SSTI Digest

Five Shoes Waiting to Drop on Arizona's Future, a 50-page report released by the Morrison Institute of Public Policy, details five key trends that could harm the state's future if they are not well managed. The "shoes waiting to drop," according to the report, are trends already at work in Arizona that are altering the state's social and economic make-up. The report says that Morrison Institute researchers believe it behooves Arizona to recognize the trends and respond to them as it plots a course in a time of transition. The trends are encompassed by the following: a talent shakeup that hinders Arizona's ability to attract and retain highly skilled workers; a Latino education dilemma that finds many Arizona Hispanics in need of better educational opportunities to keep moving forward; a fuzzy economic identity that interferes with the state's economic development agenda; a lost stewardship that leaves Arizona without leaders in challenging times; and a revenue sieve that finds Arizona's tax system old, leaky, unbalanced, and inconsistent with where the…

Three Texas cities, Dallas, Houston and Austin, top the second annual Affordibility Index prepared by techies.com, a technology workforce placement company. The study tracks which cities offer the best combination of top salary and low cost of living for information technology professionals. Salt Lake City, Atlanta, the DC/Baltimore corridor, Seattle and Phoenix round out the top eight metro areas. The Affordability Index compares average tech salaries in 38 major U.S. job markets and regions against ACCRA's Cost of Living Index <http://www.coli.org/>, giving recruiters and tech professionals an idea of the relative value of salaries in different job markets. The Index assigns a score of 100 to Detroit, having average pay levels and cost of living. Cities that score less than 100 are less affordable than Detroit for technology professionals, while tech salaries stretch farther in job markets that score higher than 100. New York/New Jersey, the Silicon Valley and Los Angeles — where high salaries do not offset an even higher cost of living — rank last. The San…

AEA, formerly the American Electronics Association, in conjunciton with the Nasdaq stock market, has released CyberEducation 2002, a compendium and comparative analysis of several trends and educational statistics from across the country. Using off-the-shelf data from sources such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Education, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Test, and other standardized tests, AEA concludes that student performance in math education is improving, yet challenges remain. The report also provides performance profiles for each of the 50 states. CyberEducation 2002 is available for $190 for non-AEA members. Free links to most, if not all, of the educational statistics used in the report may be found from the National Center for Educational Statistics <http://nces.ed.gov/index.html> and the NSF Division of Science Resource Statistics <http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm>.

While 2002 marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, it also may be remembered as the first time an agency successfully finagled its way out of SBIR's requirement that 2.5 percent of extramural R&D be awarded to small technology companies. SSTI sources report the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) managed to insert in the FY 2002 Defense Appropriations Act language rescinding 49.6 percent — $73.8 million — of the agency's SBIR obligation for FY 2002. The SBIR program typically awards up to $750,000 directly to small firms for research and development leading to the commercialization of new technologies. BMDO is one of eight defense components required to participate in the small-business set-aside. Newly renamed the Missile Defense Agency, BMDO received a substantial increase in its overall research, development, test and evaluation line item, which would have resulted in the organization's SBIR program growing from approximately $80 million in FY 2001 to $148.8 million for the current fiscal year. With the…

Each year, SSTI looks at the various addresses given by the nation's governors at the beginning of the year. While the aftermath of September 11 weighs heavily in the content of this year's State of the State addresses, the important role tech-based economic development plays for strengthening state and local economies during a recession has not been overlooked by many governors. Not all news is positive, however. As nearly every state confronts less-than-anticipated revenues and the resulting budget deficits, tech-based economic development initiatives face fiscal challenges. Over the next few weeks, the SSTI Weekly Digest will highlight those portions of the speeches concerning programs, policies, and issues immediately affecting the tech-based economic development community. This week's addresses include: California Gray Davis, 2002 State of the State Address, January 8, 2002 http://video.dot.ca.gov/state/index.html Proposes new Cabinet-level Labor and Workforce Development Agency to reorganize and streamline the 34 different programs in 13…

Some of the biggest tourist destinations in the U.S. — Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City, Orlando and Honolulu — and the biggest cities — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — will suffer heavy job losses as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a new study from the Milken Institute. Metropolitan Economies in the Wake of 9/11 includes a detailed analysis of those industries and metropolitan areas hardest hit by Sept. 11 and examines the overall U.S. economy in light of the attacks and recession. Las Vegas, expected to have nearly 5 percent fewer jobs in 2002 than it would have had without the attacks, will suffer more than any other metro area, the study says. Myrtle Beach, S.C., and New York City are second and third, respectively, with projected declines of 3.6 percent and 3.42 percent. The remaining top 10 hardest hit (with percentages in parentheses) are: Reno (3.15), Atlantic City (2.98), Orlando (2.85), Wichita, KA (2.81), Flagstaff, AZ (2.61), Honolulu (2.57) and Forth Worth (2.45). New York City will see the most job losses in 2002 — nearly 150,000…

