Category: Business/Technology

Computer giant Microsoft is setting up a new, advanced development lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. University officials say it will greatly benefit the school, and attract prospective, talented computer students to the campus.

The Microsoft Jim Gray Systems Lab â??- named for a company executive and pioneer of the database industry — will open in the downtown area. Microsoft has pledged to support several graduate-level research assistantships at the facility beginning this fall.

In an effort to forward fundamental database research and push the limits of database scalability, Microsoft has hired parallel database pioneer David DeWitt as the company’s newest technical fellow and will open an advanced development laboratory in Madison, Wis.

The new advanced laboratory, the Jim Gray Systems Lab, will perform fundamental research on databases and work closely with Microsoft Research and the company’s development teams to do advanced development of database technologies that the company will roll out in the mid-term.

MADISON, Wis. — Microsoft plans to open a laboratory in Madison this spring as part of a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science department.

Retired UW-Madison computer scientist David DeWitt will run the lab in downtown Madison.

DeWitt is considered one of the world leaders in database research, and the lab will focus on developing database systems.

The lab is expected to open with six full-time employees, but Dewitt says he would like it to grow to 10 or 20 scientists in coming years.

Microsoft will pay graduate students to do research at the lab, which is also expected to provide internships for students and consulting opportunities for faculty.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Microsoft Corp. will open a laboratory in Madison this spring as part of a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science department.

Retired UW-Madison computer scientist David DeWitt will direct the lab in downtown Madison, the company announced Wednesday. DeWitt is considered one of the world leaders in database research, and the lab will focus on developing database systems.

The lab is expected to open with six full-time employees, but Dewitt said he would like it to grow to 10 or 20 scientists in coming years.

Microsoft, the world’s largest computer software company, will partner with the UW-Madison computer science department to open a first-of-its-kind advanced database development laboratory near campus in July.

Ask Guri Sohi why Microsoft, the world’s largest computer software company, is opening a lab on West Main Street, and the chair of the UW-Madison computer science department slowly shakes his head from side to side as a wry grin creases across his face.

To him, the answer is obvious.

“The high-tech companies don’t go where all the different incentives are,” Sohi states matter-of-factly. “They go where the talent and the brains are. And that’s why Microsoft is coming here.”

Madison, Wis. – The greening of business is considered one of the more sustainable trends in entrepreneurship, and new ventures don’t come any greener than Sky Vegetables.

The company, which plans to build and operate commercial greenhouses on the rooftops of supermarkets in the United States, took the top prize in the 2008 G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition.

The annual competition evaluates the business plans of students in the business school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The mayor got one thing right.

After learning of the Famous Footwear decision, he said, “Today’s news reminds us that if we want our economy to remain strong, we need to aggressively implement our new economic development plan and other initiatives.”

To do that, the city should stop relying on outside “consultants” who produce ridiculous reports like the vapid $75,000 “plan” prepared by Chicago-based Ticknor & Associates. The Ticknor report was packed with nuggets like “Good jobs matter” and “Economic development is competitive.”

The city needs to start working with the University of Wisconsin’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy, an internationally respected think tank that is on the cutting edge when it comes to innovative thinking about job growth.

Spending money on Chicago consultants who produce warmed-over pablum is one sign that Madison is not as serious as it must be when it comes to economic development.

As employees had feared, Famous Footwear is moving its corporate headquarters out of Madison.

“I’m a little overwhelmed right now,” said Meghan Hurley, a recent UW-Madison graduate who has been with the company for just six months and works on a media team in the marketing department. “I need to let it sink in. I loved it here, so it’s sad.”

The Wisconsin State Journal was named Monday as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, journalism ‘s highest honor, for an opinion page campaign to curtail the Wisconsin governor ‘s veto power.
Also Monday, UW-Madison alumnus David Umhoefer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel won a local reporting Pulitzer for stories on how county employees ‘ pensions were padded.

Taxi!

Downtown bar patrons will be able to get a cab at a moment’s notice starting tonight, with the city’s first taxi stand being set up in the 600 block of University Avenue on the north side of the street, picking up fares from midnight to 3 a.m.

Users will queue up at the stand, with a starter directing passengers into the next cab in line. The stand will have large sandwich boards noting it’s location, right in front of the restaurant A 8 China at 608 University Ave.

….The project is a cooperative venture of the city, the police, UW-Madison, business owners downtown and the cab companies.

Genesis Development Corp. has hit a rough patch just as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. Its cash reserves are low, and its three-story building on Madison ‘s South Side — called a business incubator — is only half full of tenants.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine plans next year to install the first TomoTherapy machine designated for veterinary use.

With the U.S. economy in shaky territory, two University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students say there’s one examination every stock should undergo: the stress test.

The subprime mortgage mess and subsequent paralysis in U.S. credit markets have made banks hesitant to lend and investors skittish about stocks. It’s unclear how much longer the situation will last, and how much blood will be left on Wall Street when it ends.

That’s why John Poehling Jr. and Jason Schultz say stress testing your stocks is so important.

If they flop on Wall Street, Hollywood may save them.

University of Wisconsin-Madison business students created a mind-numbingly dull video about their Applied Security Analysis Program – until 1:47 into the 6-minute video.

Spending in Ohio was more than three times greater than in Wisconsin, according to a report released Wednesday by University of Wisconsin Advertising Project.