The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has concluded that construction of a 98-mile-long, $10.3 billion Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane levee system that will protect Houma and surrounding communities from storm surges "is economically justified, environmentally acceptable and engineeringly sound." The Times-Picayune reports that the conclusions are contained in a recent proposed design report/environmental impact statement released by Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, chief of engineers for the corps. The report contains minor changes from a version released in January by New Orleans corps officials. The new report concludes that the project will produce $1.40 in benefits for every $1 spent on its construction. That's up from the $1.31 in benefits estimated in the January version of the report. The new chief's report was required after the estimated cost of the new levee system skyrocketed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, Congress authorized spending $887 million on the...
Baton Rouge often is accused of having a closed, insular business culture. So if you're looking to open things up, as John Schneider is, perhaps it makes sense to bring in a globe-trotting European to run Springboard Baton Rouge, in hopes of launching exciting companies and perhaps changing that very culture.
Rick Koubek, dean of the LSU College of Engineering, is a little embarrassed to call IBM's decision to put a regional software development center in Baton Rouge a “game changer.” The phrase has become a Capital Region cliché since the deal was announced March 27, even showing up on the cover of this magazine.
The site of a World War II–era bombing and gunnery range in Tangipahoa Parish is at the center of a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. The suit against the federal government has been filed by a group of developers who tried to build a subdivision on the property several years ago—only to learn after spending millions of dollars on the project that the property could contain unexploded ordnance and munitions. The suit is just the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle involving MGD Partners, the developers of the whimsically named Coves of the Highland subdivision, and is one of the more unusual and interesting examples of what can go wrong in a complicated land deal. "I've lived here my whole life and been involved in real estate for years," says Carson Davis, one of the project developers and plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "This is the strangest thing I've ever seen." Davis grew up in Hammond and remembers his grandfather telling him about...
Although about 97% of people are now going online to search for local products or services, roughly 64% of small businesses in Louisiana don't have a website. That's according to Sen. Mary Landrieu's office, which announced Thursday that Google is bringing a workshop aimed at getting small businesses online to Baton Rouge later this month. It's set to take place at the Shaw Center for the Arts downtown on Monday, March 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Along with providing small businesses free online tools to create websites, the workshop provides training to entrepreneurs about the process. Particpants will receive their own domain name without charge for one year. Google has hosted the workshops in all 50 states, and one held in the Lafayette area last year drew about 150 businesses. You can get complete details and register to attend here.
Children will be able to get hands-on with science in the Louisiana Art & Science Museum's Kids' Lab this weekend. The 45-minute sessions will feature chemistry workshops for children ages 6-12. This month's experiment teaches children about emulsifiers and making hand lotion. You can reserve a spot by e-mailing kidslab@lasm.org. The event is free for members and included in the price of general admission. Kids' Labs start at 10:15 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. this Saturday.
Here in Baton Rouge, there are not enough early stage investment dollars available for new ventures—from either venture funds or organized angel investor networks. Female and African-American entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs are not materially engaged or supported in the area. And perhaps most significantly, only a small number of high-potential firms are being founded.
Baton Rouge-based TraceSecurity was named a Gold Award Winner in the risk management category Wednesday at the information security industry's ninth annual Global Excellence Awards in San Francisco. The company was recognized for TraceCSO, which it describes as a cloud-based solution "for a holistic and risk-based information security program." TraceCSO also received a Bronze Award in the Tomorrow's Technology Today category. More than 50 judges from around the world participated, and their average scores determined the 2013 Global Excellence Awards finalists and winners, the company says. "It's a big deal for us," says TraceSecurity President/CEO Pete Stewart. "It's been two years of hard work. Everybody [in the company] has contributed to this project."
Louisiana is getting a new state technology chief. Chief Information Officer Ed Driesse is retiring in April. Gov. Bobby Jindal's commissioner of administration, Kristy Nichols, announced today that a former Social Services secretary will return to the state to take over the vacant job. Ruth Johnson will lead the Division of Administration's Office of Information Technology, which oversees technology and computer hardware as well as software decisions across state government. When she was Social Services secretary, Johnson helped lead the department's reorganization and technology upgrade. She left the job in June after two years, to take a job in South Carolina's health department. Johnson will be paid $150,000, less than the $167,000 Driesse earned in the job, according to the Division of Administration. She'll begin the job March 11.
Business owners just getting used to using social media may soon find themselves grappling with yet another new technology: augmented reality. Unlike virtual reality, in which an alternate world is created, augmented reality "takes the real world and adds something to it," says Rob Hudak, interactive creative director with Zehnder Communications and the guest speaker today at BRAC's monthly Investor Luncheon. The yellow line that indicates the distance needed for a first down during a football telecast is one example. Zehnder, which has offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Nashville, was one of the first outside companies to gain access to augmented reality technology created by Layar. Zehnder has since created augmented reality applications that utilize the GPS and compass capabilities of a smartphone to help the user find, for example, their favorite food vendor at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. An application Zehnder created to help promote the DVD release of the...
Leading economists are increasingly, but still cautiously, optimistic about growth in the year ahead, with hiring expected to pick up in coming months. A quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economists released this morning shows half of the economists polled now expect real gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the United States—to grow between 2% and 4% in 2013. That's up from 36% of respondents who felt the same way three months earlier. About half expect sluggish or negative performance, down from 65% in October. The latest survey, conducted between Dec. 20 and Jan. 8, asked 65 economists and others who use economics in the workplace about conditions at their firms or industries. It found that 34% of firms now expect to expand their payrolls in the next six months, the highest percentage since April. Meanwhile, 2% say they expect their companies to cut payrolls through layoffs, while 14% foresee payrolls trimmed...
IdeaCrossing, a Web-based resource meant to spur connections that help build businesses, is being launched by BRAC, in partnership with the Louisiana Technology Park and SeNSE. "IdeaCrossing is a simple, but robust, entrepreneurial resource that's completely free to use," says BRAC President/CEO Adam Knapp in a prepared statement. "It's a great complement to the Baton Rouge area's efforts to accelerate entrepreneurial development in the region." IdeaCrossing allows users to choose which member type fits them best—entrepreneur, investor, service provider or business mentor. After registering and completing a business profile, users can then begin participating in the online entrepreneurial community. The aim is to help Baton Rouge area entrepreneurs and startup businesses connect with regional resources and other long-term business opportunities. You can check it out here.
We often imagine of Ben Franklin flying his kite and catching lightning in a bottle, so to speak, with minimal effort. But for Matthew Magnuson, the chief technology officer for St. James Technologies and Harbor Telematics, turning magic into reality has been a painstaking, deliberative process.
Officials are hesitant to respond to a report that Baton Rouge is a finalist—with one other city, not in Louisiana—to land a deal that would bring an IBM facility to downtown. Sources tell Daily Report that the deal would yield more than 500 jobs and would involve a partnership with LSU. But CPEX Director Elizabeth "Boo" Thomas says if Baton Rouge were to land the deal, it would be a game changer for the metro area and would validate the public investment that has been made downtown over the past two decades. "This would be a dream come true," she says. "It would be the biggest physical symbol of the success of our downtown plan and show the benefit of public investment yielding sustained private investment." Over the past few months, IBM officials have looked at several downtown sites, including the Manship property that formerly housed The Advocate and...
Daily Report has learned that Baton Rouge is a finalist with one other city in a state outside Louisiana to land a deal that would bring an IBM facility to downtown. Though officials are tight-lipped about the potential deal, sources confirm it would yield more than 500 jobs and would involve a partnership with LSU. Over the past few months, IBM officials have looked at several downtown sites, including the Manship property that formerly housed The Advocate and the Capital One Bank Building, which sources say would be torn down to make way for a new facility and parking garage. A source with connections to LSU, says there were discussions several months ago to potentially have the state build a facility on the university's south campus, with IBM and LSU sharing space. There is no confirmed word on when IBM will make a decision, though multiple sources indicated one was expected within the next month. Officials with LED declined to comment. —Stephanie...
Forte and Tablada Inc., a Baton Rouge-based engineering firm, announced this morning it has acquired Engensus LLC and Engensus Measurements LLC, a pair of engineering and technology companies also based in Baton Rouge. Financial terms of the deal, which became effective on Jan. 1, were not disclosed. The merger brings to four the number of subsidiary companies Forte and Tablada has acquired over the past six years. In 2007 Baton Rouge Land Surveying was added to the roster, and in 2010 Shreveport-based BBC was acquired. Engensus founders Joey Coco and Samuel Amoroso will assume leadership positions at Forte and Tablada. Coco, a member of the 2011 Baton Rouge Business ReportForty Under 40 class, will become a firm principal along with existing members of the Forte and Tablada team. Amoroso, who holds a doctoral degree in civil engineering, will help expand...
Baton Rouge-based Letterman's Blue Print & Supply Co. Inc. has acquired Sign Star of Lake Charles for an undisclosed price. Letterman's, which has offices in New Orleans, Lafayette and Lake Charles in addition to two locations in Baton Rouge, says all operations and employees of the former Star Sign will be relocated to its Lake Charles office. Letterman's says it is the state's largest full-service reprographics company. With a focus on architectural, engineering, industrial and construction sectors, the firm makes outdoor graphics including building and vehicle banners, trade show exhibits, and retail and jobsite signage. Founded in Baton Rouge in 1949, the company's two local offices are located at 344 Third St., Suite 101; and 4726 Government St.
