STEMulating the mind

It’s the first day of school for many students across the Triangle, including my own. And let me tell you. It was challenging to get my seventh grade daughter to pose for our traditional photo out in our front yard today.  She’s figuring it out. Her friends. Her interests. Her place in the world.

The fact of the matter is that kids start forming ideas in their minds, consciously or sub-consciously, about what they’re good at or not good at. By middle school, they’re already on a path.

To my relief and surprise when she got her schedule, she was thrilled to have science and pre-algebra first in the day.  But of all her friends, she’s one of the few to call those two classes “favorite subjects”.

Biogen and the RTP Women in Bio partnered to encourage young women in STEM careers

Well-documented trends have been reported nationally of declining interest, poor preparedness, a lack of diverse representation, and low persistence of U.S. students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines.

In a recent survey, a majority of students said that while their science and math teachers seem knowledgeable and keep class interesting, they aren’t teaching about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career options. High school students also said they don’t believe STEM knowledge is integral to getting a good job, which doesn’t bode well for leaders counting on STEM education to keep the nation at the forefront of the global economy.

Read more »

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Intern

Two and a half years ago, I was wrapping up my freshman year at UNC-Chapel Hill as a journalism and communications major. It had been a huge year for me and for the community at large: we prepared ourselves for another Great Depression, we weathered a historic presidential election, and somewhere in there I think we won a national championship in basketball. Myself, I was trying to discover my niche and where my passion for storytelling was best suited. After covering politics for the Daily Tar Heel and not finding the enlightenment I was hoping for, I joined a team of ad hoc science bloggers called Science in the Triangle (SITT). Our goal was to create a one-stop shop for all things tech- and science-related within the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and RTP.

As I was still trying to figure out this “being a reporter” thing—let alone the principles of molecular biology and bioengineering—we began to make a push for “new” or “social” media. I didn’t know what that meant, either. Like…Facebook? A place where I list what bands I like and post inside jokes to my friends? I had just gotten a Twitter, as well, and gathered it to be a place where people would blab about what grocery store they were at or what they thought of Dancing with the Stars. I was skeptical of the business or news potential in these websites, to say the least. Read more »

The Science of Start-ups

On the heels of President Obama’s and the White House Jobs and Competitiveness Council’s visit to the RTP and the Triangle region, it struck me as I listened in on the entrepreneurship and innovation/biotechnology sessions with corporate executives: one thing is clear, access to capital is critical. And investors aren’t investing. And if they are, they’re difficult to find.

To Ted Zoller of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flager School of Business and Director for the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, creating new jobs and companies goes beyond great ideas and ample capital.

“If we’re able to figure out where the opportunities lie and use networking as a tool, that will broaden the ability to focus each venture to the group of people that would best positioned to support that venture through success,” said Zoller.

His research relates to entrepreneurial networks. Dealmakers, as Zoller defines, are investors who have equity in three or more companies concurrently, are an part of the critical catalyst to bring entrepreneurs and investors together. Read more »

Continued investments in University Research Key

Last week the Research Triangle Foundation participated in the annual Triangle Chambers visit to DC to brief our Congressional delegation on issues that impact the Research Triangle region’s economic competitiveness. In addition to infrastructure issues such as transportation funding, transit and high-speed rail, the group also reminded our representatives of the importance of strengthening one of our region’s strong assets – our university research system.

One of the participants noted that if the Research Triangle Region were a state, we’d rank 3^rd in terms of Federal Funding for university research. While that’s a good thing – and our universities have ample evidence of how they’ve positively leveraged those funding sources  – the forecast for continued strong Federal investment in university research and innovation funding is not very promising. In FY2011, Federal agencies proposed a total budget authority of $143.4 billion for federally funded research and development, a 2.3 percent decline in inflation–adjusted dollars.

A recent study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) sheds light on the implications of the decline. ITIF reports that the United States is falling behind its peers in the amount of government- and business-funded university research. In 2008, the United States ranked 18^th out of 30 in terms of growth in government-funded university research as a percentage of GDP. Countries like Sweden (1),  Ireland (4), and Singapore (7) had much stronger spending.

The trend is unfortunate given that, as ITIF suggests, the private sector often under-invests in innovation so that university research plays a key role in filling in the gap. Moreover, in the last three decades, the trend has been for large corporations to heavily downsize or repurpose their central research laboratories. University-based research has become increasingly important in basic and early-stage research, as ITIF notes, to expand “the knowledge pool from which the private sector draws ideas and innovation.”

