|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Fri Sep 19, 2014 |
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." Jimi Hendrix 9/18/70 - RIP
Come see the future of energy - Montana Clean Energy Fair, 09/20, Missoula http://www.matr.net/ev ... =5197
Early Edge Montana
ikuw Solutions
- Early Edge Montana - 32 States Interested in Federal Preschool Development Grants
This summer federal officials announced that states could apply for preschool development grants: a $250 million federal program that will help "states to build, develop, and expand voluntary, high-quality preschool programs for children from low- and moderate-income families."
Montana Data Focused Business Cluster
- LiveRemote Training Every Friday with ikuw Solutions
LiveRemote: Quick Ways to Organize Your Data in Excel, Friday 9/19, 11:30am-noon
The 2014 Compete Smart Manufacturing Conference, 10/9-10, Billings, Montana
- Can big data solve veteran unemployment?
A coalition of tech entrepreneurs, open-government advocates and private companies launched a novel experiment mashing together data about job-seeking vets and vet-friendly employers, all in the hopes that we might better understand why so many vets can't find work.
- Forget GMOs. Better Data Is the Key to Reinventing Food
Seated at a row of desktop computers with flat-panel displays, a team of recently hired mathematicians is building an online database that one day could catalog the behavior of practically every plant protein on earth--a collection of digital information that could allow Hampton Creek to model the creation of new foods using computer software.
Great Falls Development Authority
- Come Celebrate Manufacturing in Montana in October!
Join Us to Celebrate the Magic in Manufacturing at Compete Smart on Oct. 9-10 in Billings - Just 3 weeks away! Plant Tours, Free 1-on-1 Consults, 25 strategy & Skill Builder Sessions, Speakers, Exhibitors, prizes, and more ... take a look!
Inteneo Systems
- GFDA Top 14 9/14/14
Here's the GFDA Top 14 for this week, celebrating great things happening to move Great Falls Forward!
- Your Input is Sought for the Great Falls Visitor Center Makeover
Help us as we embark on an Extreme Visitor Center Makeover! The Great Falls CVB, TBID, and GFDA are hosting two Visitor Center Display Planning Sessions.
Come Home Montana
- Top 5 Analytics Success Stories
We take a look at five examples where Big Data has been used successfully
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunity - Lead Software Developer - Apex Systems
Competent to work at the highest technical level of all phases of applications system analysis and programming activities. May be responsible for completion of a phase of a project. Regularly provides guidance and training to less-experienced analyst/programmers.
- Social Finance, Inc. is now looking to hire 25 to 35 new employees in Helena, Montana
San Francisco-based startup Social Finance, Inc. opened an office for software developers in Helena this spring and is now looking to hire 25 to 35 new employees. https://www.sofi.com/jobs/
- Montana Career Opportunity - Business Advisor - Montana CDC
The Business Advisor's job is to work directly with clients to diagnose business health, provide guidance on business operations, assist clients to create business, marketing and strategic action plans.
Montana Economic Development
- Missoula-based Rivertop Renewables launches consumer products division, tests global market
The company's idea of using "green chemistry" is striking a cord with companies looking for ingredients based on the sugars found in natural sources.
- Cozy container home from Montainer on display in downtown Missoula
Stop by downtown Higgins Avenue from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. to see the prototype.
- Oracle CEO Ellison steps down
The new assignment for Ellison, the world's fifth-richest man and an avid sailor, signals a continuation of a major changing of the guard at one of the USA's most powerful technology companies.
Startup Weekend in Montana Communities
- MEDA Registration for Fall Conference Now Open: Harvesting Partnerships Across Montana
The MEDA 2014 Fall Conference includes just what you would expect: training, networking opportunity, tours, and interactive sessions on how best to positively impact Montana's economy.
TEDx Events in Montana
- Call for Designers: Glacier Startup Weekend 9/19-21
we're lacking designers!
