Lockheed Martin Wins Contract to Support U.S. Antarctic Program

Lockheed Martin recently won a contract valued at approximately $2 billion to work with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to operate and maintain support infrastructure for the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). The program enables universities, research institutions and federal agencies to conduct scientific research in the region.

Lockheed Martin has been contracted to work with the NSF to implement cost-effective, streamlined infrastructure for managing work stations and medical facilities, research vessels, construction projects and remote sites in and around Antarctica. Additionally, they will modernize technologies to transport scientists, staff and supplies to and from the Antarctic region.

According to a Lockheed Martin press release, Linda Goodmen, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) business said, “Lockheed Martin is proud to work with more than 3,000 program participants involved in valuable research in Antarctica. We have a longstanding history of supporting customers in remote locations and logistically challenging environments and are committed to fostering scientific and technological innovations that will benefit the world.”

View the full press release

Cornell and Technion Win Bid to Build Groundbreaking New Campus in NYC

Cornell and partner  Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology was announced the winner of a bid to build a groundbreaking new campus in New York City December 9. The creation of an applied sciences and technology campus will spur economic growth, job creation and high-tech entrepreneurship.

According to a Cornell news article, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg congratulated the winners at a press conference at Weill Cornell Medical College. Bloomberg expressed, “We believe this new land grant can help dreamers and entrepreneurs from around the world come to New York and help us become the world’s leading city for technological innovation.”

The Cornell-Technion proposal was impressive. It included an enrollment of 2,500 students, 300 faculty and 2 million square feet of state-of-the-art classroom and research space. According to Bloomberg, the campus is expected to generate $23 billion in economic activity over the next three decades as well as $1.4 billion in tax revenue. Additionally, building the campus will create 20,000 construction jobs and 8,000 permanent jobs to operate it. 

For the full article, view the Cornell Chronicle

Put Your Business Card on the Web!

Web application firm, We Are Mobile, has launched their newest product, Bitpress.me.

Bitpress.me enables users to create individual virtual business cards as well as virtual business cards for employees. The new product is similar to a mobile optimized website, with all of your professional details perfectly organized for clients and sales prospects to easily interact with on the go. As part of the service, customers receive a QR code. This code can be placed on a physical business card, providing a direct link to their Bitpress.me profile.

Additionally, Bitpress.me allows users to expand their social network by directing people to their Linkedin page, become more social by allowing users to easily add Twitter and Facebook accounts, and create lasting relationships by making it possible for clients to quickly add your contact information to their phone. 

For more info visit Bitpress.me

iSchool Partners with Microsoft to Explore New Social Media Software

Syracuse University’s iSchool has partnered with Microsoft to explore and better understand Microsoft’s new social software, So.cl.. So.cl is a research experiment for students focused on combining web browsing, search, and social networking for the purposes of learning. The partnership will focus on how the software can be used with students who study information science, design, communication tools, and are influenced by a generation prompted by social software.

So.cl derived from Microsoft research arm, FUSE Labs. FUSE Labs works in partnership with product research teams to collaborate, develop, and deliver new social, real-time, and media-rich experiences for home and work. 

According to an iSchool news release, professor of social media, Anthony Rotolo, expressed “This is a tremendous opportunity for our students to work with emerging social media tools from our partners at Microsoft. The social media landscape is evolving at a rapid pace, and the iSchool is at the forefront of this area of study. Our students are uniquely positioned to offer innovative ideas and feedback to Microsoft researchers as they develop cutting-edge technologies, and early access to these tools allows our students to develop a forward-looking view of how social media will take shape in the years ahead.” 

For more info view the iSchool's news release

Central New York Awarded $103.7 Million for Economic Development

Central New York was named Best Plan Awardee  and received  $103.7 million for economic development projects this morning (Thursday, December 8). The state made the official announcement after Governor Cuomo made his final selection of the 10 regions that had competed for $785 million in state money awarded through the Regional Economic Development Council initiative earlier this year.

The Central New York Regional Council's plan focused on strengthening core industries in the region, including clean energy and environmental systems, health and financial services, agribusiness and food processing, advanced manufacturing, and tourism.

The council has carefully decided how to invest the money. A detailed list of project investments can be found in Governor Cuomo's press release.

Central New York Biotechnology Research Center, a facility dedicated to helping biotech and biomedical for-profit companies become successful and commercialize their products, was included in Central New York's million dollar proposals. Money for projects will also be distributed to Madison, Oswego, Cayuga, and Cortland counties.

View the full release

Clarkson University Hosts Fifth Annual FIRST Championship Tournament

Clarkson University will host the fifth annual FIRST Championship Tournament today, Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3. 

More than 400 students and their coaches, comprising 42 teams, are expected to participate in the two-day event. There are 24 teams from 11 local school districts and two private schools, as well as teams from western New York, New Jersey,Connecticut   and Pennsylvania.

On Friday, high school students will participate in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). This year’s game, “Bowled Over,” requires students to design, build and program a robot that can place racquet balls into crates and then stack the crates.

Middle school students, ages nine to 14, will compete on Saturday, December 3, in the FIRST Lego League (FLL) challenge. The theme this year, “Food Factor,” features food safety and examines the possible points of contamination our food encounters -- from exposure to insects and creatures, to unsterile processing and transportation, to unsanitary preparation and storage -- then finds ways to prevent or combat these.

View the full article, FIRST Robotics Championship

Hacking-4-Muzik 48 Hour Coding Marathon

The Tech Garden and the Syracuse Innovators Guild are joining forces to invite creative technical minds to participate in a free Hacking-4-Muzik 48-hour coding marathon. The 54-hour event at The Tech Garden features a $2,500 grand prize for a team of software developers, coders and designers who are invited to help develop software for MyMuzik – a revolutionary, digital interactive touch screen music stand.

There is a strong connection between technology and music, and evidence suggests that scientists, engineers and programmers often turn out to be great musicians. “There's a very rich acoustic and mechanical world that supports our musical impulses, and it extends through things like iPods and computers and everything else,” notes MIT professor Michael Hawley. “Science and engineering have enabled us to express our musical sentiment better.”

Creating and composing are synergistic skills, and Robert Cessna, founder of MyMuzik, is striving to bring both together to create a transformative change in the music industry and music education. It’s been suggested that MyMuzik’s technology could transform the music industry in a similar way that the iPod, iPad and iPhone revolutionized personal electronic devices. 

MyMuzik features a digital music stand, as well as on-board versatile software that can network an ensemble for a perfectly integrated performance. Additionally, the digital, wireless music stand will provide access to a database equipped with more than 200,000 scores of sheet music for instant download – expanding the repertoire of performance pieces available for performance orchestras as well as schools and colleges. 

As part of the coding marathon, MyMuzik will provide the hardware platform while participants will be asked to work in teams on an intuitive software solution during the three day event.  Involvement in the project will help open the opportunity for national and local media exposure as part of a global product launch in 2012, as well as the cash grand prize, and job opportunities with the company as it expands. 

“MIT’s Media Lab has been at the leading-edge convergence of music, innovation and technology for nearly three decades,” says Linda Hartsock, Vice President, Innovation and Technology, CenterState CEO, “and festival events like South by Southwest have now become a creative magnet for the best and brightest young technical talent in the country.  These kinds of projects are exciting approaches to creating transformative technologies that can shape new ways of interacting with the world, and with each other.  We see this region emerging as a place with similar potential – given the large pool of creative technical talent we have here.”  

All events are open free of charge.  For a full event schedule and to sign-up, visit www.sig315.org/hacking-4-muzik