Corporate Connections Session to be Featured at 2008 Research Expo
A Corporate Connections networking session for academic researchers and business professionals will be a new feature of the 2008 Research Expo sponsored by Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School and the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education.
The Research Expo will be held April 9 at the Ted Constant Convocation Center on the ODU campus. This year's theme is "Communities of Research: Discovery, Innovation and Entrepreneurship."
Corporate Connections, which is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., will have three distinct sessions.
The first hour will be devoted to research opportunities in three technology clusters being emphasized by economic development officials in Hampton Roads: 1) bioscience, 2) modeling and simulation and 3) sensors. Coordinators for each cluster will act as liaisons between academic researchers and potential collaborators from the business world.
During the second hour, attendees will be served refreshments and be given the opportunity to meet informally.
The third hour will include a presentation by Robert Brooke of the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology about the federal government's Small Business Innovation Research Program, which encourages the start up of small technology businesses.
William Wasilenko, associate dean for research at EVMS and a member of the Research Expo steering committee, is coordinating the Corporate Connections session.
This will be the 5th annual Research Expo. It will be from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and include hundreds of poster exhibits and research demonstrations, as well as displays of artistic achievements and panel discussions. The keynote speaker at 3 p.m. will be Richard Alley, a Penn State University climate-change researcher who shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
The topics and times for the panel discussions are: "Fostering an Ethical Research Environment," 9-10:30 a.m.; "Global Climate Change," 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; and "Democracy and Research Worldwide," 1-2:30 p.m.