SSTI Digest

Comprising a majority of the U.S. workforce, women make up only 8.5 percent of the nation's engineers. A number of programs have been launched over the past decade to recruit more women into the field, and while women now represent 20 percent of all engineering students, women remain more likely than men to switch out of the field, particularly in the first two years of college, concludes a recently released study. The Women's Experiences in College Engineering (WECE) Project reveals female engineering students are most encouraged by a support network of peers, faculty and advisors, when it comes to pursuing a degree in their field. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the study results suggest efforts to improve female students' self-confidence and to strengthen the school's support climate positively affect whether women persist in obtaining engineering degrees and entering the workforce as engineers. A three-year study, the WECE Project surveyed as many as 25,000 women across 53 colleges and universities to better understand the experiences of…

The National Science Foundation has released Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2000, a collection of 54 detailed statistical tables present the distribution of graduate students in science and engineering (S&E) across population segments, fields of science or engineering and by college and state. Nationally, there were 414,570 graduate S&E students in 2000, up less than one percent from the previous year. The tables report California, New York, Texas and Illinois had the most graduate S&E students in science and engineering in 2000. To standardize the data for comparison across states, SSTI has prepared the accompanying table <http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/060702t.htm> presenting the amount of academic R&D spending in each state per graduate S&E student. The results show Alaska, at $179,928, has the most R&D expenditures per student, followed closely by Maryland at $167,599, before dropping sharply to Hawaii at $114,235. The national average academic spending per graduate S&E student in 2000 was $72,506.60. New…

Economic downturns have a way of encouraging states, universities and communities to assess, refine and re-invigorate their strategies to promote growth and prosperity. The current recession is no exception. With the widely recognized roles played by science and technology in economic success, the news of changes and additions to tech-based economic development strategies from across the country is not too surprising. Here are some recent highlights: Alabama The Alabama Dept. of Economic & Community Affairs (ADECA), in partnership with BizTech, Huntsville's technology-based business incubator, has launched an e-mentoring program for SBIR applicants. The program, funded in part through the state's FAST award, is a web-based coaching program to help SBIR and STTR applicants increase their competitiveness and create better proposals with help from previous SBIR winners called E-Mentors. Experienced entrepreneurs and SBIR veterans, the E-Mentors provide strategic guidance, advising, and counseling but not consultation-type services like writing proposals or work plans. Arizona…

While Congress debates whether or not it should fund national programs to address the Digital Divide, many communities continue their efforts to ensure all local residents have the technology training and access needed to secure high-quality employment and attain skills through lifelong learning. The City of Seattle, through its Department of Information Technology, may offer one of the more sophisticated and successful models for approaching the issue. With guidance provided by the City's Citizens Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB), Seattle has identified a number of appropriate roles for the city to play in addressing the Digital Divide, including: access provider, strategic planning, data collection and mapping, technical advisor, coordinating resource development, Web hosting, funding community technology centers and literacy efforts, and promoting civic use of technology. The department's Community Technology Program includes a Citizens Literacy and Access Fund, which supports a number of community technology centers and digital divide research projects. Monies…

Emphasis in the defense research agenda would continue to shift toward advanced technology development and defense-wide programs in Fiscal Year 2003, based on the House and Senate versions of the defense authorization bills that have cleared the respective armed services committees. [Note: authorization bills set the parameters for program spending levels; Congress must pass separate appropriation bills each year to allocate funds to specific programs or agencies.] According to a synopsis provided in FYI #64, the American Institute of Physics (AIP) Bulletin of Science Policy News (May 30, 2002), spending for applied research will very likely decrease while basic research gets mixed signals between House and Senate versions of the bill. Advanced technology development could see an increase of 8-9.4 percent. Three categories of R&D spending — basic, applied, and advanced technology development — are referred in defense community lingo as 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3. The table below presents AIP's summary statistics for each category of spending and each defense component. After passage in the House…

The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity — the research arm of Ontario's Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress — has released a comprehensive view of Ontario's industry clusters, showing for the first time how they compare with similar clusters in other provinces and U.S. states. A View of Ontario: Ontario's Clusters of Innovation serves as the Institute's first Working Paper on Ontario's competitiveness, productivity and economic progress. It draws on the analytical approach of Harvard Business School's Michael Porter and is the result of collaboration with the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard. The paper shows Ontario to have an above average share of its employment in traded clusters, led by business services, financial services, and the automotive industry. It further compares Ontario's top 10 clusters with those of Alberta, Michigan, Illinois and Massachusetts and profiles additional clusters, including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Building on research from Statistics Canada, the paper points to three possible…

