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The history of the Telluride Tech Festival now comes to Boulder

696_ The history of the Telluride Tech Festival now comes to Boulder
The Telluride Tech Festival is '@ Boulder' this year which is a great opportunity to involve some local folks here, and with some of the changes in the economy it's a little more accessible. Larry talked with Sarah McClain, Trent Hein and Ned McClain about the great news for Front Range technology enthusiasts. Larry asked Sarah to give us an idea of what this event was about. "We're talking about the annual Telluride Tech Festival which was an event we founded in Telluride in 2000. It was founded on the idea that Telluride was sort of an incubator of inventions. In 1891 Nicola Tessla, George Westinghouse and L.L. Nunn invented the first commercial grade alternating current power plant in Telluride. That's why we say the beginning of the technological revolution began there. Our event invites technological innovators from around the world to come and present their ideas to us in a small, intimate environment, and it's very interactive. Inside the event and even outside the event we have opportunities to interact with the honorees and sort of foster discussion and ideas." Some of the past honorees are Freeman Dyson, a theoretical physicist; Vinton Cerf, known as the 'Father of the Internet'; Murray Gellman, a Nobel Prize Laureate; and Jill Tarter, she heads up SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). This year it's in Boulder at the NCAR Mesa Top Lab, a really excellent venue. So, mark your calendars for July 30th, that's a Thursday evening and we're going to gather at 5:30pm. You need to RSVP. We'll see you there...
Related Links: Tech Fest RSVP || Tech Festible History || Applied Trust || Dear Ned || Keywords: Telluride Tech Festival, Boulder, Sarah McClain, Trent Hein, Ned McClain, NCAR, Applied Trust, Dear Ned > Channel: ATE 6225609 bytes 7/20/09 LISTEN

Winning partnership of a computer scientist and a cardiologist

647_ Winning partnership of a computer scientist and a cardiologist
David Allen, CU Associate Vice President for Technology Transfer said, "Collaborative cardiac imaging research with a computer scientist and a cardiologist." is what led to winning the University of Colorado's Technology Transfer 'Inventors of the Year, UC Denver' award for Drs. John Carroll and James Chen." Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the United States and in the State of Colorado. Among cardiovascular diseases, the only type that is increasing in number and relative percentage is heart failure. By integrating research and the training of scientists and physicians specializing in heart muscle disease and heart failure, the Institute allows a more efficient and creative approach to the training of future scientists and physicians while markedly enhancing the potential for securing program grants and the ability to integrate training program and research. Larry talked with them on a number of topics including funding and its challenges during these economic times. Their overall scientific goal is to derive a complete understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for the development and progression of human myocardial failure and to produce new diagnostic treatment modalities. We need more winning research like theirs.
Related Links: University of Colorado at Denver & Health Sciences Center, Div. of Cardiology || CU TTO Home Page || CUTTO Award Photos || Tech Transfer Channel || Channel:CUTTO Bytes= 11751030 > 4.13.09 LISTEN

New Inventors of the Year (UC Denver) Share Success & Challenges

698_ New Inventors of the Year
(UC Denver) share successes and challenges 
New Inventors of the Year (UC Denver) - Dr. Heide Ford (Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, joint Appointment in Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics,) and Dr. Rui Zhao (Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics) discuss, “Research examining how genes involved in normal development may later be hijacked in tumor formation leading to novel methods of detecting and treating tumors." They went onto point out, "What we're hoping is a big benefit, is this complex of molecules (critical developmental regulators - really important during embryo genesis but not expressed in most adult tissues...So, the idea is if we could target them with anti-cancer therapy, we could target the cancer without inhibiting or targeting normal cells. That sort of cancer therapy is badly needed - many of the therapies available today actually target the normal cells too. That's why people get terrible side effects. So we're hoping to develop drugs that will eliminate or at least reduce the side effects significantly while inhibiting the cancer. Larry asked them, "How was it working with David Allen & the CU TTO team?" They said, "It has been great, a really big help getting us going on the patent work and getting us excited about the commercial prospects and the things we could do with it from a more directed development standpoint. Heide and Rui pointed out a challenge, "Money supporting the work to this point has been from government grants. However, the last several years have been very difficult to get grants. This is obviously important work that will benefit a large portion of breast cancer patients (and many other cancers) so we are hopeful that we will have the funding to do that work. They also offered some great advice for professors and researchers.
Related Links: Dr. Heide Ford || Dr. Rui Zhao || CU Technology Transfer Office || BioSciences Channel || CU TTO Channel || > Channel:CUTTO Bytes= 6930079 > 3.23.09 LISTEN

Colorado, number two nationally in Space employment! One-third in Aurora...

