Metro East Hopes to Add Cyber Command to Scott Portfolio

Since my move to St. Louis' Metro East area, I've been involved with the Leadership Council Southwest Illinois, the economic development organization for Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties. Its mission is to attract and retain jobs, stimulate capital investment, and promote the economic development of Southwestern Illinois by building effective partnerships with leaders in business, industry, government, education and labor.

The Leadership Council was instrumental during the last round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) to efforts to retain Scott Air Force Base. Today, the Leadership Council is hoping to add a new eagle to Scott's aerie: the Cyber Command. Cyber Command would be responsible for all service cyberspace operations; its main mission would be to prevent the breakdown of systems used to make military and combat decisions. The 24th Air Force Cyber Command falls under the Air Force's Space Command and is expected to have a $1 billion budget with a payroll of up to $45 million.

Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello from Belleville joined U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin from Springfield in urging Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley to put Scott at the top of his list of potential sites. That list currently also includes: Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado; Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana; Lackland Air Force Base in Texas; Langley Air Force Base in Virginia; and Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

In a letter to Secretary Donley, Rep. Costello emphasized several reasons why Scott AFB should be the premier location under consideration:

• Scott's commitment to the "Future Total Force" concept, pulling together all the various services on the base;
• The base's central location in the country;
• The presence of a technologically savvy workforce in the local area;
• Great community support from groups like the Leadership Council Southwest Illinois; and
• The high quality of school districts in the area.

Greetings from Metro East!

The editors of Tacoma Tech Connect have graciously allowed me continued access to this blog, which I helped start a couple years ago when I was in Tacoma. When we moved here last year, I told most people that we were moving to St. Louis, and I quickly learned that the Missouri city's metro area spreads across two states.

The Illinois part of the area is known locally as the Metro East, and it has some distinct characteristics beyond being under the legal jurisdiction of the State of Illinois. Metro East encompasses five Illinois counties in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2000, there were 599,845 people living in this designated area, scattered across a variety of cities and small towns, typically called "villages" here. The area's largest city is Belleville, but other large population centers include Edwardsville, Collinsville, Alton and Columbia.

A fast-growing urban/suburban area with a population under 1 million in a separate jurisdiction from the area's largest population center but still under that area's shadow. Sound familiar? The parallel to Tacoma continues...

The area's largest employer is military: Scott Air Force Base. Nearly 6,500 military and 3,500 civilian employees work at this complex, which occupies almost 4,000 acres with 900 buildings just north and east of Belleville. Scott is home to the U.S. Transportation Command, as well as the Air Force Command, Control, Communications and Computer Agency and the Air Weather Service. Long-time Tacomans may be interested to learn that the current Commander of the U.S. Transportation Command is Gen. Duncan McNabb, who led the 62nd Airlift Wing at McChord AFB in 1996-97.

What's all this got to do with technology? You'll find out in my next post.

TAN Presents Another Winner

The TacomaAngel Network produced another winner with its follow on course for Due Diligence* after last November's Deal Making seminar. Again with the assistance of the Kauffman Foundation and serial entrepreneur Bill Payne, a full house at the UWT's William Philip Hall worked at making themselves better angel investors.

The all-day seminar sandwiched TAN's regular general membership forum where two companies were featured to the qualified investors. Seminar participants had the immediate opportunities to practice the classroom coursework. After hearing the 15-minute tall-building elevator speeches of each company's spokesperson, 5-minute Q&A sessions delved into the heart of investment opportunities.

Then, the entrepreneurs retreated to display areas where the potential investors could follow up with earlier unasked questions, and finger the merchandise on display.

Angel groups in the western Washington area are beginning to do more things in collaboration. Larry Kopp, Co-Chair of TAN welcomed all registered attendees, and noted that half the seminar enrollees were from other angel organizations.

This example of a sharing of entrepreneurial training on a regional basis matches the database sharing among these same angel groups via their websites but as they also assist one another by opening sharing protocols.

* The Power of Angel Investing is a program of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and is presented by the Angel Capital Education Foundation

Congressman Redistributes Staff Duties

Roel van der Lugt, Senior Field Representative, has taken over outreach responsibilities to the technology sector here in Washington State for Congressman Adam Smith. Roel may be reached by e-mail or by telephone at (253) 896-3783.

It has been our pleasure working with Linda Danforth, District Representative for Cong. Smith who had handled this issue area over the months and years. Linda will remain on Congressman Smith’s district office staff, and taking on new responsibilities.

Having worked with Roel on many issues, I encourage you to contact him whenever you have suggestions, questions or feedback for the Congressman.

Research Funding Available from Washington Technology Center

Are you working on innovative technology applications with near-term commercial potential? Consider applying for a Washington Technology Center grant to offset the costs of your R&D.

Washington Technology Center awards hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to Washington-based research teams in an effort to help transition great ideas out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.

If you are a Washington technology business looking to partner with an academic or non-profit researcher on a collaborative research endeavor, you may be eligible for a funding award through Washington Technology Center's Research & Technology Development (RTD) grants program. These awards help Washington companies grow faster, create jobs and attract investors by providing the critical funding needed to advance scientific research and product development.