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) President Carl B. Feldbaum signed a memorandum of understanding this week to expand cooperation between NASA and the biotechnology industry. Biotechnology research already is being integrated into NASA's programs. For example, the upcoming launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station (ISS) will transport a biotechnology company's experiment to the station that will compare human liver-cell function in space with that on Earth. This research could aid in the development of treatments for people in need of liver transplants. Feldbaum said at the signing, "This agreement underscores the existing convergence of space technology and biotechnology. We've already seen biotech research underway in space. This agreement will promote investment by the biotechnology industry in commercial space development for the benefit of patients, consumers and our economy." The memorandum establishes three goals of collaboration: enhanced communication between NASA and industry; expanded…

A wake-up call. That's what the final report of the Lincoln Technology Council said the city received after learning one of its top employers was expanding its operations in a nearby city instead of Lincoln because of perceived weaknesses in Lincoln's telecommunications infrastructure. The result was Mayor Don Wesely creating the Mayor's Technology Council in February last year to "enhance the community's core technology strengths and infrastructure to achieve a competitive advantage for Lincoln as a leading city for technology-based businesses and to promote economic development." Prepared by Kansas City-based HDR Management Consulting Group, Lincoln Technology Assessment provides an assessment of the city's telecommunications infrastructure and its usage by the Lincoln community. The report gives specific recommendations for how to make the community more competitive for technology related businesses and provides detailed comparisons of several benchmarks for Lincoln and other cities — Boise, ID; Boulder, CO; Des Moines, IA; Ft. Collins, CO; Kansas City, MO; Madison, WI; and Omaha, NE. …

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has published the Science & Engineering State Profiles: 1999-2000, an online database. One-page statistical summaries are given for each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, permitting calculation of per capita statistics and rankings. The report is geared to allow easy reference across 30 science and engineering statistics, the distribution of federal R&D obligations by department and performer, and industrial and academic R&D expenditures. Additionally, it includes figures for population, per capita income, labor force, patents, small business innovation research awards, and gross state product. SSTI has prepared the accompanying table presenting for comparison the number of patents issued to state residents in 2000, the average number of patents issued per member of the state’s civilian workforce, the average number of patents per doctoral scientists and doctoral engineers in the state, and the R&D dollars spent in the state per patent issued. Science & Engineering State Profiles: 1999-2000 can be…

In the SBIR Phase I award/proposal table SSTI released with the May 10, 2002 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest, the figures reported under "Health" inadvertently included both Phase I and Phase II proposals for the National Institutes of Health. As a result of the adjustment, the award-to-proposal ratio also has been corrected. The revised table has been republished at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/050302t.htm

New York's initiatives to support technology-based economic development (TBED) will share more than $520 million in state appropriations during Fiscal Year 2003. The highlight: two originally competing budget proposals to support university-based centers of excellence survived with a combined $470 million in state funds (see the Jan. 5, 2001 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for background). Most of New York's other TBED initiatives also fared well in the new budget, running counter to the fiscal environment facing TBED in several other states. Governor Pataki's Centers of Excellence proposal will receive $250 million to support major upgrades of research facilities and other high-technology and biotechnology capital projects, allowing colleges, universities and research institutions to secure research funding that will lead to new job creation. To date, Centers of Excellence have been announced in Albany, Buffalo, Long Island and Rochester, with others being planned throughout the state. These centers have already attracted more than $400 million in new private sector and federal investments. In…

Senate Bill 1844, signed by Governor Jeb Bush this week, provides $30 million to create Centers of Excellence and includes several other key elements of the Florida Technology Development Initiative, proposed by Governor Bush in his State of the State speech this year. The Centers of Excellence program is intended to foster innovative, cutting-edge technology research at Florida's colleges and universities, develop commercially viable applications for that research, and recruit high-tech industries and thinkers to the state. Technology sectors highlighted in the announcement include simulation, optics and space technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence. The legislation permits the centers to support new facilities, laboratories and endowed academic chairs. Other provisions of the bill include: Expansion of research and development parks financed by the Florida Industrial Development Financing Act to include state universities, community colleges and government agencies, if their projects promote scientific research and development; Transfer of…