If you couldn’t make it to last week’s CIO of the Year Awards and are dying to take in all the hub-bub, we’ve got you covered.

Panopto was on the scene capturing every second of the presentations and award ceremonies. The Council has been using Panopto technology to record our Breakfast Briefings and clips of the TechVibe Radio Show on 1360 WMNY. Just goes to show you that technology can in deed maske your life a bit easier.

Checkout the CIO of the Year Awards in all of its glory right here!

Friday is pretty much everyone’s favorite day of the week. Especially around here at ye ol’ Techburgher. It’s not the lure of two straight days off. Nope. It’s the perfect time to publish our round up of tech news not found in the usual media outlets. Sink your teeth into these juicy bites:

Panopto Updates Lecture Capture Platform

Knowledge capture company, Panopto, announced the pending release of the next version of its free lecture platform, CourseCast v2.1 and the accompanying Blade Pack of value-added features and services. These are significant additions to the CourseCast lecture capture platform, including the ability to remotely manage recording configurations across the enterprise through a single Web site, a background service that transfers new recordings to the server when the Panopto Recorder is closed, speaker biography/abstract support and enhanced LDAP support.

The Council uses Panopto technology to capture segments of our TechVibe radio show. We had Panopto CEO Brad Winney in the studio this past week. Watch the segment here.

Lincoln-Era White House — A New Interactive Web Experience

The White House Historical Association, in a project created with Argentine Productions and Semiotic Technologies (These guys aren’t Council members yet…), have developed an interactive, web-based environment recreating the Lincoln-era White House. The goal of the game-based exploration experience is to give the player a sense of the social and political atmosphere that surrounded the White House during the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. It provides background on the steps leading to Lincoln’s decision to issue the Proclamation, and the varying perspectives of important figures in the nation’s capital in 1863.

There are hidden facts in each area that you visit.  On the front grounds, you can learn about Tad’s goats.  In the Library, you can find out what Lincoln liked to read.  Visit  Lincoln’s White House here.

iSquared Unleashes a New Blog

i-Squared Inc., a Pittsburgh based consultancy specializing in Enterprise Content Management (ECM), will promote the value of ECM on a new Blogsite titled, i-Wise ECM Zone.

“One important aspect of this Blog is to educate both IT and business side personnel on how they can get more business value from their portal deployments,” says, Joyce Query, President of i-Squared. Check out the new blog here. 

Bayer MaterialScience introduces Bayblend® M301 FR polycarbonate

Bayblend® M301 FR polycarbonate/ABS blend – an innovative material for the health care market that meets crucial biocompatibility test requirements – is now commercially available.

Developed by Bayer MaterialScience LLC (BMS), the non-reinforced, flame-retardant resin is a polycarbonate blend formulated for use primarily in the health care market, specifically for surface device applications contacting intact skin. The resin meets Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ISO 10993-5 for cytotoxicity, and ISO 10993-10 for irritation and sensitization testing requirements.

The material’s combination of physical properties, flame retardance and compliance with these three ISO biocompatibility standards provides medical device and equipment manufacturers with an added safety factor and increased confidence. This, in turn, may potentially streamline the approval process so they are able to bring life-saving products to market more quickly, according to Bayer.

Missed this morning’s Breakfast Briefing with Brad Penrod of the Airport Authority because of the nasty weather? Don’t fret. You can watch it from your computer!

With the help of PTC member Panopto, we recorded Penrod giving his presentation complete with his PowerPoint slides. This is seriously cool stuff.  You can even search it! Talk about technology making our lives easier and more convenient.

Check out the Breakfast Briefing, gain some knowledge!

The week before Christmas typically sees a complete slow down of business across the board. Those of us trolling for local tech news only find dribs and drabs. You’d especially think so with the recession  and all the related hoopla. For some reason this has not been the case here in Pittsburgh. Press releases keep rolling in. Despite the doom and general gloom, bright spots abound. Check out these news releases from Council member companies. Great stuff!

