SSTI Digest

While colleges and universities are a natural breeding ground for new businesses, some universities excel at producing entrepreneurs and designing entrepreneurial programs that meet the needs of their community. Fortune Small Business Magazine recently released a list of 56 institutions that have embraced their role as educators of the next generation of successful entrepreneurs. These schools each provide a suite of programs and opportunities that have fostered active and consistent entrepreneurial activity among their students and within their region.   The list was compiled after interviews with entrepreneurs, faculty, students, administrators, alumni and venture capitalists. No rankings are given, but individual institutions are recognized for their achievement in training undergraduates, MBAs, executives and social entrepreneurs and in providing online opportunities.   Fortune notes that nearly 3,000 schools offer classes in entrepreneurship, 10 times more than in the mid-1980s. As the number of entrepreneurship programs has grown, institutions have begun offering more diverse and specialized opportunities to their…

Think back to the early 1980s. The structure of the U.S. workforce was very different than it is today. There were no such jobs as website designers; the mobile phone and personal computer industries were relatively tiny in size; and airline tickets were overwhelmingly purchased with the assistance of living, breathing travel agents. Simply put, advances in technology and computing ability created new employment opportunities and eliminated the need for a variety of jobs.   So how will the advances in technology change the composition of the workforce 25 years into the future? A pilot study performed by Stuart Elliot of the National Research Council’s Center for Education attempts to answer this question and predicts 60 percent of today’s workforce will be displaced by 2030, as advances in the abilities of computers meet or exceed the abilities of humans. In Projecting the Impact of Computers on Work in 2030, Elliot organized data on 93 of the 96 groups of occupations used in the Department of Labor’s Standard Occupational Classification system (information was not available for military-specific occupations). For each of these occupational groups,…

You can bring the whole team to SSTI's 11th Annual conference in Baltimore, Oct. 18-19. Members receive a $100 discount on up to seven conference registrations. Multiple attendees from the same organization allow broader coverage of more of the 19 concurrent breakout sessions, greater networking opportunities with more of the field's top thinkers and practitioners, and super savings on registrations. We encourage you to check out the brochure or the conference website soon to see what we have in store for this year's exceptional conference: http://www.ssticonference.org Join today and while supplies last, we will send you a copy of A Resource Guide for Technology-based Economic Development. The resource guide provides a starting point for transferring the collective wisdom of top TBED professionals from the past two decades to current practitioners. Each of the three main sections can serve separately or together as required reading before your next staff meeting, retreat or brainstorming session to help refine your approaches to transforming regional economies. Additional member benefits include: Funding…

Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm. The Juneau Economic Development Council (JEDC), a public/private partnership that serves to foster a healthy and sustainable economic climate in the City and Borough of Juneau and in Southeast Alaska, has openings for two positions. JEDC seeks both an experienced program manager and a technology manager for SpringBoard, its Department of Defense (DoD)-sponsored technology transfer program. The program manager builds relationships with DoD labs nationwide and cultivates partnerships with industry, government and academia. The technology manager works with a portfolio of clients and projects to deliver program metrics, including various contracts, agreements and projects that help transfer technology or commercialize DoD technology. The Medical College of Georgia is seeking a director for its Life Sciences Innovation Center. This position generally serves as the primary contact for emerging life science businesses throughout Georgia by providing assistance with financing, planning and operations. The selected…

Edward Bowman Jr. was selected as chairman of Connecticut Innovations. Bowman replaces Elaine Pullen, who resigned to focus on her consulting business. Linda Burger was named technology manager of the Howard County Economic Development Authority. The creation of the Canadian Association of University Research Parks was announced earlier this month. AURP Canada will represent 25 Canadian science, technology and research parks and will be a chapter of the Association of University Research Parks (AURP). Eileen Walker has been appointed AURP's new executive director. Tom Clarkson was named the new director of Wake Forest University's Babcock Demon Incubator, replacing Paul Briggs. Dr. Donald Colbert is the new executive director of the Augusta BioBusiness Center and Georgia Medical Authority. Colbert replaces Lenie Roos-Gabridge, who retired in July. ConnectKentucky, a public-private partnership leading efforts to accelerate broadband availability and technology literacy throughout the Commonwealth, has formed a national umbrella…

Edward Bowman Jr. was selected as chairman of Connecticut Innovations. Bowman replaces Elaine Pullen, who resigned to focus on her consulting business.

Linda Burger was named technology manager of the Howard County Economic Development Authority.

The creation of the Canadian Association of University Research Parks was announced earlier this month. AURP Canada will represent 25 Canadian science, technology and research parks and will be a chapter of the Association of University Research Parks (AURP). Eileen Walker has been appointed AURP's new executive director.

Tom Clarkson was named the new director of Wake Forest University's Babcock Demon Incubator, replacing Paul Briggs.

Dr. Donald Colbert is the new executive director of the Augusta BioBusiness Center and Georgia Medical Authority. Colbert replaces Lenie Roos-Gabridge, who retired in July.

ConnectKentucky, a public-private partnership leading efforts to accelerate broadband availability and technology literacy throughout the Commonwealth, has formed a national umbrella organization called Connected Nation. In addition, René True has joined ConnectKentucky as director of operations, and Brent Legg has been added as director of state and local initiatives for Connected Nation. True previously served as executive director of the Office of Research and Information Technology in the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

Robert Coughlin will replace Thomas Finneran as the new head of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council by October. Coughlin is Gov. Deval Patrick's undersecretary for business development.