SCITUATE – The Baker-Polito Administration announced the winners of the inaugural Seaport Economic Council Grand Challenge, awarding over $450,000 in grants to three organizations that will deploy Internet of Things, or ‘IoT’, technologies to boost economic development in the state’s marine economy. The projects, based in Buzzards Bay, New Bedford, Gloucester and Scituate, will use IoT to enable high-tech data analysis in commercial fisheries, deploy distributed sensors to help track lobster populations and create an online data portal that will allow researchers to track tidal flows and other data points in Commonwealth waters, information critical to energy and aquaculture companies.
BOSTON – Governor Charlie Baker addressed the 2018 Massachusetts Cybersecurity Forum and announced new leadership for the MassCyberCenter, awards totaling $385,000 to support cyber workforce development, and a new public-private effort called ‘Cyber Resilient Massachusetts.’ The Forum convened over 200 top cybersecurity leaders from state government, the private sector and the state’s top research institutions.
Governor Baker welcomed U.S. Navy Captain Stephanie A. Helm as the first director of the MassCyberCenter at the Mass Tech Collaborative, a state effort initiated by Governor Baker to strengthen the Commonwealth’s cybersecurity ecosystem and to improve cyber-resiliency in the state. The Administration also announced the names of 19 executives that will make up the Cybersecurity Strategy Council.
WORCESTER – Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash announced an $80,000 grant to the organization Worcester Roots yesterday, an award that will support the development of cooperative businesses and non-profits in the region. The grant was awarded as part of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s (MassTech) Entrepreneurship Mentoring Grant program, an effort that aims to develop strong mentorship ecosystems across the Commonwealth. During the roundtable event, which took place at Becker College’s Center for Global Citizenship, Secretary Ash spoke with graduates of Worcester Roots’ programs, who each highlighted the critical mentoring and resources they received, support that was critical to their success.
San Jose, Calif., September 18, 2018 — NextFlex®, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) Manufacturing Institute, today announced the formation of two Institute “Nodes” in New York and Massachusetts aimed to increase the volume, pace and coordination of FHE development in their respective regions. The Nodes are designed to foster collaboration and benefit NextFlex members by providing access to facilities, equipment and infrastructure to fast-track FHE design, development and manufacturing adoption. They support the national NextFlex mission to facilitate FHE technology innovation, accelerate the development of the manufacturing workforce and promote sustainable advanced manufacturing ecosystems in the U.S. Each Node will have a representative seat on the NextFlex Governing Council.
PELHAM –Lt. Governor Karyn Polito joined leaders from nine western and central Massachusetts communities to celebrate the completion of the Broadband Extension Program, a project funded under the Commonwealth’s Last Mile program. The celebration took place in the Pelham Library and was attended by executives from Comcast, which oversaw expansion of broadband networks in nine towns in western and central Massachusetts, leaders from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), and community leaders from the nine communities.
SPRINGFIELD – Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash announced $160,000 in grants to support entrepreneur mentoring programs at two organizations in the Pioneer Valley, Springfield’s Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) and SPARK in Holyoke. These grants were made under the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s (MassTech) Entrepreneurship & Mentoring Program, which aims to develop strong mentorship ecosystems in regions across the Commonwealth. The state’s investments will boost programs managed by VVM and SPARK which provide sustainable support for a range of innovative small businesses and non-profits, ranging from start-ups to companies that are ‘scaling up’ for planned expansions.
WOODS HOLE, MASS. – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI) Center for Marine Robotics kicked off its 4th Annual Entrepreneur Showcase and Leadership Forum today with the official opening of a new pressure test facility that will help researchers and companies better develop innovative marine technologies. The new facility will allow WHOI to replicate the pressure of the deep ocean in an onshore facility which will more than triple the project capacity of its existing manually-operated system, allow for unattended 24/7 operations, and expand the ability of researchers and private firms to test their marine robotics and sensor systems.
LOWELL, MA – July 12, 2018 – Today, Governor Charlie Baker joined leaders from UMass Lowell, national manufacturing institutes and the Massachusetts advanced manufacturing community to officially open the Fabric Discovery Center at UMass Lowell, a unique research and development facility. The center will drive innovation in textile research and provide a foundation for collaboration between university research, students, and companies from across the Commonwealth. Today’s ribbon cutting follows Governor Baker’s May 2017 announcement of state funding for the construction of the new Fabric Discovery Center through a $10 million award to UMass Lowell. Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) is a state program that invests in emerging advanced manufacturing projects.
BILLERICA, MA – February 1, 2018 – Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a $400,000 grant to UMass Lowell and SI2 Technologies (SI2) to support a research and development partnership to pursue the commercialization of innovative flexible-hybrid electronics technology. The award will allow research partners to develop new, flexible electronic antennas that can withstand high temperatures, which can be used in autonomous, hypersonic vehicles. The administration is supporting the partnership through the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2). This is the second M2I2 award made to this research partnership, following a grant of $512,000 announced by Governor Charlie Baker on the Lowell campus in May 2017.
WORCESTER, MA – January 11, 2018 – Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a $4 million grant to support the launch of the AIM Photonics ‘Lab for Education & Application Prototypes’ (LEAP), a partnership between Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Quinsigamond Community College (QCC). The Worcester-based R&D facility will support product development in the emerging field of integrated photonics, which have applications in the development of autonomous vehicles, data storage and telecommunications. The lab will support Massachusetts companies pursuing a transition into the integrated photonics supply chain, by expanding opportunities for research & development, entrepreneurship opportunities and creating new workforce development and educational programs.
