HIGHER ED NOTEBOOK

NCTC offers Web page building workshop

Northland Community and Technical College's Center for Outreach and Innovation is accepting registrations for a spring workshop titled "Building a Web Page."

The nine-hour workshop is set for 9 a.m. to noon March 18, 25 and April 1 in Room 703 on the Thief River Falls campus. The cost is $125.

This workshop is designed for beginners. The only skill necessary for this workshop is the ability to use a computer keyboard and the knowledge of saving and reopening computer files. Participants will learn how to place photographs on a Web page, create links on a Web page, basic formatting of text and the basics of HTML. No special software is needed. Laptops are provided.

The deadline to register is March 4. Call (218) 683-8649 or e-mail jenna.grabowska@northlandcollege.edu for more information.

Innovate ND finalists set

Seven Grand Forks teams are among 25 teams selected for the Innovate ND finals set for May 17-18 in Fargo. There were 107 teams at the start of competition.

The entrepreneurs and ideas include: Brian Osowski, AMKO Tax Exempt Fund LLC; David Dvorak, Field of View Aerial Imaging Company; Yong Hou, Clean Republic; Greg Johnson, Quick Diaper; Josh Goldade, SunAir Power LLC; Ryan Wanzek, ZoneMAP; and Ryan Maikowski, SIGNfyi.

The top 25 will attend the Business Plan Boot Camp on March 13 in Grand Forks. This event will help finalists develop their financial data and offer tips for pitching ideas to Innovate ND judges in the final round. The five Innovate ND Idea champions will be announced at the Innovate ND Awards Banquet on May 18 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fargo.

Enrollment up at Minot State

Minot State University reported its largest spring enrollment since 2006 with 3,477 students, a 4.7 percent increase compared with the past year.

Almost 80 percent, 2,713, of all spring 2010 students attending Minot State come from North Dakota. Enrollment numbers show a 6.3 percent increase in students from Ward County for a total of 1,896.

U of Mary names Italy campus chief

The University of Mary in Bismarck has named a director for its Italy campus.

Mott native Kathleen Crane has a bachelor's degree in liberal arts/premedicine from UND. She is set this spring to receive a master's degree in theological studies from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C.

Mary is offering students a chance to study art and music, theology, history and architecture in Italy, while paying the same tuition as they do in North Dakota. The Italy program will be launched this fall at a guest house and meeting center on the edge of Rome.

U of M signs organ license deal

The University of Minnesota has signed a license agreement to form a startup company to market organ-replacement technology developed by a university scientist.

The university said it recently signed an exclusive, global license deal with Miromatrix Medical Inc. to commercialize the work of Dr. Doris Taylor.

In 2008, Taylor's team got national attention when it announced that it had stripped a rat heart of its cells then repopulated the leftover cellular scaffolding and restarted the heart.

The university said the technology licensed to Miromatrix could one day result in scientists growing replacement organs for patients in a laboratory.

Under the agreement, the university will get equity in the new company as well as future royalty and sublicensing fees.

3M donates patents to U of M

Maplewood-based 3M Corp. has donated some royalty-paying patents to the University of Minnesota's law school and Office for Technology Commercialization.

The university estimates the patents will generate about $2 million over the next five years, which will be divided between the law school and the OTC.

Law School Dean David Wippman said the money will support the new 3M Fund for Law, Science and Technology at the school. The fund will support research and education.

Raymond Eby is a manager in 3M's Corporate Development Group. He said the company believes great legal scholarship and education are critical to developing sound public policy.

The OTC protects and licenses university-developed technologies. It also develops university technologies with startup potential.

U of M changes pelvic exam lesson

The University of the Minnesota Medical School is changing how its students learn one of their more nerve-racking lessons, the pelvic exam.

Historically, the students have practiced on paid demonstrators, but the university has recently switched to mannequins in an effort to save money.

Each year, the school spends more than $150,000 to hire and train the practice patients.

But starting this semester, second-year students will learn the lecture material online and will use the mannequins for their pelvic training.

Assistant Professor Dr. Jan van Dis said many students think the change will diminish their education, but she said there's no way to know if that's true.

She said the university will study the change and could switch back if it doesn't work.