The Two-Second Advantage by Vivek Ranadive & Kevin Maney

The Two-Second Advantage by Vivek Ranadive & Kevin Maney

Author:Vivek Ranadive & Kevin Maney [Ranadive, Vivek]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781444730814
Publisher: Hodder
Published: 2011-09-01T00:00:00+00:00


Predictive, talented systems will be built around the idea that a little bit of the right information just ahead of time can be more valuable than a boatload of information later. We’ve run into a number of companies from a range of industries that are working on that.

THE TALENTED VINEYARD

A million variables go into the making of a bottle of wine, but nothing is more influential than the amount of water in the winery’s grapevines. Yet so much of what most vintners do regarding the management and distribution of water is based on guesswork or on a database of past weather and water patterns that may—or may not—predict future patterns.

Fruition Sciences, founded in 2007 and based in California and France, puts sensors directly on grapevines. The sensors can tell a vineyard manager exactly when a plant is thirsty and how much water it requires. The data from the sensors feeds software that can predict just how sweet a winemaker’s grapes will be at harvest—a crucial factor in determining how the wine will taste and what its alcohol content will be. The system reacts to events such as weather and water levels in the vines and gives vintners a little bit of predictive insight so they can adjust and harvest grapes that will make the best wine. Fruition is, in a way, trying to reproduce the instinctive talent of a great vintner, while adding an ability to measure water levels inside the vines. Even a great vintner would have a hard time doing that.

Fruition’s cofounders bring together backgrounds in wine and technology. Thibaut Scholasch was a winemaker who saw the need for a better way to manage water in the vineyard. He earned master’s degrees in viticulture and oenology in 1997 and a master’s in winemaking in 1998, traveling the world to learn his craft. “Everywhere I found the same problem: irrigation,” Scholasch told us. “Irrigation was a big issue in Tasmania, in Victoria, in Argentina, in Chile. In the U.S., I got hired by Robert Mondavi. Instead of becoming a winemaker, I transitioned to working on how irrigation processes could be managed in winemaking.”80

Sébastien Payen started out as a mechanical engineer dabbling in biotechnology and the use of sensors. He earned an engineering degree in France, served a year in the French navy as a deck officer on a mine hunter, and then earned master’s and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. As part of his work, he earned patents for his design of micro-biosensors that can detect changes in pH using plastics and polymers. A French telecommunications company and the state of California gave him a grant to study how to use sensors in vineyards.

While vineyards have employed sensors, the sensors haven’t been monitoring the plants themselves. They are embedded in the soil and set up to collect data on the climate. “Wineries are totally filled with sensors at every level of the process: temperature, yeast count, relative humidity in the barrel aging, oxygen levels, all of that is very well controlled,” Scholasch said.



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