Connecticut Technology Council

2013 Marcum Tech Top 40 Companies by Industry Category

The List:

Advanced Manufacturing 
Amphenol Corp., Wallingford 
APS Technology, Inc., Wallingford 
ATMI Inc., Danbury 
Dymax Corporation, Torrington 
EDAC Technologies Corp., Farmington 
Foster Corporation, Putnam 
Harman International Industries, Stamford 
Rogers Corporation, Rogers 
RSL Fiber Systems, LLC, East Hartford 

Energy/Environment/Green Technology 
FuelCell Energy, Inc., Danbury 
Proton OnSite, Wallingford 

IT Services 
Amnet Systems LLC, Stamford 
Cervalis LLC, Shelton 
Cierant Corporation, Danbury 
Datto Inc., Norwalk 
Gartner Inc., Stamford 
Information Services Group Inc., Stamford 
VLink Inc., Hartford 

Life Sciences 
Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cheshire 
Bio-Med Devices, Inc., Guilford 
Metrum Research Group, LLC, Tariffville 

New Media/Internet/Telecom 
EasySeat, LLC, Plainville
HealthPlanOne, LLC, Shelton
iSend, LLC, Middlebury
JobTarget, LLC, New London
M2 Media Group, Stamford
Mediabistro Inc., Norwalk
Priceline.com, Inc., Norwalk
TicketNetwork, South Windsor 

Software 
Clarity Software Solutions, Inc., Guilford 
Core Informatics, LLC, Branford 
ePath Learning, Inc., New London 
eVariant, Inc., Farmington
Evolution1, Inc., Avon 
Higher One, Inc., New Haven 
PASSUR Aerospace, Inc., Stamford 
Shoptech Corporation, Glastonbury 
Square 9 Softworks, Inc., New Haven 
SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc, Windsor 
Tangoe, Inc., Orange 
Triple Point Technology, Westport

From Secretary to Magnetic Particle Inspection

Thefollowing is an excerpt from an article by Bill Fallon that originally appeared in the Fairfield County Business Journal.

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Edwina Lucenius was a successful executive secretary in New Jersey when family obligations brought her home to Stratford. There, she found her skills in low demand and she sought a different direction.

She found a very different direction.

A year after entering Housatonic Community College’s advanced manufacturing program, Lucenius today works for RBC-Heim Bearings in Fairfield where she is involved in the nondestructive testing of metals, specializing in magnetic particle inspection. She works with microscopes, high-tech fluids and black lights.

Lucenius had been told manufacturing was a man’s world — she’s the first female to graduate the Housatonic program, which itself is a year old — but has found the reality more nuanced. She said, yes, manufacturing is dominated by men, but she also said, “Everything depends on the people. At Heim Bearings there is an incredibly open culture and an international mix of men and women.”

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Read more about Lucenius in at westfaironline.com and click here to read more about Housatonic Community College's Advanced Maufacturing Program.

Jackson Lab, UConn Scientists Secure $3.2 Million Grant

Researchers from Jackson Laboratory and the University of Connecticut have received a $3.2 million grant that will help them learn more about what causes bone diseases like osteoporosis, officials from both institutions said Tuesday.

The project will be one of the first between the university and the Maine-based nonprofit organization, which is receiving millions in aid from the state of Connecticut for a facility on the UConn Health Center's campus in Farmington.

The five-year grant, from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, will help scientists explore what happens to the bone growth and development in a mouse if that mouse is missing specific genes.

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"You're trying to create an area here where bright people from all over the world converge to solve fundamental problems in biology and medical science," [Jackson Lab VP Mike] Hyde said. "I think this was the dream of the state when they proposed this partnership, to jumpstart the bioscience sector."

 

Read the complete article by Wes Duplantier in the Hartford Courant.

Going Global: High School Students from China and Connecticut to Launch New Business

 

 

 

Twenty high school students from Shanghai, China, and 20 high school students from Wallingford, Conn. will participate in Junior Achievement’s (JA) first-ever Global Exchange Program, sponsored by United Technologies Corporation (UTC). The program will provide students with engaging, academically challenging, and experiential learning sessions that focus on American and Chinese business, innovation, entrepreneurism, ethics and leadership.

The multi-year program will begin the morning of Monday, Aug. 5, at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., with an opening ceremony that will kick-off a week of lectures, seminars, and workshops featuring Yale faculty and business leaders, as well as guest speakers from UTC. In addition to participating in lectures and workshops, the students will visit the New York Stock Exchange in New York City and ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, Conn. Throughout the week, the students will begin to develop ideas for a joint venture that they will plan and operate throughout the 2013-2014 school year.

 

Read the entire story from CT Releases here.

