Temple University receives $700k to support “urban apps and maps studio” and urban wireless network

Temple University has received two major grants totaling $700,000 to support a tech startup studio and an urban wireless network, as a press release announced this week.

The $500,000 grant from the Economic Development Administration will build an Urban Apps and Maps Studio meant to serve as a hub for creating software applications, maps and data sets and launching technology-based companies and jobs, says Fox School of Business spokesman Brandon Lausch. Temple also received nearly $200,000 from the National Science Foundation to serve as a test for campus and urban wireless networks as part of NSF’s Global Environment for Network Innovations, Lausch added.

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IBM Smarter Cities Challenge to support Freedom Rings initiative: Mayor Nutter [Video]

Nearly half a million dollars in consulting and technology support from IBM that yesterday were pledged to the City of Philadelphia are more about education than gadgets.

The Smarter Cities Challenge, announced fall 2010, is a three-year initiative from IBM that will spread $50 million in services and tools to 100 city governments in the world. In the next six months, a half dozen consultants from IBM will start landing in Philadelphia and 23 other cities in this the first year of the Smarter Cities Challenge. Philadelphia is the largest of eight U.S. cities chosen in this round.

“I want to thank IBM for the opportunity to help us work smarter and more strategically about how we tackle the many challenges that face this great city,” Nutter said a small press gathering Wednesday. “This will lay the groundwork to create a citywide strategy that uses technology to support literacy and workforce development programs.”

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IBM Smarter Cities Challenge: Philly one of 24 cities worldwide to win first piece of $50M

IBM today announced 24 winners of its Smarter Cities Challenge, the first of 100 cities worldwide that will receive $50 million in technology and services from the consulting giant.

Philadelphia is one of eight U.S. cities in this round of the program, which is planned as a three-year initiative. Mayor Nutter is holding a press conference this afternoon to share more details.

“IBM will send talent to help the city identify and streamline programs and services, worforce training, education training, digital literacy training,” city press aide Aviva Kievsky tells Technically Philly.

The program was first announced in November. Details can be found at CityForward.org and at SmarterCitiesChallenge.org.

Knight Art Challenge announces 63 finalists, including Indy Hall and theartblog

The Knight Arts Challenge announced 63 finalists for its Philadelphia call for 150-word grant applications.

See all of the finalists here, which include applications such as:

• African American Museum in Philadelphia: to share the unifying power of the arts by showcasing commissioned dance and gospel performances through free weekly concerts at the museum’s Seventh Street Plaza.
• Indy Hall: to strengthen the city’s creative community by turning an entire city block into a creative co-working community center.
• Kimmel Center: to use the arts to revitalize neighborhoods by transforming a vacant lot into a community center for performance art.
• theartblog.org: to broaden participation and excitement in the visual-art scene by creating a smart phone app that gives a comprehensive, up-to-date listing of Philadelphia art galleries.

[Full Disclosure: Yes, this author applied. No, he didn't win. Yes, he can still report on and think the Knight Arts Challenge rocks.]

Azavea wins $150k NSF grant to develop GIS speed processors

In a world in which technology is being chased into the clouds, Azavea‘s calling card is still local.

The geospatial analysis work from the Callowhill software development firm formerly known as Avencia requires so much time, memory and processing power that its application are tied to workstations, despite trends in recent years for companies to become more web based.

So Azavea and its founder Robert Cheetham are working for a change that could impact the field and its implications for geolocation, mapping and the like. Armed with a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant, Azavea will begin testing the feasibility of using graphics processing units, a type of specialized processor more often implemented for rendering complex video game graphics at increasing rates. The aim will be to substantially increase the performance of many GIS software operations.

That means the development and implementation of projects that rely on GIS functions can be improved, like its noted Walkshed project.

Read more about the company’s grant here.

The Hacktory receives $10,000 grant for long-term planning

Photo courtesy of The Hacktory.

The Hacktory has received a $10,000 grant from the Philadelphia branch of national financial and advisory service Nonprofit Finance Fund.

The money will be used to hire a consultant to help define a long-term sustainability plan to further the Fairmount-based group’s mission of promoting the use of technology in arts, Hacktory organizer Vanja Buvac told Technically Philly.

Since the grant was signed three weeks ago, Philly’s techno-hackers have been communicating with core community members and performing outreach for input on how the organization should grow, he says.

“What we’re hearing overwhelmingly is that the Hacktory empowers artists to embrace technology. Also, it empowers technologists to cross that boundary into art,” Buvac says.

“That’s what the people involved in the Hacktory are really passionate about.”

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