FHTCC's Career Expo '08 Gives Corridor Companies a Recruiting Edge

With nearly 100 university representatives from schools such as MIT, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Princeton and Dartmouth scheduled to attend, business leaders from across the 23-county Corridor are registering for Career Expo '08, an initiative of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC) and its economic development, workforce board and governmental partners. Designed to introduce career center directors (CCDs) from many of the nation's top universities to Florida High Tech Corridor companies and their numerous high tech job opportunities, FHTCC's Career Expo '08 will take place Feb. 28 and 29 at the Tampa Convention Center.

Through one investment, companies registered to participate in FHTCC's Career Expo '08 will have 100 times the exposure from universities across the country, such as Purdue, NYU, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins, in addition to the Corridor's own University of Central Florida, University of South Florida and University of Florida. Representatives from Corridor companies will have opportunities to personally meet with CCDs in both formal and informal settings, as well as have their company name and contact information included in the Career Expo '08 directory.

Companies interested in sponsoring Career Expo '08 are encouraged to contact Owen Wentworth (owentworth@cfl.rr.com or (407) 399-7286) or Jan Baskin (jkbaskin@verizon.net or (813) 908-1370).

For more information, visit http://www.FloridaHighTech.com/CareerExpo.

USF Health Launches New Master's Degree in Biotech Combining the traditional fields of biological, chemical, engineering, health and computer sciences, the University of South Florida's new master's program in biotechnology will be available to full-time and part-time students this fall.

Designed to meet the increasing demand for trained professionals in the emerging scientific fields, the program is a result of a multi-college collaboration among the colleges of Medicine, Engineering, Public Health, Arts and Sciences, and Business Administration. The program may be completed in as little as three semesters and offers 22 different internship and elective classes throughout the curriculum.

For more information, visit http://www.biotech.health.usf.edu.

UF and Moffitt Cancer Center Announce Partnership The University of Florida (UF) and Shands Healthcare have announced a partnership that will model the organizations' emerging cancer center programs after those of the Moffitt Cancer Center, a world-class leader in cancer care, research and prevention. As part of this alliance, UF, Shands and Moffitt will participate in joint research, co-authored scientific publications, joint recruitment and philanthropy.

One of only 39 cancer centers nationwide to possess the National Cancer Institute (NCI) comprehensive cancer center designation, Moffitt will integrate cancer programs with UF and Shands to earn NCI accreditation.

For more information, visit http://news.ufl.edu/2008/01/23/moffitt-cancer-center.

Motion-Capture Studio Opens at UCF's Video-Gaming Academy University of Central Florida's (UCF) Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) officially opened its doors to a brand new, 3,500-square-foot motion-capture studio run by Los Angeles-based House of Moves. One of the largest on the East Coast, the 46-camera studio is designed to give students world-class experience in computer-generated animation.

In addition to the studio, FIEA renovated its facilities to include film sound stages, editing suites, audio suites and a new teaching auditorium. UCF, the City of Orlando and Vicon Entertainment partnered to fund the $2.9-million project.

For more information, visit http://news.ucf.edu/UCFnews/index? page=article&id=0024004102829c5520117409af4cd007e19&mode=news---.

Innovation Expert to Present at TBTF Executive Summit The Tampa Bay Technology Forum will bring innovation expert Nicolas Donofrio, IBM's executive vice president of innovation and technology, to this month's Executive Summit, which will be conducted Feb. 8 at the A La Carte Event Pavillion in Tampa. Donofrio will address new technology development and the complete innovation life cycle.

In addition to the keynote presentation, the summit will also include topics to help business leaders improve company security, multi-channel e-commerce, environmental issues and profitability through value-chain optimization.

For more information, visit http://www.tbtf.org.

