One of those partnerships at an Albany area school is the new business incubator at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). The Times Union's Eric Anderson reports that the school is pioneering a new type of incubator where businesses are spread throughout Troy, N.Y. It's called EVE:
EVE will provide entrepreneurs with a structured program of goals and objectives, access to the school's Entrepreneurs in Residence and other resources, a help desk, monthly CEO roundtable discussions, and funding and networking opportunities, all in an effort to improve their chances for success. Government officials also voiced their support. Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino said the county's industrial development agency would explore ways to provide financial help to cover startup costs and help them retrofit office space and gain access to information technology. Troy Mayor Harry Tutunjian said the city would work with the program to attract and retain businesses.
Higher ed and the recession
Scott Waldman at the Times Union has a look at how Capital Region colleges have fared through the recession. Two new reports show that higher ed reacted well to the economic crisis, finding new partnerships and efficiencies, and continuing to grow enrollment. But it's not all good news:
The reports are a significant note of optimism from independent sources for a sector that remains clouded in economic uncertainty. Schools are looking for ways to rein in staggering annual tuition increases to avoid scaring off applicants. At the same time, they are under constant pressure to expand campuses -- virtually every private campus in the Capital Region has constructed new buildings during the recession or has plans to do so in the near future. And they are giving out record levels of financial aid even as it becomes harder to obtain donor dollars. All this comes at a time of shifting demographics. As the children of baby boomers graduate, the number of applicants will drop.
Archaeology in the Southern Tier
Robert Bellon writes at Binghamton University's Pipe Dream about a graduate student who's created an online database of archaeological sites in the U.S.:
The database, available at www.whippdb.com, will feature aggregated information on about 800 archaeological sites. What makes these sites unique is that the artifacts they contained — including tools, fractured bones and other signs of human habitation — may indicate that humans lived in the Western Hemisphere much earlier than previously thought. "Advancing technology has really supported archaeological studies," said [student Paulette] Steeves, who worked with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science this past summer uncovering artifacts from several ancient sites. She said new methods of analysis can pinpoint the presence of certain animals based on proteins found in soils, and that types of wood, seeds, food and animal remains that are signs of human activity can be used to date humans to older eras than before. According to Steeves, some archaeologists have uncovered evidence for the existence of humans in the Americas as early as 200,000 years ago.
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