Cornell’s New York City Tech campus will be the first university to have a direct partnership with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, giving future students access to resources and expert advice as they look to bring ideas and innovations to market.

The university made the announcement on Tuesday morning at its temporary campus in New York’s Chelsea district, office space donated by Google. The first class of about 20 students will begin classes in January 2013 while construction proceeds on the main campus on Roosevelt Island, scheduled to open in 2017.

Most entrepreneurs think that risk is just an “occupational hazard” that can be minimized or eliminated by a smart businessman. That way of thinking is simplistic and wrong. In reality, some risks are good and should be embraced for growth and a competitive edge, while others are bad and should be avoided completely.

Traditional risk management focuses only on bad risks, and seeks to contain losses. But if you want growth and sustainability, you need to create smart risks, which means intentionally taking a risk to grow your business or gain competitive advantage.

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), Oct. 2, 2012 — A new Kauffman Foundation study finds that high-tech, immigrant-founded startups — a critical source of fuel for the U.S. economy — has stagnated and is on the verge of decline.

"America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Then and Now" shows that the proportion of immigrant-founded companies nationwide has slipped from 25.3 percent to 24.3 percent since 2005. The drop is even more pronounced in Silicon Valley, where the percentage of immigrant-founded startups declined from 52.4 percent to 43.9 percent.

This report, which evaluated the rate of immigrant entrepreneurship from 2006 to 2012, updates findings from a 2007 study that examined immigrant-founded companies between 1995 and 2005.

Let’s face it – this is what we’re all striving for, right? We want to be acknowledged as an expert in our field. We want customers to recognize our expertise so they’ll trust us with their dollars. We want bloggers and reporters to see us as an expert so they’ll use as a source and send traffic our way. And, of course, we want Google to think we’re an expert so it’ll deliver new eyes and more conversions. We’re all fighting the expert game. But how do we really become one?

I’m often asked how small business owners should go about building their expertise online. Below is an expanded version of the answer I often give.

Everyone’s an innovator. Okay, not everyone, but far more executives describe their organizations that way than you might think. In Forbes Insights’ recent study, “ Harnessing Innovation To Jumpstart Growth,” in partnership with BMO Harris Bank, 43% of middle-market executives we surveyed described their company’s approach to innovation as “large and transformative,” while just 22% said they stuck with small, incremental changes when needed.

It’s no secret that innovation is crucial to maintaining competitive advantage. Much like making exercise and egg whites a part of your daily life can keep you healthy (and alive) longer, sustaining a culture of corporate innovation is vital to a company’s health and success.

In the Tech Innovators Series, Mashable introduces you to 10 of tech’s top innovators. From adaptive learning to mobile video-sharing and computers that you command with gestures of the hand, these gamechangers are introducing new technologies and redefining — or creating entirely new — industries. Check out the summaries below and click through for full articles about these innovators and their work.

1. Adaptive Learning: Why Your Kids Will Be Smarter Than You

“Education is a big problem,” says Knewton CEO Jose Ferreira. He’s spent his whole life in the education space, starting at Kaplan in 1991. He tried to bring adaptive learning to Kaplan in 1993, but Ferreira was ahead of his time; once technology caught up, he founded the adaptive learning platform Knewton in 2008.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo began a statewide tour Tuesday to cheer on business projects that have gotten under way with the help of tax breaks, as New York's unemployment rate remains stubbornly higher than the national average.

Accompanied by local and state officials in Syracuse, Cuomo echoed what many business leaders and economists have long said — economic recovery depends partly on the image that conditions are improving or will soon.

He planned to visit Long Island on Friday, followed by eight other stops before the end of the year.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry today credited the state’s fiscal policies, its commitment to a balanced budget and low taxes as reasons why it continues to be “the nation’s epicenter for job creation.”

Perry, who spoke at the International Economic Development Council’s annual conference in Houston, noted that Texas added 38,000 jobs in August and created nearly 1.4 million jobs in the last 10 years — both more than any other state.