Connecticut's Total Effective Business Tax Rate

Connecticut is often accused of having tax rates that are too high and thus unfriendly to business.  You'll hear this criticism from all kinds of sources- newscasters on tv, angry contributors to internet forums, and occasionally even Texas Governor Rick Perry as he strolls through the State trying to lure Connecticutians away from the Northeast.

But we work with hundreds of businesses in Connecticut, on a regular basis, and the outlook is not so grim and taxophobic in our community.  Yes, the national economy is still in a period of recovery, and of course, everyone would prefer to have their taxes lowered, but Connecticut companies continue to thrive in the state and are as happy as ever to set up shop in the Constitution State.

The accounting firm Ernst & Young recently conducted a study in conjunction with the Council on State Taxation (COST) to take an objective look at the dense and dynamic world of state and local taxation across the United States.  Their results confirm and quantify something we've long understood: Connecticut's infrastructure, benefits, and potential for profitability drastically lower the explicit tax rate to a substantially lower effective tax rate.

How low?  Connecticut businesses pay the second lowest percentage of their gross state product back to the state in taxes.  We rank behind only North Carolina, and by only a fraction of a percentage point.

This image, from the review's Total State and Local Business Taxes findings, shows the nation in terms of the total effective tax rate that businesses are charged on a state and local level.  Connecticut is in the very lowest category.

Image via EY and COST.

East Haven Firm Links Crime Data To Connecticut Cops On The Road

Most police departments in the state could have iPads in the hands of at least a few officers out on the street in six to eight months — the next phase in public safety software technology.

Five police departments are now employing the electronic tablets using software from East Haven based NexGen Public Safety Solutions. The officers have access to the same information they would see in the station or in a patrol car.

NexGen, which started out in a small, 1,400-square-foot office on High Street in East Haven to a 5,800-square-foot Main Street office, has grown to serve 114 out of 169 police departments throughout the state, along with the University of Connecticut's Storrs campus, Central Connecticut University Police and Connecticut's Department of Public Safety, Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The software helps address public safety officers' need to do more with less money, said John Travisano, chief development officer with NexGen. But more than that, it's made everything electronic, drastically curtailing paperwork and duplicate processes, and automating the way documents are submitted to state courts and judicial agencies.

 

Here is the entire Hartford Courant article by Sameea Kamal.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Visits Wallingford Firm

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker joined Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on a tour Tuesday of the headquarters of APS Technology, which makes products for the oil and gas drilling industry.

The company specializes in measurement-while-drilling, rotary steerable, and vibration management products. Pritzker and Malloy viewed some of the latest technology from APS, geared toward lowering the cost and time involved in oil drilling.

"This kind of precision manufacturing is really what America needs to be doing more," Pritzker said.

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Read the rest of Sameea Kamal's article from the Hartford Courant.

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This is an excerpt from Secretary Pritzker's blog, posted this morning:

Secretary Pritzker ended the day in Connecticut, where she participated in a tour and roundtable discussion at APS Technology. APS Technology is a long time client and partner with the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. Since 1993, the company has expanded from consulting services to developing, producing, and supplying proprietary tools for drilling operations. The company began exporting in 2003, and now exports account for more than 75 percent of its business. Earlier this year, the company earned the President’s “E” Award for exports, the highest recognition any U.S. entity may receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports.

Secretary Pritzker believes it’s particularly important to connect with business and thought leaders early and often, both to hear their ideas on how government and the private sector can partner on strategic initiatives to grow business, and to promote the tremendous work the Department of Commerce does on behalf of U.S. companies. This trip and subsequent stops is part of Secretary Pritzker’s commitment to serve as a bridge to the business community–both domestically and abroad– so that the public and private sectors can work together to create jobs and opportunities for all Americans.

Silicon Valley & the Connecticut River Valley

It's no accident that innovation occurs in clusters.  It wasn't by coincidence that Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Botticelli, and Raphael happened to all make their masterworks in late medieval Florence.  The kind of novel thinking and breakthrough discoveries that are truly novel, unique, and significant are products of a functional, progressive, motivated, educated, and prioritized ecosystem in which originality is encouraged, creativity is rewarded, and the support network is strong.

California's Silicon Valley is frequently praised for providing this envirnoment to businesses, inventors, and innovators.  French entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur told a European publication that he moved his company to Silicon Valley because:

"in the Valley, the best companies, entrepreneurs and investors are all in one place. It feels like a campus. Everything you do, from the morning run to the coffee run, is a networking opportunity. Compare this to the fragmentation in Europe, where the next meeting is always a flight away, and you can see why things simply happen more slowly over there. Thirty languages and insufficiently fluent English slow things down even further."

