ADVANCED MANUFACTURING

Among a number of locations developing clusters focused on quantum computing are two of the 31 Tech Hubs designated last fall by the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

NEWS DIGEST

Brief stories look in on Microsoft’s billion-dollar data center and Eli Lilly’s $5.3 billion boost to an expansion already underway in Indiana; a Rocket Lab investment in Albuquerque; expansion at Toyota’s engine plant in Huntsville, Alabama; a new energy export facility in British Columbia; and Air Liquide’s new operation to support Micron’s growth in Boise, Idaho.

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Alexis Elmore documents the details behind projects from PT Indonesia and BTT New Material Group; Hisense Group; and Linglong Tire, all taken directly from the Conway Projects Database of facility investments by corporate end-users.
(Subscribe to the database here.)

Shanghai Tower was certified LEED-CS Platinum.

Archive image courtesy of Gensler

The American Chamber of Commerce in China reported last week that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council jointly issued guidelines on August 11 to accelerate “the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development,” aiming to achieve via a 33-point plan “a green, low-carbon and circular development economic system” by 2035.

The greening of a Chinese economy long typified as the world’s go-to location for dirty manufacturing has been happening for some time, trackable by the number of LEED-certified buildings (as documented in this 2016 online exclusive in Site Selection) and by reports like a 2011 study from Boston Consulting Group that predicted China, not the United States, would be the top country for electric vehicles.

AmCham China last week cited a South China Morning Post piece reporting that Beijing has for the first time put “a US$2 trillion price point” on the scale of China’s energy-conservation and environmental-protection industry by 2030.

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Alberto Urbina, dean of the Material Science and Smart Manufacturing Center of Excellence, speaks to a packed house in May at Houston Community College’s Commitment Signing Day.

Photo courtesy of Houston Community College

Goldie Blumenstyk, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, last week penned a compelling analysis of why the community college funding model in Texas, which ties funding to student outcomes, is compelling to a lot of stakeholders — and to a number of other states. Among the topics Texas has examined closely is third-party credentials. On that note, Blumenstyk drew attention to a new report backed by the Association of Community College Trustees and Lumina Foundation called “Funding Models for Community Colleges: How states fund credit-bearing, dual-enrollment and noncredit activity,” written by Amberly Dziesinski and Eunji You of the Student Success Through Applied Research Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Finally, she cites another group employers, students and economic development leaders will want to bookmark: the Postsecondary Employment Outcomes Coalition, comprising nearly 1,000 institutions from more than 30 states and founded by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Deputy Commissioner for Academic Affairs Dr. David Troutman.

Site Selection Publisher and Director Laura Lyne made this photograph late in the afternoon of April 14 along Mission Creek in the National Bison Range in Montana, looking eastward toward the Mission Mountains.