STEM education must be maximized, and we must make sure that women, blacks, and Latinos are among those that receive this essential training

Ann Borowiec This month, we are celebrating New Jersey’s commitment to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in honor of NJ STEM Month. Throughout the state, students, schools, parents, businesses, employees, and program providers will be promoting STEM activities and showcasing their work.

Image: Reuters

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A slight majority of pre-retirement aged Americans, 51%, say they are worried a "great deal" about the Social Security system. This level of concern among adults aged 50 to 64 represents the greatest worry about the benefits program of all age groups. One-third of young adults, aged 18 through 29, worry a great deal about the Social Security system.

Image: http://news.gallup.com

In reviewing data regarding the hundreds of TBED-related investment funds, SSTI found that 24 of them have invested in at least one dozen startups each over the past year.  The funds are characterized as economic development, university-centric, regionally focused, or impact oriented investment funds, incubators and accelerator programs located in the U.S. or Canada. Data the various funds provide to  Pitchbook is the source of the list below, ranked in order by activity level.

What we look for in our leaders can change with every economic boom and bust. We dismiss certain characteristics as weaknesses in one period, only to value those same characteristics as strengths in the next cycle. I have seen this occur countless times during the 30 years of my career – as I’m sure you have too.

As interesting as it has been to watch these changes, it has been even more impressive to observe the evolution of leader assessment and selection advance from an informal effort to a much more scientific process.

Finland’s startup scene keeps powering on. In 2017, Finnish startups and growth companies raised a record €349 million euros in venture capital, up from last year’s €318 million.

There was a particularly high share of bigger rounds, with 8 companies landing more than €10 million in funding.

Reidar Wasenius, who heads FiBAN, a body representing Finnish business angels, says the success is owed to Finland's "world-class gaming industry", its deep-tech capabilities and initiatives such as tech event Slush or startup hub Maria01. 

Image: Bo Malmberg, COO and Chairman at Altum Technologies, celebrating the company’s win at Slush, December 2017. - Slush / Flickr / Samuli Pentti

Firebrand Ventures announced the close of its seed fund on Wednesday, with an oversubscribed total of $17.7 million, nearly 250% over their initial goal of $7M. In a time when roughly 75-80% of venture capital raised in the U.S. still goes to California, Massachusetts and New York, Firebrand’s Kansas City-based fund is proving there’s VC interest and talent in the Midwest.

Image: John Fein, Managing Director of Firebrand Ventures

Innovative, forward thinking and successful – all buzzwords that are associated with entrepreneurs, however there are many stereotypes and assumptions about this demographic of people that may not necessarily ring true. When you hear mention of entrepreneurs, what image springs to mind?

Entrepreneurs Are Not Afraid to Take Risks

Because entrepreneurs go it alone, and often invest all of their time and financial resources into an idea before they are guaranteed a return on investment, they are seen as high risk-takers, possessing no fear of the unknown and willing to take a gamble on everything in their lives.

The roughly 144,000 residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota are among the fittest, happiest, and longest-living people in the United States.

That's according to the 2018 U.S. News & World Report rankings of the healthiest communities in the country.

A number of factors were considered in the rankings, including population health, equity (think income inequality and disparity in health across different ethnic populations), education, economy, housing, food and nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality, and infrastructure. Falls Church City, Virginia, came out No. 1 overall.

It's all too easy to feel bleak about the state of the world. With unemployment at an all-time high, environmental degradation commonplace and divisiveness and inequality rife, there's an increasing desire to shun the traditional models we have relied upon to solve these issues, and find an alternative instead. One new model, from the new book A World of Three Zeros by Muhammad Yunus, puts entrepreneurialism at the heart of the solution.

The $20 million Lunar X Prize was supposed to send startups into space. The cost turned out to be far higher than the reward—but the competitors were never really in it for the trophy.

Rovers owned by private citizens should be playing lunar golf by now. Instead, the moon sits quiet as the deadline for the Google Lunar X Prize quietly passed this weekend.

Illinois’ universities have long been drivers of economic development and innovation, bolstering the state’s talent pipeline and conducting nearly $2.4 billion in academic research & development activity each year. Over the last decade, Illinois’ universities have also increased their efforts to ensure that innovations made possible by university research are able to reach the commercial marketplace. By doing so, universities drive direct economic impact through innovation and job creation.

