USF's Grand Energy Explorations

The University of South Florida (USF) was one of 110 schools worldwide to receive a Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  The grant program works to fund scientists and researchers who are exploring ways to battle persistent health and development issues all around the globe.

The research project chosen from USF is titled, "NEWgenerator for recovery of nutrients, energy and water from human wastes."  Principal researcher, Daniel Yeh, associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering explained that the project attempts to showcase how wastewater can be used as a renewable resource and explain the careful management of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the water cycle.

Yeh and his team are using advanced membrane biotechnology to develop a decentralized sanitation technology that will capture the nutrients, energy and water from wastewater for safe reuse.  The team will be working with Learning Gate Community School, an environmentally friendly K-9 charter school in Tampa Bay, to construct and test a pilot version of the NEWgenerator.

For more information, visit http://www.eng.usf.edu.

UF Develops Gene Therapy for Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, harms large weight-bearing joints like knees or hips causing pain, stiffness and swelling.  Although it plagues 27 million Americans over the age of 25 and animals as well, there is no cure.  A multi-disciplinary team of researchers at the University of Florida (UF) hopes to change that.

With a competitive $900,000 grant from the National Institute of Arthritis, the research team from UF's leading program in equine medicine and research is setting out to create a one-time treatment that works long term.  The gene therapy being created will be tested on horses who are fellow suffers of osteoarthritis and are currently treated with higher doses of the same medication used to control the symptoms of osteoarthritis in humans.

The treatment will use adeno-associated viruses (AAV) as drivers to deliver genetic material directly to the joint of the horse.  Once at the joint, the genetic material will produce a therapeutic protein that would counteract the interleukin-1 protein, which causes arthritic joints. Unlike existing drugs such as corticosteroids which only treat symptoms, this gene therapy would continue production of the therapeutic protein, changing the course of the disease altogether.

For more information, visit http://news.ufl.edu/2011/11/03/osteoarthritis/.

Innovative Ventures at UCF Connect Entrepreneurs

Together with the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, the University of Central Florida (UCF) hosted the nationally recognized Invention to Venture (I2V) workshop for the eighth year running.  The I2V program focuses on bringing together students, faculty and industry leaders to share the wealth of information available on entrepreneurship.

The workshop connects students with experienced entrepreneurs and investors to share their knowledge on how to create a successful business model with the technology they have created.  Hands-on workshops provided students the forum for testing their entrepreneurial ideas in real time.

Many national and statewide entrepreneurial leaders were present at this year's event to share their insight, including keynote speaker Scott Gerber who is taking the initiative to educate other aspiring entrepreneurs across the country.  Gerber is the author of a book titled, "Never Get a 'Real' Job:  How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business and Not Go Broke," founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, and travels the nation to speak with young professionals and students in support of President Obama's Startup America Partnership initiative.

For more information, visit http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/news/invention-to-venture-workshop.

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Information Technology
Information Technology (IT) is the foundation for the world's markets to create, manage and support information in a variety of forms, or better explained:  IT is the glue that connects all other technology sectors together.  Some of the world's most exciting and profitable careers are in IT, and in 2006, the U.S. Labor Department reported that the industry would grow 16 percent over a 10-year period ending in 2016.  IT is on the rise in the Florida's High Tech Corridor, with educational institutions that are cultivating a future workforce that will help facilitate the next generation of tech fields.

One Seminole County school is plugged-in to fostering tech-savvy students early on in their academic careers-Crooms Academy of Information Technology.  Based in Sanford, the magnet high school not only provides students Dell laptops to use, but also offers the opportunity to graduate with information technology certifications, like A+, CCNA or Oracle Certification, in addition to their diploma.  Crooms claimed the top spot on national rankings like U.S. News & World Report's "Most Connected Classrooms" list, thanks to high tech applications like "Smart Boards" which can project "written" lessons on a white board and save as a computer file for accessing later.

The Corridor universities also offer wonderful opportunities for those pursuing an information technology degree.  By mixing IT with other specialties like health care IT or information security, the University of South Florida's (USF) Polytechnic IT program provides students the choice to advance in multiple career fields with a base in IT.  At the University of Central Florida (UCF), students are encouraged to apply their core computer science knowledge in real-world scenarios.  Students who make up the UCF Programming Team have competed and placed in the annual ACM International Programming Contest every year since 1982 and has five Top 10 finishes out of 6,000 teams in the worldwide competition.  Through its High-Performance Computing & Simulation Research Lab, the University of Florida offers instructional research to 22 graduate students who conduct tests using the world's-fastest reconfigurable supercomputer, named Novo-G.  

