SSTI Digest

The newly-created Clean Energy Leadership Council, convened by the Washington governor's office and a state-wide public-private clean energy alliance, held its first meeting. The council will deliver a clean energy strategy and recommendations by December 1, 2010.

Vicki Gaddy has been appointed director of workforce development for BioNJ.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear shuffled two top positions in his administration. Larry Hayes will be secretary of the state Economic Development Cabinet and budget director Mary Lassiter will replace Hayes as Executive Cabinet secretary. Hayes has been interim Economic Development Cabinet secretary since last September. Lassiter will keep her position as budget director.

Federal stimulus funds approved earlier this year by Congress are doing more than filling budget gaps in states across the nation. During a year in which it otherwise may be virtually impossible to direct much funding to starting initiatives aimed at growing the economy, many states are using federal stimulus funds to implement new programs.

In North Carolina, Gov. Bev Perdue recently announced that several green energy programs focusing on job creation and promoting greater use of renewable energy resources will be funded through a portion of the state's share of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds.

In June, Gov. Perdue announced the U.S. Energy Department's approval of $75.9 million in federal stimulus funds with authorization to spend $30.4 million immediately. The state will receive the remaining funds as it shows successful implementation of the plan, according to the governor's office. Two key components of the approved plan include:

SSTI is pleased to provide Digest subscribers with the first peek at the 28-page, full-color brochure for SSTI's 13th Annual Conference, Seize the Moment: Tech-based economic development for the next economy while it's still on the presses. The brochure will begin arriving in mailboxes soon, but is available now as a PDF by clicking either of the links below.

To establish Maryland as a global leader in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce and STEM-based R&D infrastructure, a task force convened last year by Gov. Martin O'Malley urges the state to adopt a set of initiatives to reach higher performance standards in teaching and learning in addition to greater productivity in transforming the state's high volume of R&D activity into economic growth and job creation.

Common wisdom says engineering is hard and a high proportion of engineering students, particularly female engineering students, changes majors during the course of their time in college. A recent study suggests just the opposite actually is true.

An analysis of 310,000 university students found undergraduates who begin their studies as engineers are more likely to remain within their major over time compared to students who begin their studies within other majors. Additionally, engineering students were comparable to students in other majors in terms of women remaining within their major, minorities remaining within major, and grade distribution.

The research appears in an article by Matthew Ohland, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, and his colleagues titled Persistence, Engagement, and Migration in Engineering Programs in the Journal of Engineering Education. The article received the 2009 William Elgin Wickenden Award for best paper by the American Society for Engineering Education.

SSTI is so excited about this year's conference that we're providing Digest subscribers the first peak at the 28-page, full-color brochure while its still on the presses. It will be arriving in mailboxes by the end of the week, but is available now as a PDF by clicking either of the links below or by email request.

• http://www.ssti.org/Conf09/SSTI_Seize_The_Moment2009_full_brochure.pdf
• http://www.ssticonference.org/SSTI_Seize_The_Moment2009_full_brochure.pdf

In addition, speaker bios, conference updates, and more details are available at: http://www.ssticonference.org/.

The circumstances leading to SSTI's 13th Annual Conference make this year's event critical. We encourage you to join us in Overland Park, Kansas October 21 - 23, 2009 to Seize the Moment. As you scan the conference website, you'll discover we're putting together our most complete and complex conference yet.

This year's conference will bring together distinguished speakers like Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School and Rob Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation who will challenge conventional thinking; experienced practitioners who will share best practices; and, leading individuals who are breaking new ground in their attempts to build tech-based economies. Plus, we'll have four stimulating roundtable discussions examining some of the thorniest issues we're facing - improving metrics that are being used, re-examining equity programs, and engaging universities.

Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle recently allowed a significant revision to the state's High-Technology Investment Tax Credits program become law without her signature. The program, which has provided a 100 percent credit on high-tech investments since 2001, now will cap its credits at 80 percent. Investors also will no longer be able to transfer their credits to other investors. The revisions will apply through December 2010, when the tax credit program is scheduled to expire.

Over the past few months, several states have enacted spending plans for the upcoming fiscal year and passed legislation to support renewable energy initiatives and tax credits for R&D. While some TBED programs will face dramatic cuts in FY10, others are slated for slight decreases or will receive level funding. The following synopsis provides an overview of the 2009 legislative sessions across the following states:

Massachusetts
Lawmakers rejected Gov. Deval Patrick's amendment to the state budget aimed at securing funding for the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) in the upcoming year.

The growing need for a skilled workforce in the U.S. has prompted policymakers, educators and industry leaders alike to explore a wide range of options for ensuring a pipeline of qualified workers with specialized skills to fill both new economy jobs and those that will be vacated by the aging population. Two recent examples include grants awarded to states to help re-train older generation workers for jobs in high-growth industries and legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate to provide resources for high-school students to secure high-wage careers in their regions.

While much attention is focused on recruiting youth to build a skilled workforce, perhaps overlooked are older workers, who play a key role in maintaining a competitive workforce, contributing skills and experience that younger workers do not yet possess.

As the U.S. has experienced rising unemployment rates during the recent economic downturn, larger numbers of individuals with technology-based skills are finding themselves out of work. One policy option to seize the moment is to engage the unemployed, assisting them on a path to starting their own business. But what are the characteristics and family backgrounds of the general population who have become successful tech-based entrepreneurs?

In a recent report, "The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur," Vivek Wadhwa, Raj Aggarwal, Krisztina Holly and Alex Salkever examine the socioeconomic, educational, and familial backgrounds of 549 high-tech entrepreneurs, and the factors that motivated them to start a business. The authors find the entrepreneurs started their business at the average age of 40 years old, 70 percent were married at the time of launch, and 60 percent already had at least one child when they started their business. These findings may contradict existing stereotypes of tech entrepreneurs as primarily young people coming straight out of college without existing commitments to family.

Historically viewed as an important contributor to job creation in emerging fields and a revenue generator for cities and states, science and technology parks serve an essential role in driving high-tech economies. A recent article in BusinessWeek predicts that as nations emerge from the global recession, science parks are likely to play an even larger role in the process of ensuring that local economies remain competitive. And with increasing international competition, many established parks are undergoing transformations, adding square footage and distinct features in order to stand out among the crowd.