Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Butler wins Champion's Award

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Mike Butler, program manager for the managed service office at the General Services Administration, was awarded the Champion’s Award from ACT Canada.

This award was founded in 1997 and is presented to individuals who have had a significant impact in expanding advanced card technologies, says Catherine Johnston, president and CEO of the industry trade association. Johnston presented Butler with the award during the Smart Card Alliance’s Smart Cards in Government Conference last week.


“As you know, secure ID management is not for the faint-of-heart,” Johnston says. “Everyone works extremely hard. It is hard to imagine rising above bars that have been set so high, but our winner has. I would like to point out that many of us have, for a very long time, reaped the benefits of Mike’s knowledge, commitment, and unparalleled generosity. I am sure that he does not know how many people appreciate him or how much he has contributed to their success and to the success of secure ID.

“He has been a champion for secure ID in Canada, helping us understand both the issues and the possibilities,” she adds. “Moreover he has shown us that it can be done and that is invaluable, because if you think it is hard to do with a Presidential Directive, imagine how hard it is to do it without one. He is an effective advocate, a campaigner and a supporter, all definitions of a champion.” [end] 

Gemalto has won the BearingPoint innovation management award – the Agile Innovation Award – for its think tank initiative Business Innovation Garage (BIG).

BIG provides Gemalto’s 10,000 employees company-wide with a structured process to submit and manage any innovative ideas they have. Ideas covering range of fields – from communication, payment, transport, Internet access, and machine-to-machine application – are systematically challenged, audited, developed and eventually selectively turned into incubation cells.

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BillMyParents, creator of a trackable, reloadable MasterCard prepaid card that lets parents and teens track spending in real time, has been named the Paybefore Awards best in category for Youth/Student/Campus Prepaid Programs.

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Massachusetts-based Aware Inc. has announced it’s won three contracts to provide biometrics software and services for three large-scale border management systems in Europe, the Middle East and North America.

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Sim-Prints’ biometrics app for improving patient care in the developing world won the first Idea Transform Weekend held in Cambridge, UK, reports Business Weekly.

With this mobile phone-based app, health care workers can collect and check patient information in a variety of environments. The project was developed by Shruti Badwar, Mariy Chhatriwala, Toby Norman for the Global Health Hack Day in March. James Crosby, Marcos Ikegame and Gail Mayhew joined the team for this competition.

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Medical researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) who are trying to develop a mobile app that can identify medication have received a T1 Catalyst Mobile Health Translational Project Award from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at UCSF.

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The NFC Forum and WIMA, a worldwide event dedicated to NFC technology, have announced the winners of their Tap Into Innovation: NFC Global Competition 2012.

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