Photo Credit: Bret Ancowitz, M.D

It doesn’t get cooler than the intersection of Info-Tech and Clean-Tech.

Providence-based Alektrona is dedicated to shaking up the smart grid industry. Who better than five former APC electrical and computer engineers to tackle the hairy problem of integrating a home’s energy-consuming appliances in the interest of convenience, comfort and – most importantly – energy savings. (Yes, you’ll be able to adjust your RI thermostat from a Caribbean beach using your smartphone.)

At the May Geek Dinner, CEO Christopher Leidigh and team will give an overview of the evolving smart grid, tell the inspiring story of Alektrona, and demo their innovative Cloud Based Energy Management Platform and Z-Aperture Energy Hub.

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

Charlie Kroll, CEO of Andera, joined us at the last Providence Geek Dinner to give us an overview of the company, a demo of its technology platform, and a rare sneak peek into where they are headed. I caught up with him after his talk for this video.

[Video link]

Photo Credit: Eric Harrison via Greater City: Providence

We’ve been trying to get Andera CEO Charlie Kroll to present at a Geek Dinner for almost four years now. Therefore, we count the April Geek Dinner as a personal victory – please come celebrate with us. :-)

In 2000 Charlie Kroll founded Andera in his dorm room at Brown. In 2001, they pioneered online account opening and funding technology with the industry’s first real-time account opening transaction. Today, with over 500 financial institutions as customers, Andera is the nation’s #1 provider.

From its Westminster Street headquarters, Team Andera is over 60 strong. And on the heels of raising $10.5 million in fresh venture capital, Charlie has recently announced plans to aggressively grow the team upwards of 100, and to expand into some exciting new directions.
At Wednesday’s Geek Dinner, Charlie and his engineering team will give an overview of the company, a demo of its technology platform, and a rare sneak peek into where they are headed.
See you there!

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

At the March 2011 Providence Geek Dinner, Jan Hesthaven of ICERM (Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics) gave us an overview of the institute’s mission, explained some ways that they’ll be reaching out to the community, and helped us understand what this all means for the geek community. I caught up with Jan after his talk and we recorded this short video. [Video link]

To my mind ICERM is the biggest – and yet, still largely unknown  - local Geek news of the year.

This past summer Brown won a highly competitive $15.5 million award from the National Science Foundation to form a national mathematics research institute — one of only eight in the nation — where scholars from around the world will come to explore the intersection between computation and mathematics.

ICERM (Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics) will officially open this fall in the renovated top 2 (amazing) floors of 121 South Main Street.

Don’t miss this!

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.