SSTI Digest

Vic Johnson, Director for Policy, Planning & Technology in the Louisiana Department of Economic Development (LDED), is taking the position as manager of the Technology Transfer Office of the Louisiana Business & Technology Center. Mark Galyean will be handling Vic’s responsibilities at LDED. 

After many years with the variously named New York offices for science & technology, Bruce Layton is moving to Illinois to become the Director of Government Relations for Northwestern University. In addition to working for the New York State Science and Technology Foundation and the New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR), Bruce served in a variety of positions with the Science and Technology Council of the States (STCS), most recently as Secretary and keeper of institutional memory. 

SSTI wishes Shannon Burnett good luck as she leaves our team to take a position with the Ohio Air Quality Board.

NASA and the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) have announced 3 and 14 inventions, respectively, that are available for licensing. Invention titles and, for DHHS, abstracts for each licensing opportunity are posted at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/091500t.htm 

State Industries of the Future, a partnership strategy of the Department of Energy’s Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT), has successfully facilitated development of industry visions and roadmaps for the Agriculture, Aluminum, Chemicals, Forest Products, Glass, Metalcasting, Mining, and Steel industries. Beginning with a pilot project in West Virginia, OIT is now partnering with states to pursue these industry-defined visions and roadmaps on a state level.  The goals of this initiative are to boost industrial efficiency and productivity by working with states that have significant activity in one or more of the nine target industries. A typical state approach establishes a state team, targets specific industries, promotes industry alliances, builds industry interest and leadership, identifies business and technology needs, outlines a state strategy, and generates action plans and partnerships. State benefits include potential industry and job growth, alignment of customer and supplier base with core industries, improved environmental performance, increased resource efficiency, and enhanced…

Gross State Products in the nation, after adjustment for inflation, grew at an average annual rate of 3.9 percent from 1992 to 1998, according to a paper released this week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Gross State Product measures value added in production. Not too surprising, the agency found growth was particularly strong in the sectors driving the New Economy, including software development, communications, and high-tech manufacturing — such as electronics, electronic devices, industrial machinery and computer equipment. Government grew the slowest of the major industry sectors at 0.8 percent on average annually. The ten states which experienced the greatest average annual growth in GSP over the period were: Arizona (7.5 percent average annual increase in GSP), Oregon (7.2%), Nevada (6.9%), Utah (6.9%), Colorado (6.6%), New Hampshire (6.3%), New Mexico (6.2%), Idaho (6.1%), Georgia (5.8%), and Texas (5.6%). The 10-page report includes tables presenting GSP statistics for all 50 states and the District of Columbia annually from 1992-…

Registrations for SSTI’s fourth annual conference, Beyond the Hype: Tools for Building Tech-based Economies, have been brisk. As a result, the Regal Knickerbocker Hotel has no more vacancies at our special conference discount rate -- if any rooms are available at all by the time of this release. The hotel was kind enough to extend our room block by 50 percent before the discount deadline this past weekend. To help those of you planning to attend Beyond the Hype but are without accommodations, we have posted on our web site the phone numbers for several hotels within easy walking distance to the conference site that had rooms available as of Wednesday, Sept. 6. The deadline for early conference registration is September 15. Please be advised though, that seating is limited at this point: we may have to close conference registration prior to the 15th. If necessary, we will develop a waiting list for cancellations for those registrations not paid or secured by a credit card before September 15. More conference details and the additional hotel list are available on our web site at: http://www.ssti.…

During its six years in operation, the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program has awarded more than $150 million in grants to strengthen the education of technicians for the high tech fields driving our economy. The ATE Program is managed jointly by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Undergraduate Education and the Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education. The recently released 1999 Awards and Activities for the ATE Program shows the diversity of projects funded in effort to prepare technicians for rewarding careers in strategic technology fields. The program supports the development and dissemination of educational materials and curricula, professional development of college faculty and secondary school teachers, and technical internships for students. In FY1999, 164 projects were funded and 11 Centers of Excellence received continued funding. ATE-funded projects and centers focus on science-related technologies, engineering and computer technologies, core mathematics and science, and special projects. Two-year colleges are expected to play a…

NASA has released a listing of its 1999 Phase II awards for the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR). One hundred ten awards were made to 97 firms in 27 states. The big winner was California with 28 firms garnering 31 awards. For more information regarding these and other NASA SBIR awards, visit http://sbir.gsfc.nasa.gov/

NASA and the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) have announced 49 and 15 inventions, respectively, that are available for licensing. Invention titles and, for DHHS, abstracts for each are posted at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/090800t2.htm

As sponsors of Beyond the Hype: Tools for Building Tech-based Economies, the Great Lakes Industrial Technology Center, the NASA Glenn Garrett Morgan Commercialization Initiative and the NASA Illinois Commercialization Center will share space in the conference exhibitor’s area. Brief profiles of each organization are provided below: Great Lakes Industrial Technology Center -- One of six NASA Regional Technology Transfer Centers (RTTCs), GLITeC provides technology and business solutions to industry in the Great Lakes region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin). GLITeC also works to commercialize NASA Glenn Research Center technologies throughout all 50 states. Its services include matching needs with specific expertise, providing business and technology planning and evaluations, and helping companies acquire and adapt technology. GLITeC works with industry to acquire and use NASA technology and expertise. GLITeC has dedicated in-reach into NASA and bridges the gap between federal discovery and commercial application. GLITeC and its regional affiliates provide industry…

Unprecedented Goals, Unparalleled Progress, a report released in early August by Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove, calls for the state to address several issues to better position the state to compete in the New Economy. Elements of the plan affecting the state’s science and technology base include: making best use of knowledge-based resources through Mississippi by making the ‘University Connection’ through a cluster approach to economic development and university research in areas such as biosciences, engineering, supercomputing and polymers enhancing the information infrastructure to support community and capacity building by hiring a chief technology officer within the Mississippi Development Authority (formerly the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development) to explore methods to broaden access to the state’s telecommunication backbone matching incentives and innovations to the needs of the New Economy, including having the Mississippi Development Authority serve as a conduit to connect venture capital resources with university-based R&D…