Category: Technology

Technology Skills for Manufacturing are Lacking in Region

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With recent trends toward onshoring and reshoring, manufacturing jobs are gradually returning to the USA from overseas. Most do not, however, seem to be finding their way into Central Massachusetts. While manufacturing – and the technology propelling it forward – is projected to continue to grow, albeit slowly, during 2015, the focus here remains on locating workers qualified to help the local manufacturing sector expand.

Workforce Sharpening

A suitable workforce is still not available to help grow the manufacturing industry back into the social fiber of the region. Key manufacturers in Worcester County point to the lacking workforce as a major factor in re-establishing manufacturing in the Bay State. Some companies have actually reached the point of having to sell off capital equipment because they simply can’t find anyone to operate it.

“The trend is going to be virtual training and online training,” says Torbjorn Bergstrom, the director of the Haas Technical Education Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. These are both rather inexpensive and could provide some workers in a short amount of time. They have proven helpful in other fields and should be just as helpful in restoring industry to its rightful place in Central Massachusetts.

Economic Innovation

Before a product can launch in the public marketplace, someone needs to manufacture it. Massachusetts has become world-renowned as an incubator for technologies useful in many industries, and it continues to rely on local small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to nurture that reputation. “Almost all of the manufacturing companies here in Massachusetts are SMB companies,” Bergstrom commented.

The City of Worcester has many multi-story brick buildings sitting vacant since the day a toy, shoe, textile, or furniture manufacturer left – often several decades ago. Worcester is also the center of finance and education in the county. It would seem as though all the pieces were in place. However, unlike some other sections of the country, the management staff required for operations is already here, but the workers are not.

All this must somehow change if the manufacturing sector is to ever have a chance of resurgence here.

Worcester Groups Pitch Transportation Solutions – Seek Backers

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In an effort to provide much-needed transportation solutions in Worcester, seven groups provided ideas for a National Science Foundation program. This program, which was also shared with the cities of San Diego and Chicago, seeks to provide solutions to the cities’ transportation issues that arose out of growing populations. Some of the innovative ideas included skyline transportation and environment scanning apps.

The groups present labored over their proposals for ten months. Though there was a grant program, the groups involved share the creative credit. Participants in the program suggested that the groups might benefit from partnering with businesses.

The Art of Science Learning as well as Worcester’s Incubator for Innovation sponsored the event. Worcester’s focus was on transportation while San Diego handled water resources and Chicago handled urban nutrition. Professionals, students and a healthy cross-section of people from around Worcester were represented.

One of the interesting things about the program is that each of the represented groups presented a unique approach. One idea was to make the bus system more demand-driven than it is presently. One of the groups crafted a middle school curriculum about transportation. Another came up with the idea of converting volunteer service hours into usable bus passes. One proposed program uses predictions about walking patterns to determine which sidewalks and walkways to repair. Another proposes helping patients coordinate bus trips according to their appointments.

One of the things that participants took away from the experience was that, if the desire actually existed, the community could adopt these options immediately, with experts predicting better momentum for the work will make a difference.

UMass Amherst Replacing Campus Bookstore with Amazon

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Students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus will no longer be buying their textbooks at the campus bookstore. That familiar on-campus amenity is being replaced by online retail giant Amazon.com. The current textbook annex operated by Follett Corp. is being replaced by an Amazon distribution center that is designed to save the students money.

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According to UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewski, University officials recognized that as the cost of textbooks and course materials are increasing every year for students and represent one of the major expenses of attending classes on campus, the new deal using book services provided by Amazon will not only offer students what they need at lower prices but also provide a more convenient shopping experience.Compared with the prices being charged currently at the UMass Amherst campus bookstore, the new Amazon pricing structure will enable students to save as much as 31% annually, translating to an average cost savings of $380 per student. The new system gives students the option of purchasing either digital copies of the textbooks and course materials they need, or the option of taking delivery of traditional physical ink and paper books to either on-campus or nearby addresses using free one-day delivery. Students also have the option of ordering their textbooks online and then picking them up in person at a location in the campus center staffed by Amazon personnel.

