GSA Technology Council

Posit Science Corporation researcher, Dan Tinker, presented evidence at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Conference in Washington, DC this week indicating that cognitive training may benefit Baby Boomers. The computerized brain plasticity-based Brain Fitness Program (TM) uses adaptive exercises that target auditory and language systems. The exercises are designed to drive generalized improvements in cognition by improving speed and accuracy of information processing and engaging the neuromodulatory systems of the brain. The effectiveness of the program on memory performance has been demonstrated in older adults, age 60 plus.

In the latest research, 20 study participants trained on the Brain Fitness Program, ten of them on the same version as older adults. The other ten trained on a version using accelerated stimuli, requiring faster auditory processing. Study results showed that the effectiveness of the Brain Fitness Program is improved in “Boomers” with the accelerated version.

Posit Science researcher Jessica Morton presented a battery of tests designed to assess changes in hand dexterity associated with aging. As people age, they have less motor control partly because of changes in the somatosensory cortex. The battery was tested on 10 younger and 10 older subjects. The results show significant age-related differences in performance on most tasks.

Posit Science researcher Korie Michalak presented research indicating that the age-related decline in motor control can be renormalized to that of younger adults or beyond through intensive brain plasticity-based training.

Because the brain is plastic, some of this decline can be reversed by improving the sensory representations in the somatosensory cortex.

The researchers developed a custom computer-based training program to improve motor control of the hand. It required the user to move a cursor along pathways and to various regions on the computer screen. Ten older participants trained for ten 1-hour sessions. By the end of training, their performance on the tasks approached or surpassed the baseline measure from the younger participants.

via: Posit Science

The Health Ethics Trust, a division of the Council of Ethical Organizations, has recognized the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Government Programs Division with a prestigious 2008 Best Practice Award for health care compliance.

The Government Programs Division includes subsidiary companies Palmetto GBA, PGBA, TrailBlazer Health Enterprises, Q2 Administrators and InStil Health Insurance Co., which contract with the federal government to provide administrative services for health care programs such as Medicare and TRICARE. All subsidiaries have their own compliance officers and departments, which ensure that each contract is administered in accordance with the standards, laws and regulations of its respective government program.

BlueCross was honored with a Best Practice Award for providing continuing compliance education to government programs employees. Efforts include publication of the “Government Programs Compliance Handbook,” the “Compliance Common” newsletter, and the “Ethics Almanac,” a compilation of actual compliance-related cases.

“We place a lot of emphasis on providing continuously updated compliance information to our employees, and we are very pleased to be recognized by such an outstanding organization,” said Cindy Cooper, BlueCross’ Government Programs compliance officer. “Our employees’ commitment to compliance and high ethical standards is a major reason behind the success of our government programs subsidiaries.”

The Health Ethics Trust, based in Alexandria, Va., holds the Best Practice Awards annually to enhance knowledge and awareness of better practices in health care compliance. Goals are to build awareness of the importance of compliance in health care, recognize accomplishments within health care compliance programs, and allow companies to exchange information about compliance programs.

BlueCross’ Government Programs Division, based in Columbia, S.C., employs 6,930 people in five states.

Palmetto GBA, PGBA and InStil Health Insurance Co. are based in Columbia, S.C. Palmetto GBA provides primarily administrative and claims-processing services for the Medicare program. PGBA is the nation’s largest processor of medical and hospital claims for the Department of Defense’s TRICARE health program, as well as a provider of Medicare Advantage claims processing, enrollment and financial administrative services. InStil Health Insurance Co. markets Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans throughout South Carolina and Georgia, in addition to providing Medicare Advantage administrative services to other plans. TrailBlazer Health Enterprises is based in Dallas, Texas, and provides Medicare-related claims processing and administrative services. Q2 Administrators is headquartered in Ohio and provides appeals services for the Medicare program.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Palmetto GBA and TrailBlazer Health Enterprises are independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

via: BCBS of South Carolina

Digitalsmiths has closed a $12 million Series B round of equity financing from a combination of new and returning investors. Boston-based venture capital firm .406 Ventures joined returning investors The Aurora Funds and Chrysalis Ventures in the investment that was announced today by Ben Weinberger, CEO, Digitalsmiths.