RTD awards pay up to 80% of the cost of research projects -- allowing you to channel your capital to other business growth needs or continue working on breakthrough scientific discoveries. Project teams are eligible to receive up to $100,000 for initial proof-of-concept projects and up to $300,000 total for multi-phase projects.

Washington Technology Center allocates $1 million annually for these grants, which are awarded on a competitive basis to collaborative research teams working on innovative technology projects with strong commercial potential. Washington Technology Center is now accepting proposals for its next round of grants which will be awarded in June. Projects begin July 1. But hurry, application deadlines are drawing near.


Notice of Intent deadline is

March 19 and

applications are due April 23.

Free informational meetings are held throughout Washington state each year.

For more information about the RTD Grants Program, visit here. Here you will find everything from Eligibility Criteria to Downloadable Proposal Materials. Or, for additional information, please contact Russell Paez, 206.616.3102.

More than 300 companies have benefited from the RTD grant program. You could be next.

HIGH Tech in Gig Harbor

It is 10:11 am on Jan. 21, and the crowd in the Galaxy Gig Harbor theater complex are awed into silence by this announcement from Galaxy CEO, Frank Rimkus regarding the location of International Space Station Expedition 18.

Going at a rate of 17,500 miles per hour, I think they are over the South Pacific right now…

The still picture on the big screen in Theater 6 (capacity of 500 and where students from Peninsula School District are waiting in the wings to ask their questions of astronauts Mike Fincke and Sandra Magnus) flicks over to live feed video of the ground station responsible for actually doing the hooking up, and we’re off to a running start.

Kareen Borders, by all accounts THE person responsible for making this historic event happen by “bugging NASA until they gave in,” and Key Peninsula Middle School science teacher, addresses attendees in several theaters on each of their respective screens. She praises this partnership between business and education as bringing badly-needed cutting-edge technological achievement to students—opening their eyes to the world of science and hopefully to all that can be achieved through it. Including jobs that might not even exist yet.

When a disembodied voice announces that they are ready, the screens fill with the visages of Mike and Sandra in their royal blue uniforms emblazoned with the American flag and floating, bouncing—Sandra’s brown hair sticking up all around her head. We are mesmerized as we realize, Hey! They are in space! An appreciative murmur could be heard as Mike says they are “ready” the same time Kareen Borders thanks them. Little bit of a time lag between the theater and the space station but surprisingly not a time lag between Mike and Sandra and us as their mouth movements coincide with the audio.

Questions ranged from What is it like to sleep? Mike: We sleep in a sleeping bag that’s tethered down—that’s important, to “What are the effects on a human body staying in space so long?, Sandra: Calcium leaks out of our bones…similar to osteoporosis…we counter the effects through ingestion of calcium and exercise, to a thought-provoking question, How do you get resistance to use for exercising [due to lack of gravity]?, Sandra: Pulling against a vacuum [one of a few machines that helps].

There were at least a dozen kids who asked questions—sometimes relaying questions from kids from out of state and a few technologically science-savvy questions that had us adults scratching our heads.

The light bouncing and floating (and Sandra’s hair) were a little disconcerting to watch at first, but with Mike doing somersaults and sipping juice (letting fly a couple of big droplets that he then gobbled up mid-air), he entertained the crowd while Sandra answered questions.

At one point Sandra pointed out that they were basically human guinea pigs (which they were happy to be, don’t-get-her-wrong) to gauge how humans fare long-term in outer space and collecting all the data that would help for future long-term endeavors to the moon or even, Mars. As Mike put it, How much do we really need to survive or better yet, how little?

They have already learned how to make oxygen, recycle their urine, and harness solar energy for all their energy needs.

The astronauts were clearly enjoying themselves and the audience even more so as we caught a glimpse of life in outer space via Sandra’s and Mike’s answers.

As the downlink winded down and the astronauts waved their final goodbyes, there was a feeling that something magically momentous just happened.

Galaxy CEO Frank Rimkus then reiterated that even though there have been downlinks happening since 2001, with only a few in the last two years, this was the first time that it happened between the private sector and public education. He was proud that they were able to offer an educational entity the use of the state-of-the-art equipment that their Galaxy Uptown theater provided and to which most schools don’t have access to. He thanked the local Rotary Clubs for getting together funding to bus the students and acknowledged the presence of representatives from the Gates Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Foundation, the Russell Foundation, and the President of Washington Roundtable. Contingents from McChord AFB, Fort Lewis and Bremerton’s naval community were present as well as representatives for Gov. Gregoire and Sen. Derek Kilmer, whom Rimkus also acknowledged.

But ultimately, it was the presence of the students themselves that brought energy and purpose to such an event, and thanks to the formation of community and business partnerships, they were given an opportunity to embark on the right road in their journey to compete in a global workforce.

Guest Author: Mimi Jansen, Communications Coordinator

Tacooma-Pierce Co. Chamber

Blogs Away!

The Washington Technology Center is announcing start-up of their new blog. Long a stalwart of innovation and application of technology, we welcome this new tool by WTC.

You are invited to join their conversation about the forthcoming Washington Innovation Summit 2009. They ask: what are your insights into the relationship between Washington's business climate and innovation? Contribute your comments to the Summit blog. They promised to share a selection of thoughts in the lead up to the Summit.

Congrats to Lee Cheatham for another fine WTC product.