Careers
- Today's TED Talk Avi Reichental: What's next in 3D printing
Reichental tours us through the possibilities of 3D printing, for everything from printed candy to highly custom sneakers.
Government
- Missoula group aims to help more women enter tech field - Women for the Web
June Noel tells us while the group hopes to have more women join, it is open to men as well.
- All The Rich Kids Are Into COBOL--But Why?
According to an ITWorld report, college students that take COBOL classes earn as much as $10,000 more in their first jobs than their Go-slumming hipster friends. Even though COBOL is a programming relic of enterprise systems gone by.
Government and University TechTransfer
- Problems persist - Abuse allegations plague Montana Developmental Center
"There's a very, very serious problem that residents in that facility are not safe." Bernadette Franks-Ongoy, executive director of Disability Rights Montana
Oregon Business
- Brookings report hits national labs on tech transfer
Brookings says a broad range of administrative, policy and cultural problems are blocking commercialization.
Regional Economic Development
- Will Portland's inflow of young people pay off?
This is not where young people go to retire.
Workforce Development
- 'Better Growth, Better Climate'--Guidance For Resource-Efficient Economic Development
The importance of innovation is a recurring theme throughout this report; it is essential to transforming global energy systems, agriculture and cities.
Education
- US to train veterans to install solar panels
The U.S. will train at least 50,000 veterans to become solar panel installers in the next six years, the White House said Thursday.
Montana Education Excellence
- Grading Universities - For Inspiration in Creating College Ratings, Look to Health Care
Economists have contributed key insights to our understanding of how consumers and producers make decisions in the health care market, and many of these insights also apply to the college market.
- Student-Loan Borrowers Have Chance to Refinance at Lower Rates
Borrowers who want to lower the interest rate on their federal student loans have a new option.
Universities and Economic Development
- Montana gets good start aligning classes to job needs
"Montana has really ambitious goals, hoping to impact more than 9,000 students by the end of the three-year project, and we're off to a good start," Springer said.
- President Cruzado touts Montana State University success in raising graduation rate
"Students are needing less time to graduate," Cruzado said, which means more time for careers and families, and "a better educated society for Montana and the nation."
- Montana State University gives regents upbeat picture of more growth, bigger budget, more graduates
By contrast, the University of Montana is predicting enrollment will slip this year by 473 students, a 4 percent drop. If that prediction proves correct, UM will have lost 2,179 students since 2011.
- Mansfield Center Awarded Grant to Take Montana High School Students to Thailand
"We encourage all interested students to apply."
- Montana University Regents OK $1 billion budget, debate concerns over pay and priorities
Trygve "Spike" Magelssen, an associate professor in electrical technology at Montana State University-Northern, told the regents that faculty pay on the Havre campus ranks the lowest in the nation and some instructors even qualify for food stamps.
- University of Montana reports 3.9% enrollment dip
While not discussed at length during the two-day meeting, documents provided early enrollment numbers across the university system for the 2014-2015 school year, which indicate a 0.8 percent drop in full-time enrollment systemwide.
- Montanan - The Magazine of the University of Montana - Fall 2014
Game Changer - Professor's $45 million cooperative agreement with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is largest in UM history
Community
- University of Utah entrepreneurship program ranked among best in nation
The high ranking helps in attracting the best students and in fundraising with alumni. In fact, the institute is expected to break ground on its latest innovative endeavor next month.
- University to create $250 million venture capital fund
"We really need to find a way just to be an active participant in this engine of innovation that's going on here in this part of the country."
- Museum of the Rockies adds $48 million to local Bozeman, Montana area economy
The Museum of the Rockies is bringing the world to Montana and Montana to the world, and it's having a big impact on kids' education and the economy.
Funding and Building your Business
- Why Placemaking Matters: What's in it for me?
If an 8 year old can safely get somewhere to buy a Popsicle, and then make it home before it melts, that's the measure of a livable neighborhood. That's the Popsicle test.