Colorado, number two nationally in Space employment! One-third in Aurora...
634_  The 25th National Space Symposium is where space industry executives, their colleagues and customers will launch The Next Space Age -- in just four days, in just one place. What does that mean to Colorado? That’s what w3w3® asked Dick Hinson, Senior Vice President of the Aurora Economic Development Council. Dick said “For Colorado Aerospace is related to satellites, space exploration, space research. A lot of the activities that occur in Colorado are related to earth surveillance, communication through satellites, space imaging space exploration, working on the ‘Constellation Project’ which is successor vehicle to the space shuttle. We have a large civilian and military presence here related to space – It’s a very exciting time to be associated with the aerospace industry. I mean, everything is going up into the sky… people every day put their card into a machine and few realize that satellites are patrolling that financial transaction, we have direct TV, a lot of communications going on thru satellites and it is very important that we protect those satellites that we don’t allow someone to disrupt them whether it’s by purpose or accident. So the military presence in space to protect the assets that we have and to make sure the United States is safe from foreign aggression is critical – it’s what the military now calls the ‘high ground’, and Colorado is at the center of that sort of work.”
Related Links: Aurora EDC || Colorado Space Coalition || National Space Symposium || CU-Boulder Aerospace Engineering Sciences || Colorado Space Overview || > Channel: News Bytes= 16096549 > - 3/16/09 LISTEN

Receiving a $100,000 Grant from the US Government for Research

603_ Receiving a $100,000 Grant from the US Government for Research
Every federal program with a large R&D budget has to use a percentage of their budget to fund small businesses with these SBIR Grants. That was the topic of discussion with Krista Marks, founder of Kerpoof. Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT founding board member, along with Larry Nelson continue with the NCWIT series the Entrepreneurial Toolbox Series. This is a new interview series designed to promote fundamental skills of entrepreneurship. The series interviews both men and women about a range of topics critical to entrepreneurial success, such as networking, how to procure funding, writing a business plan, raising money and the importance of failure. The series is sponsored by the NCWIT Entrepreneurial Alliance with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Qualcomm. Krista said, " The NSF (National Science Foundation) has many different programs aimed at advancing the cause of research and science in the United States and even internationally in some cases. SBIR stands for small business innovation research, so to qualify for an SBIR Grant you have to be a small business (fewer than 500 employees), and the grant has to be used specifically for funding research. A phase one grant is $100K and this funds the first part of that research, typically a feasibility type of analysis. The SBIR Grant is not unique to the NSF. Every federal program with a large R&D budget has to use a percentage of their budget to fund small businesses with these SBIR Grants. At the time Kerpoof wanted to do research on delivering an activity, entirely in a browser that would introduce kids to basic programming constructs and to do that in a way that is as responsive as traditional software. So we submitted an SBIR proposal and received a SBIR Phase I grant for $100,000.00 to complete that research." Krista shares a number of 'must knows'.
Related Links: Kerpoof English || Kerpoof Spanish || NCWIT Channel || SBIR Information || Entrepreneurial Toolbox || Channels:NCWIT Bytes: 15353023 - 1/12/09 LISTEN

Some of the Greatest Successes Started During the Downturns

583_ Some of the Greatest Successes Started During the Downturns 
At the October TiE Rockies meeting, the keynote speaker was Dinesh Patel, PhD, Managing Director, vSpring Capital. Dinesh said, "I believe personalized medicine has finally arrived and it’s going to revolutionize how we practice medicine and health care in this country.” vSpring Capital started in the year 2000, Dinesh is one of the founding partners. About 75% of their fund’s investments are in the technology sector and 25% in the life sciences sector, and they are early stage investors, generally the first institutional investor in a company. They are managing roughly $360 million today. They are always looking for deal flow, like to make investments in the $500K to $2 Mil investment range. "Times are very interesting now. I think times are more uncertain today than they were in 2000. Right now we are trying to figure out how to proceed in this climate. But every time there is a major problem of this kind you also find major opportunities, so we are very optimistic about this cycle. Startups happen all the time, you can never time that. In fact some of the greatest successes started during the down turns. Google is an example of that. So I think it is not the timing but the key today is to have enough money to take you 18 to 25 months, because you don’t know if you can raise the money in 6 months or 12 months. Cash is king, you’ve got to preserve the money, spend it wisely, stretch it out a little bit." Dinesh also talked about the Human Genome Project - fascinating....
Related Links: vSpring Capital || TiE Rockies Home || Venture Capital || Biosciences ||  Bytes: 9398546 - 11/10/08 LISTEN

