Inside Seattle’s invitation-only VR summit

Engadget | Philip Palermo | Oct. 19

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/19/inside-seattle-vr-summit/

Tech aficionados have been flocking to Seattle’s Living Computer Museum for the past few years to get up close and personal with relics from computer technology’s past. For one night earlier this month, though, I got a chance to peek at its possible future. Nearly two dozen exhibitors filled the museum’s first floor for SEA VR, an invite-only event meant to highlight some of the field’s biggest names and showcase the VR community. Envelop VR played host for the evening, in part, to introduce itself. The new company is looking to both develop its own VR software and help other companies come to grips with what CEO Bob Berry called the next great wave of computing. In gathering some of the VR community’s brightest stars to the Pacific Northwest, the hope, he said, is to establish the Seattle area as a VR hub.

 

Smells like STEAM Spirit in Seattle

GeekWire | Tony Wan | Oct. 20

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/smells-like-steam-spirit-seattle/

One of only two applicants to receive the maximum $40 million Race to the Top grant ($5 million alone is allocated for digital STEM — science, technology, engineering, math — tools with additional funds for early childhood and college readiness), the “Road Map Consortium” includes the Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton, Seattle and Tukwila school districts. The Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD), which manages this grant, also secured additional funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to pilot blended learning models in a number of these same school districts. In addition, 13 districts ran technology levy elections this past spring, all of which passed…Supporting these efforts is a growing collection of local entrepreneurs and startups. According to our count, 14 Seattle edtech startups have raised over $38 million since 2013. Leading the list is DreamBox Learning, whose adaptive math program is used in all 50 states and throughout Canada.

 

“Uncropping” Photos and Other UW Tech on Display

The Seattle Times | Brier Dudley | Oct. 22

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/brierdudley/2014/10/22/uncropping-photos-and-other-uw-tech-on-display/

Qi Shan’s “photo uncrop” technology was among dozens of demos that students presented during the Computer Science & Engineering Department’s annual showcase for industry partners. The audience included recruiters, investors and researchers, including representatives of big tech companies such as Microsoft, Intel and Samsung…The agenda included several recruiting session and activities highlighting research that seems ready for commercialization. It was also an opportunity for department heads to tout progress and drop hints about the need for donations to support its growth. Chairman Hank Levy noted that 17 professors were added over the past three years, including six who joined this year, bringing expertise in fields such as natural-language processing, programming languages and security…The department also is growing because a larger percentage of undergraduates are taking introductory computer-science classes. That’s happening because computer-science understanding is increasingly needed in all sorts of fields, noted Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science. This fall’s introductory course has a record 1,000 students being taught with the help of 65 teaching assistants.

 

 

1 Giant Skyscraper, 1 Enormous Development: 2 More Massive Puget Sound-area Projects

Puget Sound Business Journal | Emily Parkhurst | Oct. 22

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2014/10/1-giant-skyscraper-1-enormous-development-2-more.html

Wright Runstad & Co. is the developer behind the Spring District project and the Rainier Square tower project. The Spring District is a $2.3 billion mixed-use development on 36 acres of industrial property east of downtown Bellevue. When completed, the project will be a neighborhood of tech offices, retail, residential and hotel buildings, parks and a light-rail stop.

 

The Startup Hall Story—How it Could Transform Seattle’s U District

Xconomy | Ben Romano | Oct. 23

http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2014/10/23/the-startup-hall-story-how-it-could-transform-seattles-u-district/

The second floor of what used to be known only as Condon Hall—and the University of Washington’s ugliest building—holds seeds of a re-invented neighborhood where students, researchers, and entrepreneurs learn, work, and live; where tech startups and established companies build businesses with the technology and talent flowing from the university; and where professionals zip to jobs downtown on light rail. All around the newly renamed Startup Hall—now home of former South Lake Union denizens Techstars Seattle, UP Global, and Founders’ Co-op—cranes and construction workers are building new dorms and an expanded mass transit system worthy of a world-class city. City planners are working on recommendations for zoning changes that, if approved by the city council as soon as next spring, could encourage construction of not only much-needed new housing, but also retail and commercial spaces to accommodate companies that want to be within walking distance to the region’s foremost center of research and producer of talent.

 

274 Amgen employees to be laid off in December as company exits Puget Sound region

Puget Sound Business Journal | Annie Zak | Oct. 23

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/health-care-inc/2014/10/274-amgen-employees-to-be-laid-off-in-december-as.html?ana=e_ptl_hc&u=ls5d+7OJRUaWfkIJW6OjBA0fe38366&t=1414100876

Amgen announced this morning that 274 employees will be laid off starting Dec. 31 and continuing gradually through next year as a part of its exit from Washington state by the end of 2015. The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based biotech announced in July a company-wide restructuring plan that includes shuttering facilities in Seattle and Bothell. Overall, Amgen will slash 2,400 to 2,900 jobs. Its Puget Sound sites have a total of 660 employees. Amgen is currently the largest biotech company in the region. While the behemoth is leaving, the rest of the industry in the Puget Sound is booming. Biotech startups continue to announce huge funding rounds, an example being Juno Therapeutics raising $300 million in the last year, and transactions in the industry have surpassed $1 billion.

 

Top 20 U.S. Cities for Tech Startups

CBSNews | Associated Press | Oct. 23

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-cities-for-tech-startups/

When you think of tech startups, you probably think Northern California. Companies there receive the largest share of funding from venture capitalists, but there are several other notable pockets around the country. In the first nine months of the year, venture capitalists poured $24 billion into tech startups around the country. About half of that funding went to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Here are the top 20 metropolitan areas receiving such funding through Sept. 30, ranked by funding amount. The figures include tech startups for software, business services, networking and telecom, but exclude some categories such as biotech, energy, medical devices and retail.

 

Amazon Hired 40,000 Employees in a Year, Now Has 150,000 Worldwide

Puget Sound Business Journal | Rachel Lerman | Oct. 23

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2014/10/amazon-hired-40-000-employees-in-a-year-now-has.html

Amazon now has a worldwide workforce of nearly 150,000 people, according to its third quarter earnings results released Thursday. That’s up from about 110,000 employees in the same quarter last year…The company is also building out a massive campus and two skyscrapers in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, where many of the company’s employees work. Amazon will have an estimated 55,000 employees in the area by 2021, based on the amount of office space the company will have in the area by that time.

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The WTIA is passionate about impacting our local tech community in three ways:

• Bridging the states widening tech talent gap by building a stronger Washington workforce through policy changes.
• Promoting Washington as a desirable ecosystem for tech businesses to attract investment capital, talent, and businesses from other regions.
• Creating and sustaining an engaged tech community that serve as advocates here in Washington and as ambassadors in other communities.

Every Friday, we’ll be sharing news with you from our community and around the nation that highlights these topics.