The European Information Technology Prize 1997

The 1997 European Information Technology Prizes were presented by European Commission President Jacques Santer at a ceremony in Brussels on 25 November 1997. Three grand prizes, worth ECU 200,000 each, were awarded by Mr. Santer at the ceremony held during the annual European ...

The 1997 European Information Technology Prizes were presented by European Commission President Jacques Santer at a ceremony in Brussels on 25 November 1997. Three grand prizes, worth ECU 200,000 each, were awarded by Mr. Santer at the ceremony held during the annual European Information Technology Conference (EITC'97) organized by the ESPRIT programme.

The three grand prize-winners were chosen from a short list of 25 by an independent jury chaired by Dr. Bjorn Svedberg, chairman of the board of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and of Ericsson and ABB. In total, some 319 entries were received from companies in 26 European countries and Israel, in this, the third year of the prize, which is organized jointly by ESPRIT and Euro-CASE, the European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering.

Presenting the prizes, Jacques Santer commented that, "Today, knowledge, and innovation based on knowledge, is the key source for jobs.... within what we call the Information Society. To make the most of our innovative talent, however, we need entrepreneurship and dynamism. These prizes.... give recognition to companies who display exactly that entrepreneurial spirit."

The three 1997 grand prize winners are:

- Applied Spectral Imaging (Israel) for SpectraCube: by combining spectroscopy with imaging, it allows mapping of features and materials unseen by the eye or by conventional imaging. Using a technique called SKY (spectral karyotyping) the system is able to locate and characterize genetic aberrations in chromosomes. SpectraCube is already making a major impact on cancer research, and is expected to have a similar impact on pre-natal diagnostics research.

For further information, please contact:

Applied Spectral Imaging (ASI)
Dario Cabib
Fax [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
URL: http://www.spectral-imaging.com/

- LCI Computer Group (The Netherlands) for the SMARTpen: a ball pen which contains sensors allowing the authentication of people through the biometric characteristics of their signatures on ordinary paper. Because it authenticates a person, the SMARTpen makes transactions secure and will redefine electronic commerce, particularly over the Internet. SMARTpen will have a wide range of uses, from home banking and teleshopping, to privacy protection, to converting handwriting to printed text, and has a market potential in millions of units.

For further information, please contact:

LCI Computer Group
Sam Asseer
Fax [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
URL: http://www.Lcigroup.com/

- Hyperwave (Germany) for the Hyperwave Information Server: an information management system for corporate Intranets and Web applications which meets the needs of real business applications on large public and corporate Web sites. The system is designed to allow handling of fairly large numbers of documents and links in a consistent manner, even when they are maintained independently by a number of people. Hyperwave makes the administration of large WWW databases less costly and saves time, particularly where information is subject to frequent updates and changes.

For further information, please contact:

Hyperwave Information Management
Peter Boot
Fax [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
URL: http://www.hyperwave.com/