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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Apr 27, 2010 |
“Montana captivates the imagination of remarkably imaginative people - writers, yes, but actors, directors, musicians, painters, sculptors - not because of what’s so obviously here or not here. Rather, creative people keep finding themselves amid unplanned moments of clarity that resound through their lives.”
Your business can help with a vital program in Montana: "The University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research Montana Kids Count Workplace Policy Survey" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Glacier Raft and Outdoor Center
The Burton K. Wheeler Center
- Wildlife greetings: Glacier National Park has 100 years worth of stories, the best have both people and critters as characters
This birthday, rather, is a celebration of us and our stories - our tales of this place, collected over 100 summers. The biggest fish caught, the bulliest moose seen, that time the bear chased you into the river and your pack helped float you across.
TechRanch
- Wheeler Conference Summary - The “Next” Economy: A Public Discussion on Job Creation And Innovation in Montana
The Burton K. Wheeler Center for Public Policy’s Spring 2010 Conference in Bozeman, underwritten by Exergy Development, NorthWestern Energy, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation and the Thomas and Teresa Quinn Family of the Whitefish Community Foundation, focused on entrepreneurialism and job creation in Montana.
Bill Payne
- TechRanch TREK: The People Side Of Process Improvement, 5/11, Bozeman
As leaders, it is helpful to have a deeper understanding of the spectrum of responses that can be expected in any organization regardless of the improvement initiative being pursued.
City Club Missoula
- Software Startups – Made for Angels
Market trends are making software ventures even more attractive to angels.
Come Home Montana
- City Club Missoula Presents: “DUI Treatment Court: Is It Possible In Missoula?” With Judge Karen Orzech, 5/10, Missoula
“We want to stop people from coming back for their third and fourth DUIs,” Orzech says. “We want to treat the problem.”
Montana Business
- "In Montana, creative people keep finding themselves amid unplanned moments of clarity that resound through their lives.”
“Montana captivates the imagination of remarkably imaginative people - writers, yes, but actors, directors, musicians, painters, sculptors - not because of what’s so obviously here or not here. Rather, creative people keep finding themselves amid unplanned moments of clarity that resound through their lives.”
Careers
- The University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research Montana Kids Count Workplace Policy Survey
The goal of the study is to learn more about the losses Montana employers experience as a result of absenteeism and loss of productivity due to employees having child-care related problems.
- Montana DEQ Accepting Applications for Alternative Energy Development Grants
This is a highly competitive funding opportunity. Eligible applicants for grant funding include private entities - for-profit and nonprofit - licensed to conduct business in the state of Montana.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Graduates can seek job-hunting tips online
Recent college graduates should use any edge they can get when tackling employment in today's job market. A number of websites feature advice designed to help graduates with an array of job-search topics.
- Evaluate whether a job change is right for you
"We're going to start to see more raises and promotions again, so you want to make sure you're documenting your contributions."
- Study finds mediation helps make people sharper
Benefits are actually achievable without all the work, and the research showed participant improvement after only four days of training for 20 minutes per day.
Funding and Building your Business
- ‘FIRST LET’S KILL THE ANGELS
For all intents and purposes, the bill will utterly devastate angel investing in the US. And as we will see, that is not hyperbole. For a Congress and administration that purports to be all about jobs, this section of the bill makes less than no sense. It is a job and innovation killer of the first order.
- Venture capital firms think small to help startups
Venture capital firms and angel investors around the country are trying a new investment model.
Incubators and R&D
- Why Start-Ups Must Pay Attention To What’s Behind The Curtain
Getting feedback does not necessarily require building out an entire product first.
- The Rise of the Fleet-Footed Start-Up
“This is lean manufacturing for start-ups.”
Montana Education Excellence
- McLaughlin Research Institute's newest scientist, Teresa Gunn gets $250,000 grant for Parkinson's disease research
Gunn's research focuses on the process at the molecular level of how brain cells die in neurodegenerative disorders. In the new study, she is investigating a possible connection between two genes that could reveal insights into that process, particularly in Parkinson's disease.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Small price for kids' futures - Levy benefits Missoula students most of all - in their own words
We have each forged our own path for the future and want to thank those who have given us their undying support as we encourage continuation of this support in the upcoming years.
- Educational Tech at Hamilton High in Hamilton, Montana
Currently, the Hamilton School District pays for everything tech related - from computers and software to its phone systems to scientific equipment - out of its general fund. It is the only district in Ravalli County that does not collect a technology levy to keep its technology, including the licensing of computer software, updated. So the school board is again asking the taxpayers to help it with a technology levy. Previous requests were voted down.