“After looking at numerous potential digital video investments, the magnitude of opportunity at Digitalsmiths became crystal clear and we are delighted to have led this financing round,” said Maria Cirino, Managing Director, .406 Ventures. “The quality of Digitalsmiths’ indexing and analytics is unparalleled and as such offers exciting possibilities to content providers and advertisers looking for newer and more promising ways to monetize vast amounts of internet video. The traction that Digitalsmiths has already achieved with blue-chip customers speaks volumes for the company’s market-leading technology and is a credit to Ben and his talented team.”

“With an investment focus in the Southeast U.S., Chrysalis got involved with Digitalsmiths early in its development,” said Wright Steenrod, Principal, Chrysalis Ventures. “The deals the company is striking with major media companies solidify Digitalsmiths’ role in shaping how broadband video will be monetized.”

“Given the feverish pace at which the broadband video marketplace moves, keeping a product offering up to date is often considered a feat in itself,” said Jan Bouten, Principal, The Aurora Funds. “But the team at Digitalsmiths has consistently been ahead of the market with their technology development decisions. The media companies who depend on technological excellence to monetize their content should love them for it.”

“In the next phase of broadband video adoption, success will be earned one video stream at a time,” notes Weinberger. “Our suite of technology solutions insures that our clients have the granular content indexing, distribution, tracking and analytics required to maximize the value of every single viewer experience with their content on every interactive platform.”

The current round of funding will be used to accelerate Digitalsmiths’ product development initiatives with a view to extending the technological leadership and engineering innovation that has kept the company several steps ahead of its competition throughout its history.

Digitalsmiths received $200,000 in SC Launch! funding in 2006, and was a presenting company at Innoventure the same year.

via: Digitalsmiths

Stratatomic, a Greenville-based web design and advertising firm, today announced the launch of a new website and internet marketing campaign for ComputerPlus, a leader in the computer support and service industry. The new website (www.computer-plus.com) also features a new logo and identity also developed by Stratatomic, who will also provide ComputerPlus with brochure and print collateral, as well as trade show display graphics.

ComputerPlus, headquartered in Greer, SC, provides nationwide service and support for business computer systems and technology, including servers, printers, pcs, laptops and storage devices. Founded in 1989, ComputerPlus is a service-disabled veteran owned small business company.

Stratatomic is a full-service creative firm specializing in web, multimedia, advertising, and graphic communications. Stratatomic also offers complete solutions for web site hosting, WebAdminâ„¢ site management software and WebStatsâ„¢ site analysis tools, providing clients with a singular resource for top-to-bottom implementation of their internet marketing strategies.

Stratatomic’s proprietary WebAdmin™ e-commerce and site-management technology recently surpassed $15 million in online sales transactions and order processing. Today, WebAdmin™ enables clients of all sizes to effectively manage their own site content or storefront and is the power behind websites that receive more than 2 million page requests per month and average hundreds of orders per day. Founded in 2000 by Ryan Owens, Stratatomic LLC is a privately held company based in Greenville, SC.

via: Stratatomic

We found the following interesting and useful information about what’s going on at Tech After just by searching Twitter.

Benefitfocus, a healthcare benefits software provider, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house for its new office building in Greenville, SC. The new facility is almost three times the size of the previous Greenville office and is slated to bring roughly 200 jobs to the area. Council Member Amy Ryberg Doyle and other members of the community joined Benefitfocus staff as they celebrated the expansion and economic development for the area. The new office location is at 1016 Woods Crossing Road in Greenville, S.C.

“We are enthusiastic about our future within Greenville,” said Shawn Jenkins, president and CEO of Benefitfocus. “Relocating to this much larger building will greatly facilitate our expansion and growth as a company.”

At 27,000 square feet, the new facility houses three times the number of conference rooms, four times the bandwidth and is conveniently located near Greenville interstates and the airport. Benefitfocus’ Greenville associates perform a wide variety of functions including Professional Services, Database Administration, Database Engineering, Software Engineering, ISS and Quality Assurance.

“There is a tremendous demand for technology in the healthcare industry,” said Jenkins. “In order to continue to drive technology innovation in South Carolina and meet the demands required by transforming the healthcare benefits administration industry, we are expanding our highly-skilled workforce of engineering and technology associates.”

Benefitfocus is headquartered in Charleston, S.C. and is the fastest growing technology company in the state. Founded in 2000, Benefitfocus has satellite locations in twelve cities across the nation, with primary offices located in Charleston, Greenville and Los Angeles. Its client list includes premier national and international corporations throughout all 50 states, Puerto Rico and 26 countries.