UMass Amherst’s five-year deal with the retailing giant will provide the school with a 2.5% commission on almost all student sales conducted through the Amazon storefront linked to the University’s course-selection software. The University is guaranteed payments of at least $375,000 the first year, increasing to $465,000 and $610,000 for the next two years. Amazon already has similar textbook service agreements with the University of California Davis as well as Purdue University.

An Amazon spokesman says that this effort to reinvent the traditional campus bookstore is a win-win for everyone, with students lowering their cost of obtaining textbooks and other course materials, while the school realizes a guaranteed revenue from student sales.

Study Foresees Continued Medical Technology Growth

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In recent years, the medical technology and medical device manufacturing industries have become an increasingly significant sector of the Massachusetts economy. According to predictions from Evaluate Ltd., a market research firm, it is expected to grow at a five percent annual rate for the next five years. The report, entitled “EvaluateMedTech World Preview 2014, Outlook to 2020,” shows that medical technology sales are expected to reach $514 billion by the end of that period, with influential mergers reconstructing the faces of industry leaders.

The announcement of the merger involving Medtronic and Covidien, estimated at $42.9 billion, is one such example. It is anticipated that together they could become the new market leader in an industry that will be worth over half a trillion dollars by 2020. Research has also shown that spending on global research and development will reach $30.5 billion by that year, a growth of 4.2 percent. In the first half of 2014, $1.3 billion was raised in completed medical technology IPO offerings, a 44 percent increase from the same period in 2013. During the first half of this year, the value of mergers in the medical technology field rocketed up by 363 percent compared with the same period the year before, a huge indicator of what can be expected at least in the near future.

The Evaluate Ltd. report predicted that activity among the major players in the sector will continue on a large scale. The Medtronic-Covidien union represents the biggest merger in the industry’s history and marks the beginning of a period of rapid change for the market. This, and other megamergers, will continue to dominate and reshape the various areas of the field in the immediate and possibly extended future.

Cutthroat Shopping App Lets Retailers Compete for Shoppers

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With Black Friday and its shopping bonanza madness quickly approaching, big retailers are getting ready to fight each other in an effort to attract customers during the busiest shopping days of the year. In recent years, major retailers such as Target and Walmart have waged discount and inventory battles to gain the most customers, but such tactics are no longer effective with the advent of major online retailers such as Amazon.

Retailers have been paying attention to the slew of mobile apps that help shoppers get the most out of their retail experience. There is no shortage of apps that scout deals, deliver coupons and give shoppers detailed information about the good and services they crave. To this end, many retailers offer their own mobile apps that keep shoppers informed about store discounts and special sale events, but shoppers have upped the ante in recent years with “showrooming,” a 21st century shopping behavior that consists of going to a store and using a smartphone to check for lower prices in the vicinity.Showrooming has led to apps such as Find&Save, which recently added a new feature that enables retailers to engage in a bit of cutthroat competition to steal potential shoppers away from each other. Until recently, Find&Save was similar to many mobile apps that deliver enticing coupons on smartphones; what was added is the ability for retailers to reach shoppers while they are physically on the premises of their competitors.

One example would be a shopper whose GPS-enabled smartphone places her at the nearest Home Depot. This could open an opportunity for competing chain Lowe’s to steal that potential customer with either lower prices or a cash reward of $25. For the time being, apps like Cash Dash require shoppers to take a photo of their purchase receipt in order to have their reward transferred to their PayPal accounts, but future versions of the app may actually subtract the reward from the customer’s purchases at the checkout register, thereby making the offer even more attractive and convenient.

Aaron Portnoy to Speak at Worcester Economic Club

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World-renowned computer security expert Aaron Portnoy will be the featured speaker at the Worcester Economic Club’s 533rd meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, November 19th, 2014 at the Hogan Campus Center at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. Portnoy graced the July 21, 2014 cover of TIME Magazine’s “World War Zero: How Hackers Fight to Steal Your Secrets.”