The full ITIF report, “University Research Funding: The United States is Behind and Falling,” can be accessed here. For information about Research Triangle university research efforts, see:

• Duke University Research
• NC State University
• UNC Chapel Hill Research

Cheer on your ACC Team in RTP this Friday, March 11

ACC 2011 Men's Basketball Tournament

One of my favorite things about living in the Triangle is college basketball season. Between Duke, N.C. State, and UNC – Chapel Hill, we are home to the most legendary -and rivaled- NCAA men’s and women’s basketball programs in the country, making March my favorite month of the year.

Considering that I’m in good company among passionate ACC basketball fans in RTP, the Research Triangle Foundation will open its doors for Park employees to watch the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament at the RTP Headquarters over lunch this Friday, March 11 – just in time to catch the Tar Heels take on the winner of the Miami/Virgina game. The doors open at 11:45 and we will continue streaming the ACC Tournament through the Clemson vs. Boston College/Wake Forest University game at 2:00 PM.

The Foundation will serve pizza and soft drinks and provide wi-fi so you can login and work during the games.

Space is limited, so please RSVP at the link below if you plan to join the March Madness. See you there!

ACC Tournament RSVP

Google announces economic growth for North Carolina

Google announced Tuesday in a special press conference at Johnny T-Shirt in Chapel Hill that in 2009 it generated $780 million for North Carolina businesses, website publishers, and non-profits. In total, the Internet giant generated $54 billion in economic activity across the US last year alone. These figures were unveiled at a series of launch events held across the country, and Chapel Hill was lucky enough to host one. Google sees a great opportunity in partnering with companies—large and small—based in North Carolina, said representatives.

“Google is best known as a search engine, but we’re also an engine of economic growth for businesses in North Carolina,” Google Vice President for Global Agency and Industry Development Penry Price said. “Google isn’t just a California company – we’re also a North Carolina company, generating hundreds of millions of dollars of economic growth every year for local businesses and entrepreneurs.”

So how, you might ask, does searching things on Google translate into revenue for North Carolina businesses? When you enter a search on google.com, there are two columns of results: the left-hand side we are all familiar with (the “natural search results,” as Price described them), and the right-hand side of sponsored links and platforms. Sometimes they appear above the natural results, as well. These are advertisers that compete in auctions for the space, and be it known that these slots are not cheap. However, Google grants favor to relevant small and local businesses, like Johnny T-Shirt, in order to help them promote themselves and grow their market.

Hence why small businesses love Google and love Google Ads. “For every dollar an advertiser spends on Google Ads, they make two dollars back in revenue,” Price said. Over the past half decade, companies from around the country have been taken under the wing of programs like Google Ad Sense and Google Ad Works. He said Johnny T-Shirt was selected as a prototype ad client in 2004 because they excelled in both product and service, and the amount of online traffic they were receiving was distinctly noteworthy. Google called up the store’s retail manager Heather Frazier to help them meet their rising demand.

“Google has enabled us to reach customers far beyond Chapel Hill,” Frazier said. “It is an important part of our marketing strategy.” Johnny T-Shirt’s online sales recently surpassed in-store sales for the first time.

This story is not uncommon for locally-owned North Carolina businesses, the majority of which are considered ‘small’ and ‘entrepreneurial’. “Sixty percent of people employed in North Carolina are employed in businesses with less than 100 employees,” said N.C. Representative Verla Insko (D-Orange), who was among the North Carolina state and municipal representatives in attendance Tuesday. Others included Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, N.C. Department of Commerce Small Business Commissioner Scott Daugherty, and N.C. Senator Ellie Kinnaird (D-Orange).

“Google is ubiquitous,” Kinnaird said. “It’s a verb now. People use it for everything in their daily life. So, we’re proud to welcome ‘Google Nation’ to North Carolina.”

Kleinschmidt said Chapel Hill has an unfair reputation for being anti-business. What the town does stand for, he said, is good corporate citizenship, and the goals and grants Google announced are “true Chapel Hill values”. Last year, Google gave out 70 grants to state start-ups and donated more than $1 million to non-profit organizations and charities by offering free advertising.

The announcements were met with gracious applause. State leaders seem to agree that partnering with Google could create new jobs—and even new businesses—for North Carolina, and for Chapel Hill.

But still, why choose Chapel Hill for the big unveiling? Price had an answer: “We looked at the way business is growing in North Carolina.” He said they wanted a fair representation of the face and future of all the types of US cities Google works with, and Chapel Hill fit that bill.

-Ross Maloney

Cultivating Entrepreneurialism

The Durham Chamber of Commerce held its first Economic Development Summit Wednesday at the Millennium Hotel. The event consisted of two sister sessions: the first a panel discussion of entrepreneurship in the Durham region, the second a keynote analysis of where Durham needs to go to reach its venture capitalist goals. Bob Pickens, CED’s director of entrepreneurship, moderated the panel. Panelists included Christopher Gergen, Rachel Weeks and Aaron Houghton. A little about the three:

Chris Gergen – a professor at Duke University, a founding partner of Life Entrepreneurs, LLC, and a co-author of Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives. Gergen also spearheads the ‘Bull City Forward’ initiative.