University Business Plan Competitions
- Holding on to Melstone, Montana: Once-thriving town asks COT students to plan restoration of historic building
For the past 20 years, Urbaniak’s drafting and design students have devoted the last semester of their studies to working on practical projects. Members of the history committee heard about the class and asked if the students would come to Melstone and make the Sportsman Bar the object of their research.
University TechTransfer
- Your biz pitch: What the experts want
At the recent Rice University Business Plan Competition in Houston, two judges, both seasoned venture investors, riffed with Fortune on the state of today's venture capital market, and what they look for in a business pitch.
- Business plan competitions showcase M.B.A. students' best ideas - 21st Annual John Ruffatto Business Plan Competition, 5/13, Missoula, Montana
Some schools are giving their entrepreneurial students a serious advantage through business plan competitions.
Developing an Angel Network in Montana
- Ohio universities, Procter & Gamble to speed ideas to market
The University System of Ohio’s 14 universities and consumer product giant Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) in Cincinnati have agreed to simplify the legal process of negotiating joint research projects with the intent of bringing ideas to market faster.
- New Tech transfer story is about the local economy
When people talk of the "town and gown" relationship, they aren't talking about good feelings; they are talking real money: the pass-along of research expenditures in a community, entrepreneurism and new business spin-offs with higher paying jobs, the filter-down effect of more jobs for an increasingly tech-savvy labor force, and the attraction of investments in businesses with roots in the intellectual assets and property flowing like lava from campus.
Washington State Business
- Angel Investors Close to Deal Removing Curbs From Finance Bill
“We’re close to amendments that are good for entrepreneurs.”
Education
- Seattle biotech firm, Dendreon on verge of a groundbreaking cancer vaccine
A decision is due this week on Dendreon's application to bring the country's first cancer-treatment vaccine to market.
- Twitter Buys Seattle’s Cloudhopper to Expand SMS Service Globally: The Story Behind the Deal
Cloudhopper makes software and infrastructure to help optimize how text messages flow, so that companies can make SMS programs that work at huge volumes and across different geographies.
Community
- Ohio's 10 Year Strategic Plan For Higher Education
If the State of Ohio is to grow and prosper, it must raise the education level of its population. The goal of this 10-year strategic plan is to raise the educational attainment of our state each year, and to close the gap between Ohio and competitor states and nations.
- Race to the Top winners: How did Delaware and Tennessee succeed?
In announcing the Race to the Top winners, Education Secretary Arne Duncan noted that both states had strong buy-in from almost all districts and teachers unions.
- Last Teacher in, First Out? City Has Another Idea
“Nobody I’ve talked to thinks seniority is a rational way to go.”
- University of Wyoming program establishes relationships with middle and high schools, junior colleges
"It seems like such a no-brainer to talk to each other," said Kleinsasser. "American education has done such a good job separating us. It shouldn't be as hard as it is, but it takes effort."
- Whitehouse Commencement Challenge - Which High School Do You Think Deserves A Visit From President Obama?
The White House and Department of Education kick off the final phase of the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge – your input.
- Explosive book for a new teacher generation “Teach Like A Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College”
A storm is brewing in teacher training in America. It involves a generational change that we education writers don’t deal with much, but is more important than No Child Left Behind or the Race to the Top grants or other stuff we devote space to.
Energy and Climate Change
- Program brings local food to Montana's institutions
Coined Farm to Institution, it's a model the state of Montana would like to see more of in institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, schools and correctional facilities.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Bill Gates and Friends Make Case for Energy R&D
Although the information technology and pharmaceutical industries spend 5 to 15 percent of their revenue on research and development each year, U.S. companies' spending on energy R&D has averaged only about one-quarter of 1 percent of revenue over the past 15 years.
- Wind Turbines Shed Their Gears. Both Siemens and GE bet on direct-drive generators.
"Turbines can be made more competitive through direct-drive,"
- New way to guide a car: With your eyes, not hands
Raul Rojas, an artificial intelligence researcher at Berlin's Free University, said Friday that the technology tracks a driver's eye movement and, in turn, steers the car in whatever direction they're looking.
- Metamaterial could boost solar cell efficiency
Researchers say the material could be useful for improving solar cells and may open the door to unusual phenomena like superlensing and invisibility cloaking.
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