Minnesota-based Mosaic has begun engineering and design work on a possible $700 million ammonia plant at the company's existing Faustina site in St. James Parish, LED reports. The project would create 53 new direct jobs paying an average of more than $83,000 a year, plus benefits, and LED estimates an additional 366 new indirect jobs would result from the expansion. An estimated 1,400 workers would be required for construction. Mosaic expects to make its decision in mid-2013. Construction would start in 2014, with operation likely to begin in early 2016. To secure the project, the state will offer Mosaic a Modernization Tax Credit of $3 million, claimed over a five-year period, and the services of the LED FastStart workforce development program. The company is expected to utilize the state's quality jobs and industrial tax exemption incentive programs. More details on today's announcement are available in the full release
Four companies have joined the Louisiana Business & Technology Center at LSU Innovation Park, bringing the total number of companies at the technology incubator to 34. The four companies are: Data Clear Analytic Group, a data intelligence consulting firm; Impression Works LLC, a website design company; Pojman Polymer Products, which provides research and manufacturers polymer materials; and Coffey Corporation, a privately held design engineering firm. “The LBTC is starting its 25th year as a university based technology incubator and has been recognized by the National Business Incubation Association as a 'Best Practices' incubator,” says Charles D'Agostino, founder and executive director of the LBTC, noting the incubator on GSRI Avenue is also home to 32 student incubator companies. More info on the incubator, its tenants and economic impact can be found at its website
The Research Park Corporation, with help from JumpStart of Cleveland and local stakeholders, has given birth to a new project called Step One Ventures.
Research Park Corporation (RPC): An entity created by the Louisiana Legislature in 1992 “to create, develop, construct, operate, manage, and finance research and development parks.” Other missions include promoting high-tech business sectors, facilitating cooperation between the public and private sectors, helping LSU and Southern University commercialize their research, and job creation.
When the Louisiana Legislature formed the nonprofit Research Park Corporation in 1992, its primary mission, as the name suggests, was to build university research parks. Such parks create partnerships between universities and the private sector, commercializing academic research to grow new companies and drive economic development. At the time, lawmakers feared Louisiana's oil-and-chemicals-fueled economy was getting left behind, so they charged the RPC with helping us catch up.
Venyu, which operates a massive, 17,000-square-foot data center on Florida Boulevard, is in the process of adding another 10,000 square feet to its facility, CEO Scott Thompson says. The investment could be worth as much as $20 million, he says, noting that the company is also considering adding another 10,000 to 15,000 square feet to the 10,000-square-foot facility it has in Bossier City. "We have the only two commercially available data centers in Louisiana," he says. Thompson says the data center in Baton Rouge meets Tier III industry standards, which generally guarantees better than 99.9% uptime. "That means that we have redundancy at every critical path of infrastructure," he says. "We usually have two or more of what is required to provide the services that we do." Though Thompson asked that the Baton Rouge data center's users not be mentioned by name, he says several of the region's most high-profile firms store their information with Venyu. —David Jacobs
The Capital Region can expect modest economic expansion in 2013 and 2014, according to various market indicators and a recent BRAC survey of area business leaders being released at a Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week event this morning. Capital Region job growth forecasts for the next two years by economist Loren Scott, the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Economic Modeling Systems Inc. and Moody's Analytics range from 1.1% (Scott) to 2.8% (Moody's). And in an unscientific survey conducted by BRAC, 69% of respondents predicted "moderate" economic growth for the region, while 47% predicted adding employees in the coming year. About 67% of respondents say their businesses expect to pay higher wages in 2013, while 77% also expect revenue growth. Transportation/traffic issues were most commonly cited as the region's top obstacle for businesses, with education second and workforce issues third. A lack of employee "soft skills" once again is the most common workforce complaint in BRAC's...
Lisa Traina allows her employees to work from anywhere, without timesheets, as they provide IT audits for a variety of clients. “When they can work barefooted and in their shorts, they tend to be happy,” Traina says.
Baton Rouge-born software company TraceSecurity has an office in Silicon Valley. But only a couple employees work in California; about 60 people work here, and another 15 positions are in the budget for next year. In recent weeks the company has added a sales team and expanded its Corporate Boulevard offices from about 10,000 square feet to about 16,000 square feet, CEO Pete Stewart says. Lower salaries, employee loyalty and generous state incentives are among the factors that keep the company here. "A developer in the Valley is $160,000 a year, and they stay at places for six or eight months at a time until they’re recruited somewhere else," he says. TraceSecurity also has access to Venyu’s data center at the Louisiana Technology Park. While TraceSecurity initially focused on financial services firms, it now targets any company with between 100 and 5,000 employees that needs to protect its data and meet compliance regulations. At some point, Stewart hopes to take the...
Tenant companies at LSU's Louisiana Business & Technology Center raised $10.75 million in equity in 2012, with another $5 million in investments being considered. LBTC also has assisted clients in winning $31.6 million in federal Small Business Innovation Research awards over the past four years. That's according to information presented by LBTC Advisory Board Chairman Thomas Cotten at the tech center's 24th anniversary celebration Wednesday evening. Inventherm, which is developing a compressor for portable medical applications such as respirators, was named Tenant Company of the Year. Loupe Theory Studios, a commercial video production company, was named Student Incubator Company of the Year. Geoshield Window Films, which distributes its product globally from its LBTC location, was named International Company of the Year. More details about the tech center and the companies honored on Wednesday evening are available
Want to know about some of the jobs real Louisiana students end up with? In this series of profiles, real Louisiana workers tell us about what they do and how they got there.
The Louisiana Women in Technology organization, or LaWIT, will hold its November 7 meeting, from 5:45 pm to 7:30 pm at the EBRP Library at 7711 Goodwood Blvd. This month’s meeting will discuss national tech-oriented projects and events that local women in technology can join.
A marathon project is under way in New Orleans to digitize thousands of timeworn, 18th-century French and Spanish legal papers that historians say give the first historical accounts of slaves and free blacks in North America. Yellowed page by yellowed page, archivists are scanning the 220,000 manuscript pages from the French Superior Council and Spanish Judiciary between 1714 and 1803 in an effort to digitize, preserve, translate and index Louisiana's colonial past and in the process help rewrite American history. "No single historian could ever live long enough to write all the books that are to be written from all these documents," says Emily Clark, a Tulane University historian who has worked with the papers. The few historians who have pored over the unique archive say it's pivotal because it connects early America to the broader history of the Atlantic slave trade. It's at the heart of a wave of research tracing American roots beyond the English colonies and into Spain, France...
Last weekend, 11,500 ghosts, ghouls and other apparitions flew through BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo. And, with beautiful weather forecast, the staff expects to see a similar collection of heroes, villains and other hearty souls returning to familiar haunts this weekend. Over the past 18 years, Boo-at-the Zoo has become a holiday tradition by offering costumed Capital City kids the opportunity to go wild for Halloween.
In line with the retail price for Apple's iPad, Microsoft has set the price of its first-ever homegrown computing device, The Wall Street Journal reports. The software company says the least expensive of its new Surface tablets, due out this month, will be priced at $499. That model does not come with a cover that doubles as a keyboard and has featured prominently in Microsoft's marketing of the device. Microsoft will also offer a $599 model that comes with a black version of the cover-keyboard combination, and a $699 model with that accessory that has greater data storage capacity. The new tablets will be available on Oct. 26. Microsoft, known for selling software rather than hardware, announced the surprise plan to offer its own tablet in June without disclosing pricing or other details. The pricing scheme seems to position the Surface against the iPad, though Microsoft's hardware offers more memory at each price point than Apple's hit device. Microsoft's device was designed...
A federal appeals court has sided with Samsung Electronics Corp. in one aspect of its ongoing patent dispute with Apple Inc. The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned today a judge's order blocking Samsung from selling its Galaxy Nexus smartphone pending a patent lawsuit by Apple. Apple accuses Samsung of stealing its smartphone and tablet computer technology. A jury in September agreed with the company and ordered Samsung to pay $1 billion. Samsung has moved to set the judgment aside. The appeals court today says Apple had failed to show that any of the patent violations it accused Samsung of in regards to the Galaxy would immediately and irreparably hurt its own smartphone sales. It said Judge Lucy Koh had abused her discretion in granting Apple a preliminary injunction earlier this year. The decision allowed Samsung to continue selling the Galaxy Nexus.
Presented by Business Report, the 2012 LA Business Symposium kicked off with an Innovation and Technology breakfast featuring speaker Jay Adelson, Entrepreneur, Founder of Digg, Inc., and former CEO of SimpleGeo, Inc. Adelson was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most Influential People in the World.
A new report predicts worldwide sales of personal computers are bound for their first annual decline in 11 years. The forecast issued today by the research firm IHS iSuppli projects that nearly 349 million PCs will be shipped this year. That would be a 1% decrease from nearly 353 million PC shipments last year. Although small, the anticipated decline would be the first time that annual PC sales haven't grown since 2001. PC makers began the year with hope that a new wave of lightweight laptops called ultrabooks would provide a sales lift. But the ultrabooks haven't been compelling enough to overcome the growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers. Those mobile devices are reducing the need for consumers and businesses to buy new PCs or replace older ones. As the year winds down, the PC industry is now counting on an upcoming makeover of the Windows operating system to revive interest in desktop and laptop machines. Machines running on Windows 8 are scheduled to go on sale...
Baton Rougeans who recall hurricanes Gustav and Andrew felt relative relief when the threat of Isaac turned into a two-day rain storm with minimal local damage, but a coastal scientist at LSU says the most recent storm was a sign of things to come. He warns that the Red Stick needs to prepare for longer lasting Tropical Storms.
