SSTI Digest

West Virginia University’s plan to develop strong research capabilities in a number of focused areas, creating hundreds of new jobs, may be completed in half the time originally anticipated. Gov. Bob Wise announced last week a $24.4 million funding package to jump-start the implementation of new research facilities and laboratories on the WVU campus.

In addition to building new research infrastructure, funds will allow the university to attract and recruit top researchers, leading to increased federal and private sector funding, said Robert D’Alessandri, vice president of health sciences.

Gov. Jodi Rell recently announced the results of a study of the strengths and weaknesses of Connecticut’s infrastructure for innovation, technology transfer and development of new businesses. A report prepared for the Connecticut Technology Transfer and Commercialization Advisory Board of the governor's Competitiveness Council presents the results.

The report examines successful university-based technology transfer and commercialization initiatives in the U.S. and at the University of Cambridge in England. It notes five factors that could help states position their universities as centers of innovation and business growth: strong academic leadership and research capabilities, availability of early-stage capital, commitment to and support of entrepreneurship programs, and the existence of infrastructure such as innovation centers, incubators and research parks.

Study Suggests Cultural Changes in Universities Could Be Key to Promoting Greater Tech Transfer

Despite legislation, policies and financial incentives, universities still struggle to motivate professors to participate in technology transfer. A few well placed individuals engaged in entrepreneurship could create a culture encouraging others to be involved in technology transfer activities, according to a new study by Janet Bercovitz of Duke University and Maryann Feldman of University of Toronto presented at the Minnesota Cluster-Entrepreneurship Conference in September 2004.

Many minority population groups are historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. This is particularly true of the country's Latino population, one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S workforce. As a result, several state and regional tech-based economic development programs are looking for ways to broaden participation in STEM fields. A recent evaluation of a Texas program finds encouraging results, perhaps suggesting a model for others to replicate.

Students who attend the Hispanic Engineering Science and Technology Week (HESTEC) have a greater interest in pursuing science and engineering careers, a better perception of the engineering field, and more positive attitudes about graduating high school and enrolling in college than those who do not attend, according to a study from the Center for Border Economic Studies (CBEST) at the University of Texas-Pan American.

Led by the Fort Myers-Cape Coral metro area, a burgeoning retirement and tourist destination on the state’s southwest coast, Florida landed seven of the top 15 metros in Milken Institute’s 2004 Best Performing Cities Index released last week. The others are West Palm Beach-Boca Raton (4th), Daytona Beach (5th), Sarasota-Bradenton (6th), Fort Lauderdale (9th), Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (12th) and Naples (15th).

The Milken index ranks the 200 largest U.S. metropolitan areas based on their ability to create and sustain jobs. It includes four measurements of technology output growth and one- and five-year measurements of employment and salary growth (see "Useful Stats" story below).

Using data from its 2004 Best Performing Cities Index, Milken has generated a comprehensive table ranking cities by one- and five-year measurements of job growth, wages and salaries, and relative high tech gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and other measurements.

SSTI would like to draw readers' attention to one of those other measurements, Milken's high-tech GDP location quotient (LQ), which may be of some value to the tech-based economic development community. LQ is defined as a measure of high-tech concentration, with the U.S. given a value of 1.0. For the Milken study, metro areas having an LQ higher than 1.0 are said to be more concentrated in high tech sectors than the U.S.

While federal law and our own moral ethics prevent us from putting her to work in the near future, SSTI is excited to welcome Madelynn Elizabeth Carr to the world as the newest member of the SSTI team. Ms. Carr was born to SSTI Executive Assistant Ruth Carr and her husband, Larry, on Wednesday, Nov. 17.

The National Technology Transfer Center named James Goulka as its new CEO. Goulka formerly was president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Scottsdale, AZ.

Ken Marcus is the new director of the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park.

While federal law and our own moral ethics prevent us from putting her to work in the near future, SSTI is excited to welcome Madelynn Elizabeth Carr to the world as the newest member of the SSTI team. Ms. Carr was born to SSTI Executive Assistant Ruth Carr and her husband, Larry, on Wednesday, Nov. 17.

The National Technology Transfer Center named James Goulka as its new CEO. Goulka formerly was president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Scottsdale, AZ.

Ken Marcus is the new director of the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park.

John Nauseef has been appointed CEO of Dayton Development Coalition, filling the position to be vacated by Ron White when he resigns at the end of the year.

Montana Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer tapped Tony Preite to serve as director of the state Department of Commerce. Priete is currently director of the office of commercialization and economic development outreach at the University of Montana and is a former regional director for the Colorado office of the Economic Development Administration.