Links: University City Science Center pulls $9B, Philadelpians love gadgets and More

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

DEFINITE READS

• The University City Science Center rocks, or so a new study from the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia is saying. The largest urban research park in the country has a $9 billion impact on our region, the Business Journal reports. WHYY reports that more tech startups stick around in our region after being incubated by UCSC than other regional research parks see. The Inquirer’s Mike Armstrong reports that most of those firms that stuck around did so within Philadelphia, followed by Montgomery County as the second most popular end-all destination for companies incubated in University City.
• Armstrong also reports a series of nonprofits and task forces telling the city government what the heck they should be doing to foster a better business climate in the Phila-del-phia.

After the jump, a Conshohocken smart energy firm wants to boss the feds around, Philadelphians spend a lot on gadgets and four other tech tales, including our best read story of the week.

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Drexel boasts tech, with smart grid system and incubator entrants

The City Six school with the computer science cred boasted its tech influence from two different places in big ways in recent weeks.

Drexel University is planning on deploying a smart grid system that will provide real-time measurements of location-specific energy outputs across its 65-acre campus in University City, as reported by inTech yesterday. The real-time pricing technology, which will come from Conshohocken-based Viridity Energy, will give Drexel the wherewithal to purchase power at low-demand times of the day and sell excess power back to the general power grid for profit.

That bit of news followed an announcement from the school’s LeBow College of Business that three new startups were welcomed into its Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship business incubator, all with a touch of technology. The three new entrants are Ranter, a social-networking tool that allows users to text groups; Konnect.me, a business-to-business Web portal and Stabiliz Orthopaedics, which is developing bone fasteners with bio-absorbable materials, as first reported by Mike Armstrong of the Inquirer.

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