SSTI Digest

Tom Murphy says when he first took office as Mayor of Pittsburgh in January 1994, the city was suffering from one of the worst inferiority complexes in its history. To be sure, Pittsburgh once was known first and foremost as being the capital of steelmaking in the U.S. By 1994, the devolution of U.S. steelmakers during the past 25 years had taken its toll on the steel city, physically, economically and psychologically.



Boy, have things changed in seven years! Rightfully proud of what has been accomplished and demonstrating the city's top-level commitment to being competitive in a tech-based economy, Mayor Murphy will lead SSTI's upcoming Policy In Practice tour of Pittsburgh's revitalization on September 19.



The foundation and unifying theme on which Pittsburgh's successful transformation is based – and true of any effective tech-based economic development effort – is an enduring commitment to public-private partnership at several different levels: state, local and regional governments, research institutions, community leaders, business and industry, foundations, education systems, and workers.



The commitment and integral involvement of strong organizations – such as the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Center for Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University, the Heinz Endowments, Innovation Works, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community & Economic Development, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, the Pittsburgh Technology Council, and the University of Pittsburgh – made Pittsburgh's transformation possible. Having leaders with an enthusiastic understanding of what it takes to build a tech-based economy, as Pittsburgh has in Mayor Tom Murphy, made the transformation happen.



The results of Pittsburgh's cooperative efforts have paid off; the city boasts a new economic base today. New technology clusters – information technology, biomedical/ biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and robotics, advanced materials and environmental technology – account for the city's major industry. Indeed, Pittsburgh is home to more than 900 software firms and specializes in tissue engineering, specialty metal alloys, and engineered plastics and chemicals. In addition, schools such as Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University are either in or near the city, which is in a southwestern Pennsylvania region that includes 29 colleges and universities. Southwestern Pennsylvania is recognized for its lead in medical research and technology in the organ transplant surgery, diabetes, cardiology and cardiothoractic surgery.



Mayor Murphy's tour for SSTI will include projects symbolic of the region’s rebirth from heavy industry to innovative research and technology. The group will visit the Pittsburgh Technology Center, an impressive research park built on a brownfield site of a former steel mill. Mayor Murphy also will take participants to the McGowan Center for Artificial Organ Development, which performs world-class research and is spinning off businesses that are bringing its research to the marketplace.



Mayor Murphy understands that a strong tech-based economy take a vibrant quality of life to succeed. He has directed more than $4 billion in new investment in the city since 1994 – from office towers for two of the city's nationally ranked banks to new world-class facilities for the city's professional football and baseball teams to an expanded Downtown convention center. The tour will include quick visits to the two newest additions to the skyline — the beautiful, technologically sophisticated PNC Park and Steelers Stadium.



Mayor Murphy's Policy in Practice Tour event is one of three optional pre-conference activities preceding SSTI's fifth annual conference on September 20-21. More information is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Conf01/conf01.htm [expired]

The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania has issued a Request for Proposals to develop an asset-mapping study of the nanotechnology sector in the four-state Philadelphia Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area.



A key objective of the engagement is to facilitate comparison of the region’s Nanotechnology sector with other regions and benchmark performance in this sector to enable longitudinal comparisons in the future. Another primary objective is to provide data and analysis critical to informing policy decisions for the Nanotechnology Institute. The study would secondarily provide information that could be used to promote Greater Philadelphia’s role as an early leader in Nanotechnology. Proposals are due August 15, 2001.



More information is available from Robert E. Gittler, Coordinator, Regional Initiatives, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania at robert@sep.benfranklin.org The RFP can be downloaded at http://www.sep.benfranklin.org/rfp.pdf

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge will deliver the keynote address at Creating Opportunity: Tools for Building Tech-Based Economies, SSTI’s Fifth Annual Conference, which will be held September 19-21, 2001 at the Omni William Penn in Pittsburgh. 



