Industry News

Duke University opened its new $200-million Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy research center in late November 2000. The institute’s mission is to develop applications of genomic research through the work of a multidisciplinary consortium of scientists, engineers, physicians, lawyers and ethicists. Five centers will comprise the institute: the Center for Human Genetics; the Center for Human Disease Models; the Center for Genome Technology; the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; and the Center for Ethics, Law, and Policy.

Georgia Tech's College of Architecture Center for Rehabilitation Technology (CRT) will create the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center. In a five-year program, the CRT will provide design expertise to major technology manufacturers so that computers and telecommunication technologies may be more easily used by persons with disabilities. The Training Center is the result of a $7.5-million federal grant awarded in September 2000 to Georgia Tech by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

The University of Maryland recently launched eDorm—an electronic dormitory in Garrett Hall designed and equipped by Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Avaya (formerly the Enterprise Networks Group of Lucent Technologies) that houses 21 undergraduate students participating in the university’s Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities (CEO’s) Program. EDorm gives students in the CEOs Program easy access to communications technologies to build their own businesses, such as desktop videoconferencing, multimedia messaging, high-speed data connections, voice over the Internet, and wireless roaming.

Ultra Clean Technology (UCT) opened a new $4-million plant in late October 2000 in North Austin’s Business Center @ TechRidge complex. UCT supplies gas and liquid delivery technology to the semiconductor process equipment industry. The new 11,000-sf facility houses a 3,000-sf cleanroom and a 4,000-sf warehouse. The North Austin facility is UCT’s first expansion outside Menlo Park, Calif., where the company is based.

Southwest Texas State University has entered into a partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to create an aquatic research center—the Texas Rivers Center—at the university’s Aquarena Center. The $16-million facility will focus on public awareness of aquatic ecology and serve as the center for research on protecting and restoring the former Aquarena Springs resort property’s archaeology and history. Construction is slated to start in summer 2001.