Azimuth
The Azimuth Corporation was founded in 2016 in San Jose, California as a conglomerate of solar energy companies. Azimuth quickly established itself as a forerunner in innovation in solar technology, consistently setting new records for solar panel efficiency in solar competitions. Azimuth's first major breakthrough in solar technology was when James Nishimoto developed solar paint in 2021. In subsequent years, Azimuth found ways to integrate solar paint into a variety of materials, in particular asphalt, concrete, and gravel. It was from this innovation that Azimuth developed smart roads and smart rails, leading to a revolution in transportation and energy generation throughout the world. In effect, Azimuth turned the entire road and railway infrastructure of the first world into a power generation, storage, and transportation system. Beyond this, buildings, parking lots, bridges, and so on have been retro-fitted with Azimuth's solar generation and smart road technologies, allowing people to harness solar energy passively, all the time. Efficiency in power usage has led to buildings that are entirely self-powered, and cars and trains that power themselves while being driven along smart roads via magnetic induction and microwave power. In joint efforts with Halon and Overseas Shipholding Group, Azimuth has helped develop solar powered ships. Beyond these major contributions to modern society, Azimuth also operates many solar power plants throughout the world, and is continually pushing the limits of solar cell efficiency. With recent bio-tech acquisitions, Azimuth has also been working on genetically engineered grass and plants for purposes of organic solar power.
Azimuth is known among top corporations as a leading innovator in technology, and has diversified its interests to include microtechnology, bio-tech, and medical research, though the extent of its diversification goes beyond this and includes subsidiary companies numbering in excess of 200. In addition to its reputation as a leader in innovation, Azimuth is regarded as a leader in philanthropy. It has brought its technological innovations to the world's impoverished peoples, providing hope for a future of prosperity. In keeping with its philosophy of innovation and philanthropy, Azimuth funds the Brighter Future Program, which seeks to provide the leaders and innovators of tomorrow with the resources they need today.
Besides its main headquarters in San Jose, Azimuth also maintains major corporate centers in Los Alamos, NM, Miami, FL, Honolulu, HI, Perth, Australia, and Dubai, UAE.
The Brighter Future Program
Every year, the Azimuth Corporation selects 20 people to participate in its Brighter Future Program. In the winter of 2038, some 825,000 people applied for the program, of which 1,000 were selected as finalists. These finalists will be given tests at local centers, from which 20 winners will be selected. Azimuth will grant each of these 20 winners a $2,000,000, two-year research stipend to spend as they wish, on whatever interests them. At the conclusion of this term, if any of the winners have produced any promising ideas or innovations in any area of research or human endeavor, Azimuth will negotiate with these persons for the formation of subsidiary of Azimuth, complete with a salary and employment benefits. Among past Brighter Future Program participants are Lars Poulson, whose Brighter Future project dealt with bioengineering grass for purposes of power generation, and who is now the current director of Azimuth's bio-tech division, and Samuel Wohl, the founder of Azimuth's space technologies division.
Campaign Information
The PCs will start as some of the 1,000 finalists in the Brighter Future Program. In general, this will mean that the characters are not total social misfits and don't have any major disorders (or, at least, not that they can't hide). It will also require that the characters are not hide-bound and are actually interested in the prospect of a $2,000,000, two-year grant to try something interesting out. The background of the characters could be quite varied. Perhaps you are the product of a graduate school, or perhaps you were in a private military's educational program (something like the GI bill today). Maybe you're a whiz kid, or maybe you're a tradesman or farmer with some sort of innovation, or a personal trainer or yoga instructor with ideas about kinesthetic technologies. Maybe you're a park ranger looking to move into the private sector. You can be anything, really, so long as you're not a miscreant who would have no shot at getting selected as a finalist for this program. Also, while it doesn't seem obvious that this game will involve much in the way of tactics or combat, please be advised that it will. One or more party members with some sort of military, survivalist, or martial arts background will be very helpful to the party. You could get along without it, but that could make things difficult.
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