Gov. Ridge is recognized nationally as one of the leading governors in technology-based economic development. Under his leadership, the state has implemented a number of technology-based initiatives, including Pennsylvania New Economy Technology Scholarships; the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse; the Pennsylvania BioTech Strategy, which includes the creation of three Life Science Greenhouses; and, Lightning Manufacturing. 



With more than 20 sessions and four concurrent sessions running throughout the conference, this year’s conference will be the largest that SSTI has ever held. Topics to be covered include: organizing angel investor networks; slowing the brain drain; extending economic benefits of the New Economy to all regions; developing and implementing a tech-based economic development strategy; creating successful business-university partnerships; and, emerging ideas in tech-based economic development. 



This year, in addition to 12 great sessions on policies and practices for tech-based economic development, two separate tracks of inter-related sessions on critical themes have been added: 



Universities in today’s tech-based economy 

Whether they are educating future workers, conducting basic research, or creating technology that is commercialized, universities and colleges play a vital role in any tech-based economic development strategy. Creating Opportunity offers six breakout sessions this year to explore, develop, and refine the vital contributions of the academic research enterprise to a knowledge economy. 



Resources for building tech-based economies 

A flagging economy puts pressure on a company's bottom line and research budgets can feel the pinch at a time when increasing businesses' future technological competitiveness is most critical. State and local government revenues also tighten. Fortunately, there are billions of federal dollars available to assist companies and communities alike in all aspects of competing in the New Economy. Creating Opportunity is offering six sessions to conveniently learn the nuts and bolts of more than a dozen federal programs -- even veterans can learn something as the agencies discuss the priorities of the new Administration. 



For the full conference agenda and to register, visit: http://www.ssti.org/Conf01/conf01.htm [expired]

The William and Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation was founded last month at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The center is the product of a $10 million gift from William L. Mack, the president and senior managing partner of the Mack Organization — a national owner, investor and developer of warehouse facilities.



The center serves to house all of Wharton's technology management initiatives, including Wharton faculty members' research and publishing activities, an endowed professorship and a student-run conference. The Mack Professorship honors a senior faculty member whose primary commitment is to teaching and research in technological innovation management.



The center also includes the Mack Program in Technological Innovation, which encompasses the Wharton Emerging Technologies Management Research Program, a corporate learning network for senior executives and academic researchers guided by senior Wharton faculty members and staff. Senior executives from numerous industry partners are helping to schedule activities for the program, which also provides the MBA major in Technological Innovation.



The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has approximately 4,600 undergraduate, MBA and doctoral students and more than 75,000 alumni. It was founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school in the nation. For more information on the center, visit http://emertech.wharton.upenn.edu/emertech/index.html

After nearly two years of discussion between the state legislature and the Governor’s office, Pennsylvania has enacted a plan for its $11 billion share of the national tobacco settlement. The final plan includes $160 million in one-time outlays for research and commercialization of life science technologies and a formula ensuring research gets nearly one-fifth of the total money received over the 25-year span of the settlement agreement.



Highlights include:

Mark Lang, CEO of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania for the past 14 years, has announced his resignation.

Governor Tom Ridge’s $90 million plan to create a series of life science research/commercialization centers would be the largest, single technology initiative ever proposed in Pennsylvania, according to a recent press release from the Governor's office. The Life Sciences Greenhouse Initiative would be a network of innovation centers in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg closely connected to university research activities. To be seeded with a $90 million investment from a one-time surplus of tobacco settlement funds, the centers would be sustained by grants from the ongoing settlement.



The initiative hopes to capitalize on increased private and federal research investment as well as the state's 30 percent growth in employment in life-sciences industries over the last five years -- double the rate of overall job growth in that same period. The Life Sciences Greenhouse network would be a university-industry-state partnership for research and commercialization of life science technologies.



