Crane to offer series of classes to assist local business
Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington (Ivy Tech Bloomington) in partnership with Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane), today unveiled a series of free online learning modules aimed at small businesses and entrepreneurs with the goal of increasing their ability to engage with various entities within the Department of Defense (DoD).
The multi-part course entitled Federal Lab Technology Transfer for Beginnersis designed to show users how to work with Federal Laboratories and Technology Transfer Offices to develop and grow their small businesses.
“We believe this will be a valuable tool for small businesses,” explained Steve Bryant, executive director of the Gayle & Bill Cook Center for Entrepreneurship at Ivy Tech Community College. “Ideally, it will help enable companies understand the various processes involved and how to better work within the government ecosystem.”
This is a beginner’s guide to understanding the many benefits of utilizing Technology Transfer in a business or startup. Participants will learn about licensing federally developed patented technology as well as learning the process of collaborating with a Federal Lab’s scientists and engineers. The course will also provide insight from entrepreneurs who have utilized Technology Transfer.
“Our goal is to make government-developed technology more accessible for use and licensing by the private sector,” said Maria Duran, director of technology transfer (T2) at NSWC Crane.
NSWC Crane selected Ivy Tech Bloomington to partner on this effort due the college’s vast experience creating and implementing online learning modules. Ivy Tech is the nation’s largest singly accredited community college system and has been offering online courses for more than two decades. Additionally, the Cook Center for Entrepreneurship at Ivy Tech Bloomington has a track record of working closely with small businesses in the Uplands region by providing a suite of free services to bolster their ability to succeed.
View video: Overview of Federal Lab Technology for Beginners To register for the online course: Click Here
Bloomington Residents Invited to Map Local Hot Spots
The City of Bloomington announced that it has been selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the 2024 Urban Heat Island Mapping Campaign. Residents are invited to participate in identifying neighborhood areas experiencing extreme heat.
Bloomington is among 13 cities across the globe that will map the hottest neighborhoods in their communities. Identifying these areas, called urban heat islands, will help Bloomington take action to reduce the health impacts of extreme heat and provide cooling relief for those living in the hottest areas, according to City staff.
Urban heat islands are areas that are characterized by fewer trees and more pavement, which can cause them to be up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than nearby neighborhoods.
Extreme heat is the number one weather-related cause of death in the U.S. for the last three decades. Summer 2023 was Earth’s hottest on record, and communities across the globe felt this heat and its impacts to health, infrastructure, agriculture and more.
City staff, students, and community members will hit the streets of Bloomington this summer to collect data about the distribution of heat as part of a regional effort to map where people are most at risk during extreme heat waves. Using heat sensors mounted on their own cars, volunteer community members, led by the City’s Economic and Sustainable Development Department, will traverse neighborhoods in the morning, afternoon, and evening on one of the hottest days of the year. The sensors record temperature, humidity, time, and the volunteers’ location every second. The end-to-end program, including sensor technology, community engagement, analysis, and modeling will be supported by CAPA Strategies and allows communities to develop hyper-local descriptions of where the hottest parts of their community are and strategize mitigation options specific to Bloomington.
The urban heat island map will be incorporated into Bloomington’s Climate Resilience Plan, which is currently being written with input from the community. The data will inform tree planting throughout the City and provide a framework for creating cool corridors along routes of high pedestrian and bicycle use. The campaigns will also provide insight that can be used to develop public education events.
To learn more about previous NOAA urban heat island mapping campaigns, visit https://capastrategies.com/capa-heat-watch/.
City Receives INDOT Grant to Improve Roads
The City of Bloomington has been awarded $745,893.54 through the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) 2024 Community Crossings Matching Grant program for a planned repaving project on West Third Street from South Patterson Drive to South Franklin Road, with construction planned for summer of 2024.
This 50/50 funding matching grant program was launched in 2016 by INDOT to provide financial assistance to cities, towns, and counties across Indiana for preservation projects involving local roads and bridges. If successfully awarded, the local agency is then responsible for providing half of the total project funding amount that is requested from INDOT.
Typically, up to a total of $1 million in grant funds are available per calendar year for an individual municipality or county to apply for projects. However, in a new pilot program, that total has now been increased to $1.5 million for 2024. There are two annual rounds of call for funding applications, once each in January and July.
The City of Bloomington has secured INDOT Community Crossings Matching Grant funding every year since 2019, with a total amount of $2,764,200.73 received through this program.
Completed paving projects that have used Community Crossings Matching Grant funding between 2019-2023 include: Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomfield Road, Arlington Road, E. 3rd Street, College Mall Road, Discovery Parkway, Country Club Road, Winslow Road, Park Ridge Road and Smith Road.
Attorney General Todd Rokita defends states’ pro-life laws against federal interference
Attorney General Todd Rokita is fighting efforts by the federal government to ride roughshod over state laws protecting human life and prohibiting abortions.
This week, Attorney General Rokita is supporting Idaho as it argues before the Supreme Court to protect its Defense of Life Act from preemption under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). In February, General Rokita led a 22-state amicus brief backing Idaho’s common-sense stance.
Under the U.S. system of federalism, the power to regulate health, safety and medicine rests largely with the states. And in the Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion to the states as well — overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Federal attorneys, however, claim EMTALA allows emergency room physicians to ignore state medical regulations whenever they think it necessary to do so — including by performing abortions that are otherwise banned. In reality, however, EMTALA nowhere mentions the topic of abortion — and was never intended to be construed as the federal government now claims.
This Week in Hoosier History
1847 – Samuel Henderson was elected the first mayor of Indianapolis. A member of the Whig Party, he served a two-year term. A citizen at the time wrote that Henderson served with “much dignity and satisfaction to the public.” A native of Kentucky, Henderson was among the first settlers in the new capital and immediately became a leading citizen. Appointed by the Monroe administration as the first postmaster of Indianapolis in 1821, he held that post until removed by the Jackson administration in 1829—and then served again in 1844-1845. He was a founding officer in 1823 of Center Lodge, Masonic Order, and a Whig presidential elector in 1832. In September 1832, a citizens’ meeting incorporated Indianapolis and elected Henderson one of five town trustees. Chosen president of the board by his peers, he served from October 1832 to September 1833.
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