Starlab

:"Not to be confused with the Starlab Group or S.T.A.R. Labs."

Starlab NV/SA was a multidisciplinary, [http://web.archive.org/web/20010814101840/http://starlab.org/about/beliefs/beliefscontent/01/01TowardsBlue.php3 blue sky] research institute established to serve as an incubator for long-term and basic research in the spirit of Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, [http://archive.salon.com/tech/log/2000/04/22/interval/ Interval Research] and MIT Media Lab. The laboratory's open and cross-disciplinary culture has been oft-cited (see media coverage, below) as an innovative effort to foster creativity between researchers, intended as an original, if ambitious, dream to create a utopian environment for the pursuit of forward-thinking scientific research. Starlab's primary headquarters were based in Brussels, Belgium from 1996-2001 – with a second base of operations, [http://starlab.es Starlab Barcelona] – established in July 2000 and still active today in the Fabra Observatory atop the mountains outside Barcelona, Spain.

Research culture

At its peak, Starlab employed over 130 scientists from thirty-six nationalities, many of them leaders in their respective fields. Projects actively pursued on-site included intelligent clothing, stem cell research, emotics, transarchitecture, robotics, theoretical physics, e.g., the possibility of time travel, consciousness, quantum computation, quantum information, art, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, new media, biophysics, materials science, protein folding, nanoelectronics, and wearable computing, to mention a few. These research lines were grouped under the acronym "BANG," Bits, Atoms, Neurons, Genes – a theme subsequently adopted by MIT Media Lab in 2002.

Starlab's academic research partners included MIT, Oxford University, and Ghent University. The lab sponsored the Center for Quantum Computation at Oxford University, Merton College, the MIT Media Lab Digital Life Consortium, and organized several international conferences and open research symposia to stimulate cross-pollination between scientists.

Funding and consortia

Starlab's principal investors included venture capitalist Walter de Brouwer, founder and chief executive officer, MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte, and [http://www.tornado-insider.com/radar/compShow.asp?compID=2982 Pythagorus] investment fund manager Johan Konings. European Union [http://cordis.europa.eu/ist/fet/pr.htm Presence II] initiative coordinator [http://cordis.europa.eu/ist/fet/wv-00.htm Walter Van de Velde] served as chief scientific officer. Giulio Ruffini continues to serve as scientific officer for Starlab's Barcelona division.

Much like the funding model employed by MIT Media Lab, academic and corporate partners received shared intellectual property rights to research and patents generated by the lab. Consortia members and sponsors included local and national governments, international corporations and private investors including NASA, the United States Air Force, the National Science Foundation, Levi Strauss, France Telecom, Adidas, Siemens, Philips, Energizer, Samsonite, Nokia, the [http://www.ina.fr/ Institut National de l'Audiovisuel] and the European Union.

Closure and reorganization

Starlab's initial business model depended largely upon influx of third-party investment to sustain its operations. While founded in hopes drawn from late 1990s Silicon Valley technology sector optimism, reduced enthusiasm following the collapse of the Internet bubble economy and the loss of a critical group of investors forced the lab to close its doors in [http://www.tornado-insider.com/news/Article.asp?id=10433 Summer 2001] . The lab's assets were liquidated to the highest bidders, and the expansive former embassy building inhabited by the lab was purchased by the Brussels regional government for future use in local research initiatives.

The surviving research division in Barcelona, Starlab DF2, or "Deep Future 2," then adopted a radically different business strategy, focusing on specialized, direct contracts with ESA under support of the Catalan and Spanish Governments. While maintaining the interdisciplinary spirit of Starlab Brussels, Starlab Barcelona focuses on space and neuroscience technologies and applications. The lab has most recently been awarded the Barcelona Innovation prize and other related awards from [http://eolimar.com ENDESA] and BMW Innovation.

pinoffs

Much of the intellectual property generated by Starlab research projects was purchased by investors or continued on at university and research centers worldwide. Philips purchased the intellectual property rights to intelligent clothing project i-wear, which won the Avantex 2000 Innovation Prize. [http://bioprocessors.com/ Bioprocessors] , a biotechnology spinoff, successfully transitioned to Silicon Valley. An IPTV license continues to generate revenue under an anonymous purchaser. [http://Pajamanation.com Pajamanation] , a global marketplace for outsourcing microjobs, launched in fifty countries in 2006.

