- The robot uses a radar system developed at Boise State, and two graduate students are in Greenland to test it and gather data.

Learn more at Boise State UPDATE.

- With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Jennifer Forbey and colleagues are studying how the quality of sagebrush as food influences two wildlife species.

Read more at Boise State University News.

- Dr. Allan Albig’s work examines the interactions between the body’s cells and the connective tissues that surround them.

Read more at Boise State University News.

The current issue of Explore, Boise State’s flagship research magazine, is now available as a free iPad App from the iTunes App Store.

The magazine features stories about faculty recipients of prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER awards, doctoral student research, the impact of computer science programs, and how local collaborations strengthen the university and community. The iPad app incorporates interactive features including web links and videos that readers can access with a quick click or swipe.

Explore magazine also is available online by clicking here.

The magazine, published earlier this year, is produced by the Division of Research and Economics with support from the Office of Communications and Marketing.

A growing number of Idaho college students want to break the mold, and Boise State University wants to help them do it.

The university is announcing the innovative new Venture College, which will bring a select group of students out of the classroom and into the heart of Idaho’s business community, where industry leaders and entrepreneurs will guide them as they start their own businesses and nonprofits.

“Venture College is yet another way that Boise State is developing new education models that prepare our students to excel in a changing workplace,” said Boise State President Bob Kustra. “By helping prepare our students to become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and leaders, Venture College is supporting economic development in the Boise Valley.”

Led by business executives, Venture College offers students an opportunity to compete for limited start-up funding and invaluable experience. The non-credit program is open to full-time students from any major and is accepting applications this spring for the first class, which will be admitted for the Fall 2013 semester. The main requirements: entrepreneurial drive and a great idea.

“You don’t join this program to get a job, you join it to make a job,” said Mark Rudin, Boise State’s vice president for research and economic development, whose division will administer Venture College.

Students who complete the program will receive a Venture College Badge, a new way to measure achievement being implemented by a number of universities across the country.

Kevin Learned, who created Idaho’s first commercial software company and co-founded two angel capital funds that invest in Idaho entrepreneurs, is the program’s director. Learned served as president of the College of Idaho from 1999 to 2003 and is a former professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at Boise State.

Ed Zimmer, who as CEO grew the ECCO Group from 20 employees to the world’s largest manufacturer of back-up alarms and warning lights for commercial vehicles – with more than 500 employees in Boise, England and Australia – was named associate director, along with Mary Andrews, director of the Office of University and Industry Ventures at Boise State.

Local business leaders and entrepreneurs, called Venture College Angels, will guide the program. Key elements include individual coaching from experts, weekly colloquiums and opportunities for internships.

“Venture College is designed to help students gain skills such as communications, critical thinking and creativity that are needed for success in the 21st century,” Learned said. “Some students will apply those to launching and growing a new enterprise; others will add value as employees of entrepreneurial firms they will join after graduating from Boise State.”

For more about Venture College visit venturecollege.boisestate.edu.

Tonight: President Kustra, Mark Rudin and other university leaders will be on hand for an official launch of Venture College at 5:30 p.m. at the Stueckle Sky Center. Media are welcome to attend. Please contact Greg Hahn at 426-5391 orgreghahn@boisestate.edu if you plan to come by.

Media Contact: Greg Hahn, Associate Vice President for Communications and Marketing, (208) 426-5391,greghahn@boisestate.edu

Online at: http://news.boisestate.edu/recent-headlines

About Boise State University

A public metropolitan research university with more than 22,000 students, Boise State is proud to be powered by creativity and innovation. Located in Idaho’s capital city, the university has a growing research agenda and plays a crucial role in the region’s knowledge economy and famed quality of life. In the past 10 years, the university has quadrupled the number of doctoral degrees, doubled its masters degrees and now offers 13 online degree programs. Learn more atwww.BoiseState.edu.

From prevention to diagnosis to treatment, researchers tackle the complexities of cancer from many angles. Boise State University biology professor Allan Albig is working in a relatively new area that examines the interactions between the body’s cells and connective tissues that surround them. Unraveling their mysteries could hold promise for slowing or stopping the growth of cancerous tumors.

Click here to learn more.

NSF Award supports supercomputing and visualization infrastructure:

Boise State researchers are generating astonishing amounts of data, but often face obstacles when it comes to effectively accessing and analyzing that data. That’s about to change, now that a collaborative group of Boise State University faculty from engineering, biological sciences, geosciences and computer science have received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build a new high-performance computing and visualization instrument.

When the project is completed, researchers across multiple disciplines will have access to vastly improved capabilities for tackling large computational problems.

http://news.boisestate.edu/blog/nsf-awards-boise-state-research-team-555384-for-supercomputing-and-visualization-infrastructure/

Chances are, when someone mentions “extreme challenge,” your first thought is not computer programming. But that’s exactly what Boise State College of Engineering students found themselves in the middle of, along with 1,900 teams from around the world, in last Saturday’s IEEEXtreme 6.0 programming competition.

http://news.boisestate.edu/update/2012/11/06/engineering-students-finish-in-top-fifth-in-global-competition/

The Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission is a statewide initiative to create new enterprises and high-paying jobs in Idaho’s knowledge economy by increasing strategic areas of research and development through targeted partnerships.

Overview of IGEM

Sagebrush steppe focus of Andrew Austreng’s research

One of the most promising ways to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is right under our feet. Trapping carbon and storing it as organic matter in the soil is simple and inexpensive because plants do the work.

Graduate student Andrew Austreng’s thesis, “The Carbon Budget Impact of Sagebrush Degradation,” details results of research that shows that restoring cheatgrass-degraded sagebrush grasslands, or sagebrush steppe, by reestablishing native shrubs and grasses could remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as that produced by 100 million Americans in one year.

For more information, click here