If you missed BIO 2012, you missed a lot.  The public and private sector came together this week on Boston to examine innovation opportunities to promote economic growth through collaborative research and development projects.  The event drew 16,505 industry leaders from 49 states and 65 countries.  Boston was host to universities, researchers, state, local and federal government economic development representatives, clinicians and private industries.  This was science at its best at a truly global event.  Discussions around where the biotech industry is going and how pharma is changing took center stage most of the week.

A positive trend was noted in a special state of bioscience development report that analyzes state and national biotech employment patterns. Despite job losses in the U.S. private sector, it showed that US biotech industry actually added jobs between 2001 and 2010.  Throughout the week multiple conversations and meetings took place discussing how the ability to collaborate was a key element to attracting biotech projects.  Many countries visited the Cisco booth to discover what they needed to do to create an infrastructure to welcome biotech development. How can governments work together with biotech companies to produce and atmosphere that welcomes and fosters innovation?

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Tags: #economic growth, biotech, economic development, healthcare, innovation, private sector, public sector, research, university

According to John Morgridge, Cisco’s former CEO, the founders hit on the name and logo while driving to Sacramento to register the company — they saw the Golden Gate Bridge framed in the sunlight  and that’s how our Cisco logo was born.  They hoped the logo would shape the future, “convey something about creating an authentic life and making a living at something you believe in, in a place you love, with people you really like to be with”. 

Back in the late 1800s, the only way to cross the bay was by ferry.  It was in 1923 when California legislature passed the act approving the project to build the bridge.  On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge finally opened, connecting San Francisco and Marin for the first time.  Back then, we built bridges to connect different parts of the bay.  Since then, we have built technologies to connect classrooms in schools K-12 and universities around the world.  Read More »

Tags: 75th Anniversary Golden Gate Bridge, collaboration, Connected Learning Exchange, K-12, school district collaboration, university, video

If you’re a parent, you might want to sit down. Some financial advisors predict a four-year college education that begins in 2015 will cost about $120,000. And that’s for public school. The private price tag runs closer to $230,000.

You can exhale now. Thankfully, the federal government has taken note of the ever-heavier burden families bear to cover college tuition. In his January 24 State of the Union address, President Obama challenged higher education institutions to find innovative ways to cut costs and acknowledged universities that have optimized their technology in an effort to lower student expenses. His praises echoed those delivered by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the November 2011 Financial Student Aid conference. Read More »

Tags: edchat, edtech, IVC, university, video conferencing, videoconferencing, VTC

We’ve seen telepresence take off in higher education programs, as we shared in a post on how the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business uses the technology to connect its students with executives across the world.

As more and more universities, including Duke in North Carolina, Madison College in Wisconsin, and Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania join the ranks of schools with fully equipped telepresence classrooms, it’s exciting to think of how these institutions are forging global scholarly dialogues and worldwide collaboration.

Witnessing the power of video to connect the academic world made me especially appreciative of a recent informative story in University Business. Writer Kristen Domonell details the importance of installing telepresence equipment in fully operational telepresence rooms in order for higher ed students to realize the benefits of the video technology. Read More »

Tags: edchat, edtech, IVC, university, video conferencing, videoconferencing

At a conference on developing sustainable, connected and scalable cities, Cisco hosted an international roundtable using Cisco TelePresence, a high definition, life-sized video meeting solution, with education thought leaders from Amsterdam, Brisbane, Hong Kong, London and Lisbon.

Some participants joined via a Dialogue Cafe.  Under the auspices of the United Nations, the Dialogue Cafe Association is building a network of publically available, video-enabled spaces that make it easier for innovators, students, public leaders and businesses to connect and collaborate across geographical, cultural and sometimes political divides.

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Tags: classroom, collaboration, communication, connection, education, global innovation in education, higher education, K-12, student, teachers, technology, university, VET, video