Portnoy, vice-president and co-founder of Exodus Intelligence, started on his career path while still in high school; he successfully hacked the network of his school, the Massachusetts Academy of Math & Science in Worcester. Today, rather than using his prodigious skills to disrupt and cause mischief, he now uses his expertise to do good as one of the world’s foremost experts in reverse engineering for vulnerability discovery, and has identified major vulnerabilities in the systems of multiple institutions.

Attendance for this event is restricted to club members and special pass holders. The annual membership fee is $200 and single-event special passes are $75. (Supply of special passes for this event is extremely limited.)  Both can be purchased here.

About the Worcester Economic Club

Founded in 1903, The Worcester Economic Club remains one of the oldest and largest organizations of its kind in the country. Comprised of professional men and women from the Worcester County area, we are dedicated to providing a forum for the open discussion of economic, civic, educational, and sociological subjects that are of interest to our members. Membership in the Worcester Economic Club is $200 per year with guaranteed access to all events and speakers hosted by the Club. All meetings are networking opportunities with a cocktail hour and formal dinner followed by a speaker. Speakers have included well known public officials, economists, educators, journalists, and business leaders. For more information visit their website.

 

New Wristband Claims to Shock Users Out of Bad Habits

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A company in Boston called Behavioral Technology Group has created a wristband called Pavlok that shocks people with 340 volts of electric current. After putting the product on the crowd-funding site Indiegogo, the company has raised three times the amount of their original goal of $50,000.

That’s largely because the company claims the wristband will help people break bad habits. Co-founder Maneesh Sethi explains during the promotional video created for Indiegogo, “Now I know that electric shock sounds crazy, but sometimes crazy works.”

The campaign garnered enough attention that more than 1,000 funders have pledged money to help fund the product. With their goal met, the company plans to start shipping the wristbands in March or April, 2015. The electric bands will retail for about $150, but they are being offered for $99 on the Indiegogo campaign page.

Sethi was inspired by the idea that led to Pavlok when he observed the Pavlovian impact of shock collars on dogs. The effectiveness of the wristband on humans, however may vary widely depending on the user, user’s bad habits, and the level of addiction.

In the medical journal Frontier, a 2012 research article addressed Pavlovian responses in humans. “The mechanisms modulating the impact of Pavlovian responses on instrumental [habitual and goal-directed] performance are largely unknown, both in human and non-human animals.”

In the Indiegogo video, a man who has tested the Pavlok wristband states that he lost seven pounds after using the band for approximately two months. He does not reveal specifically how the wristband helped him achieve that goal.

Sethi, who is backed by an undisclosed number of investors, says that when wearers begin to go back to bad habits, “Pavlok jolts them out of it.”

Pavlok’s Indiegogo campaign ends Nov. 29.

New Massachusetts Energy Chief Says State Can’t Rest in Push for Renewable Energy

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Bespectacled Maeve Bartlett stood behind a glossy black podium at the DCU Center and made a bold claim: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is, she said, the national leader in meeting the challenges of climate change and adopting renewable energy technologies. Numero uno. The criteria: megawatts.

In 2007, Massachusetts had 3 megawatts of solar capacity and 3 megawatts of wind capacity. Operating at full power, these renewable energy plants could power 3,000-5,000 modern homes – small peanuts in a state with 6.7 million people.

But then Governor Deval Patrick and his administration passed three clean energy laws: the Green Jobs Act, the Green Communities Act, and the Global Warming Solutions Act. Businesses came a-dashing. Today, the state boasts 643 megawatts of solar capacity and 103 megawatts of wind capacity, and in 2014, Clean Edge ranked Massachusetts the leading state for clean energy policy and eco-energy investments per capita.

Barlett, formerly the agency undersecretary, was recently appointed to lead the final seven-month charge as head of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. She hopes to implement such plans like the Cape Wind project, secure hydroelectric contracts and construct more than 300 urban parks.

During her speech at the DCU Center as part of the eighth annual Massachusetts Energy Summit, Barlett said that the state could not rest in its push for renewable energy. The state hopes to eventually secure 30 percent of its power from clean energy sources.

