All posts tagged: Accelerator

IJCLab’s role in shaping the future of particle accelerator science

IJCLab’s role in shaping the future of particle accelerator science

Published by skeptic

Meeting the demands of future facilities requires not only technological excellence but also the ability to bridge fundamental research, innovation, and industrial implementation. At IJCLab, this integrated approach is driving key advances underpinning tomorrow’s accelerators Particle accelerators are strategic research infrastructures that underpin Europe’s scientific leadership, technological autonomy, and innovation capacity. They enable major advances across a broad spectrum of fundamental sciences – including particle and nuclear physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science – while also supporting high-impact applications in healthcare, security, environmental sustainability, and advanced technologies. Sustained investment in accelerator science and technology is therefore essential to maintaining Europe’s global competitiveness and delivering the next generation of research infrastructures. Preparation of double Spoke SFR cavities to vertical test at 2K at IJCLab. Credit IJCLab A central hub for accelerator science and innovation Within this context, the Accelerator Physics Pole at Irène Joliot-Curie Laboratory (IJCLab), in Orsay, France, occupies a unique strategic position. Fully dedicated to the study, design, and development of particle accelerators, it brings together a critical mass of expertise spanning the full …

Google, Accel India accelerator choses 5 startups and none are ‘AI wrappers’

Google, Accel India accelerator choses 5 startups and none are ‘AI wrappers’

Published by skeptic

Many artificial intelligence startup ideas are still little more than superficial “wrappers” built on top of existing models. But as the AI model makers add more features, investors are wary of startups that could become so easily unnecessary. Case in point: when reviewing more 4,000 applications for the joint AI accelerator for India startups run by Google and venture firm Accel, “wrapper” ideas dominated. But none of them were among the five startups for the latest cohort, Accel partner Prayank Swaroop told TechCrunch (pictured above). Announced in November, the AI-focused Atoms program by Google and Accel aims to back early-stage startups building AI products linked to India. Startups selected for the latest cohort will receive up to $2 million in funding from Accel and Google’s AI Futures Fund, along with up to $350,000 in cloud and AI compute credits from Google, the firms said. Roughly 70% of the rejected applications were “wrappers” — startups that layered AI features such as chatbots on top of existing software but “were not reimagining new workflows using AI,” Swaroop …

Ali Partovi’s Neo looks to upend the accelerator model with low-dilution terms

Ali Partovi’s Neo looks to upend the accelerator model with low-dilution terms

Published by skeptic

For the most sought-after founders, the prestige of a top-tier accelerator is increasingly weighed against giving up a significant ownership stake in their company.  Ali Partovi, the veteran investor and CEO of venture firm Neo, wants to offer the mentorship and community of one of the most elite accelerator programs—without forcing the best up-and-coming tech leaders to hand over 7% or even 10% of their company before they’ve even started. Partovi, who is known for his early investments in Facebook, Cursor, and Kalshi, has just introduced Neo Residency, a new, competitively structured program that combines the firm’s now four-year-old accelerator with a track for current college students. The terms that Neo Residency offers are so founder-friendly as to be “not even comparable to any other accelerator,” Partovi told TechCrunch. For the cohort of 12 to 15 startups entering the program this summer, Neo will invest $750,000 via an uncapped SAFE — a contract that gives an investor future equity in exchange for money now, with no ceiling on the valuation used to calculate that stake. …

How to get into a16z’s super-competitive Speedrun startup accelerator program

How to get into a16z’s super-competitive Speedrun startup accelerator program

Published by skeptic

Without a doubt, one of the hottest new startup accelerators in tech right now is Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun program. Launched in 2023, the accelerator has an acceptance rate of less than 1%. In a January blog post, the program said that over 19,000 startups pitched and fewer than 0.4% were accepted into the latest cohort.  The program used to focus on gaming startups, then expanded into entertainment and media, and is now a “horizontal program,” Joshua Lu, the program’s general manager and a partner at a16z, told TechCrunch. Today, founders of any type of startup can apply, and the program runs for about 12 weeks in San Francisco. It once had a program in Los Angeles, but Lu said the focus will be on SF from now on.  There are two cohorts a year, and around 50 to 70 startups are accepted into each. The program invests up to $1 million into each company, though the downside is that it’s a bit pricey. It typically invests $500,000 up front in exchange for 10% of the …

AI Industry Rivals Are Teaming Up on a Startup Accelerator

AI Industry Rivals Are Teaming Up on a Startup Accelerator

Published by skeptic

The largest western AI labs are taking a break from sniping at one another to partner on a new accelerator program for European startups building applications on top of their models. Paris-based incubator Station F will run the program, named F/ai. On Tuesday, Station F announced it had partnered with Meta, Microsoft, Google, Anthropic, OpenAI and Mistral, which it says marks the first time the firms are all participating in a single accelerator. Other partners include cloud and semiconductor companies AWS, AMD, Qualcomm, and OVH Cloud. An accelerator is effectively a crash course for early-stage startups, whereby founders attend classes and lectures, consult with specialists, and receive introductions to potential investors and customers. The broad aim is to help startups bring ideas to market as quickly as possible. The 20 startups in each F/ai cohort will undergo a curriculum geared specifically toward helping European AI startups generate revenue earlier in their lifecycle, in turn making it easier to secure the funding required to expand into the largest global markets. “We’re focusing on rapid commercialization,” says …

SpaceX Is Building Its Own Particle Accelerator

SpaceX Is Building Its Own Particle Accelerator

Published by José Betancourt

The Sun unleashes a torrent of charged particles. Some of them slam into the Earth’s atmosphere, triggering breathtaking auroras in the night sky. But for equipment that’s orbiting our planet in outer space, solar weather can quickly turn into a major headache. The particles have been shown to wreak havoc on the on-board electronics of satellites, endangering their mission and longevity. As part of an effort to bring the study and testing of the phenomenon in-house, SpaceX is now developing its own particle accelerator in Florida. The planned facility is a cyclotron, which can accelerate individual protons to near the speed of light, allowing them to study how radiation affects their spacecraft, including its broadband-beaming Starlink satellites. SpaceX’s VP of Starlink, Michael Nicolls, confirmed the news in a tweet last week, announcing that the company is “hiring elite engineers at our new 230 [Meta-electronvolt] cyclotron facility in Florida, where we are bringing single-event radiation testing in house to accelerate development across all SpaceX vehicles.” (Meta-electronvolts, or MeV, are a commonly-used unit to measure the amount …