The number of mentors met, sales secured, and lessons learned that will spiral out of the simple opportunity for more students to be present at SXSW is going to phenomenally push the start ups and entrepreneurs within the young Interact ATX group forward.

FORBES: Access to Austin for Young Entrepreneurs

Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, for instance, is involved in a European initiative to develop robots that are safe enough to operate alongside workers (at present, most industrial robots still have to be caged in case they accidentally hit someone) and capable of understanding simple instructions, including voice commands.

ECONOMIST: Automation