Image: https://www.istcoalition.org

A diverse group of early-stage presenting companies competed for choice investor-panel feedback and valuable professional services at the eighth BullPen pitch event, presented by TechLaunch and held at New Jersey City University’s School of Business. Each of the four presentations was followed by robust exchanges with both the audience and the venerable investor panel, after which it was time for both groups to vote. In a close nail-biter, the award winning B2B2C collaboration platform, Carii claimed the Investor Panel award as the most “fundable” presenter of the evening. Carii’s technology allows communication and engagement through absolutely seamless branded communities in a variety of industries. Their team will go on to receive over $20K in professional in-kind services from the sponsors of BullPen, including Withum, Gibbons Law, ND4 Advisory, Gearhart Law, and Casabona Ventures.

Image: Panel Award Winner’s Circle, from Left to Right: Investor Panelists Jonathan Hakakian; Krishnamurty Kambhampati; Steve Socolof; Meg Columbia-Walsh; Award Winner Denise Hayman-Loa (Co-Founder, CEO Carii, Inc.); TechLaunch Mentor Eric Korb; and TechLaunch Founder Mario Casabona

We're searching for our next division leader for the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships.

Help the National Science Foundation find a candidate who is driven by service, innovation, science, engineering, entrepreneurship, partnerships, startups and technology. Please share the vacancy announcement!

The Division of Industrial Innovation & Partnerships (IIP), housed within the Foundation's Engineering Directorate, manages programs with national reach and prestige, including America's Seed Fund powered by NSF, I-Corps™, INTERN, IUCRC, and Partnerships for Innovation.

The most recent Census population estimates revealed something that the mainstream media would prefer to ignore—the slowing population growth of big cities, including New York. The New York Times, for example, trumpeted Gotham’s historically high population yet failed to mention that the city’s growth is not only dramatically slowing but also, in the case of Brooklyn, declining for the first time since 2006. New York’s rate of growth, impressive earlier in this decade, now ranks among the nation’s lowest, mostly because of rising domestic outmigration. In 2017, nearly three times as many domestic migrants left the city as in 2011. This may be one reason why rents, which have soared for a decade, have begun to flatten, though they remain at a level many potential newcomers may still find difficult to afford.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

If you believe it, you can achieve it.

You’ve probably heard this motivational phrase more than once. But what if your beliefs about your own intelligence compared to others come down to your gender?

A first-of-its-kind study shows that in the college biology classroom, men perceive themselves as smarter, even when compared to women whose grades prove they are just as smart. The study, published April 4 in the journal Advances in Physiology Education, shows that gender greatly impacts students’ perceptions of their own intelligence, particularly when they compare themselves to others.

Image: https://scienceblog.com

In reviewing data regarding the hundreds of TBED-related investment funds, SSTI found that 24 of them have invested in at least one dozen startups each over the past year.  The funds are characterized as economic development, university-centric, regionally focused, or impact oriented investment funds, incubators and accelerator programs located in the U.S. or Canada. Data the various funds provide to  Pitchbook is the source of the list below, ranked in order by activity level.

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) — a funding mechanism based on the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin — are a hot new way to launch a startup, and they’re forcing investors to look at the startup process anew.

Venture firms like mine understand that ICOs can reinvent how entrepreneurs bring innovations to life, but no one is quite sure how this will play out.

By now we are all familiar with the risks of burnout. Research shows that it leads to work-related issues such as job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, inefficient decision making, and turnover, as well as health-related issues such as depression, heart disease, and even death. Research also reveals some of the common causes of burnout, such as lack of autonomy, engagement, motivation, and passion.

But since much of this research has looked at employees in large organizations, we know less about what burnout looks like for other types of workers. We wanted to study a group that seems to be more susceptible to burnout: entrepreneurs.

Even before the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico last September, it was one of the poorest parts of the United States, suffering from a decade-long recession and resulting debt crisis. The island’s median income is half that of Mississippi, the poorest state, and its unemployment rate is more than twice as high.

Fear of failure stalks the world of the entrepreneur, from losing key clients to running out of money. For entrepreneurs, courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to persist in spite of it. These fears are well-founded: Studies suggest that roughly 75% of ventures fail within 10 years (see U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on firm survival rates here).

Even success can provoke anxiety. We asked Hamdi Ulukaya, the Turkish-born founder and CEO of the yogurt company Chobani, whether he was ever afraid while building his multibillion-dollar business. “Every day,” he replied, “because if I had failed, a lot of lives were going to be affected by it.”