Biogen Idec Plugs In

The buzz around plug-in electric vehicles has been livelier than ever in North Carolina, and RTP is certainly becoming a hub of activity for the technology.  RTI unveiled two new electric vehicle charging stations back in November, and just this past Tuesday,  Biogen Idec held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for ten new electric vehicle charging stations at its RTP campus.

Back in November, I had the opportunity to participate in Biogen Idec’s multi-day Sustainability Fair for employees, and got a chance to hear about the exciting work they were doing to bring these charging stations to fruition and procure funding incentives to encourage employees to purchase or lease electric vehicles.  On Tuesday, Biogen Idec’s work paid off, and they cut the ribbon for their new stations, the first for any of their worldwide locations.

Biogen Idec purchased the charging stations with support from the Carolina Blue Skies Initiative, a project led by Triangle J Council of Governments (TJCOG), with $12 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.  Biogen Idec has the distinction of being the first organization in the Triangle to successfully deploy electric charging stations under this initiative.

Biogen Idec installed ten Level 2 charging stations at their RTP Campus.

Pat Hoy was one of the four employees that took advantage of the incentive provided to Biogen Idec employees through Advanced Energy to purchase a Nissan Leaf.  He received a $7500 stipend to offset the purchase price and will also receive a $7500 tax credit.  Speaking briefly at the ceremony, Pat mentioned that one of the greatest benefits of owning a plug-in electric vehicle is that it allows him to bypass the gas station.  “I haven’t been to a gas station in three and half weeks since I’ve owned the car… There aren’t too many other people that can say that.”  He also highlighted some of the technological benefits, such as being able to remotely pre-cool the car’s interior using his smartphone (as long as the car is plugged in).   Read more »

Hit the Road! Triangle Parkway Opens

David Joyner and Gene Conti unveil Triangle Parkway

Following months of construction and years of careful planning, Triangle Parkway is now officially open to the public. The 3.5-mile highway serves as a southern extension of the Durham Freeway (147) connecting I-40 to 540. It is the initial leg of the Triangle Expressway, North Carolina’s first modern toll road, which will continue on to Apex and Holly Springs by this time next year. Toll collection transponders are on sale now through NC Quick Pass. However, Triangle Parkway is free to drive on from now until January 3, offering the perfect opportunity to test out the new route.

The official ribbon-cutting on December 8 featured speeches from Gene Conti, State Secretary of Transportation, and David Joyner, Executive Director of the NC Turnpike Authority. Each gave a round of thank you’s to the many partners who worked hard to make Triangle Parkway a reality. North Carolina has seen its fair share of highway openings, but they likened this experience to having a first child. This much-needed road was nearly postponed for several decades due to limited State funding. Saving it meant re-imagining it as a toll project. But that required buy-in from a reluctant public. Getting construction underway was only possible with region-wide support. Mr. Joyner and Mr. Conti acknowledged the many communities who had signed a joint resolution endorsing the Triangle Parkway, ‘paving the way’ for construction. These included town and county governments, local Chambers of Commerce, and the Research Triangle Foundation.

As we’ve mentioned before, the Triangle Parkway project is significant for its commuting and economic development benefits. The ribbon-cutting ceremony also touched on some other noteworthy aspects of the project. First is the team effort mentioned above, where state and local leaders worked together to reach an important milestone for our region. Read more »

RTI Employees Park and Plug In

Those of you who consider yourselves fans of electric vehicles know that they’ve had a big year. Previously on this blog, we’ve covered Raleigh’s commitment to promote the technology, as well as Nissan’s rollout of their new all-electric model. Well for the next chapter, we turn to one of our own Research Triangle Park companies, RTI International.

As an organization saturated by cutting-edge technology, it makes sense that RTI would have a strong interest in electric vehicles (EV’s) – both at the employee and corporate levels. Recent in-house surveys have indicated a substantial number of RTI employees interested in buying an EV in the next 2 years. For the company as a whole, RTI has acquired Neighborhood Electric Vehicles for trips around campus. And in studying their ecological footprint, they are targeting reductions in the 17% of RTI’s total emissions caused by commuting. Read more »

Let’s Not Waste Waste: Electronics Recyling in RTP

e-Waste is a growing problem – one significant issue is that it is often taken to other nations for handling and improper or unsafe disposal.

CPUs are bundled for recycling at the RTP Electronics Recycling event.

