Marcelo WiermannContributor

Recruiting a winning engineering team can be intimidating, especially for first-time and non-technical founders.

Ive served at multiple startups and established tech companies worldwide, and have hired more than 100 engineers. Recruiting great engineers involves four main challenges:

Finding good engineers is a lengthy subject in itself, and there is plenty of information on how to structure offers, so lets focus on how to engage and assess great candidates.

I have identified a few startup-specific tactics that you can apply immediately even if you do not have a technical background.

You need to earn the attention of good candidates. Lets skip the basics like getting an introduction through your network or running engaging LinkedIn and StackOverflow ads.

You are targeting the top 25% of engineers, which puts you in direct competition with the best recruiters in the industry. Because engineers are approached by recruiters all the time, they have become wary of them. This gives you an immediate advantage as a founder or startup manager.

Think of your opening message as a pitch and make it interesting for them: Talk about the magnitude of the problem you are solving and the impact they could have; tell them about the cutting edge tech you are using, and how they will have the freedom to shape the companys future. Dont overdo it, but dont make it sound like they would be exchanging one cubicle for another, either.

Most people youre reaching out to are probably not looking for a job, so do not approach them with a dry copy-and-pasted invitation to apply. Look at their profiles, which communities they belong to, their interests, skills, backgrounds, who they follow, their GitHub profiles, etc.

Personalize your pitch accordingly and tell them why they are an excellent fit for your company and vice-versa.

Poor hiring choices can set a project back by months even permanently and generate tons of technical debt. Experienced engineering managers are probably familiar with tech hiring, but non-technical founders and technical founders with no management experience should learn two ground rules first:

You also want to answer two fundamental questions:

See more here:

How to hire great engineers when you don't have any technical expertise - TechCrunch

If you work in software development, you probably don't think much about the carbon footprint of the lines of code that you write. Outside of specific niches, such as applications for the blockchain, the energy consumption of software tends to receive little attention.

But the fact is that software does have a significant impact on energy consumption and, by extension, environmental sustainability. Realizing this, a small but growing number of developers are embracing what's known as sustainable software engineering.

Related: How IT Operations Sustainability Efforts Can Make a Difference

Here's what sustainable software engineering means, why it's important, and how you can adopt its principles.

Sustainable software engineering (or sustainable software development) is an approach to software design, implementation, and deployment that emphasizes energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. The goal of sustainable software is to minimize the impact that applications, and the infrastructure that hosts them, have on the planet.

Related: Devising a Green Cloud Computing Strategy

Sustainable software engineering techniques must be tailored to each application and use case; there is no one-size-fits-all formula to follow to build sustainable software.

In general, however, sustainable software engineering requires developers to focus on:

If you're a sustainable software developer, you make considerations like these central to your overall software development strategy.

One of the great things about building sustainable software is that it doesn't usually cost any more than software development processes that don't prioritize sustainability. On the contrary, it can save money in the long run by reducing your software hosting costs.

There may be some upfront costs associated with turning to sustainable software engineering practices; you may, for example, have to invest in development resources in order to refactor applications to run inside containers, or to rearchitect inefficient applications. But these efforts are likely to pay for themselves by leading to lower overall hosting bills once your applications are made more efficient.

Microsoft calls sustainable software engineering an "emerging discipline," which it is. Although conversations about the environmental impact of public clouds and the data center industry have been happening for several years, discussion of the role of software as opposed to hardware in the sustainability of the IT industry is relatively new.

Still, it's a safe bet that sustainable software development will become an increasingly hot topic in coming years, as more and more companies look for strategies to become more eco-friendly at all layers of the technology stack not just hardware.

In that sense, every business that builds software (which is, of course, virtually every business today, if you believe the popular mantra that every company is a software company) can benefit from sustainable software engineering.

Sustainable development practices are one way for companies to become more ecologically and socially responsible. Customers are likely to appreciate these efforts, too.

Plus, as noted above, sustainable software engineering tends in most cases to reduce overall IT hosting costs. You're likely to spend less on servers or cloud services when your applications run as efficiently as possible.

So, sustainable software engineering is a win-win: It's better for the environment, and it's better for your business's bottom line. Even the most cold-hearted CEO can get on board with that.

Continue reading here:

What Is Sustainable Software Engineering, and Who Needs It? - ITPro Today

Photos by Russell Cothren, University Relations

Xianghong Qian and Ranil Wickramasinghe.