The Pennington Biomedical Research Center wants to partner with the LSU System Research and Technology Foundation and LSU's Louisiana Business and Technology Center on a new technology incubator. The Pennington Biotech Initiative would be located on the second floor of Pennington's new imaging center, and would focus on assisting Pennington and LSU researchers in commercializing intellectual property, facilitating interaction with private-sector researchers, and incubating startup companies, according to a letter by Pennington Executive Director Dr. Steven Heymsfield to LSU System officials. Heymsfield is requesting approval for a memorandum of understanding from the LSU Board of Supervisors and the state's Board of Regents. The tentative agenda for the LSU board's next meeting, on Oct. 26, is not yet available, but the proposed agreement carries an effective date of Nov. 1. You can check out the preliminary proposal
Fourteen people lined up outside the Verizon Wireless store on College Drive this morning, waiting for its 8 a.m. opening so they could get their hands on the new iPhone 5. Lynn Singletary browsed her iPhone 4—for which she expected to get a rebate of up to $200 with a trade-in—as she waited to sign a new two-year contract with Verizon for a 16-gigabyte iPhone 5 priced at $199.99. Singletary says her former Verizon contract had expired and that she was getting the new phone without much extra expense. Singletary is just one of the 10 million customers who Apple expects will buy the new smartphone this month, which could reportedly boost the American economy by $3.2 billion in the fourth quarter. As Apple cuts ties with Google and rolls out the iPhone 5 with its own maps app, which reportedly has had mostly mixed and negative reviews, Singletary says that's the one feature of the new phone that she has "mixed feelings" about. The Siegen Lane Verizon store had about the...
The Louisiana Technology Park is a finalist for a $75,000 grant from the Delta Regional Authority that would help the tech park start an incubator for companies that aim to make video games, says its director, Stephen Loy. The grant primarily would allow the tech park to bring in people to help who have been involved in the business in other cities. Loy expects to get notification in the coming days on whether the tech park is awarded the grant. "We have such a young industry here as it relates to media and games," Loy says. "There aren't a lot of people [locally] to talk to as far as mentors." Video game–specific hardware also is needed for the incubator project, he says. The Delta Regional Authority "works to improve life" for people who live in 252 counties and parishes in eight Delta states. It's led by a federal co-chairman appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the Senate, along with the governors of the eight states, the DRA website says. Louisiana's 2012 DRA...
Harken back to 19th-century rural Louisiana at this weekend's Harvest Days. The 16th annual event, which takes place Saturday and Sunday, will bring pastoral Louisiana to life at the LSU Rural Life Museum for the pleasure and edification of one and all. Historical demonstrations, old-fashioned games and a primer on plantation-style living all add up to fun for the whole family. History buffs will find an extra treat this year, as a re-enactment of the Battle of Baton Rouge will commemorate its 150th anniversary. Don't forget to stop by the gift shop to peruse the stock of handmade and folk items. For more information, call 765-2437 or check out the website.
Like many of us in Baton Rouge, John Graves, president of Evans-Graves Engineers, watched with interest as Hurricane Isaac approached Louisiana. But he had a lot more on his mind than maybe losing power, a few roof shingles or some trees.
With 3,815 tech sector businesses employing 40,930 people across the state, Louisiana ranks 32nd in the nation for tech employment and No. 40 for average annual income among tech sector workers. That's according to the TechAmerica 2011 CyberStates Report, which looks at tech sector employment across the country by state. According to the report, the average tech job pays about 54% better in Louisiana than all other jobs—$61,852 annual versus $40,123. Total tech payroll in the state totals $2.7 billion. Not surprisingly, California leads the nation when it comes to both total tech jobs and highest average pay. The telecom industry in Texas has that state ranked second in the country for total tech jobs. Check out an interactive map with detailed info on tech jobs in each state here.
Apple today unveiled the iPhone 5, saying it's thinner and lighter than the previous model, even though it has a bigger screen. The new phone hits stores in the United States and several other countries on Friday, Sept. 21. The release is expected to help Apple recapture attention and revenue after it lost the lead in smartphones to Samsung earlier this year. Apple's announcements today were largely in line with investor expectations, and their response was tepid. Apple shares were down slightly, but essentially flat, in afternoon trading. Yet Apple shares have jumped some 16% since the latest earnings report in July as expectations rose for the iPhone 5. As anticipated, the iPhone 5 screen is taller than that of the iPhone 4S, making room for another row of icons. Apple says the new screen is 18% thinner and 20% lighter because of technology that eliminates a separate touch-sensing layer in it. The new phone is made entirely of glass and aluminum. The iPhone 5 will also come with...
Today's the day when Apple is supposed to unveil its iPhone 5, and the tech world is, of course, abuzz with speculation on the smartphone's features and look. However, because Apple hasn't commented officially on what exactly is going on today at its big event in San Francisco, which kicks off at noon Central time, it's entirely possibly the new iPhone could be just a part of the announcement. Whereas previous unveilings have been live-streamed by Apple, today's event is not. But if you're determined to get the first look at the new iPhone as it's being unveiled, fear not: Plenty of websites out there will be live-blogging the event and providing up-to-the-millisecond coverage. The Huffington Post has compiled a list of the best bets for getting the best videos, pictures and live-blogging from today's event. Check it out here. And as the website...
Over $1 million has been raised for a new fund meant to provide seed capital for startup and emerging technology and digital media companies in the Capital Region, as well as pre-development funds for "game-changing" real estate projects. The initial investment goal for Capital Region Venture Partners is $5 million. Creation of the fund is being led by Springboard Baton Rouge, an entrepreneurial business accelerator based at the Kress @ Third & Main, and Vision City Development Group. John Schneider, managing partner of Springboard and Vision City, says the fund has always been a key component in the evolution of both entities. The first four companies in the accelerator program, and several potential real estate projects that are being evaluated, will be unveiled at an 11:30 a.m. luncheon at the Kress building on Friday. The luncheon will feature guest speaker James Digby, managing partner of Rockstart, an Amsterdam-based business accelerator. Trey Godfrey of Vision City says the...
When Baton Rouge-based Evans-Graves Engineers was recently competing for work on a levee project in Jefferson Parish, the firm's owner and president, John Graves, entered a meeting at which he'd pitch Evans-Graves' skills with a large paper bag under his arm. When it was his turn to speak to the board, Graves sat down and put the paper bag in front of them. "I told them, 'I've heard it been said that you're only as good as your last outing,' " Graves recalls. "And then I pulled this book out of the bag and said, 'This is our last outing.' " The book was The Fortress of New Orleans, a 245-page pictorial and technical account of the construction of the largest civil works project completed in U.S. history: the $14.5 billion levee system built around New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Evans-Graves managed about 80% of all the work that went into building the system, Graves says. The book, released on Aug. 15, is a large, coffee table–style book loaded with photos of...
Amazon.com Inc. refreshed the Kindle brand today, updating its Kindle Fire tablet computer and announcing new standalone e-reader models. The Fire will be an effort to take a larger share of the tablet computer market dominated by Apple's iPad. It could help Amazon boost sales of digital goods such as e-books and movies. The event came a day after Nokia and Google's Motorola Mobility division announced five new smartphones between them. The two from Nokia will be the company's first to run the next version of Windows. Consumer electronics makers are trying to generate interest in their products now, before Apple announces a new iPhone and possibly a mini iPad next week. Rumors are swirling around the new iPhone; and the latest today is that Apple will be the sole maker of adapters for the iPhone 5's new dock connector—and sources say the adapters will sell for about $10 each or $29 for a pack of three. Read more on those rumors
A 204-acre parcel of land in West Baton Rouge Parish has been certified under an LED program that ensures potential developers can begin building on it within 180 days. BRAC and the West Baton Chamber of Commerce made the announcement this morning. The site—located north of Interstate 10 on Court Street, midway between La. 415 and La. 1—is the first in the parish to attain certification through the LED program. The certified sites program was created in early 2010 to identify and prepare information on property so that companies can quickly and easily evaluate the merits of a site. A certified site either has all utilities and infrastructure in place, or has approved engineering plans to provide the utility infrastructure within 180 days. In the past, LED says, Louisiana frequently lost new deals to other states because companies require their relocation or expansion to be operational in 14 months or less. BRAC began working to certify sites in the Capital Region at the...
Almost seven years ago to the day, a system of hurricane levees and floodwalls built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers infamously failed to protect New Orleans—crumbling in the face of a storm weaker than it was designed to repel, causing the deaths of more than 1,300 citizens, and inflicting crippling infrastructure wounds from which the city is still struggling to heal, The Times-Picayune reports. Yet as Isaac, predicted to make landfall as a Category 2 hurricane, approached a new corps system designed to withstand a Category 3 storm, local officials expressed nothing but confidence. "It's like comparing apples and oranges," says Garret Graves, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. "Unfortunately, there were some very painful lessons learned in [Hurricane] Katrina." Post-Katrina investigators say those lessons spanned the entire culture of storm protection—including engineering and construction, the politics of funding, and the...
A Baton Rouge native, Charlie D’Agostino grew up with the Louisiana Business and Technology Center. He was named the LBTC’s director in 1988, its first year. D’Agostino has helped it grow to one of the best in the country, winning the National Business Incubation Association’s 2005 award for incubator of the year and a 2009 innovation award. In 2011, he received the second NBIA president’s lifetime achievement award. He has become a staple of not only the LBTC, but of LSU. A self-described “baseball nut,” he likes to travel, play golf and spend time with his family.
Developers have expressed interest in bringing a grocery story to downtown Baton Rouge, says DDD Executive Director Davis Rhorer, and that has prompted the DDD to launch an online survey to gather input from Baton Rougeans about what type of grocery store they'd like to see downtown. Judging from the roughly 700 surveys that have already been filled out between Thursday afternoon, when the inquiry was launched, and this afternoon, there's strong interest in seeing a grocery store downtown, Rhorer says. "Definitely, the people want one downtown—there's no doubt about that—and, yes, there are some developers who have expressed interested in maybe coming down here," he says. "We're going to compile the responses we get, and then give the info to some people who have expressed interest in it." Rhorer says the survey will be available online through Wednesday. You can take it
In the latest attempt to corral society's growing quantities of digital data, Harvard University researchers encoded an entire book into the genetic molecules of DNA, the basic building block of life, and then accurately read back the text, The Wall Street Journal reports. Their experiment, reported online today in Science, translated the English text of a coming book on genomic engineering into actual DNA, using the chemical ingredients of genes as a code. In that form, a billion copies of the book could fit easily in a test tube and, under normal conditions, last for centuries, the researchers say. The unconventional exercise—one that is a long way from being commercially viable—highlights the potential of DNA as a stable, long-term archive for ordinary information, such as photographs, books, financial records, medical files and videos. For the rest of the story from The Wall Street Journal, click
Jacobs Engineering Group announced this morning that it has been awarded a contract from Methanex Corp., the world's largest methanol supplier to major international markets, to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for a $550 million methanol production facility in Geismar. Financial terms of the contract were not released. The plant is relocating from Santiago, Chile. In February, Jacobs was awarded a contract to engineer the plant move. Financial terms of that deal were also kept private. Though the firm is headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., it is working on the plant move and construction from its offices in Baton Rouge and Santiago. The plant is expected to be operational in the second half of 2014. Plans to dismantle the idled Chilean factory and ship it to Louisiana—where it will be reassembled to capitalize on the lowest U.S. natural-gas prices in almost a decade—were announced in January. Relocation is cheaper and faster than building a new...