Given the scale of the e-waste challenge, the United States has turned to an initiative called “Solving the E-Waste Problem” or StEP, manged by the United Nations University (UNU), which provides a forum for science-based solutions to international policy problems.  In May of this year, EPA, a founding member of StEP, announced a five year, $2.5 million grant to help finance the creation of the first-ever comprehensive inventory of the country’s e-waste output. The project will “help authorities track shipments of North American electronic waste and provide support to nations in both Africa and Asia coping with e-waste imports …”

Adding to efforts locally, as of January 1^st of this year, the disposal of computer equipment and televisions (among many other things) in a landfill or incinerator is prohibited by North Carolina state law. While this might be a new concept to some, for the last eight years, Environment@rtp has been offering a way for RTP employees to dispose of their residential e-waste.  Twice a year, the committee provides a free and convenient opportunity for employees to drop of their household electronic waste and have it properly disposed of, through recycling and/or reuse.  And for the last five years, the committee has partnered with Kramden Institute, Inc. which collects, refurbishes, and donates PCs to less advantaged students in North Carolina.

Environment@rtp will host its fifteenth Electronics Recycling Day on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 for RTP employees to drop off unneeded household electronics for donation and/or recycling. Read more »

The Expanding Digital Influence

TrueParallel’s president, Mark Rosenberg, started with saying, “Thanks.”  It certainly struck a chord with me, and as I listened to his presentation at Innovation in RTP last Wednesday (August 10^th), I realized it was just another example of how Mark doesn’t always follow convention when it comes to doing business.

Mark sat down with us before his presentation to talk about what TrueParallel does and about his presentation at Innovation in RTP:

During his talk, Mark focused on discussing various market shifts and the new center of digital strategies.  According to Mark, even with an aggressive digital initiative, it’s important to be aware of the impact that users have on the web process and how that must be incorporated into an overall strategy.  He reminded us that the customer’s voice is loud and clear from anywhere on Earth these days and that feedback and information exchange is instantaneous.  Because of this, it’s likely that change must also happen almost immediately. Read more »

Raleigh Leads the Charge for Electric Vehicles

PEV at a Downtown Raleigh charging station

This Wednesday at Marbles Museum in Downtown Raleigh, several RTP staff had the opportunity to attend Plugging In: Progress and Opportunities for Electric Vehicles. The forum, presented by The City of Raleigh, Progress Energy, and Advanced Energy, intended to raise awareness of opportunities and successes in electrified transportation technology.

As the event began, one thing that was quickly apparent was that Raleigh is in the cutting edge of the national rollout of plug-in vehicles. The forum was MC’ed by Paula Thomas, the City of Raleigh’s Sustainability Initiatives Manager, and featured remarks from Mayor Charles Meeker, Assistant City Manager Julian Prosser, and several other City staff. All expressed their eagerness to get Raleigh prepared for electric vehicles.

Read more »

Coming to the Neighborhood: Wake Technical Community College

Wake Tech RTP Campus

Over 90 business leaders from across the region gathered at RTP Headquarters this week to hear a presentation on the new campus of Wake Technical Community College. Wake Tech, as we commonly call it, is a thriving institution now preparing to establish their 8^th major location which will be on RTP’s doorstep. For a region that prides itself on educational capital, and for an economy that is in need of transformation through workforce development, this couldn’t come at a better time.

Speakers at the presentation included Dr. Stephen Scott, President of Wake Tech, and Jay Smith of O’Brien Atkins Associates, serving as Master Planner. Dr. Scott gave an informative overview of Wake Tech’s network of campuses, emphasizing that it is a rare opportunity to design a new campus from scratch. Although with the college’s burgeoning demand for classes, he has now had that privilege twice in his career as president. Attendance at Wake Tech is over 65,000 students per year. About two-thirds of those students are enrolled in continuing education courses, and around 15,000 already have a bachelors degree or higher. This past fall, there were nearly 10,000 students on waiting lists because the classes they needed were full. Lifelong learning is certainly alive and well!

Dr. Stephen Scott, President of Wake Technical Community College

In 2008, Wake Tech purchased 86 acres of undeveloped land in Morrisville. The site offers a blank slate for the new RTP campus, oriented towards continuing education and technology training. This strategic location is at the intersection of 540 and NC 54, in the heart of Perimeter Park, and within a 5-10 minute drive for anyone in the Research Triangle Park.

