CNE Welcomes New Director

The Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNE) welcomes Kerry Dodson, their new Executive Director. Membership in the CNE is open to Charlottesville area nonprofits; the dues range from $100 to $400 annually.

The current CNE calendar of upcoming events includes their Brown Bag seminar, How to Write a Survey, on Oct. 4, and the Oct. 19th FOCUS presentation by Bob Eliason of JMU College of Business Management on the basics of starting an online business from establishing a website to handling payment.

The January 2007 Virginia Network of Nonprofit Organizations (VANNO) report The Virginia Nonprofit Sector indicates that there were 8,537 reporting charitable nonprofits in Virginia in 2004, and that the 1,240 foundations in Virginia held $6.1 billion in assets and gave $388 million in grants.

New Executive Directors Welcomed

Two new leaders in the entrepreneurial and technology community in central Virginia have just been announced.

The Virginia Piedmont Technology Council recently joined forces with the Charlottesville Venture Group, and announced the new executive director, Tom Thompson of Charlottesville. On October 2, the new organization name will be announced, and Thompson will be introduced to the members.

The NewVa Corridor Technology Council (NCTC), formerly the New Century Technology Council, announced Cory Donovan has taken over from Gordie Zeigler. Their Fall Gala is scheduled for October 12.

Virginia Biotechnology Industry

Virginia Business magazine reviewed the state's biotechnology industry, noting the research institutions associated with VCU, VA Tech, the University of Virginia, and the new SRI Center being developed in Rockingham County. They quote Randal Kirk, of Third Security: What matters [to biotech] “is the value of the intellectual property.”

The Virginia-based Biotechnology Institute has a short FAQ on the industry, as well as industry and education programs.

Virginians receive IBM Faculty Awards

Three Computer Science professors from VA Tech, Kirk Cameron, Wu-Chun Feng, and Dimitrios Nik, have just received IBM Faculty Awards. The other Virginia professor recognized by IBM was Kurt Maly, chairman of the Old Dominion University Computer Science department.

VA Colleges and Universities

US News and World Report has published their college and university rankings for 2008, and three Virginia institutions are among the top national universities: the University of Virginia (23), the College of William and Mary (33), and Virginia Tech (71).

Of the Liberal Arts Colleges in the country, two Virginia colleges were among the top 50, Washington and Lee University (15) and the University of Richmond (40).

In the Universities-Masters Degree (South region) category, Virginia schools among the top 50 are: James Madison University (4), the University of Mary Washington (9), Mary Baldwin College (23), Hampton University (25), Longwood University (31), Radford University (38), Shenandoah University (41), Lynchurg College (43), and Marymount University (45).

Robins School Momentum

According to the Richmond TimesDispatch, Dr. Jorge Haddock, dean of the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond, is focused on momentum.

Momentum to hold a lofty position among the top 25 undergraduate business schools in the nation, as measured by BusinessWeek magazine.

Momentum to complete a $16.8 million capital campaign -- about $10.5 million has been raised -- so the business school can add a new wing.

Momentum to help new UR President Edward L. Ayers keep his pledge to provide more service to the Richmond community.

The Robins School offers 38 student exchange programs in 29 countries; this summer about a dozen international MBA students from Brazil and Angola attended a five-week session at UR. Newsweek magazine just recognized the University of Richmond as one of the 25 Hottest Schools in America for international studies.

The new wing of the business school, for which fundraising is well underway, will increase the size of the school facilities by a third, including 33,000 square feet for new classrooms, a 225-seat auditorium, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and a Wall Street-style trading room.

Current faculty research grants are outlined in the Summer 2007 newsletter.

VA Business Schools in The 282

The Princeton Review ranks the 282 best business schools in America.
There are 11 separate categories in which the schools are ranked, including The Toughest to Get Into, The Best Overall Academic Experience, The Best Professors, The Best Campus Facilities, and The Greatest Opportunity for Women.

Among Virginia business schools, The University of Virginia Darden School was highly ranked for Best Campus Facilities; both UVA and William and Mary were highly ranked for the Best Professors. For example, Darden's Dr. Mary Margaret Frank just received the Teaching Innovation Award co-sponsored by the Deloitte Foundation and the American Taxation Association. In 2007, the University of Richmond Robins School was included in The Princeton Review list for the first time.

For information about the ranking process, see The Princeton Review FAQs.

Virginia's Young CEOs

Virginia Business Magazine has a great new article on young, web-savvy CEOs in Virginia.

CEOs profiled include Joel Erb, interviewed by BGN last May. In 2001, cuts in NYC advertising budgets affected about 80 percent of his business, Inet Network and forced him to rethink college. "We went from a staff of 12 in the beginning of 2001 to a staff of two, and I quickly realized I have to do something about this," he recalls.

Erb immediately enrolled at the University of Richmond. He calls his degree a $160,000 "insurance policy." It's helping him grow his business smartly, he says, rather than just aggressively. "I don't think I need college to make my business run," adds Erb, "but I need college to refine the skills I had to make it run smoothly." Snippets from Virginia Business Magazine.

New College Institute Update

The recently founded New College Institute of Martinsville now offers tuition assistance to qualified students.
A brief history of this new collaborative institution notes that NCI will be evaluated in the future to determine whether it should remain as the unique educational entity it is today or whether it will become a stand-alone four-year college or if it will become a branch campus of an existing college or university. At present, collaborating institutions include the University of Virginia, Patrick Henry Community College, Averett University, Ferrum College, Radford University, Longwood University, Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

VA is for Business

For the second year in a row, Forbes.com has ranked Virginia the best state in the country "for business." Forbes also rated the state tops in regulatory environment, No. 5 in labor pool, No. 6 in quality of life and No. 8 in growth prospects. Its worst rating: No. 17 in business costs. Snippet from the Pilot Online.