–> Why his business is interesting: Gergen considers himself a “cultural entrepreneur”, a term he gleaned from a bar conversation in Chile with a fellow entrepreneur who had just founded his own university. Essentially, a cultural entrepreneur is one who begins a business with future-driven social goals in mind. Pursuing the Triple Bottom Line: people, profits, and planet—is now integral to sustainability and growth as a business, he says. In order to retain the region’s up-and-coming talent, it’s no longer solely about financial matters.

Rachel Weeks –a Duke grad and owner/founder of School House Ethical Fashion, an alternative collegiate apparel brand that stresses compensating international suppliers well to ensure a free but fair clothing market.

–> Why her business is interesting: Weeks’s vision is to break away from an industry dominated by the oligopoly and exploitative practices of brands like Nike and Champion. Not only do her clothes vary in style and design from the athletic tag mold, but she has committed to paying her Sri Lanka-based employees a much more comfortable “living wage” than the aforementioned titans. She launched her product with a Duke line and has since expanded to a host of different colleges and universities.

Aaron Houghton – the co-founder and Board Chairman/CIO of iContact, who began the company at age 22. Houghton also serves as CEO to North Carolina-based technology start-up Preation.

–> Why his business is interesting: Houghton graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BS in Computer Science and did not waste any time in getting his feet wet in the start-up world. He and co-founder/CEO Ryan Allis started iContact the same year (Houghton 22 at the time; Allis 19!). iContact manages email marketing, newsletter distribution, and RSS feeds for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Formerly he ran StartupWithMe.com, a service which allowed start-ups, VC’s, and entrepreneurs to match and connect with potentially compatible co-investors and innovators to better ensure success. His businesses also donate to regional charities and non-profits each year to strengthen the community.

All three spoke about their personal success stories—and challenges (Houghton and Allis spent a year living in their office above a Qdoba eating frozen hot dogs), but also about where they see room for improvement in Durham’s entrepreneurial community. “Locale conditions matter,” said Gergen. “Durham is an ideal location to build out an entrepreneurial ecosystem because it’s small enough to make a difference in as an entrepreneur. If Durham can position itself as the epicenter of economic development—much like RTP did 50 years ago—we will be enormously successful.” But, he pointed out that the region still lacks adequate collective support to achieve this. The idea is to build Durham into an economic ‘cluster’: a geographical block cohabited by companies of the same kind receiving well-suited investments and thriving by a constructive policy climate. (Ex: how Italy has become a mecca for shoes.) The cluster concept is a flywheel—a device that gains its own momentum once it gets going—but it still needs that initial push. “Durham has all the right ingredients,” Gergen said. “But if we’re not intentional about this, we’re going to miss the opportunity.”

One way Durham might miss the bus is by not having a proper publicity campaign to show others who it is and what it’s about. The White House now has a special spotlight program to distinguish these clusters, and it’s the city’s job to brand itself as a hub of social innovation. It must be a total collaboration, the panel said, including everyone from investors to policy-makers, from public school representatives to college-aged interns. Weeks said she has more UNC, Duke, and NCSU interns employed at School House than actual employees this summer, and she is tickled with how hardworking and enthusiastic they are. It’s crucial to retain this local talent and make sure they don’t skip town to New York or Miami after graduation for more-established VC markets. This is a major plank of Gergen’s ‘Bull City Forward’ initiative, aimed at becoming the conscience to the Durham economic cluster; how does we homegrow talent and keep it here down the road?

But, first, how does all this happen in such a tumultuous economic climate? The panel described a sea change in the general nature of start-ups going forward. “Consumers coming out of this experience are highly distrustful of the system we once knew,” Weeks said. “The next big companies and home runs are going to be socially responsible concepts.” Houghton classified many VCs today as “accidental entrepreneurs”, ousted from their tenured corporate desk jobs, and encouraged them to stay with their new start-ups even after the economy gets back on track and those desk jobs are open once again.

-Ross Maloney

CHAT 2010: The Future of Entertainment

The CHAT Festival, held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, kicked off yesterday with Keynote speaker Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s President of Entertainment & Devices division. Mr. Bach’s presentation addressed “The Future of Entertainment”.

Mr. Bach began his presentation by reminding the audience of how far we have come in the evolution of media and entertainment, specifically focusing on the mode of reception.  Something that stuck out was his observations on how the “Big Screen” has gone from solely pertaining to televisions to including computers, cell phones and iPods.  With sites such as YouTube and Hulu,  the ability to download movies directly to our homes has given our society tools to utilize various forms of technology at our fingertips.

