SSTI Digest

1999 Baldrige Winners Announced

Two manufacturers and two service companies have been selected as winners of the 1999 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's premier award for performance excellence and quality achievement. No award recipients were selected in the new education and health care categories.

The winners are: STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Region Americas (Carrollton, TX; manufacturing); BI (Minneapolis, MN.; service); The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. (Atlanta, GA; service); and Sunny Fresh Foods (Monticello, MN.; small business/ manufacturing).

The Sacramento Bee recently ran a story showing there is a downside for California being home of the Silicon Valley phenomenon: 20 percent of the 6,600 computer and telecommunications positions within the California state government are vacant. Some local governments are reporting even higher vacancy rates.

According to the story, the result for California residents is that they do not have the World Wide Web convenience of government service delivery now offered in many other states — such as online vehicle registration or fishing license purchases.

More serious information needs such as tracking child support payments also are not being addressed because of the lack of trained workers. Other sites, once created cannot be updated because the trained staff have left for positions in private business.

Slow government hiring processes and noncompetitive civil salaries and benefits are cited as the reasons for the problem.

Fulfilling a promise made in his 1999 State of the State Address, Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne recently announced the formation of the Idaho Science and Technology Advisory Council. The council’s first responsibility will be to develop a state science and technology strategic plan. The Idaho Department of Commerce will provide staff support for the council.



Dr. Bill Shipp, director of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), will chair the council and serve as the state’s Science and Technology Advisor. Other members of the advisory council were not named but will also be appointed by Governor Kempthorne.

Research and development (R&D) spending in the US by foreign-owned companies has increased to more than $17 billion annually and accounts for nearly 15 percent of total company-funded R&D in the United States, according to Globalizing Industrial Research and Development — Update, a new report released by the US Department of Commerce Office of Technology Policy.



Furthermore, the study found that during the past seven years, R&D expenditures by foreign-owned businesses in the US have increased faster than total R&D expenditures by US firms. In the high-technology sector, R&D expenditures by foreign companies account for one out of every four dollars spent on industrial R&D in the US. The growth in R&D spending by foreign companies can largely be attributed to the expansion of R&D expenditures by the US affiliates of multinational companies from six countries: Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

The following people in the science and technology field have made or announced career changes recently:



Pat Valente has been named the Deputy Director of the Technology Division of the Ohio Department of Development.

David Weiss is leaving his post as Maryland State Technology Coordinator.

Maine Governor Angus King appointed Dr. Janet Yancey-Warona to serve as the Director for the new Maine Technology Institute.

Pat Valente has been named the Deputy Director of the Technology Division of the Ohio Department of Development.