Xianghong Qian and Ranil Wickramasinghe first met in 1991 through a mutual friend and classmate, respectively. At the time, Wickramasinghe was earning his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota, and Qian was earning her Ph.D. in physical and theoretical chemistry at George Washington University. They hit it off and married in 1996, while still residing in separate states. It wasn't until 2000 that they finally resided in the same city at the same time fully nine years after they met and four after they married.

This illustrates the challenging life of the itinerant academic in pursuit of the next degree, the next postdoctoral opportunity, the next academic appointment. It's all the more challenging for immigrants far from home, who lack the family support, social network and professional contacts an American-born academic may have.

While the couple found a home at Colorado State University for several years, it wasn't until 2011, when Wickramasinghe became one of the first two Arkansas Research Alliance Scholars, that they really found a lasting home in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Wickramasinghe was named the Ross E. Martin Chair in Emerging Technologies in the Department of Chemical Engineering while Qian was awarded the Robert E. Babcock Sr. Professorship in Chemical Engineering, though she moved to the biomedical engineering department two years later. She noted that both spouses in the same department can be limiting, "because people can see you as one entity, not as separate entities, so that can make you feel not as relevant." By moving to biomedical engineering, Qian was able to forge her own professional identity.

And that was when the couple's professional collaboration truly kicked into high gear. Their catalytic membrane reactor for biomass conversion to biofuel was funded by the National Science Foundation in 2013. They filed their first patent in 2015, with five more coming since then (only one, filed last year, is still pending). They have also published roughly 60 papers together, mostly in the last 10 years, and founded a company based on their research, SIEV Technologies. While both still have separate research interests, now and in the past, the primary focus of their work together is in membrane science and engineering.

Wickramasinghe is the executive director of the Membrane, Science, Engineering and Technology Center, a cooperative research center currently consisting of four affiliate universities. Broadly stated, his research focuses on synthetic membrane-based separation processes for purification of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, the treatment and reuse of water, and for the production of biofuels.

Wickramasinghe noted that when he was a doctoral student, he had an adviser that he "got on very well with. He was quite a unique character at the university. The first project was very interesting because it was on designing blood oxygenators for open heart surgery."

From there Wickramasinghe worked in private industry for five years, designing membranes with biomedical applications. Once he moved to Colorado State University, his work took a more environmental turn, including better ways to recycle and reuse water as well as the design of catalytic membranes to convert waste biomass into bio-based products.

It took Qian a little longer to get into membrane research, mostly focusing on it since her arrival in Arkansas, though when she was in Colorado she spent some time working on biomass conversion at the Nation Renewable Energy Lab in Golden. She is an expert at using computational chemistry methods, including discovery of a new catalyst that can convert biomass to sugars that are then fermented into biofuel. More recently, she has studied purification methods for biopharmaceuticals. In particular, Qian is developing cost-effective methods to recover and purify virus particles for applications in gene therapy and viral vaccines. This work has the potential to reduce the cost and time required to bring these emerging therapeutics to the market. She is also a site co-director of the MAST Center, along with Wickramasinghe.

Andrew Zydney, a chemical engineering professor at Pennsylvania State University, recently joined the MAST Center as PSU's site director. "I was particularly impressed with the work that Ranil and Xianghong had done to increase the scope of the center by adding several biopharmaceutical companies to the Industry Advisory Board," Zydney explained. "My own research is focused on the applications of membranes in bioprocessing, so the opportunity to join the center, and to collaborate on projects with Ranil and Xianghong, was very exciting. Joining the MAST Center has been a great experience, and Ranil's leadership has been absolutely critical to the center's success."

In the simplest terms, Qian focuses on catalyst design while Wickramasinghe focuses on membrane separation. After being mixed with a catalyzing agent, biomass, like corn fiber, is broken down in a reactor, and then pushed through a membrane, separating out the biofuel. Their goal is to identify the best catalyzing agent as well as the best membrane design. The membranes (see photo) are actually ceramic tubes made of silicon oxide, and can be bundled together as needed to increase output.

That's the underlying research behind SIEV Technologies, a catalytic membrane reactor design company founded by the researchers in 2020. Last year, the fledging company was awarded a $256,000 Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop technology that improves biofuel production. The grant will enable SIEV to continue developing its business model as well as its technology. SIEV will initially focus on ethanol production. While there are only around 200 ethanol production plants in the country, Wickramasinghe described it as "a beachhead market, representing the shortest path to commercialization for the company."