Corridor Companies Receive Five Florida's "Farm to Fuel" Grants Earning more than $8.5 million in funding for renewable energy projects, five of the 12 Florida companies awarded grants as part of Florida's Agriculture and Consumer Services' "Farm to Fuel" initiative are within the Florida High Tech Corridor. The grants are part of a program designed to stimulate Florida's agriculture industry to produce 25 percent of the state's energy needs by the year 2025.

Investing more than $53 million of their own resources for these projects, the Corridor companies selected are: U.S. Envirofuels of Venus, the University of Florida, the University of Central Florida, Southeast Biofuels of Auburndale and Ocala-based Sigarca.

For more information, visit http://www.floridafarmtofuel.com.

IST Adds Super Computer to its Computing Infrastructure With support from the U.S. Army and a collaboration of university researchers, the University of Central Florida's Institute for Simulation & Training (IST) recently secured nearly $2.6 million to purchase a high-speed computing cluster from IBM. This powerful system of computers will initially be used to perform defense-related modeling and simulation calculations that are too demanding for the university's current computing platforms.

Legislators Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Corinne Brown helped UCF secure the funding necessary for the initial hardware, software and research costs, while the NanoScience Technology Center at UCF will help support configuration and system administration.

For more information, visit http://www.ist.ucf.edu.

Research Shows Water May Be Able to Fuel Cars One step closer to hydrogen-powered vehicles, a Corridor company has developed HHO or "water gas," a fuel additive for a standard gasoline or diesel engine capable of producing net increase in horsepower and an average increase of 20 to 30 percent in miles per gallon.

Based in Clearwater, Hydrogen Technology Applications is designing hybrid cars that can run on water, obtaining on average 100 miles per gallon for every four ounces of water. Demonstrated on two prototype vehicles, the system can be retrofitted to almost any existing automobile on the road today, and the base model runs about $5,000. Currently in patent-pending stages, Hydrogen Technology Applications is developing hybrid engines for fleet vehicles.

For more information, visit http://hytechapps.com.

Citrus IT Alliance to Hold Tech Expo Presented by the Citrus Information Technology Alliance, the Second Annual Citrus Tech Expo will be held Feb. 22 at Crystal River's National Guard Armory to showcase the latest IT software and solutions.

Microsoft, Cisco and many other technology experts will be available to discuss IT-related topics, including proactive ways to prevent equipment/data loss, disaster recovery, communication and mobility solutions, management applications and software overviews.

For more information, visit http://www.citrusitalliance.net/ExpoEvent/tabid/71/Default.aspx.

UF Leads Search for New Planets With funding from the National Science Foundation, NASA and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the University of Florida (UF) will lead a project aimed at discovering new planets and how they form. As part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, one of four independent surveys, the project will use a powerful instrument designed by UF with the capability to search among 11,000 stars for orbiting giant planets.

Scheduled to continue through mid-2014, the survey is expected to generate 150 new planets.

For more information, visit http://news.ufl.edu/2008/01/10/star-survey.

Nursing Students at USF Observe Simulated Labor Last month, students from the College of Nursing at the University of South Florida took part in a four-hour labor and delivery session in the college's Center for Virtual Learning. A computerized mannequin named "Noelle" reproduced the stages of childbirth, simulating contractions and delivery. Able to simulate a fetal heart rate, Noelle allows the students to receive a unique hands-on experience caring for both the mother and the newborn child.

Noelle is one of many simulators at the nursing simulation lab designed to give students practice in complications that can occur during medical treatment. Others include "Sim Man," which simulates human conditions programmed by the instructor, and "METI Man," which responds to student activity and adjusts its own physiological symptoms.

For more information, visit http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/now/?p=331.

World-Renowned Cardiovascular Physician Joins Burnham Institute The Burnham Institute for Medical Research recently announced the addition of Dr. Daniel Kelly, who will serve as Scientific Director of the institute's new operations in Orlando. Kelly currently serves as the director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research at Washington University School of Medicine-St Louis.

