Year in Review: RTP Expansions

RTI's Building O9, opened in 2011

It’s certainly been an eventful year for the Research Triangle Park.  There’s a lot we could talk about: grant funding and capital infusion, conferences and events, a new CEO for RTP.  But one of the most exciting topics has been growth and expansion over the past year. In 2011, over 750,000 sq.ft. of  new office and industrial space was announced by various Park companies. Several of these projects are now well into the construction phase, or even complete. Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s been going on in 2011:

In September, Fidelity Investments purchased a group of four office buildings on NC Highway 54 formerly occupied by Nortel Networks. Fidelity is renovating the 676,000 sq.ft. of space, and will then consolidate its regional operations into one campus. This one purchase will go a long way towards reducing vacant space in RTP and rejuvenating its building stock.

Medicago held the ribbon cutting for its new $42 million, 97,000 sq.ft. facility in November. Breathing new life into North Carolina’s heritage, Medicago will produce influenza vaccines developed using tobacco leaves. Their cGMP facility has the capacity to produce more than 40 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine or 120 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine per year.

RTI International, our flagship research institute, held its grand opening for Building O9 in April. The office facility is a 127,000 sq.ft. companion to Building O8, completed several years earlier. Both facilities have been certified LEED Gold. RTI is now looking into opportunities to develop greenhouse space and a biocrude pilot production plant, either in RTP or nearby.

Syngenta Biotechnology is reinventing a site on Davis Drive that was home to one of the Research Triangle Park’s first buildings. Read more »

Wanted: Cloud Professionals

Despite the dark economic clouds, revenue growth attributed to “cloud computing” has become a major point of emphasis of companies with operations in RTP including: IBM, NetApp, and EMC.

More and more businesses are eyeing cloud architectures, hosted or in-house, as a means to lower infrastructure costs, quickly scale capacity as required, and standardize IT across offices and divisions.

By 2020, large U.S. companies that use cloud computing can achieve annual energy savings of $12.3 billion and annual carbon reductions equivalent to 200 million barrels of oil – enough to power 5.7 million cars for one year.

This is according to a new study by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), “Cloud Computing: The IT Solution for the 21st Century,” conducted by independent analyst research firm Verdantix and sponsored by AT&T. Download the full cloud computing report here.

What is cloud computing?

Read more »

Celebrating 100 Years of Innovation and Impact. Happy Birthday IBM.

100 years ago three companies merged to become what is now IBM. Big Blue. Many astounding technological innovations have revolutionized the way people live and work. Through much more than the power of computing, IBM inventions have contributed to the creation of the U.S. Social Security System, putting a man on the moon, the automated international test scoring machine (yes, fill-in-the-bubble, that was them!), inventing UPC codes and bar code scanning technology, driving online banking, the technology that enables LASIK surgery, and computerized airline reservation systems. Oh there’s more… plenty more.

Watch this. The film features one hundred people, who each present the IBM achievement recorded in the year they were born. The film chronology flows from the oldest person to the youngest, offering a whirlwind history of the company and culminating with its prospects for the future. Get ready to be inspired.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39jtNUGgmd4&feature=player_embedded

Check out IBM’s commemorative website, IBM100.

Woven into the fabric of innovation here at the Research Triangle Park is IBM. In the mid-1960s, IBM announced its plans for a 400-acre, 600,000 square foot research facility in RTP. And they’ve been a driving force in this region ever since. Read more »

Building a smarter planet through serious gaming

The Triangle Area Research Directors Council (TARDC) is an informal group of scientific leaders from organizations in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina who meet monthly to discuss subjects of interest to the high-impact research community.

The organization was founded in 1974 by George Herbert (then President of RTI International) as a convenient way for leaders of the local research organizations and universities to meet each other and discuss topics of common interest.

The March TARDC program featured speaker Phaedra Boinodiris discussing serious gaming initiatives and technology. Phaedra is a Serious Games Program Manager at IBM where she is helping craft IBM’s serious games strategy in technical training, marketing, and leadership skill building. She is the founder of the award-winning INNOV8program, a series of games that teaches and evangelizes Business Process Management. INNOV8 is being used in over 1000 schools worldwide and is now available for public consumption.

IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign demonstrates how our planet is more interconnected, intelligent and Instrumented than ever before. Technical innovations are being leveraged across industry to revolutionize and optimize businesses, cities, and the environment. How can technology be used to explain the potential of these complex innovations? How can serious games and simulation personalize the experience and lend to a better understanding via personal discovery?

Check out a few video segments of her presentation: TARDC March Program. High quality versions will be available on the RTP YouTube channel shortly.