Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Blogs:
Akron Law Café:
Public Lecture: “Public School Assignment Methods After the Seattle and Louisville Cases: The San Francisco Experience”
Car Chase:
Hybrid Cars are Nothing New
The Heldenfiles:
CNN Tries To Get (Intentionally) Funny
Patrick McManamon:
First and 10: Oh what a win
Browns Bulletin:
Giants vs Browns Recap
Cleveland Browns:
Winslow among inactives
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Updated - Game Blog: Cavs v. Boston Celtics - Yes, Again!
Cleveland Indians:
Boston tops Tribe 6-1
Akron Zips:
Looking ahead to Eastern Michigan
Varsity Letters:
Week 8 scoreboard
Kent State Sports:
Ohio 26, Kent State 19
The Sports Mix:
OSU Buckeyes - Changes to offense
Ohio Politics:
Final Presidential Debate Live Blog
See Jane Style:
Pet Peeve: Capri Pants
All Da King's Men:
A Deficit Disorder
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Only Stuff We're Concerned About
HRLite House:
Benchmarking Performance Management and Googling
Akron Gamer:
Lego Batman fun for all ages
BokBluster:
If It Quacks Like a Duck…
Ohio Travels with Betty:
John asks-where is the Civil War Museum in Ohio?
Sound Check:
The Black Keys give E.J. Thomas Hall the Blues (rock)
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Haunted House #2: Barberton has more than Chicken!
Helping economy, humankind
By Jim Mackinnon
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Tuesday, Jun 03, 2008
Inexpensive, innovative machinery and software that can accurately diagnose back pain without intrusive surgery. A way to turn waste heat into useful energy. And a company that has a means to quickly identify perpetrators of sexual assault.
Those were among the fledgling technologies and businesses that Gov. Ted Strickland got a firsthand look at Monday in Akron's Canal Place, and which he and many others hope can develop into Ohio-based economic powerhouses.
The governor toured the Akron Global Business Accelerator, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary last month. Strickland is expected to soon sign into law a $1.57 billion economic stimulus package that he hopes will create 57,000 jobs in the next several years.
And in the startup businesses in the former B.F. Goodrich complex, the governor saw where some of that job creation might come from.
''What I saw today was exciting to me. It was also a little intimidating,'' Strickland said. ''There are some really smart people in this building and they are doing some incredibly creative things.''
Strickland, along with other state, city and county officials, got an hour-plus-long whirlwind tour of the accelerator — formerly called an incubator.
The nine-story, 320,000-square-foot building is home to 38 companies and 152 people. The city hopes to open a second incubator that focuses on biomedical companies.
Stops included Spine Matrix and its back-pain technology; InSet Systems LLC, that is weeks away from manufacturing small devices that can quickly find trapped miners; reXource Thermionics and its waste-heat convertor;NicheVision Inc. and its object-recognition technology for criminal investigations, and Vacuum Electric Switch Co. that repairs and refurbishes highly specialized electric switches.
Besides economic growth, there is the potential to benefit humankind through delivering medical care more effectively and making energy use more efficient, Strickland said.
''These are important things that are happening right here in this building in Akron, Ohio,'' he said.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
Inexpensive, innovative machinery and software that can accurately diagnose back pain without intrusive surgery. A way to turn waste heat into useful energy. And a company that has a means to quickly identify perpetrators of sexual assault.
Get the full article here.