Baton Rouge-based PreSonus Audio Electronics will begin construction on a new $8.3 million, 44,000-square-foot headquarters on Highland Road, across from Healing Place Church, in the coming weeks. The company is planning a groundbreaking ceremony at the site on Wednesday, Aug. 22, at 1 p.m. Currently headquartered at 7257 Florida Blvd., PreSonus has grown from 49 employees in 2009 to approximately 80 in Baton Rouge today, and 120 globally. On Business Report's Top 100 list of the largest private companies in the Capital Region by revenue, PreSonus jumped from 95 in 2011 to 74 on this year's list. The company reported a 54% increase in revenue in 2011 from the year previous—$43.4 million, compared to $28.1 million in 2010.
The July 30 announcement that The Shaw Group is being acquired for $3.04 billion by CB&I, a Netherlands company with U.S. operations in The Woodlands, Texas, came as a surprise to employees, state economic development officials and even analysts who closely follow the local, 30-year-old company.
Contribute to the fight against cancer by helping the American Cancer Society with its new research study, the Cancer Prevention Study-3. This study will give researchers a better understanding of the genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors that cause or prevent cancer. As a CPS-3 Community Champion, you may either assist with the study's enrollment process and promotional efforts or participate in the study itself, which takes place Sept. 8-15. All follow-up with study participants will be managed by the ACS Epidemiology Program. For more information, contact Demetria Robinson at 767-4558 or demetria.robinson@cancer.org.
A vaccine made by University Products that protects cattle from anaplasmosis, a disease that destroys red blood cells, could go into production at a Louisiana laboratory within a year, says veterinary scientist Gene Luther of the LSU AgCenter. Currently no USDA-licensed biologic facility exists in Louisiana. The vaccine is now made in an LSU AgCenter laboratory. Luther and scientists Lewis Hart and William Todd developed the "killed vaccine," which means it uses the dead organism to create immunity in cattle. University Products is less than a month away from completing the final test needed to start the licensing procedure, the company says. With the license and approved laboratory, the vaccine could be available worldwide. Just last week Missouri and Kentucky joined a list of 15 other states—Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin—and the territory of Puerto Rico that...
Ameritas Technologies plans to open an "information technology center" in Chase Tower South downtown, officials announced today. The 300 new direct jobs, with an average salary of $63,000, plus benefits, will result in an additional 306 new indirect jobs, according to an announcement from Gov. Bobby Jindal's office. Please check Daily Report PM for more information.
Increasing student demand for an engineering degree and the heightened workforce need for more engineers are illustrated in the LSU College of Engineering's latest national enrollment rankings, the university says. The newly released 2012 edition of Profiles of Engineering & Engineering Technology Colleges published by the American Society of Engineering Education places LSU's College of Engineering in the top 8% of 348 schools in the country for number of degrees awarded. ASEE annually publishes the leading data on engineering colleges in the United States, including both individual college statistics and national trends. LSU says a strong focus of the state's flagship university is to raise the rank and profile of LSU among peer institutions nationwide, and the College of Engineering exemplifies that charge. "These higher rankings are proven evidence of the impact the flagship College of Engineering program has on the state and is now respected nationally," says LSU Chancellor...
New research co-authored by a Pennington Biomedical Research Center director shows a correlation between sedentary behavior and life expectancy that you may have already picked up on. Essentially, the research shows reducing the time you spend on your duff and in front of the television may lead to a longer life. Specifically, cutting down your TV time to less than two hours a day may extend your life by 1.4 years, the findings show. Also, restricting the amount of time you spend seated each day to less than three hours can tack on as many as two years to the average adult American's life. The new findings, co-authored by Peter Katzmarzyk, associate executive director for population science at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, are published in the online journal BMJ Open. "This study elevates the importance of sedentary behavior as a risk factor for premature mortality. The risks associated with sedentary behavior appear to be on par with the risks associated with smoking...
A pair of LSU researchers have combed through historical data relating to every notable storm surge to hit the Gulf Coast since 1880, and have parlayed it into SURGEDAT, the first comprehensive storm surge database for the coast. Barry Keim, professor and graduate director of LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology and Louisiana state climatologist, and graduate student “Hurricane” Hal Needham compiled the database with info from 28 federal government sources including the National Hurricane Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as numerous academic publications and more than 3,000 pages of various news articles. “Over the last century, storm surge has caused substantially more deaths in the U.S. and beyond than hurricane winds or flooding rains,” Keim says. The historical observations may help improve storm surge modelers' forecasts of future storm surges and potential damages caused by high tropical storm waters, Needham says. You can...
A 204-acre "development ready" site in Port Allen is slated for certification under the Louisiana Economic Development's Certified Sites Program. LED officials say the site—known simply as "All Star" for its ownership affiliated with the All Star Automotive Group—is located north of Interstate 10 on Court Street, about midway between La. 415 and La. 1. The site is one of three LED certified sites in the Capital Region, including a 60-acre site at the Donaldsonville Industrial Park and a 44-acre site at the Pointe Coupee Port and Industrial Park. LED says the All Star site certification is pending a third-party review by an engineering firm. For a site to be certified, LED goes through the due diligence of conducting surveys for cultural artifacts, sensitive wetlands, endangered species, soil compaction and historical factors. Each site also is ensured to have adequate infrastructure for utilities commonly needed for industrial use. After certification, LED says potential...
LSU's Louisiana Business & Technology Center has signed two new engineering startups as tenants of its business incubator, VAK Environmental Solution and APS Design and Testing, the tech center announced today. Owned by Victoria and Willie Day, VAK Environmental Solutions provides advanced environmental remediation products and services, focusing on green and sustainable remedial solutions. The company is also an economically disadvantaged woman-owned small business. APS Design and Testing, by contrast, is in LED's Small and Emerging Business Development Program. Founded by its president Sergio Aviles, the company will occupy a chemistry lab at LBTC to provide geotechnical on-site engineering, design and testing on construction materials and environmental waste management, as well as on soil conditions and composition. LBTC will provide business counseling, mentoring and technical resources needed for success, along with links to the community. Learn more a bout the LBTC
Apple has paid $60 million to settle a dispute in China over ownership of the iPad name, a court announced this morning, removing a potential obstacle to sales of the popular tablet computer in the potentially lucrative Chinese market. Apple's dispute with Shenzhen Proview Technology highlighted the possible pitfalls for global companies in China's infant trademark system. It also posed a challenge for the communist government, which wants to attract technology investors to develop China's economy. Apple says it bought the global rights to the iPad name from Proview in 2009, but Chinese authorities say the rights in China were never transferred. A Chinese court ruled in December that Proview still owned the name in China. Proview, which is struggling financially, asked Chinese authorities to seize iPads in an apparent effort to pressure Apple to settle. "The iPad dispute resolution is ended," the Guangdong High People's Court says in a statement. "Apple Inc. has transferred $60...
There's a common misconception that we don't make very much in America anymore, and that most of the jobs where people actually build stuff have been shipped off to China. But don't tell that to the business managers, marketing pros, engineers, machinists and welders of Baton Rouge's Orion Instruments.
Levee from Morganza to the Gulf is 'economically justified,' says corps
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has concluded that construction of a 98-mile-long, $10.3 billion Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane levee system that will protect Houma and surrounding communities from storm surges "is economically justified, environmentally acceptable and engineeringly sound." The Times-Picayune reports that the conclusions are contained in a recent proposed design report/environmental impact statement released by Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, chief of engineers for the corps. The report contains minor changes from a version released in January by New Orleans corps officials. The new report concludes that the project will produce $1.40 in benefits for every $1 spent on its construction. That's up from the $1.31 in benefits estimated in the January version of the report. The new chief's report was required after the estimated cost of the new levee system skyrocketed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, Congress authorized spending $887 million on the...
Joey Coco
On the first day of the MBA program, Joey Coco's class defined “an entrepreneur” as someone who brings disparate resources together to create value.
No laughing matter
Baton Rouge often is accused of having a closed, insular business culture. So if you're looking to open things up, as John Schneider is, perhaps it makes sense to bring in a globe-trotting European to run Springboard Baton Rouge, in hopes of launching exciting companies and perhaps changing that very culture.
A big deal
Rick Koubek, dean of the LSU College of Engineering, is a little embarrassed to call IBM's decision to put a regional software development center in Baton Rouge a “game changer.” The phrase has become a Capital Region cliché since the deal was announced March 27, even showing up on the cover of this magazine.
World War II bombing range near Hammond at center of new lawsuit
The site of a World War II–era bombing and gunnery range in Tangipahoa Parish is at the center of a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. The suit against the federal government has been filed by a group of developers who tried to build a subdivision on the property several years ago—only to learn after spending millions of dollars on the project that the property could contain unexploded ordnance and munitions. The suit is just the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle involving MGD Partners, the developers of the whimsically named Coves of the Highland subdivision, and is one of the more unusual and interesting examples of what can go wrong in a complicated land deal. "I've lived here my whole life and been involved in real estate for years," says Carson Davis, one of the project developers and plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "This is the strangest thing I've ever seen." Davis grew up in Hammond and remembers his grandfather telling him about...