Governor Ridge hosted leaders of Pennsylvania’s biotech industry last week to begin the process of designing the new tech-based economic development effort. The Greenhouse model is based on the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse, launched by Gov. Ridge in 1999, that focuses on computer-chip design. (See the July 23, 1999, SSTI Weekly Digest article and http://www.digitalgreenhouse.com/)

Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Pittsburgh Technology Council. Industrial Resource Centers. Tech 21. Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse. Whether one is looking for examples of states’ efforts in workforce development, innovative university-industry research partnerships, effective technology councils, or practically any other tech-based economic development program, Pennsylvania is one of the first states to come to mind because of its long-standing tradition of supporting innovative approaches to building a tech-based economy.



With so many local, state, university, and federal efforts to cultivate science, technology and economic growth, it is only fitting that Pittsburgh will be the 2001 site of SSTI's annual conference on practical tools and policies for tech-based economic development. Building from the success of last year’s sell-out event in Chicago and the wealth of great resources in Pittsburgh — beginning with our host team of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Center for Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz Endowments, Innovation Works, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, and the Pittsburgh Technology Council — SSTI is working to make sure our fifth annual event is the best conference yet for tech-based economic development practitioners and policymakers alike.



SSTI’s fifth annual conference will be held September 20-21, 2001. As in the past, several limited-seating, in-depth workshops and off-site tour options will precede the conference on Wednesday, September 19. The conference will be held at the historic Omni William Penn Hotel, located in the heart of the downtown business district. The 596-room hotel provides an intimate-yet-formal setting for the conference, a quality much appreciated by last year’s conference participants in Chicago. A special room rate of only $138 has been reserved at the hotel for SSTI conference registrants. (Mention the SSTI conference to get the discounted rate when calling 1-412-281-7100 to make reservations.)



For the conference, US Airways is also offering outstanding discounts for air travel to and from Pittsburgh (a U.S. Airways hub). Reservations can be made by calling 1-877-874-7687 (reference gold file number 13131883).



More information about the conference will be posted on SSTI’s website soon.



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Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has promoted Tim McNulty to the new position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Technology Initiatives.

Pennsylvania has been a leader in tech-based economic development for more than two decades. With more than $208 million for tech-based economic development initiatives, the 2001-02 Budget Request submitted by Governor Tom Ridge this week shows why the state remains at the forefront of the field. Coupled with the $61 million in education technology, "Brain Gain," and digital divide initiatives proposed (see Pennsylvania's entry under this week's Tech Talkin' Govs article below), the state is developing a cradle-to-grave strategy for competing in the New Economy. 



The technology-based economic development proposals include: 

An increasingly recognized and critical component of building a tech-based economy is the integration of university or college research and training capabilities into the local economic development strategy. While considerable attention is paid to the regional impact of large research institutions, not every community is home to an MIT, University of Texas, or Stanford.



Cities like Erie, Pennsylvania, – home to several small institutions of higher learning – are providing useful examples of alternative approaches for businesses and the community to benefit from the intellectual resources and talent available through area colleges and universities.



Ten years of planning and cooperation among Erie’s business, community and academic leaders, in partnership with the state, resulted in the proposal for a Research and Economic Development Center (REDC) at Penn State Erie to serve as a hub for regional economic development. Last week, Governor Tom Ridge delivered $30 million -- the largest-ever state capital investment in Erie County history -- to construct the REDC.



By integrating business and engineering research and economic development activities, the 160,000 square-foot facility is expected to be an economic catalyst for the community. Located adjacent to the university-related research park known as Knowledge Park, REDC will serve existing and future park tenants as well as other area high-tech companies.



The Center will:

Continuing to rest on past academic excellence and research achievement would be costly to Greater Philadelphia, according to a new report prepared by the Pennsylvania Economy League. The region's "knowledge industry" must compete with other regions and states to succeed in the New Economy. A comprehensive study benchmarking Greater Philadelphia's knowledge industry was undertaken to gain a better understanding of the area’s colleges and universities and how they contribute to the region’s economic competitiveness. Three main suggestions and potential strategies for becoming one of the nation’s leading knowledge regions were offered in the report's recommendations: