1 April 2005-IEEE Spectrum, a sponsor of the first annual EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards, recognized two innovative technologies for their potential social benefit and commercial success in its selection of two ACE winners.

The IEEE Spectrum ACE Award for Technology in the Service of Society went to NessCap Co., in Yongin, Korea, for a technology it is developing that has shown promise in reducing the cost of ultracapacitors used to improve the performance of hybrid-electric and fuel-cell cars. The technology NessCap is using was voted by Spectrum readers as having the highest prospects among emerging technologies of providing the greatest social benefit. The award was accepted by Sun-Wook Kim, of NessCap .

"Our readers were very enthusiastic about the capacitors designed and produced by NessCap," said Susan Hassler, editor of Spectrum. "They were impressed by the social and economic impact this technology may have."

The 2005 IEEE Spectrum ACE Award for Emerging Technology went to Internet-Protocol television, a technology used to deliver dozens of channels of video programming through a relatively low-speed broadband connection (2.2 megabits per second). Under development in Zurich, Switzerland, by Swisscom AG and Microsoft Corp., the technology allows telephone carriers to compete with cable providers using their legacy copper networks instead of an expensive optical-fiber upgrade. The broadcasting system was voted by the magazine's readers as being the most likely among emerging technologies to provide the greatest financial return. The award was presented to Hemang Mehta, group product manager of Microsoft TV.

The two awards were presented on 10 March during the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco. Nominees were chosen from the technologies covered in Spectrum's January special issue, "Winners and Losers 2005." Before making their winner and loser selections for the issue, the magazine's editors considered more than 50 technology projects worldwide.

Also at the ACE Awards, EE Times recognized new products in seven categories, three technology companies, and a design team. It also honored John Santhoff of Pulse-LINK Inc., who won innovator of the year; Advanced Micro Devices's Hector Ruiz, who won executive of the year; and Gordon E. Moore, chairman emeritus of Intel Corp., who was given a lifetime achievement award. For a complete list of the awardees, go to: http://www.eetimes.com/ace/categories.jhtml.

For more on NessCap's ultracapacitor, see "Supercharged," by Glenn Zorpette: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/jan05/0105wcap.html.

For more on Internet-Protocol television, see "The Battle for Broadband," by Steven Cherry: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/jan05/0105wbro.html.