Benefitfocus’ solutions allow consumers, employers and benefit providers to manage complex decisions in a rapidly evolving healthcare environment. By implementing Benefitfocus’ Software as a Service consumer technology, health plans and employers empower the consumer to take control of their healthcare by offering a clear, concise and easy-to-understand online experience. Benefitfocus’ consumer-directed healthcare portal offers integrated data and management tools that provide one location in which to interact with banks, health plans, healthcare providers and business process vendors.

via Benefitfocus

In tonight’s Tech After Five Startup Zone:

Zach Inks of http://www.ascensionwar.com is confirmed for this
month’s event. He’ll have a live, playable video game to demo as well as a bunch of marketing material and videos on display.

Unmatched Quality is a website quality assurance testing service designed to alleviate much of the time and anxiety that goes into website testing. We provide Web developers with an outsourced solution for thorough and detailed testing on a variety of browser platforms. If anyone has ever been embarrassed by mistakes found on a website by their client, or is simply too overwhelmed to provide the thorough testing their clients expect, then Unmatched Quality may be able to help. http://www.unmatchedquality.com

RSVP: Tech After Five

Greenville’s After Hours Networking event for technology professionals, entrepreneurs, and the people who want to meet them is tonight at Barley’s Taproom. We meet for 5:30 to 7:30 for one thing alone — networking that builds stonger relationships leading and a stong tech community. Every month we ask the people coming to Ta5 what they will be looking for. The answers for this month appear below:

• What are you looking for at Tech After Five?


• Tomorrow’s Winning Lotto Numbers


• Linux, Ruby, Rails and Rebecca


• interesting conversations


• great people


• Networking possibilities


• A job in Upstate SC so I can be home more.


• Something to clean up whatever it is that hits the fan.


• Good looking problems


• find smart amazing people in GSA that I can learn from… Make some great connections!


• my next beer


• Something dark and malty


• People who’s forehead hurt


• People who want relief from IT headaches


• Tweeple to join my Twosse!


• Business Owners


• IT Project Management Opportunities


• Networking


• you tell me


• 101100101


• new hires!


• Small company, big ideas!


• nothing in particular


• sanity


• A client and a golf buddy


• Meaningful Exchanges


• new job prospects


• Networking


• Beer


• Contacts, Job opportunities


• a job in the IT field


• Independent thinkers


• decompression


• Website Management Services


• Fellowhship


• business owners ready to embrace new media


• Seeking Employment in Upstate


• a man a plan a canal panama


• People who realize we aren’t even in a recession…


• establish new contacts


• Allen Vailliencort


• Meet other Technical Professinals


• Keyser Söze…or a great Biz Dev person.


• Meeting Friends


• Java Developers


• A Free Beer


• networking


• To meet new people


• Meet and Greet of IS professionals


• Boozing Networker


• The Bottom Of My Glass


• Networking fun!


• Network resources for renewable energy


• Networking, Free Beer, A Brand New Car!


• Newsworthy Stories


• networking, community involvment


• Conversation, a few beers, and an all around good time


• Just looking for a couple o’pints and good conversation.


• Meet & Mingle


• people who love monotony


• networking, share knowledge

People also twitter about Ta5 and I saw a request for people interested in creating an Adobe users group there.

RSVP: Tech After Five

At the RoboDevelopment Conference and Expo in Santa Clara, Calif., Microsoft Corp. announced the general availability of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 (Microsoft RDS), the newest version of its robotics programming platform. Microsoft RDS includes a simple programming model to support building asynchronous applications, a set of visual authoring and simulation tools to aid in application development, and tutorials and sample code to help developers get started.

This is Microsoft’s third major release of Microsoft RDS and builds upon its previous versions, which have received support throughout the robotics community, from students to researchers and commercial developers. More than 250,000 copies of Microsoft RDS have been downloaded and more than 60 hardware and software companies support or use the platform as a part of their products.

“This latest release is a demonstration of Microsoft’s continued commitment and investment in supporting the emerging new robotics community,” said Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group. “We have used the very positive response to enhance what we offer, in hopes that it will continue to provide a common ground and catalyst for the future of personal robotics.”

Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 includes enhancements in the following areas:

• Increased runtime performance. Performance is improved 1.5 to three times faster in message throughput between services, and services now load two times faster. Developers can now also define more specific message communication between services, reducing network utilization and optimizing the processing of data. Together, these improvements will result in faster applications and more efficient use of processor performance.

• Improvements to the Visual Programming Language (VPL) tool. The simple drag-and-drop-based visual programming tool now includes a simple method for defining and configuring distributed applications, making it easier to create applications that can run across networked devices. Developers also will have greater flexibility when compiling their programs.

• Improvements to the Visual Simulation Environment (VSE) tool. VSE now includes the ability to record and play back simulations, which allows for easier review of simulation experiences. VSE also adds a new floor-plan editor to simplify the definition of interior structures, and three new sample simulation environments (apartment, outdoor and urban) that enable developers to better test their robot applications. Another new feature is support for importing content from DS SolidWorks^® 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) software and Microsoft trueSpace 3-D modeling software, which make it easier for developers to create their own simulated models and environments.

• Greater development flexibility. This new release provides support for both Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, which makes it accessible to a broad audience of developers. Improved support for running VPL and VSE on 64-bit Windows platforms provides more flexible installation options. New support for custom message transports increases development choices.

via Microsoft

GE Energy has announced the shipment of its 10,000^th 1.5-megawatt wind turbine, a global wind industry milestone. Over the past decade, GE’s 1.5-megawatt machines have been installed in 19 countries and have accumulated more than 130 million operating hours, producing more than 78,000 gigawatt-hours of cleaner, wind-generated electricity.  The 10,000^th unit was shipped to FPL Energy, the largest U.S. generator of wind power, for the Ashtabula Wind Energy Center located in North Dakota. The milestone shipment was announced during a press conference today in Orlando.

GE’s fleet of 10,000 1.5-megawatt machines can power more than five million homes and produce more than 50 million megawatt-hours annually. This represents an estimated savings of more than 27 million tons of CO2 emissions each year, the equivalent of removing more than five million U.S. cars from the road.

“We’re very pleased to share this milestone celebration with FPL Energy,” said Victor Abate, vice president-renewables for GE Energy. “Like GE, FPL Energy is firmly committed to increasing the supply and quality of wind power as a vital step on the road to energy security and energy independence for our country.”

“GE Energy is an industry leader and a valued partner,” said Mike O’Sullivan, senior vice president of FPL Energy. “Having a reliable supply of wind turbines to meet our customers’ growing demand for clean and renewable wind energy has been an important ingredient in the growth and success of our wind business.”

GE’s 1.5-megawatt wind turbine is currently the most widely used megawatt-class wind turbine in the world and is recognized as an industry workhorse. This machine has been proven in nearly every wind regime, terrain and climate worldwide. GE continues to invest in technology improvements that will build upon the vast experience gained from a 10,000+ unit installed base. These investments continue to drive even higher levels of wind turbine reliability and efficiency.

Since entering the wind business in 2002, GE has continued to advance the performance and reliability of the 1.5-megawatt wind turbine through GE-designed technology including pitch systems, blades and gearboxes; improved component robustness; and better diagnostic capabilities and controls. The result is continuous improvement in overall fleet availability to a level over 98% for units commissioned since 2007.

GE’s 1.5-megawatt wind turbine platform continues to evolve and benefits from GE’s core power generation expertise. The XLE model of the 1.5-megawatt class turbine offers a 15% increase in swept area, resulting in greater energy output.

Delivering worldwide services technology and fast parts fulfillment is critical to maintaining reliable performance of the 1.5-megawatt fleet. GE’s customer support and remote monitoring centers in Schenectady, N.Y. and Salzbergen, Germany provide continuous monitoring and diagnostic services seven days a week. The mission of these centers is to increase equipment availability and reduce downtime and operational costs. In addition, GE has opened a parts operation center near Memphis, Tenn. with fleet-wide critical parts for overnight delivery, when needed.

As the penetration of wind-generated electricity grows, it is increasingly important that wind farms have the capability to contribute to power system stability. GE has developed several products for the 1.5-megawatt wind turbine that address this requirement, including Wind RIDE-THRU, which allows uninterrupted wind turbine operation through many types of grid disturbances.

“Since 2002, we have invested more than $800 million to drive reliable and efficient wind turbine technology,” said Abate. “Continuing this investment is part of our overall commitment to wind power, which will be an integral part of the world energy mix throughout the 21^st century.”

via GE