In 1966 Gene Rodenberry’s “Star Trek” made its television debut on NBC. Audiences young and old were captivated by the show, particularly by its imagination of the space, the future, and the incredible technology humanity could possible yield in it.

“Star Trek” would go on to inspire a generation of people determined to create the gadgets of the future. Just three years after the premiere of Star Trek”, humanity would launch Apollo 11, the spaceship that would carry Neil Armstrong to the lunar surface, making him the first person ever to walk on the moon. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and other children of the space age would go on to become titans of the modern technological era, successfully developing the same kinds of devices used in the iconic television show. 63 years later it appears that humanity is inching closer to that future that was but science fiction generations prior. In particular, technology powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming more integrated into our everyday lives. AI powered virtual helpers that exist in our smart devices have learned to understand our behavior so as to predict what we need from them. For example, Alexa, a digital assistant developed by

Amazon is trained to recognize voices, commands, and even recognize when different people are talking to it. Through machine learning Alexa learns your patterns, allowing it to predict when you need to order groceries, set an alarm to wake up, even remind you to take your medication. And as soon as 2025, developers intend to make Alexa smart enough to predict when your relationships with your intimate partners are about to end. AI analysts, researches and developers are visioning to integrate AI into E-Learning technology. AI powered E-Learning, can learn to apply logic to tasks through the data they collect from users can help developers to create software that make learning in the classroom at a job easier and more streamlined. Training sessions for new skills that would previously take months to learn in a classroom can now be taught on a computer, tablet, or other smart device powered by technology designed to enrich the learning experience. Of course, with any…

2018 has been a busy year for us, supporting the VB North Sea Region Programme and it's Online Monitoring System. Four successful calls for applications were concluded during the year.

The final decisions were taken during two meetings of Steering Committee of the Programme. Our OMS (Online Monitoring System) facilitated the evaluation and online voting procedure. For the 7th Call of applications, the decision was for the approval of 12 new projects as well as the extension of 3 current ones. Furthermore, 10 new Expressions of Interest from the 6th Call were approved and will be welcome to submit their proposals through the OMS in 2019.  Earlier in the year, the OMS saw 17 submissions of Full Applications in the 5th Call, involving 200 partners. Finally, 9 projects have been approved by the Programme Steering Committee

allocating approximately € 17.5 million fo ERD and Norwegian funds. Also, 5 Expressions of Interests from the 6th Call were approved. The entire submission/evaluation/decision process was handled by our Online Monitoring System.  Three more calls for projects are scheduled for 2019. Congratulations to all new projects, we are looking forward to supporting the implementations of your plans! Apogee has been supporting the digital operations of the IIIB, IVB and VB North Sea Region Programmes since 2007. The Online Monitoring System (OMS), which was developed by Apogee, covers the vast majority of the Programme’s operations and activity, including application submission and evaluation, contracting, periodic reporting and day-to-day communication.