SSTI Digest

New Technology Week reports William Schneider, president of International Planning Services, has been picked to chair the Defense Science Board.&nbsp

Dennis J. Sysko is serving as interim president of the Anne Arundel County High Technology Council, following the resignation of president John G. Rice. Mr. Sysko, who is currently serving as the group's treasurer, will perform both roles until a replacement president is elected in January.

The Office of Technology Transfer in the National Institutes of Health has published abstracts of eight government-owned patents that are available for licensing. To help bring these commercialization opportunities to the attention of a wider audience, SSTI has reprinted the abstracts on the following webpage: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/072001t2.htm

At the end of June, Governor Bob Holden signed an executive order committing $21.5 million of the state’s tobacco settlement funds for biotech research during fiscal year 2002. Governor Holden made his announcement prior to signing Senate Bill 500, which expands the state’s job training program to prepare Missouri’s work force for new careers in life sciences. Although the General Assembly this year appropriated $21.5 million in tobacco settlement funds for life sciences research and development, no legislation was enacted to govern the expenditure of the money. The executive order will direct the State Office of Administration to administer the funds through the Life Sciences Research Committee, composed of the commissioner of administration, and seven other members appointed by the governor. The committee will solicit and review biotechnology research proposals, and funds will be disbursed through research contracts for proposals that have the potential to provide the greatest health and economic benefits to Missourians. Funds earmarked for the life…

While cities such as Boston and San Francisco, not surprisingly, are home to many high-growth companies, a recent report from the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) reveals large concentrations of high-growth companies in less familiar areas such as Elkhart, IN, and Provo, UT. High Growth Companies: Mapping America’s Entrepreneurial Landscape provides a detailed picture of the regions where businesses have shown rapid growth. The report was released July 11 as a starting point for understanding the economic development in the nation’s 394 Labor Market Areas (LMAs), as designated by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Agriculture. The key findings of the report include: High-growth companies — those with 15 percent employment growth per year for 5 years, or a doubling in employment between 1992 and 1997 — are found in all regions of the U.S. and all industrial sectors. Fewer than 1 in 20 U.S. businesses achieved the designation as a high-growth rate company. Each of the 394 LMA regions in the country contains some high-growth…

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…

Aggregated venture capital investments are commonly used by state and local policymakers to assess the “health” of their tech-based economies. As a result, some of the most accessed pages of the SSTI Weekly Digest web archives have been the state-by-state tables SSTI generates with the release of each quarter’s Moneytree™ venture capital survey results. The merger of the PricewaterhouseCoopers and Venture One surveys late last year into a single Moneytree™ survey, however, made long-term analysis inaccurate, if not impossible, for practitioners and researchers alike. Fortunately, the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds sought a solution to the problem from PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture One. The results, two charts presenting annual seed and first round venture capital investments by state for 1995-2000, are posted in the NASVF NetNews web library. The first article <http://www.nasvf.org/web/allpress.nsf/pages/2833> provides six-year aggregate data and each state’s share of the total number of deals and funding. The second article <…

Math and science students exposed to high expectations, challenging curriculum and sound instructional methods may hold an advantage over their peers, suggests a report funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Academic Excellence for All Urban Students presents data from a study of 22 urban school districts comprising the NSF's Urban Systemic Initiatives (USI), showing great gains in student achievement by school districts that participated in the USI program for the longest period of time. The report is the result of eight years of research under the USI program, which began in 1993. It also is part of a larger ongoing study by Systemic Research, Inc., How Reform Works: An Evaluative Study of National Science Foundation's Urban Systemic Initiatives. Among the report's findings, students in grades K-12 in major urban school districts demonstrated significant improvement in mathematics and science and higher-level course achievement in the following: Algebra I or above in eighth grade and Algebra II, Geometry, Calculus, Integrated Mathematics,…

Public and private efforts to attract more women into high-tech fields of information technology have a significant hurdle to overcome: 60 percent of women already in IT jobs wouldn’t choose the same career path if starting over, according to Women In Technology, a recent survey by DeLoitte & Touche. Many of the reasons women cited for the dissatisfaction – pay equity, glass ceiling for promotions, and few role models – are already long-standing and too-common issues for women in more traditional industries. Findings include: Is there a glass ceiling in the high tech industry? Nearly two-thirds of women surveyed believe a glass ceiling is a reality for women in the high technology industry (62 percent), whereas 62 percent of men felt that this barrier is a non-issue for women in the high tech industry. High tech is defined as computer hardware or software, telecommunications, dot-coms, or e-commerce departments. What perceived barriers to advancement exist for women and why? Those who perceive a glass ceiling exists cited the…

Camden, Arkansas The June 19, 2001 issue of The Bond Buyer reported that Camden, with a population just over 13,000, approved a one-cent sales tax to raise $6 million over four years to support downtown business revitalization efforts. Plans include construction of a business incubator and development of a 500-acre business park. Missouri The 2002 budget passed by the state’s General Assembly includes $1 million to support the creation of a research park in Fort Leonard Wood. The Missouri Technology Investment Fund, which supports the Electronic Materials Applied Research Center, Missouri Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), Innovation Centers, and Centers for Advanced Technology received an appropriation of $5,114,652. Of the total, Governor Holden vetoed a $549,000 appropriation for the SBDCs and $200,000 for a fruit and vegetable experiment station at Southwest Missouri State University. For the full economic development appropriation bill see: http://www.house.state.mo.us/bills01/bills01/HB7.htm Henderson,…

Washington has the second highest employment growth rate in the U.S., according to the 2001 Index of Innovation and Technology for Washington — a report released by the Washington Technology Center. The state's 33 percent increase in employment growth rate over the last five years allowed it to move up four positions, second only to Utah.  The report reinforces numerous trends found in the 2000 Index. Among them is the growth of capital investment in Washington companies. Washington's overall rate of growth in venture investment during the past two years has grown at more than half the rate of other major regions. However, Washington's rate is much smaller than that of most other areas of the country. The report suggests that this trend could cause the state to fall behind other regions.  The report also draws numerous other comparisons, weighing Washington's numbers against those of other states and national averages. Below is a sample of other findings in each of six major areas:  Innovation: Washington ranks 1st of all states in…

On Tuesday, President Bush announced the nomination of Phillip Bond to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology. The position oversees the Technology Administration which includes the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), the Office of Technology Policy, and the National Technical Information Service. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Advanced Technology Program are part of NIST.  Mr. Bond is currently the Director of Federal Public Policy for Hewlett-Packard Company and was formerly Senior Vice President for Government Affairs and Treasurer of the Information Technology Industry Council. From 1993 to 1998, Bond served as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn. He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs from 1992 to 1993 and Chief of Staff and Rule Committee Associate for Congressman Bob McEwen from 1990 to 1992. From 1987 to 1990, he served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs. Bond is a graduate of Linfield College in Oregon.  …