Google bringing small business website workshop to Baton Rouge
Although about 97% of people are now going online to search for local products or services, roughly 64% of small businesses in Louisiana don't have a website. That's according to Sen. Mary Landrieu's office, which announced Thursday that Google is bringing a workshop aimed at getting small businesses online to Baton Rouge later this month. It's set to take place at the Shaw Center for the Arts downtown on Monday, March 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Along with providing small businesses free online tools to create websites, the workshop provides training to entrepreneurs about the process. Particpants will receive their own domain name without charge for one year. Google has hosted the workshops in all 50 states, and one held in the Lafayette area last year drew about 150 businesses. You can get complete details and register to attend here.
Kids' chemistry at LASM
Children will be able to get hands-on with science in the Louisiana Art & Science Museum's Kids' Lab this weekend. The 45-minute sessions will feature chemistry workshops for children ages 6-12. This month's experiment teaches children about emulsifiers and making hand lotion. You can reserve a spot by e-mailing kidslab@lasm.org. The event is free for members and included in the price of general admission. Kids' Labs start at 10:15 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. this Saturday.
The Plan for Baton Rouge, part one
Here in Baton Rouge, there are not enough early stage investment dollars available for new ventures—from either venture funds or organized angel investor networks. Female and African-American entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs are not materially engaged or supported in the area. And perhaps most significantly, only a small number of high-potential firms are being founded.
Standing tall
(less than 100 employees)
GOTECH
Looking ahead
James M. "Jim" Bernhard Jr.
B.R. firm brings home global awards
Baton Rouge-based TraceSecurity was named a Gold Award Winner in the risk management category Wednesday at the information security industry's ninth annual Global Excellence Awards in San Francisco. The company was recognized for TraceCSO, which it describes as a cloud-based solution "for a holistic and risk-based information security program." TraceCSO also received a Bronze Award in the Tomorrow's Technology Today category. More than 50 judges from around the world participated, and their average scores determined the 2013 Global Excellence Awards finalists and winners, the company says. "It's a big deal for us," says TraceSecurity President/CEO Pete Stewart. "It's been two years of hard work. Everybody [in the company] has contributed to this project."
Jindal administration hires new technology chief
Louisiana is getting a new state technology chief. Chief Information Officer Ed Driesse is retiring in April. Gov. Bobby Jindal's commissioner of administration, Kristy Nichols, announced today that a former Social Services secretary will return to the state to take over the vacant job. Ruth Johnson will lead the Division of Administration's Office of Information Technology, which oversees technology and computer hardware as well as software decisions across state government. When she was Social Services secretary, Johnson helped lead the department's reorganization and technology upgrade. She left the job in June after two years, to take a job in South Carolina's health department. Johnson will be paid $150,000, less than the $167,000 Driesse earned in the job, according to the Division of Administration. She'll begin the job March 11.
'Augmented reality' poised for growth
Business owners just getting used to using social media may soon find themselves grappling with yet another new technology: augmented reality. Unlike virtual reality, in which an alternate world is created, augmented reality "takes the real world and adds something to it," says Rob Hudak, interactive creative director with Zehnder Communications and the guest speaker today at BRAC's monthly Investor Luncheon. The yellow line that indicates the distance needed for a first down during a football telecast is one example. Zehnder, which has offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Nashville, was one of the first outside companies to gain access to augmented reality technology created by Layar. Zehnder has since created augmented reality applications that utilize the GPS and compass capabilities of a smartphone to help the user find, for example, their favorite food vendor at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. An application Zehnder created to help promote the DVD release of the...
Jason Jacobs
POSITION Owner
COMPANY RenderQuick
REVENUE Less than $100,000
NEXT GOAL Do this for movie industry
Economists more optimistic about growth
Leading economists are increasingly, but still cautiously, optimistic about growth in the year ahead, with hiring expected to pick up in coming months. A quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economists released this morning shows half of the economists polled now expect real gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the United States—to grow between 2% and 4% in 2013. That's up from 36% of respondents who felt the same way three months earlier. About half expect sluggish or negative performance, down from 65% in October. The latest survey, conducted between Dec. 20 and Jan. 8, asked 65 economists and others who use economics in the workplace about conditions at their firms or industries. It found that 34% of firms now expect to expand their payrolls in the next six months, the highest percentage since April. Meanwhile, 2% say they expect their companies to cut payrolls through layoffs, while 14% foresee payrolls trimmed...
Online tool launched to help B.R. entrepreneurs, startups
IdeaCrossing, a Web-based resource meant to spur connections that help build businesses, is being launched by BRAC, in partnership with the Louisiana Technology Park and SeNSE. "IdeaCrossing is a simple, but robust, entrepreneurial resource that's completely free to use," says BRAC President/CEO Adam Knapp in a prepared statement. "It's a great complement to the Baton Rouge area's efforts to accelerate entrepreneurial development in the region." IdeaCrossing allows users to choose which member type fits them best—entrepreneur, investor, service provider or business mentor. After registering and completing a business profile, users can then begin participating in the online entrepreneurial community. The aim is to help Baton Rouge area entrepreneurs and startup businesses connect with regional resources and other long-term business opportunities. You can check it out here.
Big Blue to Red Stick?
Baton Rouge is a finalist to land a deal that would bring an IBM facility to downtown.
Matthew Magnuson
We often imagine of Ben Franklin flying his kite and catching lightning in a bottle, so to speak, with minimal effort. But for Matthew Magnuson, the chief technology officer for St. James Technologies and Harbor Telematics, turning magic into reality has been a painstaking, deliberative process.
Officials stay mum on IBM interest in B.R.
Officials are hesitant to respond to a report that Baton Rouge is a finalist—with one other city, not in Louisiana—to land a deal that would bring an IBM facility to downtown. Sources tell Daily Report that the deal would yield more than 500 jobs and would involve a partnership with LSU. But CPEX Director Elizabeth "Boo" Thomas says if Baton Rouge were to land the deal, it would be a game changer for the metro area and would validate the public investment that has been made downtown over the past two decades. "This would be a dream come true," she says. "It would be the biggest physical symbol of the success of our downtown plan and show the benefit of public investment yielding sustained private investment." Over the past few months, IBM officials have looked at several downtown sites, including the Manship property that formerly housed The Advocate and...
News alert: B.R. a finalist to land IBM deal
Daily Report has learned that Baton Rouge is a finalist with one other city in a state outside Louisiana to land a deal that would bring an IBM facility to downtown. Though officials are tight-lipped about the potential deal, sources confirm it would yield more than 500 jobs and would involve a partnership with LSU. Over the past few months, IBM officials have looked at several downtown sites, including the Manship property that formerly housed The Advocate and the Capital One Bank Building, which sources say would be torn down to make way for a new facility and parking garage. A source with connections to LSU, says there were discussions several months ago to potentially have the state build a facility on the university's south campus, with IBM and LSU sharing space. There is no confirmed word on when IBM will make a decision, though multiple sources indicated one was expected within the next month. Officials with LED declined to comment. —Stephanie...
B.R. engineering firm acquires two local companies in merger
Forte and Tablada Inc., a Baton Rouge-based engineering firm, announced this morning it has acquired Engensus LLC and Engensus Measurements LLC, a pair of engineering and technology companies also based in Baton Rouge. Financial terms of the deal, which became effective on Jan. 1, were not disclosed. The merger brings to four the number of subsidiary companies Forte and Tablada has acquired over the past six years. In 2007 Baton Rouge Land Surveying was added to the roster, and in 2010 Shreveport-based BBC was acquired. Engensus founders Joey Coco and Samuel Amoroso will assume leadership positions at Forte and Tablada. Coco, a member of the 2011 Baton Rouge Business Report Forty Under 40 class, will become a firm principal along with existing members of the Forte and Tablada team. Amoroso, who holds a doctoral degree in civil engineering, will help expand...
B.R. firm acquires Lake Charles company
Baton Rouge-based Letterman's Blue Print & Supply Co. Inc. has acquired Sign Star of Lake Charles for an undisclosed price. Letterman's, which has offices in New Orleans, Lafayette and Lake Charles in addition to two locations in Baton Rouge, says all operations and employees of the former Star Sign will be relocated to its Lake Charles office. Letterman's says it is the state's largest full-service reprographics company. With a focus on architectural, engineering, industrial and construction sectors, the firm makes outdoor graphics including building and vehicle banners, trade show exhibits, and retail and jobsite signage. Founded in Baton Rouge in 1949, the company's two local offices are located at 344 Third St., Suite 101; and 4726 Government St.
Multinational company eyes St. James for $700M ammonia plant
Minnesota-based Mosaic has begun engineering and design work on a possible $700 million ammonia plant at the company's existing Faustina site in St. James Parish, LED reports. The project would create 53 new direct jobs paying an average of more than $83,000 a year, plus benefits, and LED estimates an additional 366 new indirect jobs would result from the expansion. An estimated 1,400 workers would be required for construction. Mosaic expects to make its decision in mid-2013. Construction would start in 2014, with operation likely to begin in early 2016. To secure the project, the state will offer Mosaic a Modernization Tax Credit of $3 million, claimed over a five-year period, and the services of the LED FastStart workforce development program. The company is expected to utilize the state's quality jobs and industrial tax exemption incentive programs. More details on today's announcement are available in the full release
LSU tech incubator adds 4 companies
Four companies have joined the Louisiana Business & Technology Center at LSU Innovation Park, bringing the total number of companies at the technology incubator to 34. The four companies are: Data Clear Analytic Group, a data intelligence consulting firm; Impression Works LLC, a website design company; Pojman Polymer Products, which provides research and manufacturers polymer materials; and Coffey Corporation, a privately held design engineering firm. “The LBTC is starting its 25th year as a university based technology incubator and has been recognized by the National Business Incubation Association as a 'Best Practices' incubator,” says Charles D'Agostino, founder and executive director of the LBTC, noting the incubator on GSRI Avenue is also home to 32 student incubator companies. More info on the incubator, its tenants and economic impact can be found at its website
Step One Ventures
The Research Park Corporation, with help from JumpStart of Cleveland and local stakeholders, has given birth to a new project called Step One Ventures.
