forgotten brains behind human spaceflight. “Hidden Figures” tells the story of African-American women, known as human computers, who helped NASA send mankind to the moon, and is our latest installment of “Xconomy Bookclub.”
—The largest hospital group in El Paso County, TX, along with the El Paso Times and a Las Vegas gaming software company, have created a game with the aim to reduce the high death rate of Hispanics from liver disease. The game, which comes in English and Spanish versions, is a trivia quiz that features short embedded educational videos, links to a podcast, and infographics on liver disease and its prevention. Game developer OfferCraft’s software blends behavioral economics and artificial intelligence to create games that it says are more effective educators than traditional approaches. The game being used in El Paso is based on an investigative series published in 2016 by the Times newspaper.
—In entrepreneurship, success is rightly celebrated, dissected, and discussed. But what role does failure, or lessons in what not to do, play in building innovative companies? We speak to Texas innovators about that and how a discussion of what went wrong might be helpful at accelerator demo days.
—A San Antonio video game developer is selling retro versions of video games that can be played on Atari, Sego, and Nintendo systems. And it’s not a rehash of Pac-Man or Frogger. Piko Interactive both develops new games and publishes old games that were created but not necessarily sold, such as “Super Noah’s Ark 3D.”
—Let’s take one last look at 2016, and the top innovation stories of the year. These include notable exits and fundraises; the Texas Medical Center and the growth of Houston’s healthcare ecosystem; Uber and Lyft leaving Austin; and how San Antonio entrepreneurs and investors are boosting the local tech scene.