- Missoula requesting citizens to actively contribute to the city growth policy planning
People can, and should, get involved.
Energy and Climate Change
- Getting It Right with Client Selection
While there isn't necessarily one correct way to do this, developing a standard set of questions to think about during that first meeting can go a long way in helping you and those with whom you practice make sound business decisions.
- The Government Keeps Helping People Buy Failing Cold Stone Creamerys
Would you loan someone money to buy a Cold Stone Creamery franchise if you knew that more than a quarter of those loans default? If you're the U.S. government, the answer is yes.
- How to make your intern program a success
"Look for interns the same way you would look for full-time engineers. There should be almost no difference."
- Entrepreneurial Leadership Can Save Any Business
Large organizations need entrepreneurial leadership and thinking just as much as startups.
- Puppyforce: A case study in employee engagement and organizational success
Here is my challenge to leaders: Identify an initiative that could boost employee engagement and vet it in a way you never have before.
- 'Inboarding' opens new opportunities in the job you already have
How do organizations keep their talent as the economy heats up and more opportunities become available to their people?
- Too Many Marketing Teams Are Stuck in the Past
What's next? As a marketer, I have witnessed two camps of organizational transformations in the digital age.
Connectivity & Communications
- Students, faculty ask UM to divest from fossil fuels - Burlington, Vermont - 100 percent of its electricity now comes from renewable sources
Advocates suggested that roughly 8 percent of UM's $150 million endowment portfolio is invested in fossil fuels.
- How to build global cities without so many cars
"Transportation, driven by rapid growth in car use, has been the fastest growing source of CO2 in the world."
- Blueprint for saving the world: Why the solution to global warming is staring us right in the face
Washington remains unable to do anything about climate change. Here's how to finally change that
Government Technology
- Share your insights today in the Bozeman Area Broadband Internet Survey
You can participate in the business survey online or by completing and returning a hard copy survey.
- Middle-School Dropout Codes Clever Chat Program That Foils NSA Spying - Ricochet
"Ricochet is idiot-proof and anonymous."
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Seattle's New CTO Focuses on People, Infrastructure, Broadband Access for All
"We need to make sure our employees are enabled to do what they love and serve the people of Seattle."
- Chattanooga Launches Website to Track City Goals
Mayor Andy Berke's office released a website today to the public that will track whether Chattanooga is meeting its monthly goals for the city.
- The Core Features of the Data-Powered City
Today's most innovative civic leaders are using technology to fulfill the promise of efficient and responsive local government.
- Idaho Department of Labor deploys new online $7MM unemployment system
The Idaho Labor Department dedicated 12 employees to develop iUS in-house for $7.1 million, according to the department.
- Treating citizens like customers
The bottom line, according to the report, is that citizens should not have to understand and navigate a complex hierarchy of departments, agencies and offices to receive benefits or services and jump through unnecessary hoops.
- 3 Steps Governments Can Take to Engage Citizens
Expectations of citizens are changing rapidly. They want what they want -- be it information, products or services -- and they want it now. But how does government re-imagine itself to respond to these demands?
Transportation
- Boom! Earth's Population Could Hit 12 Billion by 2100
The essential question remains: What sort of lives will people have?
- First All-Electric Garbage Truck Hits the Road
"Besides dramatically lower fuel and maintenance cost, value of the ERV goes beyond strict payback," said Castelaz. "Each truck offsets over 55 barrels of petroleum and 23 tons of carbon dioxide each year. Plus, no one wants large, noisy truck engines idling next to their house at 6 am when they could have clean, and quieter ERV's keeping the morning peace instead."
- Global shift to mass transit could save more than $100 trillion and 1,700 megatons of CO2
Further, an estimated 1.4 million early deaths associated with exposure to vehicle tailpipe emissions could be avoided annually by 2050 if governments require the strongest vehicle pollution controls and ultralow-sulfur fuels
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page