How does a full-time musician fall into a techy job at Penn State University? Kate Twoey says that due in part to the financial crisis of 2008, she took a day job to supplement her music career and she hasn’t looked back since.

Kate’s Work

For the past seven years, in addition to continuing her music career, Kate has worked as an Instructional Production Specialist for Penn State’s World Campus. The World Campus is PSU’s online learning platform that offers students all around the world the opportunity to earn certificates, Associate’s, Bachelor’s, and Master’s degrees from Penn State entirely online.

We caught up with Lee Erickson, Chief Amplifier of Happy Valley LaunchBox, for details about the fall and spring bootcamp sessions. She also shared some highlights from the last few months.

Click below for an exclusive interview with Lee Erickson and a closer look at the bootcamp sessions and her role at Happy Valley LaunchBox.

New Investment Showcase will move Brilliant Ideas from Imaginations to Markets

Invent Penn State is pleased to usher in an exciting new event—the first ever Invent Penn State Venture & IP Conference. The goal of the event is to bring together promising technology companies from across the country with investors seeking ground-floor investment opportunities. This is an exclusive forum for industry, investors, and start-ups to see disruptive innovations from Penn State’s faculty and student entrepreneurs as well as alumni start-ups. This inaugural event will showcase groundbreaking innovations, intellectual property, start-ups, and technology companies from sectors including life sciences, agriculture, energy, materials, advanced manufacturing, educational technology, and communications.

Learn more about what this conference means for the Centre Region.

Tucked away in a quiet corner of the Technology Center at Innovation Park, you’ll find the offices of Don McCandless and Jim Pietropaolo. Experts in technology start-ups, they serve as Directors of Business Development for Ben Franklin Technology Partners, an economic development program with 30+ years of experience helping technology companies grow.

McCandless and Pietropaolo are resources for start-ups that participate in the TechCelerator program (mentoring sessions to help launch technology-based start-ups) and for individuals who have intellectual property and are looking for business advice. They urge all researchers with an idea and intellectual property to utilize their services.

Keystone Nano Tests Promising New Cancer Treatments

Keystone Nano, a State College-based biopharmaceutical company, is developing new treatments in the fight against cancer and its new, potentially ground-breaking therapies could be available sooner rather than later.

The company is currently developing three different approaches to cancer therapy with products that address liver cancer, leukemia, and breast cancer.