Cracking the Code on Stem: A People Strategy for Nevada\u27s Economy

Nevada has in place a plausible economic diversification strategy—and it’s beginning to work. Now, the state and its regions need to craft a people strategy. Specifically, the state needs to boost the number of Nevadans who possess at least some postsecondary training in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or math—the so-called “STEM” disciplines (to which some leaders add arts and design to make it “STEAM”). The moment is urgent—and only heightened by the projected worker needs of Tesla Motors’ planned “gigafactory” for lithium-ion batteries in Storey County. Even before the recent Tesla commitment, a number of the more high-tech industry sectors targeted by the state’s new economic diversification strategy had begun to deliver significant growth. Most notable in fast-growing sectors like Business IT Ecosystems (as defined by the Governor’s Office for Economic Development) and large sectors like Health and Medical Services, this growth has begun to increase the demand in Nevada for workers with at least a modicum of postsecondary training in one or more STE M discipline. However, there is a problem. Even though many available opportunities require no more than the right community college certificate, insufficient numbers of Nevadans have pursued even a little STEM training. As a result, too few Nevadans are ready to participate in the state’s emerging STEM economy. The upshot: Without concerted action to prepare more Nevadans for jobs in STEM-intensive fields, skills shortages could limit growth in the state’s most promising target industries and Nevadans could miss out on employment that offers superior paths to opportunity and advancement. Which is the challenge this report addresses: Aimed at focusing the state at a critical moment, this analysis speaks to Nevada’s STEM challenge by providing a new assessment of Nevada’s STEM economy and labor market as well as a review of actions that leaders throughout the state—whether in the public, private, civic, or philanthropic sectors—can take to develop a workforce capable of supporting continued growth through economic diversification

2008 State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States

Scores and ranks states' economic structures on their competitiveness in the New Economy, as measured by the prominence of knowledge jobs, globalization, economic dynamism, transformation to a digital economy, and capacity for technological innovation

Dynamics of High-Technology Firms in the Silicon Valley

The pace of technological innovation since World War II is dramatically accelerating following the commercial exploitation of the Internet. Since the mid 90’s fiber optics capacity (infrastructure for transmission of information including voice and data) has incremented over one hundred times thanks to a new technology, dense wave division multiplexing, and Internet traffic has increased over 1.000 times. The dramatic advances in information technology provide excellent examples of the critical relevance of the knowledge in the development of competitive advantages. The Silicon Valley (SV) that about fifty years ago was an agricultural region became the center of dramatic technological and organizational transformations. In fact, most of the present high-tech companies did not exist twenty years ago. Venture capital contribution to the local economy is quite important not only due to the magnitude of the financial investment (venture investment in SV during 2000 surpassed 25.000 millions of dollars) but also because the extent and quality of networks (management teams, senior employees, customers, providers, etc.) that bring to emerging companies. How do new technologies develop? What is the role of private and public investment in the financing of R&D? Which are the most dynamical agents and how do they interact? How are new companies created and how do they evolve? The discussion of these questions is the focus of the current work.Technological development, R&D, networks

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 28: The technical communication practices of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists

As part of Phase 4 of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, two studies were conducted that investigated the technical communication practices of Russian and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists. Both studies had the same five objectives: first, to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communication to their professions; second, to determine the use and production of technical communication by aerospace engineers and scientists; third, to seek their views about the appropriate content of the undergraduate course in technical communication; fourth, to determine aerospace engineers' and scientists' use of libraries, technical information centers, and on-line databases; and fifth, to determine the use and importance of computer and information technology to them. A self administered questionnaire was distributed to Russian aerospace engineers and scientists at the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and to their U.S. counterparts at the NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Langley Research Center. The completion rates for the Russian and U.S. surveys were 64 and 61 percent, respectively. Responses of the Russian and U.S. participants to selected questions are presented in this paper

Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT

Presents an analysis of firms founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alumni -- revenues, employees, spending on marketing and research and development, and type of firm -- by state to quantify MIT's entrepreneurial impact

Beyond the Big Leave: The Future of U.S. Automotive Human Resources

Based on industry interviews and trends analyses, forecasts employment levels and hiring nationwide and in Michigan through 2016, and compiles automakers' input on technical needs, hiring criteria, and suggestions for training and education curricula