Against a backdrop of futuristic vehicles at the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and executives of Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler announced a new cooperative automotive research partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Council for Automotive Research (USCAR). Under the new program, Freedom CAR (Cooperative Automotive Research), the government and the private sector will fund research into advanced, efficient fuel cell technology, which uses hydrogen to power automobiles without creating pollution. A part of the President's National Energy Plan, Freedom CAR is intended to promote the development of hydrogen as a primary fuel for cars and trucks and help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. America's transportation sector presently is 95 percent dependent on petroleum, with transportation consuming 67 percent of the petroleum used in the U.S. The long-term results of the cooperative effort, Abraham said, will be cars and trucks that are more efficient, cheaper to operate, pollution-free and competitive in the…

A student’s opportunity to gain access to and afford a college education varies significantly from state to state, according to a report recently issued by Lumina Foundation for Education. Unequal Opportunity: Disparities in College Access Among the 50 States, a study of 2,887 degree-granting colleges, classifies each college by admissibility and affordability and examines differences in the patterns within and among states for different types of institutions and different groups of students. Institutions are defined as admissible if they are open to college-qualified students with test scores and grades that place them in the 25th to 75th percentiles of college-bound high school graduates from their state. In assessing affordability, the study focuses on college expenses and family resources and the extent to which federal, state and institutional aid help meet financial need for specific types of students. If the sum of these potential financial sources met the estimated expenses, the college was considered affordable. These two measures — affordability and admissibility —…

Two reports released lated in 2001 by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) highlight challenges presently faced by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In Current Structure Presents Challenges for Service, the GAO addresses the issues posed by SBA's current organizational alignment and presents "information SBA should consider in determining if and how to reorganize." Such issues, including ineffective lines of communication and confusion over the mission of district offices, are said "to impede the efforts of SBA staff to effectively deliver services." The GAO report does not make recommendations to SBA; however, the report calls the restructuring efforts of other federal agencies "a framework and a set of steps and considerations that may prove useful to SBA." The GAO addresses a different issue in Biomedical Research: HHS Direction Needed to Address Financial Conflicts of Interest, namely that some collaborations are concerned with research investigators or institutions being overly interested in "the financial rewards of…

Albany, New YorkHealth Reseach Inc., a branch of the New York State Department of Health, is looking to move its Pharmacogenomics Institute to a vacant laboratory in Rensselaer Technology Park, according to a recent article published in the Times Union. The 25,000-square-foot building that housed the Virogenics Corp., a vaccine-research company that left in 2000, has not been officially purchased. The state expects to lease the site when the Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency closes on the purchase.   Cambridge, MassachusettsThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently announced the creation of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, established through a gift from Jaishree Deshpande and Desh Deshpande. Their $20 million gift will set off the initial phase of the center, which will be a part of MIT's School of Engineering. The center will will be dedicated to supporting research on novel technologies in collaboration with the high technology and venture capitalist communities of New England and will support undergraduate education in engineering practice. A press release on the center is available at: http…

Science and math education funding recently took the equivalent of a roller coaster ride, winding up on the bottom end, according to the Dec. 28 issues of FYI: The Bulletin of Science Policy News of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). On Dec. 18, Congress — fresh off approving $450 million for the newly-established Math & Science Partnerships Program under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on Dec. 13 — approved only $12.5 million for the Partnerships Program in its FY 2002 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations report. Although the ESEA bill reformed, consolidated and streamlined many Education Department programs and created the Partnerships Program, it did not provide the full $450 million recommended in ESEA, the AIP bulletin states. Instead, the Partnerships Program replaced the Eisenhower Professional Development Program as the Education Department's only program with funding specifically meant for science and math. The conference report for Labor-HHS-Education observes that although $250 million was approved in Eisenhower funding in FY 2001…

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) kicked off the new year with a new $330,000 program to support Maryland companies wishing to develop technology-based products and/or services in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Morgan State University (MSU) or federal laboratories in Maryland. The Maryland Technology Transfer Fund (MTTF) will award non-equity investments of up to $50,000 per project. The program supports company technology development projects that transfer technology from JHU, MSU or a federal laboratory in Maryland to the commercial sector and the development of technology-based products and/or services for future government uses. The Fund, made possible by a grant from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), is also providing $100,000 to JHU and MSU to develop innovative ways to partner with industry. Program designers believe MTTF may serve as a feeder for other existing DBED programs, such as the Challenge Investment and Enterprise Fund programs, which provide up to $500,000 in equity. Applications will be…