An expert in the field of cardiovascular research, Kelly will oversee the development of the Center for Diabetes & Obesity Research at the Lake Nona campus. Together with university partners, Kelly will head the search for recruiting faculty and research teams in addition to establishing adjunct professor appointments with the medical schools at University of Central Florida and University of Florida.

For more information, visit http://www.burnham.org/default.asp?contentID=565.

Accolades

Corridor Company Receives Grant to Assist Military In a $9-million contract, defense technology leader Raytheon commissioned DRS Technologies to provide infrared sighting systems for U.S. Army tanks and combat vehicles. Developed by the company's DRS Sensors & Targeting Systems – Optronics Division in Palm Bay and Melbourne – the sighting systems will provide digital battlefield imagery during both day and night.

UCF Incubator Company Cardiovascular Sciences Secures Venture Capital University of Central Florida (UCF) Incubator Company Cardiovascular Sciences (CVSC) has garnered nearly $1 million in financing from Seven Palm Investments of Illinois to help fund the development of its primary technology for the prevention of adhesions following surgery.

Florida Tech Receives $5 Million Grant The Harris Corp. Charitable Fund, held by the Community Foundation of Brevard, has donated $5 million to the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) to create the Harris Institute for Assured Information. Housed in a new 24,000-square-foot Harris Center for Science and Engineering on FIT's campus, the institute will focus on developing advanced solutions to help solve the global information security problem in sectors such as banking and finance, retail, health care, education and civil agencies.

UCF Professor Earns SID Jan Rajchman Prize Considered to be the highest award within the Society for Information Display (SID), this year's prestigious Jan Rajchman Prize was awarded to University of Central Florida Distinguished Professor of Optics Shin-Tson Wu. The Jan Rajchman Prize is granted for "Outstanding Scientific and Technical Achievement or Research in the Field of Flat-Panel Displays."

Did You Know? According to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, venture capital groups invested $608 million into 63 Florida deals in 2007, which is almost double the $319 million invested in 2006.

Calendar of Events The following events are taking place across the Corridor's 23-county region or in the surrounding area:

Executive Summit: Innovate Your Business Presented by: Tampa Bay Technology Forum Friday, Feb. 8, 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. A La Carte Event Pavilion 4050 Dana Shores Drive, Tampa For event information, visit http://www.tbtf.org.

Astronomy and Astrophysics Public Lecture Series Presented by: Florida Institute of Technology, Department of Physics and Space Sciences Friday, Feb. 22, 8 p.m. Olin Engineering Complex Auditorium, FIT campus 150 W. University Blvd. Melbourne For event information, visit http://cos.fit.edu/pss/aapls.html.

Second Annual Citrus County Tech Expo Presented by: Citrus IT Alliance Friday, Feb. 22, 1 to 7 p.m. Crystal River National Guard Armory 8551 W. Venable St., Crystal River For event information, visit http://www.citrusitalliance.net/ExpoEvent/tabid/71/Default.aspx.

Florida Innovation Showcase 2008 Presented by: The Florida Research Consortium Wednesday March 19 and Thursday March 20 Orlando World Center Marriott 8701 World Center Drive, Orlando For event information, visit http://www.FLinnovation.org.

Inside Florida's High Tech Corridor is published by the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, Inc. (FHTCC) and its economic development partners. The FHTCC is an initiative of the University of Central Florida (http://www.ucf.edu), the University of South Florida (http://www.usf.edu) and the University of Florida (http://www.ufl.edu). For more information visit our Web site at (http://www.floridahightech.com), or contact one of the region's economic development partners listed at http://www.floridahightech.com/resources/economicDevOrgs.html.

Florida High Tech Corridor Link Library For a comprehensive list of FHTCC University Partners; Community Colleges; Economic Development Organizations; Technology Groups & Programs; Workforce Boards & Organizations; Technology Incubators & Venture Capital Organizations; and, Industry Organizations visit the Florida High Tech Corridor link library at http://www.floridahightech.com/resources/linksLibrary.html.

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