SSTI Digest

Joan Myers, president and CEO of Raleigh-based N.C. Technology Association, is the 2005-2007 president for the Council of Regional Information Technology Associations (CRITA).

Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed Bill Noll as commissioner of the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development. Noll has been serving as the governor's communications director.

Jack Pfunder is the new executive director of the Manufacturers Resource Center in Bethlehem, Pa.

Pat Snider, the first CEO for BioGenerator in St. Louis, announced her departure from the two-year-old organization by the end of the year.

The new director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Purdue University will be Jerry Woodall.

President Bush is nominating John Young Jr. to serve as director of Defense Research & Engineering. Young is currently Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition.

SSTI is pleased to give regular Digest readers the first peek at a PDF version of the brochure for SSTI's 9th annual conference, Investing in a Brighter Future: Building Tech-based Economies, to be held in Atlanta on October 19-21, 2005.

A quick glance at the 28-page brochure reveals why the event is the premier professional development experience of the year for the tech-based economic development (TBED) community. The brochure includes:

Expressing concern over the nation's ability to sustain its scientific and technological superiority throughout the 21st Century, 15 leading business organizations have released an action plan that aims to double the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates by 2015.

The report, Tapping America's Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative, identifies several troubling indicators that the U.S. is losing its innovative edge. For example, the percentage of students planning to pursue engineering degrees declined by one-third between 1992-2002, and funding for basic research in the physical sciences as a percentage of the gross domestic product has declined by half since 1970.

Following defeat at the polls two years ago, Ohio's state legislature has agreed nearly unanimously to again have voters decide on whether or not the state can issue bonds in support of the final component of Gov. Bob Taft's tech-based economic development strategy -- Ohio's Third Frontier Initiative.

The year-long battle between Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) and competitors BellSouth Louisiana and Cox Communications over the utility company's proposed Fiber for the Future project came to an end last month when voters approved the $125 million fiber optics plan by a vote of 62 percent to 38 percent.

The LUS Initiative, called Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), proposes to bring fiber optics to every home and business in Lafayette in order to deliver cable TV, telephone, and Internet services at a cost of 20 percent less than current providers. A special election was called last month to decide whether the city could issue $125 million worth of bonds to fund the project, according to The Advocate.

Increasing and modernizing university research capacity is a priority for many states. Contrary to programmatic or operational appropriations being required annually, funding for such construction projects can be phased over decades as part of a state's larger capital budget/bond programs. Recent research from the National Science Foundation (NSF) documents the results of the increased importance placed in university research building programs.

During fiscal years 2001-03, research-performing colleges and universities increased their research space by 11 percent, a substantially higher rate than any previous two-year period since 1988, a new NSF InfoBrief states.

While local workforce boards are using substantial funds for worker training under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), little is known on a national level about the outcomes of those trained, says a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In 1998, Congress passed the WIA to create a system connecting employment, education and training services to better match job seekers to labor market needs, according to the report. Since its creation, however, questions have been raised regarding how those funds are being used and how much is being spent on training. Also, according to the report, concern remains regarding the lack of accurate information on the extent to which WIA participants are enrolled in activities. The GAO report seeks to answer the following: