UW-Madison students from the Energy Hub student group will offer a free conference for students on transportation and energy in the upper level of Monona Terrace from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will cover issues including the challenges of enabling the nation?s power grid to handle electric cars and understanding the supply chain for biomass fuels.
Metro Transit Bus 007 has a secret weapon. Code name: WiRover. Tucked inside a locked cabinet in the lumbering blue and white city bus is a small black box. It?s part of a UW-Madison research project that could one day lead to Internet access in every car, truck, mini-van, bus and train. Starting now, passengers on two of Metro?s 200 buses can get free Wi-Fi while they ride. WiRover was developed by the Wisconsin Wireless Networking Systems Laboratory, known as WiNGS, founded and run by Suman Banerjee, associate professor in the UW-Madison Department of Computer Sciences.
The nation?s economy is on an upswing, speakers agreed at a conference in Madison on Friday. But how high it will swing and how soon it will get there brought very different expectations at UW-Madison?s Economic Outlook seminar at the Fluno Center. Quoted: Michael Knetter, president of the UW Foundation and former dean of the UW-Madison School of Business, and Donald Nichols, UW-Madison professor emeritus of economics and public affairs.
City officials remain confident Madison will become the test city for Google?s approaching ultra high-speed Internet experiment.
Twenty students in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Master of Business Administration program will travel to Omaha on Thursday to share a meal and an experience of a lifetime with Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the world?s most successful investors.
Christmas came early for a computer science lab at the University of Wisconsin thanks to a multimillion dollar investment from software mogul Microsoft Corporation, UW officials announced Tuesday.
Football season is quickly morphing into basketball season and still no opening date for the “Hotel Red” at the corner of Monroe and Regent streets. But a DeForest-based management firm is interested in trying to get the 48-room boutique hotel up and running.
Microsoft Corp. unveiled a $3.5 million upgrade to its database research lab near UW-Madison on Monday. The Jim Gray Systems Lab reopened at 634 W. Main St. with three times the space, new equipment and room for 30 researchers and staff. It had been running with nine staff members. Quoted: David DeWitt, who directs the lab and is an emeritus UW-Madison computer science professor.
When Steven Mixtacki became chief operating officer for one of the partners in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, he quickly learned what some of the unscientific requirements were for the new facility. “I was told researchers want good coffee, beer and a place they can collaborate and get together,” said Mixtacki, who joined the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in February. Those elements are part of the plan. A new venture by the restaurant group Food Fight called Discovery Culinary Collaborative will run two restaurants in the center that is scheduled to open in December on the 1300 block of University Avenue.
Should folks in Wisconsin be paying attention to a higher education debate across the pond?
Tuition at some British universities could jump up to a level charged by top private institutions in the United States if the proposals by a government-authorized committee released last week are adopted, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The assessment, which could help the government devise a plan to tackle a financing crisis facing British universities, “encourages a market-oriented approach toward higher education,” according to The Chronicle.
….This trend away from federal support of higher education as a public good and a shift toward market forces as a private benefit also could be playing out much closer to home. In fact, UW-Madison this week will host a series of forums to discuss Chancellor Biddy Martin’s vision for a new business model for Wisconsin’s flagship university.
Clare Zempel, principal at Zempel Strategic, Fox Point, and Brian Wesbury, chief economist at First Trust Advisors, Wheaton, Ill., will headline UW-Madison?s Economic Outlook seminar on Friday. Michael Knetter, president of the UW Foundation and former dean of the UW-Madison School of Business, and Donald Nichols, UW-Madison professor emeritus of public affairs and economics, also will be among the featured speakers.
…According to the state?s economic recovery website ? www.recovery.wisconsin.gov ? Dane County has been awarded more than $352 million in Recovery Act funding, a figure that includes aid for school districts and local units of government.
Of that, $62 million is going for transportation improvements such as the Badger Interchange. Other local transportation projects using stimulus funds include the extension of taxiway B at the Dane County Regional Airport $3.69 million and reconstruction of University Avenue $3.6 million.
The rest of the money is divided among the UW System and other government or nongovernmental agencies.
Madison will be one of 50 U.S. cities participating in ?China Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections? at 5:45 p.m. Monday at the Edgewater Hotel. The event is sponsored internationally by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and locally by the Madison Committee on Foreign Relations and the UW-Madison?s Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy.
The Wisconsin School of Business? MBA program ranks 37th out of 80 top programs in North America according to the QS Global 200 Top Business Schools Report 2010.
Epic Systems in Verona has supplanted American Family Insurance as the region?s largest private sector employer. Fueled by demand for its medical records software, Epic now counts nearly 4,000 employees at its sprawling headquarters on Verona?s west side. That?s up from 3,450 in 2008. That compares to the roughly 3,600 employees at American Family on Madison?s far east side.
….In either case, government remains the top employer in Dane County. UW-Madison is the largest, followed by 2) the Madison Metropolitan School District and 3) the Department of Corrections, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
The University of Wisconsin System is coming under fire from the state?s largest association of telecommunications providers for planning to use millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds to expand high-capacity broadband Internet services in communities across Wisconsin.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor Barry Orton
Letter by Tyler Lark, student, UW-Madison.
The state of Wisconsin filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to join an amicus brief in the case that will determine the state of stem cell research nationwide, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Tuesday.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced Tuesday Wisconsin has officially filed to join a lawsuit challenging the injunction banning federal funding for stem cell research.
The state of Wisconsin wants to file a friend-of-the-court brief to uphold federal funding for stem cell researchers. Gov. Jim Doyle announced today that the state filed a motion to join an amicus brief in Sherley v. Sebelius, a case challenging the National Institutes of Health?s embryonic stem cell research guidelines. At a news conference last month, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said as many as two dozen UW-Madison stem cell researchers face disruptions in their research.
The Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, refused to say Tuesday whether he favors a ban on embryonic stem cell research — even though he previously told an anti-abortion group he does. Embryonic stem cell research was pioneered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and millions of dollars is spent on it each year in the state. During a Tuesday campaign stop in Madison, Walker said he would direct state money to stem cell research that doesn?t use cells obtained from embryos.
A study released Monday says the University Research Park in Madison contributes more than $825 million to the state?s economy each year.
A study released Monday says the University Research Park in Madison contributes more than $825 million to the state?s economy each year.
Academic research and development is another economic asset. Led by the UW-Madison, academic R&D is a $1.2 billion sector, translating into thousands of direct and indirect jobs. UW-Madison is perennially in the top three universities in the nation for R&D, topping $1 billion in total research in 2009.
Dear Editor: The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus will soon be occupied by brilliant scientists and eager students. For the time being, it?s home to hundreds of men and women who are busy putting the finishing touches on a stunning research facility.
Their craftsmanship is evident at every turn. Less visible is their equally impressive generosity and compassion. These carpenters, pipefitters, welders, electricians and glaziers are also generous benefactors.
MADISON, Wis. — The city of Whitewater and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater violated federal rules when awarding a construction contract at the Whitewater University Technology Park.
The problem revolved around a $2.9 million contract awarded to Janesville-based J.P. Cullen & Sons. Cullen was in charge of reviewing the bids and recommended itself for the main construction contract. It?s also construction manager.
Spending on research at UW-Madison has for the first time topped the $1 billion mark, according to a survey by the National Science Foundation of research expenditures nationwide in 2009. Vice Chancellor for Research Martin Cadwallader said the milestone is important not just for the university but for the entire state.
A state website operating since 2007 is supposed to be informing citizens how state government spends some of their taxpayer dollars by disclosing information on state contracts worth $10,000 or more. But that is not happening. And for a state that strives to be a leader in government transparency, this is not a pretty story.
Marissa Mayer, raised in Wausau, Wisconsin, has been on the cover of Newsweek as ?one of the most powerful women of her generation.? Mayer, vice president of search product and experience and the first female engineer to join Google, returned to Wisconsin last week as a keynote speaker at the 12th annual Business Best Practices and Emerging Technologies Conference.
After several delays for financial reasons, the proposal to build a women?s hockey facility near the Kohl Center will now advance out of developmental stages and into the city approval process.
Two Madison-area groups have received $500,000 each from the federal government to further develop technologies for making a radioactive isotope widely used in medical imaging tests.
The National Nuclear Security Administration awarded funding to a group including the Morgridge Institute for Research and Phoenix Nuclear Labs LLC of Middleton, as well as to NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC of Madison and its partners.
The Wisconsin partnerships are the third and fourth recipients of such awards, for which there will be one more funding round, said Jennifer Wagner, a spokeswoman for the administration, part of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Quoted: Tom Oliver, a professor at the University of Wisconsin?s School of Medicine and Public Health and an expert on health care policy.
Madison could be the only U.S. location producing technetium-99m, a substance that is in cardiac stress tests and cancer scans performed on tens of thousands of patients every day, and is in short supply worldwide. Two area companies, in separate arrangements, won the only two federal allocations announced Monday to manufacture the medical isotope molybdenum-99 which, when it decays, produces technetium-99m. One of the proposals is a partnership with UW-Madison, state of Wisconsin, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and Phoenix Nuclear Labs in Middleton.
Every two years, the state of Wisconsin comes out with its 10-year predictions on job growth. The report is designed to guide young people into new careers, let business owners know what employment trends are coming and help educators adjust their training programs. But the timing of the just-released “2008 to 2018 Jobs Outlook” could not have been worse.
Quoted: Kari Dickinson of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS)
When a pharmaceutical company is creating a compound that could become the next wonder drug, it helps to have a clean slate on which to build the drug. That?s the concept behind Scarab Genomics, 1202 Ann St., a company that grew out of research at the UW-Madison laboratories of genetics professor Fred Blattner, the company?s president and chief executive officer.
Quoted: Bill Reese, a professor of educational policy studies and history at UW-Madison, and Allen Phelps, a professor and director in the UW-Madison Center on Education and Work.
Green roofs are sprouting up on local mixed-use condominium and apartment buildings as well as some public buildings, an effort to promote storm water retention, prevent urban heat buildup, and create appealing green spaces for city dwellers to enjoy.
Wisconsin?s bioscience industry provides jobs for 24,000 employees whose paychecks are nearly two-thirds higher than the average Wisconsin worker, a study released Wednesday shows. And the industry, which ranges from drug development to medical instrument manufacturing, is growing. Stemina Biomarker Discovery is an example of the growth. The Madison stem cell company had six employees in December 2007; today, it has 10 and is looking to hire at least three more. Stemina also received word this week that it will get $1 million in a phase 2 contract with the National Cancer Institute to find biomarkers associated with cancer stem cells.?We?ll be looking at more cancer stem cell lines and we?ll be taking it into animal models in collaboration with both the UW-Madison and the Mayo Clinic,? Donley said.
Wisconsin?s bioscience industry provides jobs for 24,000 employees whose paychecks are nearly two-thirds higher than the average Wisconsin worker, a study released Wednesday shows. And the industry, which ranges from drug development to medical instrument manufacturing, is a growing field.
While employment statewide dropped 3 percent between 2004 and 2009, the number of bioscience jobs increased 3 percent during the same period, according to the report, compiled by the UW-Milwaukee Center for Workforce Development.
If you did not feel great urgency about the Wisconsin economy three years ago, the impact of the Great Recession has probably changed your mind. It has changed ours. That is why we both agreed to serve on the steering committee consisting of representatives from business, government and education that commissioned the Wisconsin Competitiveness Study. We strongly support the recommendations of the completed study, entitled ?Be Bold Wisconsin? — especially the two recommendations that would radically alter the economic development infrastructure in the state.
(Wisconsin School of Business Dean Mike Knetter and Marquette University School of Business Dean Linda Salchenberger)
If everything had gone according to plan, fans heading to today?s UW home football game might have spent Friday night in a new hotel across from Camp Randall Stadium. Instead of bustling with Badger fans, however, the hotel at the corner of Regent and Monroe streets remains empty.
To say that construction in the Madison area has slowed to a crawl is almost an understatement. If it weren?t for big projects like UW-Madison?s Institutes for Discovery and Epic Systems Corp.?s mushrooming campus in Verona, a lot more construction workers likely would be picking up unemployment checks.
Chancellor Biddy Martin, former Kimberly-Clark Executive Kathi Seifert and UW Board of Regents President Charles Pruitt held a panel to discuss financing public higher education Wednesday at a Public Representation Organization of Faculty Senate event.