The ever changing and expanding nature of information technology is fostering job growth throughout the IT sector within the Corridor.  Thanks to the innovative education programs available here, students are emerging with the skills they need to be successful in the field of information technology and any other sector where their diverse education might take them.

FACES OF TECHNOLOGY

Neil R. Euliano II
CEO, eTect
www.etectbio.com

Gainesville's eTect develops a novel communication system that allows for battery-less communication from inside the body to outside the body. Our first product is a medication compliance system that allows pills to send out messages when they have been swallowed.

Education: BSE, MSEE, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering, University of Florida

First Job: AT&T Bell Labs

The Future: A tremendous growth in personalized medicine, including: smart pills that can dynamically monitor their environment to help improve their effectiveness; in-body systems that can both monitor and improve patient care (e.g., true closed-loop insulin delivery for diabetics); and medicine and devices that can be tailored to individuals or tailor themselves to the individual patient.

Goal:  In the short term, a smart phone that works right. In the long term, a way to enter data into a portable device that is as fast as a keyboard.

Advice: No matter how lucrative, do not work with people you don't get along with.

View Neil's Faces of Technology video interview at www.facesoftechnology.com.

TAKE A BOW

Jack Sullivan, Florida Research Consortium

As a long-time partner and beneficiary of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, the Florida Research Consortium counts among its board the major research universities and institutions across the state as well as private sector corporate leaders that are advocates for Florida's growth through commercialized technology and innovation.  This month's Take a Bow spotlight recognizes the person leading the charge:  the Florida Research Consortium's CEO, Jack Sullivan.

Jack's efforts to support an innovation economy directly align with the mission of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, and soon he will be driving a statewide campaign to elevate Florida's competitiveness in the global economy.  The Innovation Solution is a campaign to engage Floridians at all levels in a commitment to build and sustain an innovation-based economy. 

Along with the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, Jack is committed to partnering with state leaders to strengthen Florida's innovation-based economy.  That will require knowledge workers, capital, sustained investment in knowledge infrastructure, support systems for entrepreneurial innovators and a business and talent-friendly environment.  Jack's leadership in this initiative is truly commendable, and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council thanks him for his tireless work to bring innovation to the forefront.

Stay tuned for the online rollout of FloridaIS. the campaign that proves Innovation IS the Solution.

TECH BUSINESS PARTNER NEWS

Rubio and Coons AGREE to Create Jobs
Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Delaware Senator Chris Coons have co-sponsored a job-creation strategy that both parties can agree on:  the AGREE act.  The American Growth, Recovery, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship act is a bipartisan effort to take measures to create more jobs by creating incentives and tax credits for research and development companies.  Citing successes in Florida's High Tech Corridor, Senator Rubio encourages a stronger focus on entrepreneurship and high tech growth.

The AGREE act acknowledges the success of the more than 25,000 information technology companies located here in the state and specifically in the High Tech Corridor where nearly 250,000 people are employed in various high tech sectors.  The act goes on to outline three major steps it will take to encourage even more high tech expansion in Florida.  First, the traditional research and development tax credit will be expanded to 2013.  The Alternative Simplified Credit (ASC) will be increased to 20 percent and will be made permanent.  Lastly, a Domestic Manufacturing research and development credit will be developed for businesses that create jobs in the United States.  

For more information, visit http://www.rubio.senate.gov.

Morgridge International Reading Center Now Open
The Morgridge International Reading Center located in a new, state-of-the-art building at the University of Central Florida (UCF) opened its doors to combat illiteracy, which impacts billions of children and adults throughout the world.  The Reading Center will be a place where scholars, students, parents, educators and policymakers from every continent can come together and study the art, craft, and science of teaching reading in order to advance worldwide literacy.

At the opening event, students, faculty and staff sampled the cutting-edge technology the center will use to teach reading.  The center also includes interactive spaces equipped with video technology where a variety of events and meetings can be hosted.

For more information, visit http://today.ucf.edu.

FAA Test Bed Expands
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opened the newly expanded Florida NextGen Test Bed at the Daytona Beach International Airport in early November.  The Test Bed, which originally opened in 2008, was created to assess new technologies that will help transform the nation's air traffic control systems.  Researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University manage the facility, conduct research and coordinate the work of engineers from industry and government agencies.  Some of the many other research partners at the Test Bed include The Boeing Company, Harris Corp. and Lockheed Martin.

Since its original opening, researchers have developed systems that integrate information about predicted weather and flight trajectories to automate air traffic management systems, as well as conducted research on exchanging aircraft movement data on airport surfaces and across the Atlantic Ocean.  Future projects include exchange of information from planes crossing the Pacific, investigation of commercial integration of unmanned aircraft systems, and the use of four-dimensional flight trajectories instead of two-dimensional.

For more information, visit http://news.erau.edu.

Boeing Commercial Crew Program Brings Office to Florida
Boeing has selected Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as the location for its Commercial Crew Program thanks to a highly skilled local workforce, costs benefits and proximity to NASA. Together they project the program will bring 550 local jobs with it by the scheduled operational date of December 2015.

The Commercial Crew program will consist of developing, manufacturing, testing, evaluating and demonstrating the Boeing Company's Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) space craft.  Once developed, the CST-100 will provide NASA with a reliable, safe and affordable means of transport to the International Space Station or other destinations in low earth orbit.

 For more information, visit http://www.spaceflorida.gov.

Moffitt Cancer Center Leads in Liquid Radiation Treatment
The Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa has quickly become a leader in using a new cancer therapy sometimes referred to as liquid radiation.  Systemic Targeted Radionuclide Therapy delivers continuous low-dose rate exposure directly to targeted cells while skipping over healthy tissue, causing less long- and short-term side effects.

Originally Moffitt only used this treatment for patients with lymphoma or whose cancerous cells have spread from their primary tumor into their bones, but now dozens of other radionuclide (radiation) therapies are in clinical trials covering almost every type of cancer.  Moffitt has also hired an on-staff radiochemist and plans to be able to create nucleotide treatments at its facilities.

For more information, visit http://insidemoffitt.rtrk.com.

Save the Date for the National Academy of Inventors® Conference
Hosted by the University of South Florida, Tampa on February 16 and 17, 2012, the National Academy of Inventor's (NAI) inaugural conference is intended to be a forum to encourage creative thinking and the spirit of innovation, promote and enhance the development and utilization of inventions, economic development, and provide advice and guidance to new and existing inventors in their work. It will feature oral and poster presentations (abstract deadline is December 16, 2011). Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office David Kappos will deliver the keynote address, and the USPTO will have a major presence at the conference. Participants will include representatives from: NAI's 26 Charter Member universities and non-profit research institutes, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, Oak Ridge Associate Universities (ORAU), industry, inventors, university faculty and graduate students. Interested members of the public are invited to attend and can contact kleach@academyofinventors.org for details.

For more information, visit www.nai.usf.edu/conference or www.academyofinventors.org.

ACCOLADES

USF IS Tampa Bay
University officials are adding a new tagline to the University of South Florida aimed to better identify the university with the Tampa Bay region.  Similar to the taglines of St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee used by other institutions in the USF System, "Tampa Bay" will follow the university's name when referring to the Tampa campus.  Though this change will not affect the university's name or its official logo, USF's communications division believes this will help distinguish where USF is located on a national level instead of confusing the "South Florida" name with the Miami area.

Valencia Professor Wins Carnegie Award
Dr. James May was named the 2011 Florida Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.  May teaches English as a second language to non-native speakers and uses the latest technology, such as social networks, as a way to break through language barriers.  The award recognizes professors who not only excel in their profession, but also influence the lives of their students.

Mud Power Team Wins MegaWatt Ventures Grand Prize
Mud Power, led by University of South Florida students Marlyn Colon, Matthias Elliot, Robert Byrne and advisor Dr. Andres Cardenas, were the $100K grand prize winners at the first  MegaWatt Ventures clean energy business plan competition presented by the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Central Florida.  Mud Power's technology concept is to use microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for powering sub-surface instrumentation deployments.  Mud Power stood out to the panel of distinguished judges including top clean energy executives and leading investors in the US by presenting not only a technology that demonstrated clean energy practices but also a strong business with potential for commercialization.

Gazelle Lab's Demo Day Celebrates Entrepreneurship
The Gazelle Lab business accelerator at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg hosted Demo Day at the Mahaffey Theatre in St. Petersburg last month to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship during Global Entrepreneurship Week.  During Demo Day, six emerging businesses pitched ideas in only eight minutes to an audience of investors and interested locals. Prior to Demo Day, the minds behind the six startups received a 90-day crash course from a team of advisors who are all both business professors and entrepreneurs themselves.

USF Opens New Diabetes Center
With the opening of its new Diabetes Center, the University of South Florida (USF) announced nearly $60 million in research grants the Center has been awarded. The Center will serve as a place for researchers to look for a cure to diabetes and a resource where students with diabetes can come for clinical care and counseling.  The Center is located on the fifth floor of the Carol & Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare on the USF campus and features labs for clinical trials, patient care rooms, a playroom for children of those being treated and even a kitchen that will be used to teach families healthy eating habits, which is integral to diabetes care.