Patents and Tech Workers in Virginia

Dr. Christine Chmura writes for the Richmond TimesDispatch that

The American Electronics Association says Virginia had the highest concentration of tech workers in the country in 2005. However, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation ranked Virginia 26th in the number of U.S. patents issued to companies or individuals per 1,000 workers.

COVITS 2007

Registration for the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium, COVITS 2007, will open in July. The 2007 theme of “Proceeding in Partnership” focuses on incorporating innovation to drive up performance in government operations.

Three research and development topics on are the agenda:

• The role of IT in lowering energy consumption

• The value of modeling and simulation to manage project risk

• Surfacing tomorrow's microelectronics devices that will transform education and transportation

Speakers this year include Jay McGonigle, Chairman of Corporate Executive Board Co., Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, Chairman and Founder of Sycamore Networks Inc. and donor of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT, and Michael Bradshaw, Head of Federal Enterprise for Google, Inc. and former Governor Mark R. Warner.

VA Small Business

Nominations for the Virginia Small Business Success Story of the Year are due August 31, 2007. Next February, the four regional winners will be profiled in Virginia Business magazine.

Criteria include:
• Virginia based
• Less than 100 employees
• Privately held
• At least one owner active in the business
• In business at least five years
• Profitable

Fast Companies of Virginia

The current issue of FastCompany profiles Fabjectory and The Martin Agency:

In fact, even though gauging ROI (return on investment) has become the advertising mantra of the moment, that has been a Martin strength since the agency bought a little New York direct-mail firm in 1986 and moved it to Richmond. Snippet from FastCompany.

Fabjectory is profiled in the Future Tech section. Founder Michael Buckbee meets clients online in Second Life for the avatars he re-creates as resin statues. Pathfinder Linden's avatar is here. We first took note of Fabjectory last October.

More on recognition of the Martin Agency, as well as their new Wal-Mart project.

MWU Faculty Academy

The 12th annual Mary Washington University Faculty Academy begins Wednesday, with Change and the 21st‑Century College Teacher: Deep Learning, Slow Blogging and the Tensions of Web 2.0 by Barbara Ganley of the Middlebury College Center for Teaching, Learning and Research. Today is the last day to register for this event.

The keynote talk by Dr. Stephenson of Netform will be delivered on Thursday. Alan Levine, of the New Media Consortium, will present Being There: Networks, Tweets, and Avatars on Wednesday.

The results of the NMC survey on educators in Second Life should be available in June.

Insmed Inc. Sells Shares

Richmond's Insmed Incorporated (NASDAQ: INSM) announced today that it has obtained agreements from investors to purchase approximately 20 million shares of its common stock at a price of $0.90 per share. Insmed Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and approval of drugs for the treatment of metabolic diseases with unmet medical needs. In March 2007, Insmed settled a patent litigation suit with Tercica, Inc. and Genentech, Inc.

Insmed Inc. was founded on technology licensed from pharmaceutical research performed at the University of Virginia by Dr. Joseph Larner, who was Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, and Director of the UVA Diabetes Center. Insmed COO Ronald D. Gunn received his Masters degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University.

VA Googles

Virginia joins Arizona, California and Utah in partnering with Google.

Through the partnership, Google and state employees have created a Sitemap protocol, which allows Web site owners to provide more of its site content to Internet search engines. In addition, the search tool on the state portal has been updated. Citizens can now use the search portal on Virginia.gov to search for information from local, state and federal governments. Snippet from Virginia Business Magazine.

VA Tech and the Web

From Ryan Singel's article in Wired

Since 9/11, some security experts have pushed the idea that peer-to-peer alert systems that rely on openness and the crowd can save lives, particularly when centralized communications and decision-making break down.
As the carnage unfolded, [VA Tech] eyewitnesses IM'd terrifying firsthand accounts to their friends, some of which appeared on blogs and MySpace within minutes of the shootings.

The ability of the Virginia Tech community to use the available technology to organize itself quickly and effectively deserves great respect. In the debate about what could or should or might have been done to prevent this tragedy, it is well to remember that it could also have been much worse.

From the first 911 cell phone call from Norris, continuing through the effective use of sites like VA Tech Sideline, Live Journal, MySpace and Facebook to connect with friends and families, the members of the VA Tech community have been giving an exceptionally good account of themselves.

The Monday posting by Dr. Ishwar Puri, Professor and Department Head, Engineering Science and Mechanics, was a shining example of humanity, clarity and calm in the midst of emerging chaos. (My apologies for not providing the other links yet) UPDATED

Here is the timely and thorough Wikipedia entry for the Virginia Tech Massacre.

America's Best Grad Schools

Once again, the US New and World Report Top 50 graduate school rankings.

The Virginia graduate schools noted in these rankings:

Law:
University of Virginia (10)
Washington and lee University (25)
College of William and Mary (31

Engineering:
Virginia Tech (33)
University of Virginia (37)

Business:
University of Virginia Darden School of Business (12)

Education:
University of Virginia Curry School (24)
College of William and Mary (49)
Virginia Commonwealth University (49)

Medicine:
University of Virginia Medical School Research (23) and Primary Care (38)

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