Definitions
Research Park Corporation (RPC): An entity created by the Louisiana Legislature in 1992 “to create, develop, construct, operate, manage, and finance research and development parks.” Other missions include promoting high-tech business sectors, facilitating cooperation between the public and private sectors, helping LSU and Southern University commercialize their research, and job creation.
Tech Park scorecard
Tech Park director Stephen Loy says 87% of all the companies that have come through his incubator remain in business.
The Silicon Swamp
When the Louisiana Legislature formed the nonprofit Research Park Corporation in 1992, its primary mission, as the name suggests, was to build university research parks. Such parks create partnerships between universities and the private sector, commercializing academic research to grow new companies and drive economic development. At the time, lawmakers feared Louisiana's oil-and-chemicals-fueled economy was getting left behind, so they charged the RPC with helping us catch up.
Venyu expanding data center
Venyu, which operates a massive, 17,000-square-foot data center on Florida Boulevard, is in the process of adding another 10,000 square feet to its facility, CEO Scott Thompson says. The investment could be worth as much as $20 million, he says, noting that the company is also considering adding another 10,000 to 15,000 square feet to the 10,000-square-foot facility it has in Bossier City. "We have the only two commercially available data centers in Louisiana," he says. Thompson says the data center in Baton Rouge meets Tier III industry standards, which generally guarantees better than 99.9% uptime. "That means that we have redundancy at every critical path of infrastructure," he says. "We usually have two or more of what is required to provide the services that we do." Though Thompson asked that the Baton Rouge data center's users not be mentioned by name, he says several of the region's most high-profile firms store their information with Venyu. —David Jacobs
BRAC economic forecast predicts modest, steady growth
The Capital Region can expect modest economic expansion in 2013 and 2014, according to various market indicators and a recent BRAC survey of area business leaders being released at a Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week event this morning. Capital Region job growth forecasts for the next two years by economist Loren Scott, the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Economic Modeling Systems Inc. and Moody's Analytics range from 1.1% (Scott) to 2.8% (Moody's). And in an unscientific survey conducted by BRAC, 69% of respondents predicted "moderate" economic growth for the region, while 47% predicted adding employees in the coming year. About 67% of respondents say their businesses expect to pay higher wages in 2013, while 77% also expect revenue growth. Transportation/traffic issues were most commonly cited as the region's top obstacle for businesses, with education second and workforce issues third. A lack of employee "soft skills" once again is the most common workforce complaint in BRAC's...
Lisa Traina
Lisa Traina allows her employees to work from anywhere, without timesheets, as they provide IT audits for a variety of clients. “When they can work barefooted and in their shorts, they tend to be happy,” Traina says.
TraceSecurity continues growth in Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge-born software company TraceSecurity has an office in Silicon Valley. But only a couple employees work in California; about 60 people work here, and another 15 positions are in the budget for next year. In recent weeks the company has added a sales team and expanded its Corporate Boulevard offices from about 10,000 square feet to about 16,000 square feet, CEO Pete Stewart says. Lower salaries, employee loyalty and generous state incentives are among the factors that keep the company here. "A developer in the Valley is $160,000 a year, and they stay at places for six or eight months at a time until they’re recruited somewhere else," he says. TraceSecurity also has access to Venyu’s data center at the Louisiana Technology Park. While TraceSecurity initially focused on financial services firms, it now targets any company with between 100 and 5,000 employees that needs to protect its data and meet compliance regulations. At some point, Stewart hopes to take the...
LBTC firms raise $10.75 million in 2012
Tenant companies at LSU's Louisiana Business & Technology Center raised $10.75 million in equity in 2012, with another $5 million in investments being considered. LBTC also has assisted clients in winning $31.6 million in federal Small Business Innovation Research awards over the past four years. That's according to information presented by LBTC Advisory Board Chairman Thomas Cotten at the tech center's 24th anniversary celebration Wednesday evening. Inventherm, which is developing a compressor for portable medical applications such as respirators, was named Tenant Company of the Year. Loupe Theory Studios, a commercial video production company, was named Student Incubator Company of the Year. Geoshield Window Films, which distributes its product globally from its LBTC location, was named International Company of the Year. More details about the tech center and the companies honored on Wednesday evening are available
Real people, real jobs
Want to know about some of the jobs real Louisiana students end up with? In this series of profiles, real Louisiana workers tell us about what they do and how they got there.
Louisiana Women in Technology
The Louisiana Women in Technology organization, or LaWIT, will hold its November 7 meeting, from 5:45 pm to 7:30 pm at the EBRP Library at 7711 Goodwood Blvd. This month’s meeting will discuss national tech-oriented projects and events that local women in technology can join.
Colonial Louisiana records shed new light on U.S. history
A marathon project is under way in New Orleans to digitize thousands of timeworn, 18th-century French and Spanish legal papers that historians say give the first historical accounts of slaves and free blacks in North America. Yellowed page by yellowed page, archivists are scanning the 220,000 manuscript pages from the French Superior Council and Spanish Judiciary between 1714 and 1803 in an effort to digitize, preserve, translate and index Louisiana's colonial past and in the process help rewrite American history. "No single historian could ever live long enough to write all the books that are to be written from all these documents," says Emily Clark, a Tulane University historian who has worked with the papers. The few historians who have pored over the unique archive say it's pivotal because it connects early America to the broader history of the Atlantic slave trade. It's at the heart of a wave of research tracing American roots beyond the English colonies and into Spain, France...
Kids go batty at Boo-at-the-Zoo
Last weekend, 11,500 ghosts, ghouls and other apparitions flew through BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo. And, with beautiful weather forecast, the staff expects to see a similar collection of heroes, villains and other hearty souls returning to familiar haunts this weekend. Over the past 18 years, Boo-at-the Zoo has become a holiday tradition by offering costumed Capital City kids the opportunity to go wild for Halloween.
Microsoft sets prices for Surface tablets
In line with the retail price for Apple's iPad, Microsoft has set the price of its first-ever homegrown computing device, The Wall Street Journal reports. The software company says the least expensive of its new Surface tablets, due out this month, will be priced at $499. That model does not come with a cover that doubles as a keyboard and has featured prominently in Microsoft's marketing of the device. Microsoft will also offer a $599 model that comes with a black version of the cover-keyboard combination, and a $699 model with that accessory that has greater data storage capacity. The new tablets will be available on Oct. 26. Microsoft, known for selling software rather than hardware, announced the surprise plan to offer its own tablet in June without disclosing pricing or other details. The pricing scheme seems to position the Surface against the iPad, though Microsoft's hardware offers more memory at each price point than Apple's hit device. Microsoft's device was designed...
Appeals court sides with Samsung over Apple
A federal appeals court has sided with Samsung Electronics Corp. in one aspect of its ongoing patent dispute with Apple Inc. The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned today a judge's order blocking Samsung from selling its Galaxy Nexus smartphone pending a patent lawsuit by Apple. Apple accuses Samsung of stealing its smartphone and tablet computer technology. A jury in September agreed with the company and ordered Samsung to pay $1 billion. Samsung has moved to set the judgment aside. The appeals court today says Apple had failed to show that any of the patent violations it accused Samsung of in regards to the Galaxy would immediately and irreparably hurt its own smartphone sales. It said Judge Lucy Koh had abused her discretion in granting Apple a preliminary injunction earlier this year. The decision allowed Samsung to continue selling the Galaxy Nexus.
2012 Innovation and Technology Breakfast speaker Jay Adelson
Presented by Business Report, the 2012 LA Business Symposium kicked off with an Innovation and Technology breakfast featuring speaker Jay Adelson, Entrepreneur, Founder of Digg, Inc., and former CEO of SimpleGeo, Inc. Adelson was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most Influential People in the World.
Report: PCs bound for first sales decline since 2001
A new report predicts worldwide sales of personal computers are bound for their first annual decline in 11 years. The forecast issued today by the research firm IHS iSuppli projects that nearly 349 million PCs will be shipped this year. That would be a 1% decrease from nearly 353 million PC shipments last year. Although small, the anticipated decline would be the first time that annual PC sales haven't grown since 2001. PC makers began the year with hope that a new wave of lightweight laptops called ultrabooks would provide a sales lift. But the ultrabooks haven't been compelling enough to overcome the growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers. Those mobile devices are reducing the need for consumers and businesses to buy new PCs or replace older ones. As the year winds down, the PC industry is now counting on an upcoming makeover of the Windows operating system to revive interest in desktop and laptop machines. Machines running on Windows 8 are scheduled to go on sale...
Who'll stop the rain?
Baton Rougeans who recall hurricanes Gustav and Andrew felt relative relief when the threat of Isaac turned into a two-day rain storm with minimal local damage, but a coastal scientist at LSU says the most recent storm was a sign of things to come. He warns that the Red Stick needs to prepare for longer lasting Tropical Storms.