700 BioScence Executives from Around the Rocky Mtn Region

580_ 700 BioScence Executives from Around the Rocky Mtn Region
Larry discussed lifesciences sector (bioscience and medical devices) with Christine Shapard, the interim director for the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA). She addressed the challenging financial times and how it is impacting growth and stability. There are some mixed messages along with some very good news. Chris was very excited about the 2008 Biowest Conference. "This is the 5th year of BioWest so we are celebrating the anniversary of BioWest and CBSA (and w3w3® has been here from the beginning). We have a wonderful line up of speakers. I’m excited about the companies that are presenting at the Venture Showcase, that’s six startup companies from around the region. They are very cutting-edge vetted companies that should be really interesting to watch. The companies that are presenting at the Venture Showcase are the cream of the crop. And then we have more than 50 exhibitors at the showcase that provide services and products to the bioscience industry. And this is the first year we are doing a Job Fair – We’re doing a Career Fair for the bioscience industry and we have over 20 companies who are looking for employees. A great Innovation Expert, Guy Kawasaki is speaking at lunch 'The Art of Innovation.' The Dorsey & Whitney $10,000 Venture Showcase Award will be presented at dinner. Paul Ray’s, 'The Closing' (Boardroom Scrimmage) will be auctioned at BioWEST. He received the BioWest Lifetime Achievement award last year. Governor Bill Ritter is joining us for dinner Thursday night, the first evening, the annual awards dinner. Grand Finale Lunch: T.R. Reid in 'Sick Around the World' – The FrontLine teams up with Washington Post foreign correspondent to find out how five other capitalist democracies; UK, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland – deliver health care, and what the US might learn from their successes and their failures." There's more, listen now...
Related Links: 2008 Biowest Conference || CBSA Home || BioSciences Channel || 2006 BioWest Photos || - Channels: Bio > Bytes: 9154876 - LISTEN 11/3/08

Bose and Einstein 1924 Prediction Comes True

Bose-Einstein condensates are sometimes referred to as a “fifth state of matter,” a rare state or phase in which all the particles share the same quantum state. This phase was predicted by Satyendranath Bose and Albert Einstein in 1924. Further research and discovery at the University of Colorado in Boulder is about to launch a breakthrough technology that will revolutionize potential applications in improving the frequency standard and clocks, inertial navigation (i.e. gyroscopes and accelerometers), the mapping of the Earth's gravitational field, and in magnetic field sensing just to start with. Rainer Kunz, President and CEO of ColdQuanta along with Dana Anderson, Professor of Physics at CU and Jila Fellow, CU & NIST discuss the the short and long-term future. ColdQuanta recently received a $100,000 proof-of-concept investment from CU TTO.
Related Links: ColdQuanta || CUTTO Performance Metrics || CU Tech Transfer Office || CUTTO Channel || Bytes: 15033054 > LISTEN

Job Creation and CU Tech Transfer Success and Challenges

David Allen Associate VP for Technology Transfer, University of Colorado, shared the stats that pleasantly surprised many. "We filed 140 patent applications – a healthy number. Last year we were able to close 75 options and licenses. That’s a high number for us, previously about 60 and 35 of those are exclusive options or licenses. A good year financially $24 million in total revenues, and we maintained a solid clip of 10 start up companies created from CU Technology Transfer." There were other firsts that David referred to as he talked about the future. Last year started the research that was funded by SB-1360 passed in June 06, then last spring passed 1060 which adds bio fuels or liquid fuels into the eligible categories for the ‘proof of concept’ funding. CUTTO works closely with the Colorado Bioscience Association and others. David also lays out some real challenges and compares them to the past four years.

Related Links: CUTTO Performance Metrics || CUTTO Award Winners ||
CU Tech Transfer Office || CUTTO Channel ||  Bytes: 19911474 > LISTEN

Start-Up Challenges: Colorado BioScience Entrepreneurs

Have a Source for Solutions! 
Colorado is fortunate to have a number of researchers and scientists in the Bioscience arena. Like many entrepreneurs they are the best in their field, but lack some of the other skills needed to commercialize their idea and build a successful company. Chris Shapard, Deputy Director of the Colorado BioScience Association and Vicki Jennings, from the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority talk about the Biobootcamp where attendees learn valuable information from experienced practitioners about how to build a company designed to commercialize bioscience technologies while avoiding dangerous pitfalls that are typically encountered along the way.

At 578 acres, the Fitzsimons Life Science District is currently the nation's largest scientific and medical development project. By mid-2008, the District will offer more than 6 million square feet of clinical and lab space, and be home to more than 16,000 life science professionals. LEARN MORE

Related Links: Bio Bootcamp || Fitzsimons || Colorado BioScience Assoc || BioSciences Channel || Bytes: 8004234 > LISTEN