Cyber-fiction author, digital visionary to headline CAD event

Bethesda, MD, January 30, 2007 – Cyon Research Corporation, host of the Congress on the Future of Engineering Software (COFES), announced that high-tech visionary Bruce Sterling as the keynote speaker for COFES 2007™.

Bruce Sterling, author, journalist, editor, and critic, is best known for his eight science fiction novels, which explore life in future information-immersed culture. Sterling also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns, and introductions for books ranging from Ernst Juenger to Jules Verne. His nonfiction works include The Hacker Frontier: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier (1992) and Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years (2003).

He is currently a contributing editor of WIRED magazine, a weblog writer, and activist on the topics of environmental activism and postindustrial design through the Viridian Design Movement. In 2005, he was named the "Visionary in Residence" at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

His latest non-fiction book, Shaping Things (2005) is a "book about created objects," i.e. a lengthy essay about design, things and how we will move from the age of products and gizmos to the age of spimes -- a Sterling neologism which refers to the convergence of remote identification, GPS, CAD, rapid prototyping, data mining, and recycling. The 150-pages book covers issues like "intelligent things" (spiked with RFID-tags), sustainability, and fabbing.

Sterling has appeared on ABC’s Nightline, BBC’s The Late Show, CBC’s Morningside, on MTV and TechTV, and in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fortune, Nature, I.D., Metropolis, Technology Review, Der Spiegel, La Republica, and many other venues.

“I am delighted to announce that Bruce Sterling has agreed to be our keynote speaker at COFES 2007,” says Joel Orr, Cyon Research and COFES cofounder. “Bruce is an unusual combination: A visionary with feet on the ground. A guy who ‘gets’ the world, hip as they come, yet genuinely wants to help. He is profoundly knowledgeable about design and is IT-competent, and therein lies his ability to speak comprehensibly to our community.”

COFES 2007, the 8th annual COFES, brings together executives from engineering, design, development, architecture, and technology companies to discuss and explore engineering technology and its effects on business and the future. COFES offers unparalleled opportunities for in-depth and open discussion among industry participants without distraction.

Held in Scottsdale, Arizona, COFES 2007 is the forum for the business and technology of tools and processes for the engineers and architects who design the world around us. COFES is an exclusive invitation-only event with limited attendance. Information about COFES can be found at www.cofes.com.

About Cyon Research
Cyon Research Corporation is a provider of analysis and consulting for engineering technology markets. Cyon Research provides key information, research, analysis, and consulting to its clients worldwide. COFES: The Congress on the Future of Engineering Software is Cyon Research's primary event, and explores investments necessary today to take advantage of—and profit from—future technologies.

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