Eaton’s Electrical Group Solidifies Participation In U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s PaYS Program

Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation today announced its Electrical Group has signed an agreement formalizing participation in the U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s Partnership for Youth Success (PaYS) program.

The program was developed to help the Army attract, train and deploy talented young people who want to serve their country, but also want to secure their future professional and career success. As part of the agreement of the PaYS program, Eaton will consider appropriately qualified soldiers for employment once their Army service is complete.

“Eaton’s Electrical Group represents the type of quality company that the Army is privileged to partner with in promoting the care and future of our young soldiers,” said Lt. Col. Michael Matthews, commander of the Harrisburg Army Recruiting Battalion.

Enlistees in the program will gain specific job training and qualifications while in the U.S. Army. Once the service is complete, the soldier will be considered for employment by partner companies such as Eaton. This unique program is part of the Army’s effort to partner with America’s business community and reconnect America with the Army.

Plexcore® Printable Ink Improves Performance in Advanced Polymer OLED Devices

Plextronics, Inc. — an international technology company that specializes in printed solar, lighting and other organic electronics — announced  that its conductive ink has been shown to improve the performance of certain P-OLED devices.  P-OLEDs (Polymer Organic Light Emitting Diodes) are a fast growing, new generation of display technology, which promise to replace liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in many existing applications in the coming years, as well as create exciting possibilities for new product forms such as flexible or even wearable displays. 

Plextronics requested an independent validation of test data obtained from its Plexcore® Organic Conductive (OC) ink by Cambridge Display Technology, Inc. (CDT) – a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. Data produced by CDT on Plextronics’ behalf show improved P-OLED operating voltages and voltage stability compared to other solution processed HIL alternatives that have been previously reported. 

For blue P-OLED test devices, a two volt reduction in initial operating voltage was achieved with improved voltage stability over the lifetime of the devices (less than 0.5V increase), a significant improvement over other solution processed HIL alternatives that have been previously reported.  Improving voltage characteristics in P-OLEDs is critical to reducing the power consumption of these devices, while maintaining or improving device lifetimes.  

Nation’s Largest Educational Institution Selects Panopto Lecture Capture System

Panopto, Inc. announced that Miami Dade College has chosen CourseCast as its lecture capture standard.  With eight campuses and over 160,000 students from across the world, Miami Dade College is the largest and most diverse college in the nation.
 
Miami Dade delivers nearly 300 academic programs spanning vocational, associate, and baccalaureate degrees and serves a large, dynamic, and increasingly diverse spectrum of student needs. Lecture capture technology is seen as a vehicle to help fulfill those needs. In particular, enabling a higher degree of student retention of class material, offsetting commuting expenses, and transcription and translation services are all seen a key enablers of Miami Dade’s strategic vision for achieving greater student outcomes.  

Karl Herleman, Miami Dade College’s Vice Provost/Chief Information Officer explains: “Miami Dade College has been on the forefront of incorporating technology that directly benefits our students and faculty. It is clear to us that lecture capture technology is becoming an increasingly core component of the higher learning infrastructure, and our early trials support this.”

“We evaluated several competing vendors in this category, and while we were originally attracted to Panopto for its business model, we were pleasantly surprised with their architecture and impressed with the product’s overall quality.” said Mark Nestor, Medical Campus Chief Information Officer, and program sponsor. “Faculty adoption has been encouraging. CourseCast’s ease of use, flexibility and scalability makes it a simple solution for our instructors as well as our IT staff – which is critical for a successful adoption at a campus of our size.”

Brad Winney, Panopto’s President and CEO stated: “Miami Dade College has been great to work with. From a vendor’s perspective it is always rewarding to be told that you have a great product, but more importantly, to be told so by an institution that aggressively pursues technology on behalf of its students is even more gratifying. Miami Dade was well aware that lecture capture is quickly becoming a utility that students are simply going to expect, and that a product like CourseCast would meet student needs.”