Additionally, the central Californian basin is situated near large metropolitan centers like San Francisco and Sacremento, and top-teir academic institutions like Stanford and UC Berkeley and Davis.

An image we recently discovered, produced by the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, made us stop to consider- doesn't Connecticut boast the same attributes that makes Silicon Valley so successful? 

The megalopolis that stretches from the nation's capital through New York City and into Boston envelops Connecticut in a sweetly convenient position to connect itself with ease to some of the most technologically and economically significant cities in the nation, beyond its own internal hubs like Stamford, New Haven, and Hartford. 

The interconnectedness of the Northeast, and especially within the relatively small Connecticut, provide the campus-like feel that Le Meur couldn't find in Europe.

Like Silicon Valley, Connecticut is home to dozens of well-respected academic centers, many of which, such as Yale, UConn, and Wesleyan, are known world wide.  Fanning out to include a a few nighboring states- 6 of US News and World Report's top 10 national universities are within reach.

Another factor that lead to the growth of Silicon Valley in the 1970-80s was venture capital- a force that is alive and well in Connecticut.  And in addition to investment from the private sector, the state is eagar to make investments in innovation to prove that the Connecticut River Valley is the Silicon Valley of the East.

Take a look at the CERC's image of Connecticut compared to the San Francisco Bay area, and to overlay Silicon Valley over a different community for geographic comparison, click here to use the BBC Dimension's How Big Really application.

Encouraging Women and Girls to Pursue Careers in STEM: Women of Innovation 10th Anniversary Celebration

In the fall of 2012, three million more young American women entered college than their male counterparts.  That’s a significant number, considering the entire population of the state of Connecticut is barely over three and a half million.  Women outnumber men in an even greater scale in postgraduate education. In 2009, 60% of Master’s degrees in the United States were given to women.

Yet, despite the formidable head start American women seem to have over American men by count, these institutions of higher learning continue to churn out more male than female scientists, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, and other high-tech, high-paying, highly-sought after graduates.  About three to one, in fact, according to the US Department of Commerce.

We at the Connecticut Technology Council have been striving to equalize this imbalance in Connecticut for a decade now.  Our Women of Innovation® program will be entering its 10^th year in 2014, recognizing dynamic, ground-breaking women in science, engineering, entrepreneurship, and other fields who have stood out as innovators in fields traditionally and historically occupied by men. 

Our goals are simple- to acknowledge the exceptional work of regional women who are leaders in their industries and communities, and to teach by example the next generation of would-be Women of Innovation® that being a researcher, engineer, physicist, or CEO is not only something they’re capable of, but something society truly wants to see them become.

 

Mark your calendars for the 2014 Women of Innovation® awards on March 27, 2014.  Our 10^th anniversary celebration will be bigger and better than ever. 

Nominations are open now!

Early nominations for finalists are already being accepted on our website.  We hope you’ll nominate an inspirational woman you know!

For any curiosities, comments, or clarifications, please contact Paige Rasid at 860.289.0878 x 335 or [email protected].

Hope to see you there!

Related articles

Girls Of Innovation Science Challenge | June 15, 2013

Women are a necessity for science, panel observes

Tech Startup Seeks to Take Guess Work Out of Job Search

Employers want top-notch talent, workers with years of experience and people who have industry know-how that sets them apart from competitors. But hiring managers, experts say, are having a tough time finding the job-seekers they want.

Henning Seip, founder and CEO of SkillPROOF Inc. could be the matchmaker employers and job-seekers are looking for.

For more than a decade, Seip has been developing and honing technology behind his new job search tool, KRAZOOM, which he says matches job-seekers to employment opportunities faster and more efficiently by taking the guesswork out of keyword searches.

KRAZOOM is a database of job postings that allows job seekers to select requirements that match their skill set, instead of typing in keywords in a trial-and-error process, which is how most other online job boards, like Monster.com, work.

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Today, KRAZOOM has over 200,000 daily job postings, but a challenge the company faces is convincing more employers to list open positions. Seip said KRAZOOM will try to attract employers through its partnership with the Stamford Innovation Center, a tech incubator where Seip holds regular workshops on how to overcome the job search process.

Although Seip isn't making money from KRAZOOM yet, he expects to start earning revenue later this year when he starts charging employers to list jobs. Seip wouldn't disclose what he would charge, or what the market potential is for his business.

Peter Propp, vice president of marketing for the Stamford Innovation Center, said Seip's technology has helped startups find qualified job seekers. "With unemployment in the state at 8 percent, jobseekers are looking for new innovative ways to circumvent the job search process," said Propp. "KRAZOOM offers that new solution."

 

Read Becky Bergman's entire article from the Hartford Business Journal here.