Lockheed Martin Expands into Commercial Aviation
Thanks to a new acquisition of a leading aircraft simulator company, military and combat training corporation Lockheed Martin will enter into the commercial flight-training business.  The purchase of Netherlands-based Sim-Industries B.V. was the company's first international acquisition since 2009.

Two High Tech Companies Win IDEA Seed-Capital Contest
Florida IDEA, a partnership of nonprofit, academic and business interests, including the Community Foundation of Central Florida, Rollins College's Crummer Graduate School of Business, and the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, chose the first winners of its $200,000 seed-capital contest:  Pandora Genomics LLC of Orlando and Rillip Inc. of Edgewater.  Pandora is a biotech startup developing a set of complex computer algorithms to analyze DNA and identify the patients most likely to respond well to certain cancer-drug therapies.  Rillip is an online data-mining firm whose software works through search engines to gather information, simplifies and organizes the data into grids, and makes it available to social networking sites.

CALENDAR NEWS

The following events are taking place across the Corridor's 23-county region or in the surrounding area:

Tech Venture 2011
Presented by: Florida Technology Journal
Monday-Tuesday, December 5-6
Hard Rock Live, Universal Orlando Resort, 6050 Universal Boulevard, Orlando
For event information, visit http://www.techventure2011.com/.

Moving Beyond an Idea:  Launching Your Business
Presented by: BioFlorida
Thursday, December 8, 7:30 p.m.
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona, 6400 Sanger Road, Orlando
For event information, visit https://netforum.avectra.com.

TECH Talk
Presented by: Tampa Bay Innovation Center
Tuesday, December 13, 9-11 a.m.
Microsoft Headquarters, 5426 Bay Center Drive, Suite 700, Tampa
For event information, visit http://www.tbinnovates.com/TECHTalk.cfm.

Florida Educational Technology Conference
Presented by: 1105 Media Inc.
Monday-Thursday, January 23-26, 2012
Orange County Convention Center, 9800 International Drive, Orlando
For event information, visit http://fetc.org/events.

National Academy of Inventors® Conference
Presented by: The University of South Florida
Thursday-Friday, February 16-17, 2012
University of South Florida, Tampa
For event information, visit http://www.nai.usf.edu/conference.

2012 Information Fluency Conference
Presented by: The University of Central Florida
Wednesday-Friday, March 14-16, 2012
University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Boulevard, Orlando
For event information, visit http://www.ce.ucf.edu/if.

CORRIDOR INDUSTRY NEWS

Banyan Biomarkers is Developing the First Device to Identify Traumatic Brain Injury
The Gainesville Sun
By Anthony Clark

Banyan Biomarkers' top executives share an unusual common background for people in the biotech field:  Both were fighter pilots.

Dr. Jackson Streeter, CEO, served in the U.S. Navy and was a TOPGUN trainer while Ron Hayes, chairman, flew in the Virginia Guard.

Hayes said it was serendipity that they met, but their decision to work together is partly related to the common values they share, including an attitude of "fly fast and blow stuff up."

It is a mindset that Hayes said translates into their current endeavor.

For the full article, click here or visit http://www.gainesville.com. 

Harris Corp.'s New $100 Million Center to Create 100 Engineering, 300 Construction Jobs
Orlando Sentinel
By Richard Burnett

As NASA shrinks in Brevard County with the end of the space-shuttle program, Harris Corp. plans to expand there by building a $100 million engineering center and adding 100 jobs at its Palm Bay campus, the company said Monday.

Melbourne-based Harris said the six-story, 450,000-square-foot center would "become the centerpiece for some of the company's most advanced engineering" work.  Construction is scheduled to begin in mid-2012 and be completed in 2014.

For the full article, click here or visit http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business.

Guest Commentary:  Business Incubators Give Birth to Businesses, Keeps Them in Florida
Naples Daily News
Dr. Jerry D. Parrish, Ph.D. Tallahassee, Communications Director, Florida TaxWatch

Business incubators are designed to provide companies with business support during their start-up and growth stages.  Incubators provide services such as business progress plans, market research, legal and financial advice, marketing and shared office services (typically in the form of shared facilities and services, such as conference rooms and secretaries).  One of the most critical services that incubators can provide is helping businesses and potential investors find each other.

For the full article, click here or visit http://www.naplesnews.com.