Such grandiose plans represent big bucks. The Massachusetts clean energy sector is a $10 billion industry, with employment expected to surpass 100,000 jobs in early 2015. The sector has seen double-digit job growth for three consecutive years. At the recent Clean Energy Annual Jobs Report, Governor Patrick reported, “We have long believed that a strong commitment to investing in clean energy would not only provide significant environmental benefits, but would also serve as an economic catalyst in the Commonwealth.”

It is for megawatts – and megajobs – that Massachusetts is “taking the first, crucial steps to leaving a cleaner and more secure energy future,” said Bartlett, “for the next generation.”

EnerNOC to Spend $76 Million for World Energy Solutions

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Boston energy software company EnerNOC Inc. announced on Tuesday that they plan to lay out $76 million in cash for energy auction business World Energy Solutions, Inc.  This places a value of $5.50 for each share of World Energy stock, about 1/3 higher than Tuesday’s closing price of $4.15 per share (Nasdaq: XWES). EnerNOC will also be taking on World Energy’s debt, totaling approximately $10 million as of the end of June.

Directors at both Enernoc and World Energy already approved the deal, which is expected to close during Q1-2015.

EnerNOC Chairman and Chief Executive Timothy G. Healy said, “This acquisition advances our energy intelligence software business and will help us deliver more value to our enterprise customers who are looking to increase productivity and take control of their energy costs.”

The two companies have overlapping customer bases. Users of EnerNOC software include companies, utilities and various other entities buying and managing energy while World Energy runs online energy auctions.

EnerNOC revenues during 2013 totaled about $383 million with profits of $22 million, compared to World Energy’s revenues of $35 million with a net loss of $2 million. EnerNOC reported it expects the deal to boost its annual revenue by about $30 million.

World Energy is allowed to seek offers from other buyers for another 55 days, with EnerNOC having the right to match any offer.

What the deal means for employment is unclear. World Energy currently has more than 100 workers. EnerNOC said in an SEC filing that employment decisions will be made during planning to integrate the businesses.

ACEEE: Massachusetts Tops California as Most Energy-Efficient State

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Recently, the American Council of Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released the eighth edition of the State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. The scorecard ranks the states based on various energy-efficient metrics such as how much electricity and fuel they use and their overall carbon footprint. In 2014, Massachusetts achieved the highest score for the fourth year in a row.

Today, states are implementing many different energy efficient tactics and programs. In fact, the number of state energy efficiency programs has tripled since the first ACEEE scorecard was introduced eight years ago, with many states using new energy-efficient initiatives to promote in-state jobs.

According the scorecard, the top states for energy efficiency are Massachusetts (42/50), California  (40.5/50), and with three states – Vermont, Oregon, and Rhode Island – tied for third place at 37.5 out of 50 possible points.

The top two states are certainly no surprise.  In recent years, Massachusetts has been earning the top slot on the scorecard for years and California is consistently found close to the top. Looking a bit deeper, Rhode Island, which tied for third, joined the top five for the first time. This is a testament to the improvements the state has been making in its own initiatives to improve its score.

States at the top of the list have each invested in energy efficiency programs that help spread awareness and implement utility, transportation, building, and government policies that encourage energy efficiency. In turn, these policies work to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gases that scientists say contribute to global warming.

Just this past summer, the town of Newton replaced 8,406 high-pressure sodium street lights with LEDs, a project made possible by a $250,000 grant from the Green Communities Act and $500,000 in rebates from NSTAR.  Massachusetts-based businesses are also leading the way, fostering our nation’s energy-efficient habits. Access Fixtures, a lighting company based in Worcester is one of the many contributors to the Commonwealth’s high score. Their lighting specialists encourage their customers to use LED lighting that uses a mere fraction of the energy compared to other light sources.

According to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, “Energy efficiency is the cheapest and cleanest energy resource.” The governor stated that 65,000 in-state jobs have been created by energy-efficient incentives. He believes that the Commonwealth can have a clean-energy future along with robust economic growth. The two need not be mutually exclusive.Maggie Molina, Director of ACEEE’s Utilities, State, and Local Policy program, said: “Energy efficiency is also good for business. State action on energy efficiency improves bottom lines, drives investment across all sectors of the economy, creates jobs, and offsets the environmental harms created by the energy production system.”