Children at River Oaks Elementary School in Galt are more than just students. They’re scientists in the classroom and they do what scientists do — observe, ask questions, identify problems, gather data, analyze it and apply this knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to the real world.

Aaron Nitzkin, founder and CEO of Solar Roof Dynamics in Davis, offers his perspective on the future of solar energy. For more from Nitzkin, check out “Daylight Savings” in our June issue. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you when it’s available online.

From texts to photos to emails, every modern law case involves some sort of e-discovery — so why are lawyers still failing to do it?

Ron Bodenmann, founding partner of CyberCorp Forensics, gives his insights into e-discovery. 

Under sunny skies at Argonaut High School in Jackson, representatives from the Amador County Public Schools system and OpTerra Energy Services recently celebrated the official groundbreaking of the Amador GOLD program. The public-private partnership combines school infrastructure improvement and energy-efficiency projects with STEM education for students.

FourthWave, a nonprofit accelerator program for women-led tech companies, expanded from its Los Angeles pilot to Sacramento in March and is already working with its first seven entrepreneurs. We sat down with Cheryl Beninga, who is the managing director of Beninga Advisors and who cofounded FourthWave Sacramento with Tracy Saville, CEO of Sofia Al., to talk about women in technology and the regional tech scene.

In 2016 business and government leaders in Nevada County had an “ah-ha” moment: A report, commissioned by the Nevada County Economic Resource Council in coalition with the Northern Rural Training and Employment Council, showed stakeholders that the county’s local workforce needed easy access to tech-based skills.

Jonathan Palmer, chief technology of Autometrix in Grass Valley, provides insight into how software development has shifted away from PCs and to mobile platforms. His company manufactures automated cutting equipment for textile markets and develops the computer software needed to control the equipment.

The City of West Sacramento has started using mapping software to locate homeless camps as a way to monitor the local homeless population and direct them to public assistance.

In the Sacramento region, at least one major medical provider is already on the same page with the benefits of OpenNotes. Across the country, an estimated 13 million patients can now access their notes. This open-source movement, proponents say, represents a shift away from a paternalistic model of medical care and toward a model of fully-engaged and informed patients. And that, they argue, is better for everyone.

While reproductive technologies have given women and families more control and additional tools, having it all still seems a far leap. Treatments are expensive (most insurance plans won’t cover much), time-consuming and not always effective. Meanwhile, workplace politics have been slow to shift and accommodate a growing number of working moms.

Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh, a nationally-recognized fertility expert who runs a practice in San Ramon, gives her perspective on assisted reproductive technology. For more from Eyvazzadeh, check out “Birth Control” in our May issue. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you when it’s available online.

The California Capital Women’s Business Center is a nonprofit organization that provides programs and services to small businesses throughout the state. In collaboration with the Women Veterans Alliance, the Women Veterans One-Stop Resource Center was created to specifically address the needs of women veterans, their spouses and families.

If you’re texting and driving, Sarah Morell might be recording you. She’s usually riding shotgun, as her husband drives, with her camera phone, ready to catch traffic safety violators on video. Her 6-year-old daughter’s in on the action too.

To be disruptive now means to change things, to get people to look at something in a new light. (I’d like to go back and convince my 6-year-old self that it’s actually a good trait that got me sent to the time-out chair.)

Like all jargon, “disruption” started out well-intentioned: Who doesn’t want to be the one with the fresh vision of how things could be — not how they are?

The push to integrate VR into the media has surged in recent years. The Guardian last summer unveiled its first VR project, 6×9, putting viewers into a solitary confinement prison cell. Last fall, The New York Times introduced The Daily 360. These immersive videos, made with Samsung technology, give readers rare glimpses into scenes worldwide.

From police shootings to incidents like the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting, gun violence has been dominating news cycles in recent years. Additional virtual training could help civilians know how to respond in a hostile encounter.

If you’re going to live in a 3D environment, you need to see a 3D environment.”

These are the words of Stephen Phillips, co-founder and chief technology officer at Theia Interactive, a design firm based in Chico. His company creates VR tours for people looking to build or buy homes, cars and yachts. It was one of the four startups to come out of the Green Screen Institute’s first accelerator program.

Jason Fountaine, managing director of Gyro-Stabilized Systems in Nevada City, offers his insight into how new technologies are changing digital cinema.  For more from Fountaine, read “Reality Check,” in our March issue. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you when it’s available online.

Erin Stumpf, a broker associate at Dunnigan Realtors, gives her perspective on real estate in Sacramento. For more from Stumpf, check out “The Great Millennial Migration,” in our March issue. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you when it’s available online.