Making High-Tech Happen!

 

I am involved with a number of high-tech initiatives in and around the Bloomsburg area. Here are two the the projects. I am also involved with helping a start up company develop innovative software for use in a unique governmental market as well as coaching a number of companies on technology commercialization possibilities.

 

E-Learning Technology Center and Incubator

 

I am on a local committee that has brought an e-learning incubator and technology center to downtown Bloomsburg. This initiative provides high-tech jobs in a rural setting and will help the general economic climate of the Bloomsburg area. In fact, five companies have already moved into the technology center.

 

The vision is to aggregate the technology companies that surround Bloomsburg into a single technology center. This center is a focal point for local e-learning companies and is attracting other e-learning companies to the area. These companies will take advantage of the resources of the Institute for Interactive Technologies. This unique resource will provide the talent and innovation needed to help these companies sustain a competitive advantage in the e-learning marketplace.

 

The center houses a space for the development of new, innovative e-learning companies who need a space to grow. The incubator facility will provide knowledge and expertise to the new company founders. These companies will then move into the Bloomsburg community once they become viable. Read more about the technology center.

Keystone Innovation Zone

The Institute for Interactive Technologies of which I am the assistant director, has teamed with the Columbia Alliance for Economic Growth , Geisinger Ventures, Bucknell University, and Susquehanna University to create what is known as the Greater Susquehanna Keystone Innovation Zone (GSKIZ). The purpose of the zone is to help commercialize intellectual property developed at the university and within the IIT. The zone provides companies a 50% tax break on state taxes plus other incentives for any company that has been operating for less than eight years and moves into the zone.

 

The GSKIZ designated areas in Bloomsburg, Danville, Lewisburg, and Selinsgrove as part of the zone. The area in Bloomsburg encompasses the Bloomsburg Regional Community Technology Center (described above).

 

The GSKIZ and Technology Center will allow our students to have internship and graduate assistantship opportunities with companies located in the zone. Additionally, any of our students or alumni interested in creating a company (as several of our alumni have done) will be able to receive assistance and guidance from both GSKIZ and Technology Center resources designated for that purpose. The GSKIZ economic development program isn’t focused on manufacturing as some are but on creating business from ideas. Bloomsburg University, with leadership from the IIT, is leading the way in helping to create the zone and establishing technology companies within the region.