WESTBOROUGH, MA – The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) at MassTech has announced the second group of municipalities that will benefit from the Commonwealth’s Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program, which provides strategic consultation to cities and towns to help them identify barriers to internet access, boost direct community engagement, and execute digital equity plans to close the digital divide. The program will fund technical assistance for 27 municipalities that will help uncover the best ways to leverage existing and potential future resources, build digital skills, and engage residents in order to expand internet access, affordability, and adoption in each community.
On June 15th, Boston-based myBiometry was the recipient of MeHI's $10,000 cash award for innovation at Boston Scientific's Connected Patient Challenge VII, administered by M2D2. myBiometry is a platform designed to remotely monitor and manage patients with asthma using software and biomarker data generated from proprietary sensors.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – Today, seven companies pitched their innovative digital products to promote healthy aging to judges at the finale of the Healthy Aging Sandbox Challenge, a months-long competition run by MeHI, the Mass. eHealth Institute at MassTech. The finale, hosted at Cambridge-based venture firm The Engine, was the culmination of the first Sandbox Challenge, a virtual competition series that connects startups working to address key healthcare challenges with the Massachusetts digital health community, including world-class R&D centers across the state.
BOSTON — During an event at the White House today, President Biden, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and federal telecommunication leaders announced that Massachusetts will receive $147 million from the national Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program overseen by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The program will use $42 billion in federal funds to expand high-speed internet nationwide, including in Massachusetts and the other 49 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and other federal territories. Massachusetts Director of Federal Funds & Infrastructure Quentin Palfrey and Director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute at MassTech Michael Baldino attended the White House event.
LOWELL – Today, the Healey-Driscoll Administration announced a new $496,503 grant to Lowell-based production design firm RaGE Systems, an award from the Commonwealth’s Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2). The new grant will support the expansion of RaGE’s production of wireless solutions for the telecommunications, infrastructure, commercial, aerospace, and defense industries. UMass Lowell is the company’s academic partner on the project, creating a strong research and development collaboration in the region, which will help RaGE scale its manufacturing base and expand in both Lowell, and to a separate manufacturing facility in Newburyport, Mass.
WORCESTER – Over 250 community, business, and nonprofit leaders assembled at Worcester’s Union Station on Tuesday, June 13th, for Internet for All: Massachusetts Broadband & Digital Equity Summit, an event organized by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI). The event included talks and panels featuring community executives, government officials, labor representatives, industry speakers, and broadband and digital equity experts who spoke about best practices to deliver affordable, reliable high-speed internet access to citizens across Massachusetts.
BEDFORD — Governor Maura Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, and Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao joined executives from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to announce a $2,052,767 grant to the MITRE Corporation today to create BlueTech OCEAN (Open Collaborative Experimentation and Acceleration Network), a two-year project that will boost the state’s global leadership in ocean science, marine robotics, clean energy, and other game-changing marine industries.
WESTBOROUGH, MASS. – The Healey-Driscoll Administration and MassTech have awarded Western New England University (WNE) a $1.37 million Tech and Innovation Ecosystem grant to establish an incubator that will drive innovation in financial technology or fintech. WNE’s new Springfield-based FinTech Incubator will bolster talent development in the growing tech sector, fund new, on-campus computing infrastructure for hands-on learning opportunities and allow faculty and students to work directly with private sector companies and other financial sector organizations on real-world challenges.
WESTBOROUGH – The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech), a public economic development agency for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, has hired career intelligence and cybersecurity expert John Petrozzelli as the new director of its MassCyberCenter division. Petrozzelli brings a strong background from previous roles with managed services provider Magna5’s Boston office, as well as strong cyber and defense roles with both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Air Force. His mix of private- and public-sector experiences aligns closely with the mission of the MassCyberCenter, which was launched in September 2017 to enhance economic opportunities for the Massachusetts cybersecurity ecosystem, to strengthen the talent pipeline, and to bolster the cyber resiliency of the Commonwealth’s public and private-sector communities.