical and civil engineering, astronomy, optics, hydrodynamics and anatomy, none of his work had a direct influence on later science and engineering. In conclusion, some lessons for technological innovation that can be learned from his life and work will be presented.

"Driving Innovation for IT-enabled Services"

Krishna Singh, IBM Almaden Research Center, United States

TBA