Texas continues to attract employers from around the world to create jobs and investment. This week, TMK Group, a Russia-based producer of oil and gas steel pipe, opened a research and development center in Houston. The company also said it would relocate its U.S. headquarters to Texas, creating 500 jobs.

Right here in Pennsylvania, where the Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) program is providing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop land with greatly reduced state and local taxes. KOZs reflect a true sense of partnership among state and local taxing bodies, school districts, economic development agencies and community-based organizations.

The Number One Economic Development Strategy in the Nation

Communities within Pennsylvania are experiencing economic growth and investment. Keystone Opportunity Zones are such a breakthrough idea that Business Facilities magazine calls them the number one economic development strategy in the nation. By eliminating specific state and local taxes within specific underdeveloped and underutilized areas, communities within Pennsylvania are experiencing economic growth and investment. Since the KOZ program's inception in 1999, it has led to the creation of new jobs and produced capital investment in real estate. Due to the tremendous success of the KOZ initiative, there have been multiple opportunities for local communities to designate additional subzones, the most recent being in 2012, where legislation enables DCED to grant extensions on an "as applied/needed" basis.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is a glittering gem — the world's largest coral reef ecosystem — chock-full of diverse marine life. But new research shows it is also in steep decline, with half of the reef vanishing in the past 27 years.  

Katharina Fabricius, a coral reef ecologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and study co-author, told LiveScience that she has been diving and working on the reef since 1988 — and has watched the decline. "I hear of the changes anecdotally, but this is the first long-term look at the overall status of the reef. There are still a lot of fish, and you can see giant clams, but not the same color and diversity as in the past."

Nigel knows where you've been and whether you opened the windows when you got there. He probably knows whether you visited a fast food restaurant and might recommend you go for a jog. Nigel, as it turns out, is your car.

This week, researchers from the University of Southern California will show off their driver-tracking Mini Cooper—dubbed Nigel—at this year's Body Computing Conference. Nigel is actually a combination of some 230 sensors on the Mini Cooper and an iPhone app that monitors its driver's habits and even creates specific driving games or suggests activities for each of the car's drivers. While the gaming and activities aspect of the Nigel experience was the inspiration to its USC Cinematic Arts developers, the car could also aid its driver's health, says Leslie Saxon, chief of cardiology at the Keck School of Medicine at USC and founder of the Center for Body Computing.

It’s not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you that matters. Not everything is within our control. Weather, the economy, our competition, and any number of other factors can affect us and our businesses. But in every climate where some are failing, others are succeeding. In most cases, it comes down to a choice in how they respond to the events popping up in their lives.

The Sandcastle

There was a young child who was being laughed at on the beach by the older kids.  Everyone had built sandcastles but his was simple and unimpressive.  They get to talking and decide to take turns dumping buckets of sand all over his creation.  Eventually they notice that the small kid has been constructing a sand masterpiece will all the fresh material.  Soon they’re starting to bring him buckets of sand and placing them gently next to his workspace.  By the end of the day he’s got the greatest sand castle the beach has seen all summer.

Inspired by Boston, the city of Philadelphia is establishing its own Office of New Urban Mechanics, said the city's Mayor Michael Nutter late Monday at the Code for America Summit.

"New Urban Mechanics Philadelphia is a nimble and entrepreneurial government outfit," Nutter said during a Monday afternoon speech in San Francisco. "It is piloting and prototyping small innovative projects in the civic space, which along with efforts of individuals across multiple city departments, will better enable our city to sustain a culture of innovation and entrepreneurial approaches to problem-solving."

Its co-directors are Jeff Friedman and Story Bellows, who had previously worked on civic innovation projects in the mayor's office. In his remarks, Nutter said the city will model its project closely after the Boston outfit created by Mayor Thomas Menino and led by former tech entrepreneur Nigel Jacob and city official Chris Osgood.