Once developed, Wake Tech will have a greater capacity to partner with corporate clients in RTP and develop customized course offerings for their employees. The attendance and engagement at Tuesday’s event clearly shows the interest on the part of RTP companies in leveraging such partnerships. Donna Rhode, Vice President, Centers of Excellence of Cisco Systems Global Sales Operations, was one of the participants who praised the efforts to connect the local workforce with the development needs of RTP companies. As she points out, a technologically-skilled workforce is a key factor in attracting and retaining companies, here in the Research Triangle Park and across the region.

Donna Rhode, Vice President, Centers of Excellence of Cisco Systems Global Sales Operations

Although Wake Tech has always been a commuter school, they do pay close attention to designing true campuses. The RTP campus will be no different. The intention is to cluster buildings around gathering spaces, rather than parking lots. Through structured parking and careful land management, the RTP campus will be designed with walkability and community in mind. All facilities will be LEED Certified, as has been Wake Tech’s practice across the board in recent years.

New learning facilities that meet the demand of students and businesses, all in an attractive and sustainable setting. How soon will this get here? Master planning and stakeholder engagement will continue throughout the summer. A bond referendum is expected in Spring or Fall 2012. Dr. Scott’s goal is to hold the first classes at the RTP campus in 2015.

An exciting aspect of Tuesday’s session was the rich and active discussion that followed the core presentation. Attendees offered numerous suggestions on what type of programs should be offered at the Wake Tech RTP campus. Many were in keeping with the strengths of RTP’s industries: Biotechnology, Software, Gaming, Clean Tech. Other ideas were based on locational advantages: Aviation, considering the proximity to RDU; or the resources that the RTP campus itself will offer: Green Building, Ecosystems.

Further discussion revolved around potential facilities and other possible partnerships. Public meeting facilities, for example, were a popular idea for encouraging collaboration among business and education groups. Teacher certification and K-12 enrichment programs would be an excellent means to integrate our educational institutions. And on-site services such as child care, dining and recreation could further enhance the student experience.

Wake Technical Community College will continue to engage students, faculty, local officials and the general public in its master planning process. If you have input of your own for the new campus, whether it concerns campus design or course offerings, be sure to leave your comments below.

Meet Marvin: Not your typical RTP worker

RTP's Marvin

In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a series of books by Douglas Adams, Marvin, one of the series’ major characters, is a robot who has a “brain the size of a planet” and struggles to find ways to engage his vast intellect. RTP has its own “Marvin” who until he was shipped off to compete in the next First Robotics Competition called Park Research Center his home. (For those of you that aren’t familiar with Park Research Center or “PRC,” you can read more about it in this post).

RTP’s Marvin is the creation of a talented group of high-school students known as Team 2059 or “The Hitchhikers.” While I can’t speak for Marvin, from what I’ve seen, the Hitchhikers team has no problem putting their intellectual capacity to use.

(in center, Team Co-Leader Alex Surette)

Since October 2010, the group has been using Park Research Center as its launching grounds. They began building Marvin in January from a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules. They had six weeks to create a robot that can hang inner tubes on to pegs hung at different heights. Once the tubes are arranged to form the First Robotics logo (how’s that for branding???), the robot must then deploy minibots, small electro-mechanical assemblies that are independent of the host robot, onto vertical poles and attempt to “climb” 10 feet.  Check out the video at the bottom of this post of Marvin in action!

In addition to being a great group of people who are passionate, enthusiastic, and incredibly smart, the Hitchhikers are a great example of why STEM education is so important – and how it can be fun. (See some great stats on the importance of STEM from RTP’s own NC STEM Collaborative)

In preparing for the game and building Marvin, they learned about design-build engineering, CAD programming and imagery & animation. They also learned key concepts of running a business from marketing and fundraising (they had to raise their own sponsorships) to creating an organizational structure to ensure all tasks get done. Mix in project management, decision making and problem solving skills and they’ve got the leadership skills that will serve them well as they leave high school. (I don’t know about you, but the concept sure beats the random science and math team competitions I participated in as a teenager!)

RTP has been honored to join the other sponsors of the Hitchhiker’s team and looks forward to cheering them on to victory at the NC Regionals April 8-9 at the NC State Fairgrounds in Dorton Arena! See you there.

Revisiting IBM’s Smarter Planet

Two years ago, Craig Nygard presented IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative to the Park at the inaugural Innovation@rtp.  On March 9, 2011, in celebration of Innovation@rtp’s two-year anniversary, Dianne Fodell, IBM Program Director for Global University Programs, returned on behalf of IBM to provide an update on the Smart Planet initiative.

