December 9, 2023
Northwest
Detecting Dementia
Researchers at the Florida State University College of Medicine have identified a potential low-cost method for predicting if a person is at risk of developing dementia.
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Published on 11/30/2023
A Bridge Too Far
A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that contractor Skanska was negligent in its response to Hurricane Sally in 2020 when more than two dozen of its barges in Pensacola Bay broke loose from their moorings, causing massive damage to the $400-million bridge it was building.
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Published on 10/25/2023
Making Progress
As Florida focuses on growing its economy, experts say one of the most productive places to expand is in manufacturing. The sector pays about 117% of average annual wages in Florida, creates both blue and white-collar jobs and has one of the highest multiplier effects for return on investment. Every $1 in manufactured goods produces $3.60 across all other sectors.
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Published on 10/17/2023
Quick Fix
As Pensacola grapples with an affordable housing crisis, local leaders are looking at repurposing an aging motel to help tackle the problem.
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Published on 9/30/2023
Permanent Anchor
Pensacola has received a $3.9-million grant from the state to build a headquarters for the American Magic sail racing team at the city's port. The state grant will be coupled with an $8.5-million grant from Triumph Gulf Coast, a non-profit that doles out funds recovered from fines related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
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Published on 8/27/2023
All Hands on Deck
Leon County officials, concerned over closings and delays of Amazon's national network of distribution centers, are now more optimistic that the e-commerce giant's $200-million Tallahassee fulfillment center is on track to open later this year.
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Published on 7/27/2023
Flood Zone Option
Some flood insurance policyholders in Panama City, seeing their household budgets squeezed by the steady rise in premiums, now have another option.
Under the state's federally funded Rebuild Florida Voluntary Home Buyout Program, they can sell their homes at fair market value to the city.
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Published on 6/23/2023
Beating the Heat
A team of FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers at the High-Performance Materials Institute in Tallahassee has conducted experiments that prove a compound of boron nanotubes can withstand temperatures up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Published on 5/25/2023
Smart Cane
Bay County high school students Henry Jiang and Walker Verenakis have created a prototype aid for the visually impaired. Both seniors at North Bay Haven Charter Academy in Panama City, the two have invented a digital ultrasound walking cane.
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Published on 4/26/2023
Skeleton Crew
The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition's robotics team is making significant advancements in two new exoskeleton projects: Quix and Eva.
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Published on 3/27/2023
Red Carpet for Foreign Companies
“Pursuing foreign direct investment is a very important strategy in our efforts to attract new industries and diversify our economy here in Northwest Florida. If you're just concentrating on U.S. companies, you are competing against every other city and county economic development agency. And while that competition is fine, and we will always continue to do that, when you open it up to a worldview perspective, it really allows us to attract additional foreign capital investment that creates good, high-paying jobs.”
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Published on 3/1/2023
Drones to the Rescue
University of West Florida professor Hakki Erhan Sevil has developed a novel “swarm navigation” model for small drones to assist response teams in emergency situations.
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Published on 2/28/2023
Northwest Florida's economic forecast for 2023
“For the most part, companies are hiring, but as they go into 2023, they are still hurting for people. I went to a conference recently, and I learned that in the health care field there is one nurse for every 10 open positions. In the hospitality industry, it is one person for every six job openings. It's getting better, but it's still very painful for many industries. So, a lot of companies are trying to fill the gap with automation, and inevitably everybody is going to have to go there out of desperation. Many companies have resisted doing that, but they have got to find a way to close the job gap and perhaps consider going down the artificial intelligence path. Perhaps using AI to search through resumes for keywords and things of that nature. We're a very personalized relationship-driven business, so we don't want to damage our interpersonal relationships by being too abstract or too distant or too techie, but we have had a really hard time, especially following COVID, finding quality people for quality jobs.”
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Published on 1/1/2023
Construction underway for Leon County's $24-million business incubator
Construction underway for Leon County's $24-million business incubator
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Published on 12/31/2022
Baptist Health Care's $650-million Pensacola hospital to open next fall
In a recent interview with FLORIDA TREND, Mark Faulkner, president and CEO of Baptist Health Care, talked about BHC's $650-million hospital and 57-acre campus in Pensacola.
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Published on 12/30/2022
Sky Dreamer drone project gives students opportunity to discover, develop new technologies
Fort Walton Beach-based Hsu Educational Foundation has launched a student-oriented project called Sky Dreamer.
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Published on 11/30/2022
Tallahassee-based Applied Fiber's high-performance cables are vital component of NASA's James Webb Telescope
Tallahassee-based Applied Fiber's high-performance cables are a key component of NASA's James Webb Telescope. The company supplied Northrop Grumman, a NASA contractor, with nearly 200 cable assemblies used in the sunshields that protect the lens from extreme temperatures. The company began work with Northrop Grumman on the project more than 13 years ago.
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Published on 10/31/2022
BellaBots robot waiters are here to take your orders
A Pensacola restaurant has found a futuristic way to overcome staffing shortages that continue to challenge the nation's restaurants.
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Published on 9/12/2022
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers developing tool to predict hurricane debris road blocks
A team of researchers from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering is looking to remote-sensing technology to find better ways of predicting where road clogging debris will be most severe following hurricanes.
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Published on 8/25/2022
University of West Florida psychology professor James Arruda develops early Alzheimer's disease detection device
James Arruda's EEG device sends optical pulse signals to a patient's eyes then measures brain activity responses.
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Published on 6/30/2022
Elevate Waste Solutions saves commercial customers from incurring penalties
Elevate Waste Solutions saves commercial customers, such as restaurants, strip malls and apartment complexes, penalties imposed by large trash service companies when dumpsters are filled beyond capacity or contain large objects like mattresses or other bulky items...
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Published on 5/31/2022
Northwest Florida's four major airports all had record traffic in 2021
Airport Director Matt Coughlin attributes much of the growth to a jump in tourism brought on, in large part, by the airlines marketing Pensacola...
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Published on 5/31/2022
FSU alum Joshua Esnard won a $300K partnership deal with Shark Tank investor
INNOVATION
A Cut Above
Florida State University alumnus Joshua Esnard, inventor of The Cut Buddy, a hair and beard grooming device, recently reached a $300,000 investment partnership deal from ABC’s...
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Published on 4/13/2022
The state of banking
Stephen A. LeMay is an associate professor at the University of West Florida's College of Business. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in finance, marketing, banking and computer literacy and supply chain logistics. He spoke to FLORIDA TREND about the state's banking and finance industries...
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Published on 4/13/2022
Innovation Park of Tallahassee has named two winners of cash grants
Innovation Park of Tallahassee has named two winners of cash grants under its TechGrant Competition program. Manser Edbrooke Technology, which won first place and $15,000, develops prototypes that give customers the ability to explore and refine concepts for products and demonstrate features before paying to fully develop the product...
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Published on 3/15/2022