David Hurley, an engineer with SIEV, moved to Fayetteville from southern Ohio. He said that when he was considering the job, he was looking at a number of positions across the country and didn't want to take the first job offer. His decision would be based on three things he thought were important: "The job needed technology that seemed viable; it needed what were clearly highly renowned experts in their field, and it needed the right team." Hurley felt the first two were in place, but the third was still coming together. But what finally sold him was "I heard one of them say 'y'all' and thought, 'I'm not going to be judged for my accent if I go there.'" He signed on in September of 2021.

With so many mutual interests, it can be a challenge to separate work from home, especially when they may have spent the day in different labs, working on problems of mutual interest. One thing they like to do is take trips that are not work related. They also have a son, Aroshe, who has enabled Qian to slow down and delve deeper into U.S. culture as Aroshe has grown into an American teenager.

While the couple have settled into Northwest Arkansas the longest they have lived anywhere in the U.S. being immigrants can still be challenging. Wickramasinghe was born in Sri Lanka, but grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where his father, who was a surgeon, did his residency. Qian was born and raised in Wuxi, China. All of their parents still live in their home countries, though they are all around the age of 90, which makes their ability to travel to the U.S. more difficult. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a family vacation might involve Wickramasinghe taking Aroshe to Australia for a visit, then flying to China to meetup up with Qian and her family. Needless to say, pandemic has made getting around more difficult, especially for a couple who enjoy travel.

Ultimately, the couple see themselves as having different but complementary strengths. Qian is the theoretical thinker, Wickramasinghe the practical engineer, picking out the most workable ideas. Qian explains, "As a theoretician, I like brainstorming ideas. Sometimes when I am talking out loud, I don't even think about trying to do something. But I can remember a lot of things Ranil actually put into plans. He's very good at execution."

Ranil Wickramasinghe, left, and Xianghong Qian hold ceramic membranes,tubes made of silicon oxide.

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Spouses, Colleagues and Business Partners | University of Arkansas - University of Arkansas Newswire

Born from a collaboration between Off-White and teenage engineering, the Capsule Collection is a line of clothing items as well as an orange, transparent shoulder bag that is custom-fitted to store teenage engineerings OB4 loudspeaker.

Swedish consumer electronics company and manufacturer teenage engineering is known for its extensive catalog of electronics and synthesizers, including its core product the OP1 as well as instant cameras. One of their more recent electronic loudspeakers, the OB4, is a portable, hi-fi loudspeaker that memorizes everything you play on an endless loop. In a recent project with Off White that honors our collaboration with late friend and partner, Virgil Abloh, the duo designed a collection of clothing items that range from a shirt and hoodie to cargo pants and a carry bag made specifically to store OB4 loudspeaker.

Designers: Off-White x teenage engineering

Dubbed the Capsule Collection, teenage engineering describes the collaboration, Designed by Off-White exclusively for our collaboration, the collection includes a transparent orange carry bag for OB4, t-shirt, hoodie, and a multipocketed white bomber jacket and cargo pant setfeaturing custom pockets to fit teenage engineering devices. Strewn all over the bomber jackets arms and midsection, custom-fitted pockets provide ample storage for everyday items as well as teenage engineering electronic products, like instant cameras and synthesizers.

While the bomber jacket is currently sold out on teenage engineerings website, the other pieces of Capsule Collection are still available and feature custom-fitted pockets as well. The off-white cargo pants belong to the same set as the bomber jacket, featuring similarly sized pockets all over the pants front and sides. Then, the transparent vinyl orange shoulder bag is the perfect size to carry teenage engineerings OB4 loudspeaker.

Read more here:

Off-White collaborated with teenage engineering to design a collection of clothing items that honor Virgil Abl - Yanko Design

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Dublin, March 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Synthetic Biology: Protein Design and Engineering Market by Type of Protein Engineering Approach Used, Type of Protein, Type of Application, Type of End User and Key Geographies: Industry Trends and Global Forecasts, 2022-2035" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report features an extensive study of the current market landscape and future potential of the protein design and engineering services and technology providers. The study features an in-depth analysis, highlighting the capabilities of protein design and engineering services and technology providers engaged in this domain.

Over the past few years, protein-based therapeutics, including peptides, hormones, vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, blood factors and therapeutic enzymes, have gained a lot of attention from clinical researchers engaged in the field of drug development. The success of these therapeutics can be attributed to the various clinical benefits offered by such products, such as high target specificity, low toxicity and favorable safety profiles. It is worth mentioning that, at present, the protein / peptide therapeutic pipeline features over 345 product candidates, which are being evaluated across more than 1,500 clinical trials worldwide. Further, over 55 such therapies have already been marketed to treat multiple therapeutic indications.

