Tech Tuesday: Using Behavioural Science to Solve Wicked Problems

This week's theme seems to be intelligent and adaptive behaviour applied in two very different contexts. Opower uses behavioural science to help consumers reduce their energy consumption and reduce overall co2 emissions. NetQin's technology uses intelligent learning to help defend mobile users against harmful files and viruses.

Tech Tuesday is an on-going series profiling the Forum’s Technology Pioneers. The Tech Pioneers are companies that have been recognized by the Forum for ground-breaking and innovative approaches in tackling some of the world’s most wicked problems. Each week leading up to the Annual Meeting in Davos, we will be showcasing some of the 2011 Tech Pioneers. You can learn more about the Technology Pioneer Program on the Forum's website.

 

1.    Energy and Environment:  Behavioural Science for Smarter Consumption

The Wicked Problem:

According to Wikipedia: Human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation have caused the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide to increase by about 35% since the beginning of the age of industrialization.

The Tech Pioneer: OPOWER

Location: Arlington, VA, USA

Number of employees: 100

Year Founded: 2007

Origins: Entrepreneurial start-up

 

The Wicked Solution: 

OPOWER is changing the way people interact with their utilities and as a consequence achieving energy efficiency on a large scale. If its system were used nationwide, the company estimates that it could save enough energy to power more than 3 million homes, reduce CO2 emissions by 31 million metric tons and save customers US$ 5 billion on their energy bills each year.

OPOWER has designed a behaviour-based, energy- efficiency program that helps utilities motivate their customers to save energy. The company’s analytics engine uses patent-pending algorithms to extract insights from energy use patterns. Instead of just showing customers their monthly, daily or hourly use data, OPOWER analyses the data and works with a behavioural scientist to provide motivating insights, such as “You use more energy on cooling than your neighbours.” The company then provides actionable suggestions tailored to each customer on how to become more energy-efficient.

The platform, which is hosted on OPOWER's servers, can process millions of electric meter reads every hour. Without any devices installed in the home, it performs pattern recognition analysis to derive actionable insights about an individual's energy consumption. It reaches out to utility’s customers in the mail through home energy reports, online through a suite of Web-based tools and on the phone through a customer service representative portal and text message alerts. The company is working with 36 US utilities, including six of the country's 10 largest, and has expanded into Canada.

 

2.    Information Technologies and New Media: Protecting Mobile Phones

The Wicked Problem: 

Today’s smart phones are tiny computers, complete with operating systems, storage and wireless access to company’s internal networks, making them an enticing target for hackers and Internet criminals.

The Tech Pioneer: NetQin

Location: Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Number of employees: 310

Year Founded: 2005

Origins: Entrepreneurial start-up

 

The Wicked Solution:

Based on a cloud security platform, NetQin delivers mobile security services, including anti-virus, anti-spam, privacy protection, data backup and restoration, and online virus scan to 51.5 million users worldwide. The company controls 68% of the market in China for mobile security – it is the only provider of anti-spamming service to China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator − but some 30% of its user base is outside of China.

NetQin’s intelligent semantic analysis anti-spam filter engine can analyse the semantics of a text message and identify spam messages automatically. It is also capable of adaptive learning from the spam SMS messages contributed by users. Its virus scan engine was conceived for mobile phones, so it uses low power consumption and does not impact normal phone function when scanning.

Each time NetQin’s users access its services they contribute security knowledge about viruses, spam and phishing to the platform, which is passed on to the community, meaning the more users, the more valuable the platform is. Users can sign up via NetQin’s website, through operators such as China Mobile or through preloaded mobile devices made by device makers such as Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Huawei, Samsung and Lenovo.

The company’s heavy investment in R&D has resulted in 23 patented and patent-pending technologies, giving the company a leading edge in the burgeoning mobile security market.

 

Know an innovative start-up that’s solving a wicked problem? Nominate them.