In This Issue

• Spotlight: University of Oregon’s University Center Uses Solar Eclipse to Springboard Planning for Economic Resiliency in the Beaver State
• Success Story: The University of Tennessee Helps Rural Communities Realize Untapped Assets
• Highlight: EDA Supports the University of Albany’s Work in Cybersecurity to Help Protect Businesses in the New York Region

Spotlight: University of Oregon’s University Center Uses Solar Eclipse to Springboard Planning for Economic Resiliency in the Beaver State

The August 2017 eclipse is seen in this NASA photo taken in Madras, Oregon.

On August 21, 2017, millions of Americans bore witness to a once-in-a-lifetime event: the first solar eclipse viewable across the entire mainland United States in nearly a century. Oregon, where the eclipse was first seen, realized an unprecedented surge of visitors as hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the Beaver State for days.

In Eugene, the University of Oregon’s University Center took a leading role in evaluating the state’s response to the eclipse and identifying key learnings that will help Oregon plan for the next big event.

The University of Oregon’s Economic Development Administration University Center (EDAUC) links the resources of the University of Oregon with communities across the state to enhance sustainable economic development. It began laying the groundwork for research into the public and private sector response to the eclipse in the spring of 2017 by developing two surveys.

A pre-event survey was administered to economic planners prior to the eclipse, and a post-event survey was deployed the following January. The two surveys were augmented by interviews that provided a qualitative dimension to quantitative data. The process concluded with a series of tabletop exercises enlisting critical stakeholders across the state.

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Success Story: The University of Tennessee Helps Rural Communities Realize Untapped Assets

Brainstorming assets and opportunities in Carter County, Tennessee

The University of Tennessee University Center (UTUC) has created an innovative planning process to assist local communities in realizing their economic potential. The UT Asset-Based Planning Program is specifically designed to identify all available assets and opportunities in order to best promote economic development.

Through the Asset-Based Planning Program, UTUC is partnering with two economic development organizations through this initiative – both the Tennessee Development Districts Association (TDDA) and Tennessee Economic and Community Development (TNECD) are committed to revitalizing local communities through economic development and quality-of-life services.

This partnership initiative began in 2016 with 44 at-risk counties, and today services 79 counties across the state. UTUC has conducted 142 planning sessions with a variety of community stakeholders, which have identified key community interests. In response, TNECD has awarded 105 competitive grants totaling more than $4.6 million to support these economic development plans. They have also incorporated this initiative into Tennessee’s ThreeStar Program, promoting economic and community prosperity across the state.

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Highlight: EDA Supports the University of Albany’s Work in Cybersecurity to Help Protect Businesses in the New York Region

EDA partnered with the University of Albany’s Forensics, Analytics, Complexity, Energy and Transportation Security (FACETS) Center through our University Center program in 2011 to foster cybersecurity innovation, public-private partnerships, and cyber job growth in the New York Capital District. This University Center is building an engine of economic growth through collaborations, research, entrepreneurial opportunities, and jobs in the field of cybersecurity.

The University’s Cyber Innovation Laboratory allows academic researchers and businesses to test their cyber defenses against different attacks such as malware, intrusion, and denial-of-service. The Lab supports research, industry innovation, and training via data collection servers and its own self-contained quarantined network to prevent malware from escaping into the global network.

Recently, researchers at The Lab collaborated with General Electric to understand behavioral triggers for identification of potential malicious insiders within an organization. In their approach, the team designed probes to trigger malicious users into action that can be detected. They created simulated conditions to reflect common insider motivations by asking subjects to roleplay an insider and test how they would respond to different scenarios and react to different probes.

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