However, developing a protein based therapeutic is often fraught with several challenges, such as short half-life and poor chemical and physical stability. To overcome the aforementioned challenges as well as enable the development of therapeutic proteins with improved characteristics, researchers have identified various protein design and engineering techniques. Engineering a protein is a complex multistep process which requires high-throughput techniques and screening procedures. Additionally, it is a time and cost intensive process. Therefore, innovators in the pharmaceutical industry are constantly identifying / developing ways to improve the process of protein engineering.

Amidst other alternatives, outsourcing protein design and engineering process to a specialized service provider, having the required capability, has emerged as a viable option for various protein / peptide therapeutic developers. Presently, over 85 protein design / protein engineering service providers, along with technology providers, are actively supporting the development of novel protein / peptide therapeutics. The growing interest of pharmaceutical stakeholders in this field is also reflected from the recent rise in partnership activity related to protein design and engineering.

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Additionally, over 550 patents related to protein design and engineering techniques have been filed / granted in the past few years, demonstrating the continued innovation being carried out in this domain. Driven by the growing demand for therapeutic proteins for personalized medicine and advancement in protein engineering tools, this market is anticipated to witness steady growth in the coming years.Amongst other elements, the report features:

A detailed review of the overall landscape of companies offering protein design and engineering services to various organizations, including pharma / biotech firms, CROs and research / academic institutes, along with analysis based on various relevant parameters, such as year of establishment, company size (in terms of employee count) and location of headquarters. The chapter also provides details related to protein design and engineering service(s) offered (protein sequencing, protein library generation, protein screening, protein characterization, protein purification, de-novo protein synthesis and in-silico analysis), additional services offered (protein expression, drug discovery, protein-protein interaction analysis, protein identification, bio imaging of proteins, protein extraction and biological pathway identification), type of protein engineering approach used (directed evolution, rational designing and semi- rational designing), type of protein (antibodies, enzymes, peptides, vaccines and others), type of application (therapeutics and diagnostics) and type of protein expression (cell surface and cell free).

A competitiveness analysis of protein design and engineering service providers, segmented into three categories, namely small (1-50 employees), mid-sized (51-500 employees), and large companies (>500 employees). Within the peer group, companies were ranked based on various relevant parameters, such as supplier power (based on the experience) and company competitiveness (based on parameters, such as number of protein design and engineering services offered, type of technique used, type of protein engineering approach used, number of additional services offered, application areas and type of protein expression).

Elaborate profiles of key players that are engaged in offering services for protein design and engineering. Each profile features a brief overview of the company (including information on year of establishment, number of employees, location of headquarters and key executives), financial information (if available), information on services offered, recent developments and an informed future outlook.

A detailed assessment of the current market landscape of protein design and engineering technology providers, featuring analysis based on several parameters, such as year of establishment, company size (in terms of employee count) and location of headquarters. In addition, the chapter highlights an in-depth analysis of various protein design and engineering technologies based on type of protein design and engineering service(s) supported (protein sequencing, protein library generation, protein screening, protein characterization, de novo protein synthesis and in-silico analysis), additional services supported (drug discovery, protein-protein interaction analysis and protein expression), type of protein engineering approach used (rational designing, directed evolution and semi-rational designing), type of protein (proteins / peptides, antibodies, enzymes, cytokines and viruses) and type of application (therapeutics and diagnostics).

An insightful 22 matrix representation of the competitiveness analysis of various protein design and engineering technologies segregated into two peer groups based on the company size of their respective technology provider, namely small (1-50 employees) and mid-sized companies (51-500 employees). Within the peer group, technologies were ranked based on various relevant parameters, such as supplier power (based on the experience of the technology provider) and technology competitiveness (based on parameters, including number of protein design and engineering services supported, number of additional services supported, type of protein and type of application).

Elaborate profiles of key players that are engaged in offering technologies for protein design and engineering. Each profile features a brief overview of the company (including information on year of establishment, number of employees, location of headquarters and key executives), financial information (if available), information on technology offered, recent developments and an informed future outlook.

An analysis of the partnerships that have been inked by stakeholders engaged in this domain, during the period 2017-2021, covering R&D agreements, technology licensing agreements, product development and commercialization agreements, research agreements, service alliances, product development agreements, acquisitions / mergers, technology / software development agreements and other related agreements.

An in-depth analysis of over 130 protein / peptide based therapy developers that are likely to partner with protein design and engineering services and technology providers, based on several relevant parameters, such as developer strength (based on company size and its experience), pipeline strength (based on the number of drugs in pipeline and their stage of development and therapeutic area).