Mr. Bach also mentioned various emerging trends.  I paid particular attention to what he had to say about Content Creators.  I fancy myself a digital storyteller in some senses, and Mr. Bach really opened my eyes.  Art is starting to flow across screens.  Whether you are a musician, artist, writer, filmmaker, etc. society’s ideal of art is taking on a new form, specifically in how it is transmitted and received.  A new age of “Digital Artists” have emerged who animate, draw, paint and compose in a strictly digital world.

More importantly, the digital age allows us to experience entertainment with others, while not having to share the same physical space. With innovations like online gaming, XBOX Live, webcams, etc. we are able to enjoy current forms of entertainment with our network, regardless of location.

Mr. Bach concluded his talk with the current status and future outlook for Microsoft.  Mr. Bach focused on a new user interface trend, recognizing movement not only on a two-dimensional, but a three-dimensional level. In particular, keep an eye out for: the Microsoft Surface and a new endeavor, Project Natal.

To check out the rest of the CHAT Festival program for the week, visit the conference website.

-By Jordan Mendys, RTP Social Media Intern-

RTP Week in Review: January 4-8, 2010

Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry smart phones, plans to open a research and development office in Raleigh, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill figure out how to stop infecting bacteria in their tracks and RTI International looks for new business opportunities with the help of a new division and a hire.

Research in Motion Selects the Research Triangle Region

Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry smart phones, confirmed plans to open a research and development office in Raleigh, but provided few details.

The company has long had an eye on the Research Triangle Park area. State documents show RIM filed paperwork to do business in North Carolina in February 2002 and kept it updated. In December, company recruiters interviewed potential hires at an RTP job fair that attracted telecommunications workers who already lost their jobs or fear layoffs. Nortel Networks and IBM have shed many jobs and Sony Ericsson recently announced it would shut down its RTP operations, where more than 400 are employed.

In a response to questions, the company issued a prepared statement that read, “Raleigh is a great fit for RIM given its highly skilled work force and proximity to many excellent academic institutions.”

Last year, RIM reported $11 billion in sales. Analysts expect the company to generate $15 billion in revenue this year.

In other company news:

• GlaxoSmithKline, the British drugmaker that has its U.S. headquarters in RTP, has decided to finance an educational documentary about eating. GSK makes alli, an over-the-counter pill to lose weight.
• Speculations that Biogen Idec may prepare to look for a buyer arose after James Mullen, chief executive of the Boston-based biotech company, announced he would step down. Biogen’s multiple sclerosis drugs Avonex and Tysabri are made in RTP.
• PeopleClick, a Raleigh software company, agreed to be sold for $100 million.

Research at UNC Figure out how Bacteria Walk

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill figured out how some bacteria move around in the body to spread infections. Just one atom makes the difference. The atom plays a key role in how the bacteria grow tiny legs and coordinate their movement.

Blocking the atom stops the roving bacteria in their tracks.

The discovery could lead to the development of new medicines to prevent infections.

RTI International Looks to Expand

RTI International, a large research institute in RTP that snaps up government contracts worth millions, is looking to boost its chances to attract business with the help of a new division and a hire.

Less than a year after buying MasiMax, RTI turned the health communication and marketing firm in Rockville, Md., into a new division. MasiMax employees research and analyze complex health information and translate it for target audiences, such as health professionals, researchers, policymakers or the general public.

RTI also hired Bradley Peganoff as vice president of government and corporate relations. Peganoff  joins RTI from the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, where he was in charge of generating revenue, raising policymakers’ awareness of the institute and cultivating academic and industry collaborations.

-Contributed by Sabine Vollmer with Science in the Triangle-

Techie Tuesday & World AIDS Day

Did you know that the Triangle region is a center of excellence in global health?

Anchored by such global health institutes like RTI International, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and the Triangle Global Health Consortium, the region is at the forefront of addressing issues challenging the world’s health. In addition, RTP is the home of several breakthrough technologies, including the discovery of AZT (a key treatment in the fight against HIV/AIDS), Taxol and the Cochlear ear implant.

In recognition of the significant achievements and advancements that have been made in the area of HIV/AIDS by RTP firms over the past 50 years, the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, RTI International, Quarry Integrated Communications, Science in the Triangle, and others will be partnering to develop a special program next month at the RTP Headquarters. Leading up to the event, please look forward to blog postings both here and at Science is Local, covering in-depth interviews with those living with HIV/AIDS and exploring how regional institutes are leading advancements in the global health field.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about the region’s expertise in this area and find out how Park companies and stakeholders are making an impact on the HIV/AIDS and other concerns of global health. For additional information on the Techie Tuesday event on December 1, please email events@rtp.org.

Images from past Techie Tuesdays