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After two phases of competition, 15 teams of college entrepreneurs have advanced to the finals of the 13th annual West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition. The 15 finalists hail from five colleges and universities in West Virginia, as the teams try to capture a grand prize of $10,000 in each of three categories of competition. The competition categories include STEM, Lifestyle & Innovation, and Hospitality & Tourism.

Among the many topics discussed at the third annual West Virginia Legislators’ Forum was how the state’s two largest universities are working together to build a new economy based on innovation. This was highlighted during a panel comprised of Javier Reyes, dean of West Virginia University’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics, and Avinandan Mukherjee, dean of Marshall University’s Lewis College of Business. During the panel, dean Reyes and dean Mukherjee detailed ways the two schools could foster innovation and economic diversity.

Much of the discussions held at the third annual West Virginia Legislators’ Forum on Education and the Economy on Tuesday, December 4, 2018 focused on preparing students for the realities of the modern economy. Several state legislators, educators, community leaders and members of the state Board of Education attended the forum at the Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place. The forum was organized by the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative, an organization founded in 2014 to address the state’s most pressing educational needs.

Science and technology juggernaut Leidos was awarded a potential five-year, $100 million task order to manage cyber and enterprise security operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fairmont facility and three others around the nation, company officials announced on Wednesday, November 28, 2018. According to the task order, along with the Fairmont location, the project will take place at Silver Spring, Maryland; Boulder, Colorado; and Washington, D.C. The new initiative will build upon the existing NOAA Cyber Security Center inside the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center at the I-79 Technology Park, as well as the other three locations.

West Virginia University has renamed its business school as the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, after WVU alumnus and chairman emeritus of global technology giant Cisco Systems Inc. Chambers and WVU also announced on Friday an agreement that will provide WVU “significant financial and intellectual resources” in the form of a gift of time, talent and treasure to support a recently announced start-up engine at the college. WVU held the announcement program at the Erickson Alumni Center.

As stakeholders partner across state lines in an effort to create a petrochemical hub in the tri-state area, those here are looking for ways to ensure that West Virginia comes out on top regarding developments related to a potential ethane cracker plant. Economic advisers, researchers, industrial leaders and others gathered Tuesday at Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack for a panel discussion on the economic outlook for Wheeling, the Mountain State, the larger region including Ohio and Pennsylvania and the rest of the nation.

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 members of higher education shared efforts underway at their institutions to try to shift the state forward during the The Small Communities, Big Solutions Conference. The conference was held at the BridgeValley’s Advanced Technology Center in South Charleston, WV and hosted by the Alliance for Economic Development of Southern West Virginia.

Educators, business and community leaders, as well as elected officials, recently got a chance to delve into machine learning and what some jobs of the future might hold during a special conference in Charleston. The city hosted Focus Forward: Preparing Today for the West Virginia of Tomorrow, which comes as part of the West Virginia Forward initiative, a collaboration between the state Department of Commerce, Marshall University and West Virginia University. Focus Forward allowed attendees to share thoughts on the impact machine learning and artificial intelligence will have on the Mountain State’s people, education and policies.

An op-ed by Brooks McCabe: West Virginia’s economy is on the rebound, and nowhere are the opportunities greater than in North Central West Virginia, especially at Fairmont’s I-79 Technology Park. The past 10 years have seen a major expansion of federal anchors locating within the park. Building upon NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation facility, the West Virginia High Technology Foundation has been able to recruit six major federal operations to the park. By reviewing these successes, one can begin to understand that a critical mass is forming that will provide a platform for even greater opportunities in the future.

The state’s designated economic prognosticator, Dr. John Deskins, gave a partly sunny outlook for the next five years: Growth in some areas of the state while other areas will continue to face economic weaknesses and population loss. Speaking to more than 200 West Virginia business and political leaders, Deskins, economist and director of WVU’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, painted “a picture of an uneven economic recovery” at the statewide Economic Outlook Conference in Charleston. The annual conference, now in its 25th year, takes a look at the West Virginia economy for the next five years, incorporating data and trends.