SSTI Digest

The inventions listed below are available for licensing by the Department of Navy.

The Second Session of the 119th Maine Legislature proved to be another watershed event for the state's science and technology sector. More than 20 percent of Maine's appropriated surplus budget was dedicated to increased monies for existing science and technology programs as well as substantial investment in new initiatives. The programs that the Legislature voted to fund include:

Collaboration and partnership among public, private, and non-profit entities have taken on a renewed urgency as states and localities seek quick and cost effective methods to cultivate the necessary environment to foster and support technology-based economies. SSTI’s latest publication focuses on two groups of technology-based economic development organizations that have grown in numbers alongside the New Economy: 1) regional technology councils, and 2) industry associations focused on information technology and life sciences, the industrial sectors most associated with the New Economy. As these groups have become larger and more numerous, their strength as allies in S&T policy has emerged.

The National Governors’ Association has released the fourth, fifth, and sixth papers in its series on the New Economy. The latest two are touted as providing “a blueprint for replicating the economic successes of high tech meccas like California’s Silicon Valley [and] Route 128 in Massachusetts. All six papers can be downloaded from the NGA web site: http://www.nga.org. The three new papers are described briefly below.

Vice President Gore announced the release of Digital Economy 2000, the Commerce Department's third annual report on the information-technology (IT) revolution and its impact on the economy. The Department found while IT industries only represent 8.3 percent of the U.S. economy, they accounted for approximately 30 percent of the country's economic growth since 1995. Nearly one-third of all company-funded R&D investments in 1998 were made by IT industries. IT also accounts for at least half of the recent acceleration in U.S. productivity growth. IT employment doubled to 1.6 million during the six-year period of 1992 - 1998. The full report can be downloaded from: http://www.esa.doc.gov/de2000.pdf

The Air Force and the National Institutes of Health have published lists of 69 and 3 inventions, respectively, that are available for license. A list of the patents, invention titles, and, in the case of NIH, summary descriptions can be found on the SSTI Website: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/060900t.htm

We try hard to be objective in the SSTI Weekly Digest and to present information without editorializing. This is one of the rare instances that we will not even attempt to be objective. We have several items involving SSTI to report:

Using a new, proprietary methodology, the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC) has conducted a cluster assessment, determining KTEC should focus its commercialization efforts on those specific technology areas where opportunity is high and where the elements are in place to delivery those benefits to the state’s economy. The results, published in Kansas Strategic Technology Cluster Assessment and a Plan for the 21st Century, form a unique blend of cluster analysis, indicator assessment, and strategic planning.

Three bills have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Vernon Ehlers (R-Michigan) to help reform science, math, engineering, and technology education in grades K-12. These bills, known as the National Science Education Acts of 2000, are designed to re-focus interest and training for those in grades K-12 in all fields of science and technology.

The National Science Education Act (NSEA), the largest of the three bills, focuses on the improvement and expansion of National Science Foundation (NSF) activities. The bill would provide grants for schools to:

According to a new report by a public-private collaborative project called Ecom-Ohio, Ohio lags many others in the “Net” Economy. The group draws attention to the state’s digital divide among certain population groups and laments slow Internet adoption in small and medium-sized businesses and a lack of public incentives and investment to help correct the situation.

Last week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties released a report documenting the 1999 Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP) for the nation’s 319 largest metro areas. The 44-page report indicates that 95 percent of high tech job creation between 1992 and 1999 took place in metro areas.

The report ranks metro areas relative to each other, and, states and national economies around the world. For example, 48 of the world’s largest 100 economies are US metro areas. The GMP of the ten largest metro areas exceeds the combined output of 31 states. Twenty pages of tables provide statistics and rankings for each metro area.

The report can be downloaded from http://www.usmayors.org/citiesdrivetheeconomy/