In a recent address to the Associated Students of Madison, Chancellor Biddy Martin summarized a lengthy PowerPoint presentation she plans on selling around the state. While glossing over the substantive changes she ultimately sought, Martin spent most of her 30 minutes in front of ASM lauding UW?s substantial impact on Wisconsin?s culture and economy. However, flipping through the slide packet that was temporarily distributed to council members, one could see the eerie outlines of Martin?s master plan. The overall objective was to sever UW?s ties with the rest of the UW System to become independent while still benefiting from an umbilical tether to state coffers.
Seventy-five sign-wielding members of the Local 171 branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees protested the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery privatization of food service employment outside the WID yesterday.
The City of Madison Plan Commission unanimously approved a conditional use request to construct a new UW-Madison Lakeshore residence hall and food service facility Monday.
A University of Wisconsin workers union held a protest and picket line outside the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building Monday morning to show their anger about the outsourcing of jobs to non-union workers.
About 70 unionized UW-Madison food service workers and their supporters picketed the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery work site Monday to protest the university?s alleged complicity in a practice nearly as old as capitalism itself: union busting. The 1,500-member Local 171 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is irked because three dining venues planned for the privately owned parts of WID will not employ its members.
The University of Wisconsin will be teaming up with three of the state?s largest engineering research schools to become the fourth member of an energy research powerhouse that will combine university research and businesses.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin may hire a consultant firm to look at the efficiency of the entire university, which may cost millions of dollars, but could potentially save tens of millions.
Most everyone has heard the term “green” jobs or listened to someone talk about the “green” economy, but do you really understand what those terms mean or know how you can parlay your skills into starting a new “green” career?
The public is invited to a free series of forums called “Green Jobs for Wisconsin?s Economy,” which are to examine this growing sector and highlight opportunities for those who would like to learn more about potential careers in this area. The events, which are organized by UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental studies, are to be held on four Tuesdays in room 1106 of the Mechanical Engineering Building. These forums run from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Customers of Charter Communications have a new $1 surcharge on their bills. The “broadcast TV surcharge” stems from the often fierce retransmission negotiations between broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) and subscription TV providers.
Quoted: UW-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton
UW Hospital is one of the nation?s top 10 companies for working parents, according to an annual list developed by Working Mother magazine.
STEVENS POINT ? Dave Obey was on hand here a few days ago as University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point officials, faculty, students and community leaders celebrated the launching of the Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology in ceremonies on campus.
Obey?s presence was fitting. He directed about $1.4 million of federal funds to support the institute at the university, which will take an interdisciplinary approach as it creates and commercializes sustainable technologies and connects the campus to the business community.
UW-Madison ranked among the top 25 schools in the nation according to a Wall Street Journal survey of recruiters who work for the 479 largest public, private, nonprofit and government agencies. UW-Madison checked in at No. 16.
Mentions that the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which patents discoveries of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers and licenses them to companies around the world, has offered exclusive licenses for a limited number of crops.
Noted: A report by Dennis Winters, Wisconsin?s chief labor economist, who wants the state to save $1,000 every year for every public school student to help pay for college. Winters describes the plan in a publication issued by the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, a UW-Madison think tank.
Stem cell researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are relieved by a court ruling that will allow their federal funding to continue temporarily. Researchers had warned that studies on a range of diseases would come to a halt if a federal judge?s order blocking the funding stayed in place. An appeals court ruled Thursday the funding can proceed temporarily until the court rules on the Obama administration?s position in a lawsuit that calls the research illegal. UW-Madison?s federal lobbyist Rhonda Norsetter says the decision is terrific news.
A leading scientist at UW-Madison praised a ruling Thursday lifting a recent ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research but said an ongoing court case still calls the future of the funding into question. “It?s good news; we hope this will allow the research to go on unimpeded,” said Dr. Tim Kamp, director of the university?s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. “The challenge is that it?s hard to plan for the future with this on-again, off-again situation.” A federal appeals court permitted federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to proceed while it considers a judge?s ruling last month that had temporarily shut off the funds.
The government may resume funding of embryonic stem cell research for now, an appeals court said Thursday, but the short-term approval may be of little help to research scientists caught in a legal battle that has just begun. It is far from certain that scientists actually will continue to get federal money as they struggle to decide what to do with research that is hard to start and stop.
Quoted: Dr. Norman Fost, director of the bioethics program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who was on the National Academy of Sciences committee that wrote the first national guidelines on embryonic human stem cells.