Pennington, LBTC seek to partner on incubator
The Pennington Biomedical Research Center wants to partner with the LSU System Research and Technology Foundation and LSU's Louisiana Business and Technology Center on a new technology incubator. The Pennington Biotech Initiative would be located on the second floor of Pennington's new imaging center, and would focus on assisting Pennington and LSU researchers in commercializing intellectual property, facilitating interaction with private-sector researchers, and incubating startup companies, according to a letter by Pennington Executive Director Dr. Steven Heymsfield to LSU System officials. Heymsfield is requesting approval for a memorandum of understanding from the LSU Board of Supervisors and the state's Board of Regents. The tentative agenda for the LSU board's next meeting, on Oct. 26, is not yet available, but the proposed agreement carries an effective date of Nov. 1. You can check out the preliminary proposal
Baton Rougeans line up for new iPhone 5 release
Fourteen people lined up outside the Verizon Wireless store on College Drive this morning, waiting for its 8 a.m. opening so they could get their hands on the new iPhone 5. Lynn Singletary browsed her iPhone 4—for which she expected to get a rebate of up to $200 with a trade-in—as she waited to sign a new two-year contract with Verizon for a 16-gigabyte iPhone 5 priced at $199.99. Singletary says her former Verizon contract had expired and that she was getting the new phone without much extra expense. Singletary is just one of the 10 million customers who Apple expects will buy the new smartphone this month, which could reportedly boost the American economy by $3.2 billion in the fourth quarter. As Apple cuts ties with Google and rolls out the iPhone 5 with its own maps app, which reportedly has had mostly mixed and negative reviews, Singletary says that's the one feature of the new phone that she has "mixed feelings" about. The Siegen Lane Verizon store had about the...
Tech Park in the running for grant to create video game incubator
The Louisiana Technology Park is a finalist for a $75,000 grant from the Delta Regional Authority that would help the tech park start an incubator for companies that aim to make video games, says its director, Stephen Loy. The grant primarily would allow the tech park to bring in people to help who have been involved in the business in other cities. Loy expects to get notification in the coming days on whether the tech park is awarded the grant. "We have such a young industry here as it relates to media and games," Loy says. "There aren't a lot of people [locally] to talk to as far as mentors." Video game–specific hardware also is needed for the incubator project, he says. The Delta Regional Authority "works to improve life" for people who live in 252 counties and parishes in eight Delta states. It's led by a federal co-chairman appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the Senate, along with the governors of the eight states, the DRA website says. Louisiana's 2012 DRA...
Rustic fun at Rural Life
Harken back to 19th-century rural Louisiana at this weekend's Harvest Days. The 16th annual event, which takes place Saturday and Sunday, will bring pastoral Louisiana to life at the LSU Rural Life Museum for the pleasure and edification of one and all. Historical demonstrations, old-fashioned games and a primer on plantation-style living all add up to fun for the whole family. History buffs will find an extra treat this year, as a re-enactment of the Battle of Baton Rouge will commemorate its 150th anniversary. Don't forget to stop by the gift shop to peruse the stock of handmade and folk items. For more information, call 765-2437 or check out the website.
Joe Breaux
“They needed someone to help it go from concept to product,” Breaux says. “Intuitively, the idea just made sense.”
Civil works
Like many of us in Baton Rouge, John Graves, president of Evans-Graves Engineers, watched with interest as Hurricane Isaac approached Louisiana. But he had a lot more on his mind than maybe losing power, a few roof shingles or some trees.
Louisiana ranked No. 32 for tech employment in U.S.
With 3,815 tech sector businesses employing 40,930 people across the state, Louisiana ranks 32nd in the nation for tech employment and No. 40 for average annual income among tech sector workers. That's according to the TechAmerica 2011 CyberStates Report, which looks at tech sector employment across the country by state. According to the report, the average tech job pays about 54% better in Louisiana than all other jobs—$61,852 annual versus $40,123. Total tech payroll in the state totals $2.7 billion. Not surprisingly, California leads the nation when it comes to both total tech jobs and highest average pay. The telecom industry in Texas has that state ranked second in the country for total tech jobs. Check out an interactive map with detailed info on tech jobs in each state here.
Apple to release thinner, lighter iPhone 5 Sept. 21
Apple today unveiled the iPhone 5, saying it's thinner and lighter than the previous model, even though it has a bigger screen. The new phone hits stores in the United States and several other countries on Friday, Sept. 21. The release is expected to help Apple recapture attention and revenue after it lost the lead in smartphones to Samsung earlier this year. Apple's announcements today were largely in line with investor expectations, and their response was tepid. Apple shares were down slightly, but essentially flat, in afternoon trading. Yet Apple shares have jumped some 16% since the latest earnings report in July as expectations rose for the iPhone 5. As anticipated, the iPhone 5 screen is taller than that of the iPhone 4S, making room for another row of icons. Apple says the new screen is 18% thinner and 20% lighter because of technology that eliminates a separate touch-sensing layer in it. The new phone is made entirely of glass and aluminum. The iPhone 5 will also come with...
First look: A spectator's guide to Apple's iPhone 5 unveiling today
Today's the day when Apple is supposed to unveil its iPhone 5, and the tech world is, of course, abuzz with speculation on the smartphone's features and look. However, because Apple hasn't commented officially on what exactly is going on today at its big event in San Francisco, which kicks off at noon Central time, it's entirely possibly the new iPhone could be just a part of the announcement. Whereas previous unveilings have been live-streamed by Apple, today's event is not. But if you're determined to get the first look at the new iPhone as it's being unveiled, fear not: Plenty of websites out there will be live-blogging the event and providing up-to-the-millisecond coverage. The Huffington Post has compiled a list of the best bets for getting the best videos, pictures and live-blogging from today's event. Check it out here. And as the website...
Tech and real estate venture capital fund getting off the ground
Over $1 million has been raised for a new fund meant to provide seed capital for startup and emerging technology and digital media companies in the Capital Region, as well as pre-development funds for "game-changing" real estate projects. The initial investment goal for Capital Region Venture Partners is $5 million. Creation of the fund is being led by Springboard Baton Rouge, an entrepreneurial business accelerator based at the Kress @ Third & Main, and Vision City Development Group. John Schneider, managing partner of Springboard and Vision City, says the fund has always been a key component in the evolution of both entities. The first four companies in the accelerator program, and several potential real estate projects that are being evaluated, will be unveiled at an 11:30 a.m. luncheon at the Kress building on Friday. The luncheon will feature guest speaker James Digby, managing partner of Rockstart, an Amsterdam-based business accelerator. Trey Godfrey of Vision City says the...
B.R. firm details construction of New Orleans' massive levee system in new book
When Baton Rouge-based Evans-Graves Engineers was recently competing for work on a levee project in Jefferson Parish, the firm's owner and president, John Graves, entered a meeting at which he'd pitch Evans-Graves' skills with a large paper bag under his arm. When it was his turn to speak to the board, Graves sat down and put the paper bag in front of them. "I told them, 'I've heard it been said that you're only as good as your last outing,' " Graves recalls. "And then I pulled this book out of the bag and said, 'This is our last outing.' " The book was The Fortress of New Orleans, a 245-page pictorial and technical account of the construction of the largest civil works project completed in U.S. history: the $14.5 billion levee system built around New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Evans-Graves managed about 80% of all the work that went into building the system, Graves says. The book, released on Aug. 15, is a large, coffee table–style book loaded with photos of...
Amazon gives Kindle line a reboot in attempt to take bite out of Apple
Amazon.com Inc. refreshed the Kindle brand today, updating its Kindle Fire tablet computer and announcing new standalone e-reader models. The Fire will be an effort to take a larger share of the tablet computer market dominated by Apple's iPad. It could help Amazon boost sales of digital goods such as e-books and movies. The event came a day after Nokia and Google's Motorola Mobility division announced five new smartphones between them. The two from Nokia will be the company's first to run the next version of Windows. Consumer electronics makers are trying to generate interest in their products now, before Apple announces a new iPhone and possibly a mini iPad next week. Rumors are swirling around the new iPhone; and the latest today is that Apple will be the sole maker of adapters for the iPhone 5's new dock connector—and sources say the adapters will sell for about $10 each or $29 for a pack of three. Read more on those rumors
West Baton Rouge gets its first development-ready site LED certified
A 204-acre parcel of land in West Baton Rouge Parish has been certified under an LED program that ensures potential developers can begin building on it within 180 days. BRAC and the West Baton Chamber of Commerce made the announcement this morning. The site—located north of Interstate 10 on Court Street, midway between La. 415 and La. 1—is the first in the parish to attain certification through the LED program. The certified sites program was created in early 2010 to identify and prepare information on property so that companies can quickly and easily evaluate the merits of a site. A certified site either has all utilities and infrastructure in place, or has approved engineering plans to provide the utility infrastructure within 180 days. In the past, LED says, Louisiana frequently lost new deals to other states because companies require their relocation or expansion to be operational in 14 months or less. BRAC began working to certify sites in the Capital Region at the...
What a stunner
When Seth Froom answered a knock at his door, he assumed it was just another friend showing up to join a small gathering at his apartment.
Army Corps of Engineers unfazed by approach of Isaac
Almost seven years ago to the day, a system of hurricane levees and floodwalls built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers infamously failed to protect New Orleans—crumbling in the face of a storm weaker than it was designed to repel, causing the deaths of more than 1,300 citizens, and inflicting crippling infrastructure wounds from which the city is still struggling to heal, The Times-Picayune reports. Yet as Isaac, predicted to make landfall as a Category 2 hurricane, approached a new corps system designed to withstand a Category 3 storm, local officials expressed nothing but confidence. "It's like comparing apples and oranges," says Garret Graves, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. "Unfortunately, there were some very painful lessons learned in [Hurricane] Katrina." Post-Katrina investigators say those lessons spanned the entire culture of storm protection—including engineering and construction, the politics of funding, and the...
Charles "Charlie" D'Agostino
A Baton Rouge native, Charlie D’Agostino grew up with the Louisiana Business and Technology Center. He was named the LBTC’s director in 1988, its first year. D’Agostino has helped it grow to one of the best in the country, winning the National Business Incubation Association’s 2005 award for incubator of the year and a 2009 innovation award. In 2011, he received the second NBIA president’s lifetime achievement award. He has become a staple of not only the LBTC, but of LSU. A self-described “baseball nut,” he likes to travel, play golf and spend time with his family.