tarlab today

Starlab Barcelona has maintained the core values of its parent organization, albeit wih higher specialization and reduced dependence on external investment. The present-day organization focuses on applied research initiatives in space and neuroscience. Innovations to date include [http://oceanpal.com Earth Observation technology] , [http://eolimar.com Earth Observation services] , " [http://star2earth.com Star2Earth] " and " [http://starlab.es/Sections/Library/2006/Enobio04029410.pdf Enobio] ", a wireless electrophysiology sensor constructed using carbon nanotube arrays. Starlab Barcelona currently maintains an active news and announcements weblog at [http://starlab.org/ Starlab.org] ,

Media coverage

Starlab has been frequently cited by international press for its unconventional approach to scientific research, foregoing the traditional hierarchy of academic disciplines in favor of a more anarchic approach to interaction. The lab's research credos, "Deep Future" and "A place where 100 years means nothing", featured prominently in a 2001 Discovery Channel documentary. The lab has since become subject of a theatre play at the Edinburgh Festival, a Gartner [http://www.space-time.info/starlab/gartner.html case study] , and has spawned an active alumni forum on Yahoo! Groups.

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1092422.stm BBC]
* [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v412/n6842/full/412006b0.html Nature]
* [http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/11/22/etime.tech/index.html CNN]
* [http://www.time.com/time/europe/digital/2001/archive/022800_newpcs.html TIME]
* [http://www.fastcompany.com/roadshow/2000/060200.html Fastcompany]
* [http://www.space-time.info/starlab/LeMonde.html Le Monde]
* [http://www.cnet.com/4520-6022_1-102091-1.html CNET]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20010823073007/globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010402010132&query=Starlab Financial Times]
* [http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/science/starlab010409.html Radio Netherlands]
* [http://www.morgenweb.de//service/archiv/artikel/401800781.html MorgenWeb]
* [http://www.hoise.com/vmw/99/articles/vmw/LV-VM-02-99-6.html Virtual Medical Worlds]
* [http://www.admiroutes.asso.fr/larevue/2001/12/starlab.htm Admiroutes]
* [http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/dn10963-brain-activity-provides-novel-biometric-key.html New Scientist]
* [http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/6/1/17 Nanotechnology Web]

tarlab alumni

* [http://agarwala.org/ Aseem Agarwala]
* [http://altman.casimirinstitute.net/news.html Christopher Altman]
* Nikos Berdenis
* [http://students.creol.ucf.edu/ozan Ozan Cakmakci]
* [http://soggie.soti.org/ Ivo Clarysse]
* [http://www.teco.edu/~cdecker/ Christian Decker]
* [http://nm.iri.tudelft.nl/duif.html Chris Duif]
* FoAM
* [http://www.dumpville.org/ Christophe Fonteyne]
* Hugo de Garis
* Markos Georganopoulos
* [http://www.gogerty.com/ Nick Gogerty]
* Matina Halkia
* Owen Holland
* [http://people.bu.edu/jaeger Gregg Jaeger]
* Antonella Karlson
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/edinburghfestival2001/story/0,10640,538335,00.html Jack Klaff]
* Serguei Krasnikov
* [http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~kristof/ Kristof van Laerhoven]
* Petros Lenas
* [http://lindsay.at/ Adam T. Lindsay]
* [http://www.minotaur-solutions.com/ Maarten Loose]
* [http://home.wanadoo.nl/~ldp/ Leo de Penning]
* [http://starlab.es Witold Reichhart]
* [http://starlab.es Giulio Ruffini]
* [http://www.kovan.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~erol/ Erol Sahin]
* [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/G_Keith_Still/ Keith Still]
* [http://mitacs-gw.phys.ualberta.ca/~jtus/ Jack Tuszynski]
* [http://www.hybrid-state.com/ Paula Welén]
* [http://www.hybrid-state.com/ Andy Wilson]
* [http://casimirinstitute.net/zapatrin/ Roman Zapatrin]

References

* [http://www.space-time.info/starlab/starlab.mov Discovery Channel] documentary on Starlab
* [http://www.space-time.info/starlab/StarlabArchive.html Starlab Archive] maintained by physicist Chris Duif
* [http://www.starlab.es/ Starlab Barcelona] Space and Neuroscience, from technologies to applications
* [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/bitsandatoms.html MIT Center for Bits and Atoms] announcement
* [http://www.space-time.info/starlab/StarlabPublications.html Starlab publications] (incomplete listing)
* [http://www.starlab.es/Sections/Library.html Starlab Barcelona publications]