Amidst celebratory cupcakes and gifts of t-shirts to the attendees, Dianne provided a fascinating look at how IBM is working with governments and businesses around the world to make the planet “smarter.”  But what does that mean?  Well, for IBM, it means working with world systems, including both natural and engineered systems, to infuse “intelligence” into processes that make our world work.

Examples of this include:

• Smart supply chains – helping companies ship smarter with innovative tracking systems which can help to reduce empty cargo holds, prevent food spoilage, and protect food quality;
• Smart Energy – building intelligence into utilities to lower costs for customers and creating a smart grid that includes intelligent appliances to efficiently use power;
• Smart Traffic – working with large cities to create solutions to traffic congestion, improve traffic flow, and thereby reducing vehicle emissions and improving vehicle (and human) efficiency;
• Smart Water – using sensors in water systems to monitor marine and plant life, learn how humans use and treat water, and make inferences about trends in water quality, all in an effort to keep water clean.

One of the examples I found particularly fascinating included placing sensors in the shells of mussels in Galway Bay, Ireland.  Because mussels function as quick indicators of water quality, quickly closing themselves up in response to pollutants, determining when and where mussels are closing, can help water quality managers know when and where water quality problems may be arising.  Collecting and analyzing this data can help pinpoint pollutant sources and trends and lead to corrective action and a cleaner Galway Bay.

Bringing the Smarter Planet initiative to fruition is certainly a challenging effort.  There are ever changing skill requirements and needs for data; however the most important aspect of smarter systems is the actionable insights that data can reveal.  So along with data, a Smarter Planet relies on statistical analysis to feed these intelligent processes (so much so, that Dianne urged everyone to encourage their kids to major in math).

I think one of Dianne’s final points really summarized what Smarter Planet is about:  “Everything is becoming instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent.”  And with IBM and other like-minded companies calling RTP home, I certainly think we’ll begin to see these types of connections and interfaces improving the way we live right here in the Triangle.

For more information on the Smarter Planet initiative, visit www.ibm.com/smarterplanet.  For more information on the Innovation@rtp lecture series, visit www.innovationinrtp.com.

Sunlight into gasoline? RTI VP says ‘yes’, future looks bright

A lot goes on at RTI International’s campus in RTP: everything from governmental prototypes of democracy in Iraq to cutting-edge chemical engineering and energy research. Dave Myers, RTI’s vice president of the Engineering and Technology Unit (ETU) said the expansive undertakings of the institution enable new scientific discoveries and progress on a regional, national, and global level.

SITT's Sabine Vollmer (left) and RTI VP Dave Myers

“The goal is to be considered to be among the upper echelon of companies making a difference,” Myers said. For his department’s energy programs, it’s vital to stay on top. The federal government only allots grant money to certain research organizations, and stimulus money has been hard to come by. Some of it won’t surface until as late as 2014, and a lot is still being allocated.

However, the state agreed to match Washington’s funds, even amidst its current budgeting crisis. And with new contributions from the Dept. of Energy, money going towards energy research at RTI has doubled since 2007, Myers said.

So what, exactly, is Myers’ team putting the grant money towards? Lots of different projects, but mainly, solar power. However, he isn’t talking about ordinary sun panels making electricity. Myers said his team is mixing sunlight and water to make gasoline.

These solar panels capture heat-waves from the sun and generate hydrogen, which the ETU can add to water and transform into hydrocarbons. Mix that with carbon-dioxide and you get methanol. (Methanol = CH₃OH, the chemical synthesis of CO₂ and H₂.) The methanol is then converted into liquid gasoline, the same kind our cars run on now.

Except it’s cleaner. This gas has fewer harmful emissions and byproducts than conventional oil-based petroleum burning. There’s also far less sulfur. Not to mention, it’s renewable. What’s key, Myers said, is that engine performance will be exactly the same. It maintains an incredibly high energy density, which is the most compelling aspect of gasoline from an engineering standpoint while battery technology for electric cars is still immature.

Other projects his team is working on includes novel LED lighting designs and the “pMUT” (short for Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasound Transducer), a biomedical device that delivers real-time 3D ultrasonic images inside the human body. It has already been found highly beneficial for both cardiac and intravascular operations. No such technology has previously been available to surgeons, which is why the medical community is so excited for its introduction. RTP’s own National Institute of Health (NIH) originally funded the project; now, RTI is partnering with Duke to further development.

-Ross Maloney. Reporting by Sabine Vollmer, for Science in the Triangle. Read her “Inside RTP” feature on Myers’ interview here.