Developers' interest spurs DDD to launch grocery survey
Developers have expressed interest in bringing a grocery story to downtown Baton Rouge, says DDD Executive Director Davis Rhorer, and that has prompted the DDD to launch an online survey to gather input from Baton Rougeans about what type of grocery store they'd like to see downtown. Judging from the roughly 700 surveys that have already been filled out between Thursday afternoon, when the inquiry was launched, and this afternoon, there's strong interest in seeing a grocery store downtown, Rhorer says. "Definitely, the people want one downtown—there's no doubt about that—and, yes, there are some developers who have expressed interested in maybe coming down here," he says. "We're going to compile the responses we get, and then give the info to some people who have expressed interest in it." Rhorer says the survey will be available online through Wednesday. You can take it
Harvard researchers turn book into DNA code
In the latest attempt to corral society's growing quantities of digital data, Harvard University researchers encoded an entire book into the genetic molecules of DNA, the basic building block of life, and then accurately read back the text, The Wall Street Journal reports. Their experiment, reported online today in Science, translated the English text of a coming book on genomic engineering into actual DNA, using the chemical ingredients of genes as a code. In that form, a billion copies of the book could fit easily in a test tube and, under normal conditions, last for centuries, the researchers say. The unconventional exercise—one that is a long way from being commercially viable—highlights the potential of DNA as a stable, long-term archive for ordinary information, such as photographs, books, financial records, medical files and videos. For the rest of the story from The Wall Street Journal, click
Jacobs lands contract to engineer and build Methanex facility in La.
Jacobs Engineering Group announced this morning that it has been awarded a contract from Methanex Corp., the world's largest methanol supplier to major international markets, to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for a $550 million methanol production facility in Geismar. Financial terms of the contract were not released. The plant is relocating from Santiago, Chile. In February, Jacobs was awarded a contract to engineer the plant move. Financial terms of that deal were also kept private. Though the firm is headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., it is working on the plant move and construction from its offices in Baton Rouge and Santiago. The plant is expected to be operational in the second half of 2014. Plans to dismantle the idled Chilean factory and ship it to Louisiana—where it will be reassembled to capitalize on the lowest U.S. natural-gas prices in almost a decade—were announced in January. Relocation is cheaper and faster than building a new...
PreSonus plans new $8.3M headquarters on Highland
Baton Rouge-based PreSonus Audio Electronics will begin construction on a new $8.3 million, 44,000-square-foot headquarters on Highland Road, across from Healing Place Church, in the coming weeks. The company is planning a groundbreaking ceremony at the site on Wednesday, Aug. 22, at 1 p.m. Currently headquartered at 7257 Florida Blvd., PreSonus has grown from 49 employees in 2009 to approximately 80 in Baton Rouge today, and 120 globally. On Business Report's Top 100 list of the largest private companies in the Capital Region by revenue, PreSonus jumped from 95 in 2011 to 74 on this year's list. The company reported a 54% increase in revenue in 2011 from the year previous—$43.4 million, compared to $28.1 million in 2010.
Shaw sale aftershocks debated
The July 30 announcement that The Shaw Group is being acquired for $3.04 billion by CB&I, a Netherlands company with U.S. operations in The Woodlands, Texas, came as a surprise to employees, state economic development officials and even analysts who closely follow the local, 30-year-old company.
Contract extension for NASA facility in N.O. includes LSU
A five-year extension of an agreement to support and develop the National
Making it count
Contribute to the fight against cancer by helping the American Cancer Society with its new research study, the Cancer Prevention Study-3. This study will give researchers a better understanding of the genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors that cause or prevent cancer. As a CPS-3 Community Champion, you may either assist with the study's enrollment process and promotional efforts or participate in the study itself, which takes place Sept. 8-15. All follow-up with study participants will be managed by the ACS Epidemiology Program. For more information, contact Demetria Robinson at 767-4558 or demetria.robinson@cancer.org.
LSU AgCenter cattle vaccine could go into production in 2013
A vaccine made by University Products that protects cattle from anaplasmosis, a disease that destroys red blood cells, could go into production at a Louisiana laboratory within a year, says veterinary scientist Gene Luther of the LSU AgCenter. Currently no USDA-licensed biologic facility exists in Louisiana. The vaccine is now made in an LSU AgCenter laboratory. Luther and scientists Lewis Hart and William Todd developed the "killed vaccine," which means it uses the dead organism to create immunity in cattle. University Products is less than a month away from completing the final test needed to start the licensing procedure, the company says. With the license and approved laboratory, the vaccine could be available worldwide. Just last week Missouri and Kentucky joined a list of 15 other states—Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin—and the territory of Puerto Rico that...
News Alert: IT firm plans 300 new jobs for downtown
Ameritas Technologies plans to open an "information technology center" in Chase Tower South downtown, officials announced today. The 300 new direct jobs, with an average salary of $63,000, plus benefits, will result in an additional 306 new indirect jobs, according to an announcement from Gov. Bobby Jindal's office. Please check Daily Report PM for more information.
LSU College of Engineering ranks in top 8% nationally for graduates
Increasing student demand for an engineering degree and the heightened workforce need for more engineers are illustrated in the LSU College of Engineering's latest national enrollment rankings, the university says. The newly released 2012 edition of Profiles of Engineering & Engineering Technology Colleges published by the American Society of Engineering Education places LSU's College of Engineering in the top 8% of 348 schools in the country for number of degrees awarded. ASEE annually publishes the leading data on engineering colleges in the United States, including both individual college statistics and national trends. LSU says a strong focus of the state's flagship university is to raise the rank and profile of LSU among peer institutions nationwide, and the College of Engineering exemplifies that charge. "These higher rankings are proven evidence of the impact the flagship College of Engineering program has on the state and is now respected nationally," says LSU Chancellor...
Research: Limiting hours spent sitting, watching TV can lengthen life
New research co-authored by a Pennington Biomedical Research Center director shows a correlation between sedentary behavior and life expectancy that you may have already picked up on. Essentially, the research shows reducing the time you spend on your duff and in front of the television may lead to a longer life. Specifically, cutting down your TV time to less than two hours a day may extend your life by 1.4 years, the findings show. Also, restricting the amount of time you spend seated each day to less than three hours can tack on as many as two years to the average adult American's life. The new findings, co-authored by Peter Katzmarzyk, associate executive director for population science at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, are published in the online journal BMJ Open. "This study elevates the importance of sedentary behavior as a risk factor for premature mortality. The risks associated with sedentary behavior appear to be on par with the risks associated with smoking...
LSU researchers create Gulf Coast's first storm surge database
A pair of LSU researchers have combed through historical data relating to every notable storm surge to hit the Gulf Coast since 1880, and have parlayed it into SURGEDAT, the first comprehensive storm surge database for the coast. Barry Keim, professor and graduate director of LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology and Louisiana state climatologist, and graduate student “Hurricane” Hal Needham compiled the database with info from 28 federal government sources including the National Hurricane Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as numerous academic publications and more than 3,000 pages of various news articles. “Over the last century, storm surge has caused substantially more deaths in the U.S. and beyond than hurricane winds or flooding rains,” Keim says. The historical observations may help improve storm surge modelers' forecasts of future storm surges and potential damages caused by high tropical storm waters, Needham says. You can...
State readies industrial site for development in Port Allen
A 204-acre "development ready" site in Port Allen is slated for certification under the Louisiana Economic Development's Certified Sites Program. LED officials say the site—known simply as "All Star" for its ownership affiliated with the All Star Automotive Group—is located north of Interstate 10 on Court Street, about midway between La. 415 and La. 1. The site is one of three LED certified sites in the Capital Region, including a 60-acre site at the Donaldsonville Industrial Park and a 44-acre site at the Pointe Coupee Port and Industrial Park. LED says the All Star site certification is pending a third-party review by an engineering firm. For a site to be certified, LED goes through the due diligence of conducting surveys for cultural artifacts, sensitive wetlands, endangered species, soil compaction and historical factors. Each site also is ensured to have adequate infrastructure for utilities commonly needed for industrial use. After certification, LED says potential...
LSU incubator adds two tenants
LSU's Louisiana Business & Technology Center has signed two new engineering startups as tenants of its business incubator, VAK Environmental Solution and APS Design and Testing, the tech center announced today. Owned by Victoria and Willie Day, VAK Environmental Solutions provides advanced environmental remediation products and services, focusing on green and sustainable remedial solutions. The company is also an economically disadvantaged woman-owned small business. APS Design and Testing, by contrast, is in LED's Small and Emerging Business Development Program. Founded by its president Sergio Aviles, the company will occupy a chemistry lab at LBTC to provide geotechnical on-site engineering, design and testing on construction materials and environmental waste management, as well as on soil conditions and composition. LBTC will provide business counseling, mentoring and technical resources needed for success, along with links to the community. Learn more a bout the LBTC
China court: Apple pays $60M to settle iPad case
Apple has paid $60 million to settle a dispute in China over ownership of the iPad name, a court announced this morning, removing a potential obstacle to sales of the popular tablet computer in the potentially lucrative Chinese market. Apple's dispute with Shenzhen Proview Technology highlighted the possible pitfalls for global companies in China's infant trademark system. It also posed a challenge for the communist government, which wants to attract technology investors to develop China's economy. Apple says it bought the global rights to the iPad name from Proview in 2009, but Chinese authorities say the rights in China were never transferred. A Chinese court ruled in December that Proview still owned the name in China. Proview, which is struggling financially, asked Chinese authorities to seize iPads in an apparent effort to pressure Apple to settle. "The iPad dispute resolution is ended," the Guangdong High People's Court says in a statement. "Apple Inc. has transferred $60...
The return of manufacturing
There's a common misconception that we don't make very much in America anymore, and that most of the jobs where people actually build stuff have been shipped off to China. But don't tell that to the business managers, marketing pros, engineers, machinists and welders of Baton Rouge's Orion Instruments.