In an economy based on creativity and idea generation, it is up to you to keep your greatest assets--your awareness and creativity--nourished, fine-tuned, and ready at hand. The problems of a complex, dynamic, and rapidly shifting world are rarely resolved with analysis alone. Instead, leaders need fresh ideas.

To supply them, you must invest in your personal creativity.

How, you might ask, does a person do that? Let’s draw an analogy from how corporations create new products. Just as they budget for the systematic, in-house pursuit of knowledge found via Research and Development, individuals need a similar strategy. I call it "Creative R&D."

To stay "fit" for creativity, you need time for reflection and renewal. Dancers and athletes stretch. Singers perform their scales. Musicians practice their instrument. Today, we’re all creators--and creativity requires regular practice.

India's Hungama.com, a digital entertainment platform, is among 10 new investments totalling $40 million announced by Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of chipmaker Intel, on Tuesday.

Hungama.com, a subsidiary of Hungama Digital, operates digital entertainment stores offering access to movies, music and games. The fully paid platform currently has over 5,000 films. Chairman Neeraj Roy said the infusion of fresh funds would help the company expand internationally, without more detail.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Hungama.com targets South Asian communities.

Something I love to do when I get a chance is help friends who are starting businesses. It’s particularly rewarding with first-time entrepreneurs, and – I guess this is obvious – with folks who have the humility to know that they don’t have all the answers.

I listen to what they’re doing, how they’re approaching solving their customers’ pain, where they are in the company development process, and I give them simple, honest feedback. But I know I don’t have all the answers. (In fact, the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. It’s to the point where I’m asymptotically approaching being the dumbest person in every room I enter.) 

The InvestMaryland Challenge is a national seed and early-stage business competition hosted by the State of Maryland. The Challenge will award $300,000 in grants and a host of business services to companies in the life sciences and high tech industries. Companies also have the opportunity to receive direct investments from venture capital firms and angel investors.

Qualifications

To qualify, start-ups must have fewer than 25 employees and annual revenues of less than $1 million. The competition is for independent ventures in the seed, start-up, or early-growth stages. The company must be a duly-organized legal entity and in good standing with the state in which they are legally registered. Sole proprietorships are not eligible. Existing Maryland ventures must have a principal place of business in Maryland. Non-Maryland ventures are expected to establish a place of business in the state either through acquired space or a state incubator. At least 51% of the grant money must be spent within the state. Entrants can only apply for one category. A non-refundable $100 application fee required. Subject to other requirements.

22 - 23 October 2012, Johns Hopkins University, Montgomery County Campus, Maryland USA

Biotech Innovation, Technology Transfer, Collaboration, Partnering & Licensing

TTS Ltd., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Johns Hopkins University Technology Transfer are pleased to announce that the 2012 edition of the TTS North America takes place at the world-renowned Johns Hopkins University in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Click here to download the programme

Often immitated but never equaled, since 2007, and in North America since 2010, the TTS Global Initiative has been the original and leading international meeting for biotech sector Industry-Academia licensing, partnering  & technology transfer.  Designed to help all Tech Transfer Offices build the same expertise and relationships that enables the top TTOs to do the deals and sign the licensing agreements that have brought so much benefit to their universities, insitutes, departments and researchers. The TTS North America is the pillar of this key international inititiative and community of the leading technology transfer, licensing, IP and early stage biotech innovation and venture professionals world wide.

A startling new United Nations Population Fund report projects that in 2050 there will be more people over the age of 60 than those under 15. Put another way, there will be more pensioners than children by 2050. In just 10 years from today, there will be 1 billion people in this age group.

These numbers suggest that the elderly will soon become a major burden on society. The challenge, however, is finding ways that turn the elderly into an asset by seeing them as sources of innovation.

Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey urges all entrepreneurs to show investors a working version of their product or service. Dorsey explains how this was done with Twitter, and how it made the telling of the product's story easier. He also shares the amusing (and money-making) technique he used when presenting Square to investors.