An in-depth analysis of over 550 patents filed / granted related to protein design and engineering, till 2021. The instances have been analyzed based on various relevant parameters, such as type of patent, application year, publication year, regional applicability, CPC symbols, emerging focus areas, type of applicant, leading patent assignees (in terms of number of patents filed / granted), patent benchmarking and valuation.

Key Questions Answered

Who are the leading players engaged in providing protein design and engineering services?

What is the relative competitiveness of different protein design and engineering service providers?

What are the popular types of protein design and engineering technologies available in the market?

What types of partnership models are commonly being adopted by stakeholders in this industry?

How is the intellectual property landscape in this field likely to evolve in the foreseen future?

Which are the most active clinical trial centers?

What are the major market trends and driving factors that are likely to impact the growth of protein design and engineering market?

How is the current and future market opportunity likely to be distributed across key market segments?

Key Topics Covered:

1. PREFACE

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

3. INTRODUCTION

4. MARKET LANDSCAPE: PROTEIN DESIGN AND ENGINEERING SERVICE PROVIDERS

5. PROTEIN DESIGN AND ENGINEERING SERVICE PROVIDERS: COMPANY COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS

6. COMPANY PROFILES: PROTEIN DESIGN AND ENGINEERING SERVICE PROVIDERS IN NORTH AMERICA6.1. Chapter Overview6.2. ATUM6.2.1. Company Overview6.2.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings6.2.3. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies6.2.4. Recent Developments and Future Outlook6.3. Creative BioMart6.3.1. Company Overview6.3.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings6.3.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook6.4. Creative Biostructure6.4.1. Company Overview6.4.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings6.4.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook6.5. Creative Enzymes6.5.1. Company Overview6.5.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings6.5.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook

7. COMPANY PROFILES: PROTEIN DESIGN AND ENGINEERING SERVICE PROVIDERS IN EUROPE7.1. Chapter Overview7.1. Absolute Antibody7.1.1. Company Overview7.1.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings7.1.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook7.2. EUCODIS Bioscience7.2.1. Company Overview7.2.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings7.2.3. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies7.2.4. Recent Developments and Future Outlook7.3. Fusion Antibodies7.3.1. Company Overview7.3.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings7.3.3. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies7.3.4. Financial Information7.3.5. Recent Developments and Future Outlook7.4. Innovagen7.4.1. Company Overview7.4.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings7.4.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook7.5. ZYMVOL7.5.1. Company Overview7.5.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings7.5.3. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies7.5.4. Recent Developments and Future Outlook

8. COMPANY PROFILES: PROTEIN DESIGN AND ENGINEERING SERVICE PROVIDERS IN ASIA PACIFIC8.1. Chapter Overview8.2. Averring Biotech8.2.1. Company Overview8.2.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings8.2.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook8.3. EnzymeWorks8.3.1. Company Overview8.3.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings8.3.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook8.4. GeNext Genomics8.4.1. Company Overview8.4.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings8.4.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook8.5. Quantumzyme8.5.1. Company Overview8.5.2. Protein Design and Engineering Service Offerings8.5.3. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies8.5.4. Recent Developments and Future Outlook

9. MARKET LANDSCAPE: PROTEIN DESIGN AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS

10. PROTEIN DESIGN AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES: COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS

11. COMPANY PROFILES: PROTEIN DESIGN AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS11.1. Chapter Overview11.2. Arzeda11.2.1. Company Overview11.2.2. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies11.2.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook11.3. Cyrus Biotechnology11.3.1. Company Overview11.3.2. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies11.3.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook11.4. Enzymaster11.4.1. Company Overview11.4.2. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies11.4.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook11.5. Innovative Targeting Solutions11.5.1. Company Overview11.5.2. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies11.5.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook11.6. Proteus11.6.1. Company Overview11.6.2. Protein Design and Engineering Technologies11.6.3. Recent Developments and Future Outlook

12. PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS

13. LIKELY PARTNERS ANALYSIS

14. PATENT ANALYSIS

15. CLINICAL TRIAL ANALYSIS

16. CASE STUDY: NOVEL PEPTIDE THERAPEUTICS

17. MARKET FORECAST AND OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS

18. CONCLUDING REMARKS

19. EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS

20. APPENDIX 1: TABULATED DATA

21. APPENDIX 2: LIST OF COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6weam4

Read more:

Outlook on the Synthetic Biology: Protein Design and Engineering Global Market to 2035 - Industry Trends and Forecasts - Yahoo Finance