Innovation
02 January 2008
Innovation Nation
A Selection of Innovative Cities in the United States
From small towns, to big, bright metropolitan areas in the United States, businesses, local governments, scientists and everyday people are developing innovations that are making people's lives healthier, easier, more prosperous or simply more interesting. Here is a sampling of the innovation hot spots in the United States.
San Francisco: High-Tech Innovation
Silicon Valley, located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area, got its name from the large number of silicon computer chip manufacturers located in the area.
The area, which became famous during the high-tech boom of the 1990s, remains the high-tech hub of the United States. Innovative companies such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, and eBay have taken root there, as well as scores of small technology and digital-media companies, and venture capitalists.
In 2006, California residents (private and corporate) received 15 percent of the all patents issued in the United States.
Seattle: Business Model Innovation
Seattle and its suburbs are home to Microsoft, which revolutionized the computer software industry; Starbucks, which grew from a single store in 1970 to the largest coffeehouse company in the world; and Amazon.com, one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet. Online search engine Google has three offices in the area.
The city’s spirit of creative, freewheeling entrepreneurship is reflected in these firms, and Seattle remains a welcoming environment for unorthodox business pioneers.
The Boeing Company, an aircraft manufacturer, maintains two plants near Seattle and is the largest private employer in the metropolitan area.
Boise, Idaho: Job Innovation
Boise, the largest city in Idaho, is the commercial and financial center of the region in the United States known as the Northern Rockies.
One of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the nation, Boise led the United States in per capita job growth in 2006. Large employers such as Micron Technology, Hewlett-Packard and startup companies continue to create jobs in the area.
The Wall Street Journal in 2006 named Boise one of the “Most Inventive Towns in America.”
Austin, Texas: Work Force Innovation
Seventy-five percent of the city’s residents are under age 45, and nearly 50,000 students attend the University of Texas at Austin.
One Austin company, Applied Materials, is taking advantage of the young population and hiring only college graduates to make machines used in manufacturing semiconductors. By doing so, as manufacturing jobs become more complicated, Applied Materials -- and Austin -- will have a growing supply of workers” with knowledge in the field.
Austin also has the most places per capita in the United States where the public can access the Internet for free.
Chicago: Environmental Innovation
Chicago is well known as a U.S. leader in transportation, telecommunications and finance. Over the last few years, Chicago also has become a leader in environmental innovations.
Chicago has 233,000 square meters of heat-reducing “green roofs,” layers of vegetative matter that grow directly on roof tops. This is more than all other U.S. cities combined. Millennium Park, a $475 million state-of-the-art example of modern urban green space, opened in 2004.
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina: Research Innovation
From microbiologists to software designers, this area is home to highly educated professionals and employees working for the numerous large companies -- like IBM -- that have established their major research facilities in Raleigh-Durham.
With one of the highest per capita concentrations of doctorate degree holders in the United States, it is close to three major universities: Duke University, University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University.
Northern Virginia: Communications Innovation
Benefiting from its proximity to the nation’s capital and several excellent universities, the northern Virginia technology corridor is home to more than 1,000 high-tech companies, both startups and mature sector leaders.
Their endeavors encompass a wide range of industries: software/hardware development, Internet technology, telecommunications, biotechnology, bioinformatics, aerospace and nanotechnology. Companies with innovation centers in Northern Virginia include AOL, the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), CISCO, Deloitte, Northrop Grumman, Unisys and many others.
New York: Digital Innovation
In recent years, the areas of New York City known as “Silicon Alley” -- Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island -- have supported the growth of a $9.2 billion high tech and “new media” (communicating with consumers primarily through the Internet) industry.
The program, Digital NYC, assists with the construction and remodeling of affordable locations with ready access to the Internet. As a result, New York City offers businesses hundreds of thousands of kilometers of installed fiber optic cable enabling swift communication with worldwide clients.
Boston: Biotechnology Innovation
Home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and other top schools, the Boston metropolitan area attracts many high-tech industries, including biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies like Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co., Millipore, Genzyme and Biogen Idec. Teradyne, one of the world's leading producers of semiconductor and other electronic test equipment, also is headquartered near Boston.
The area has been a business incubator for many new high-tech ventures including David Berry’s Flagship Ventures, which works with biotechnology companies. Local universities, especially MIT, serve as testing grounds for some of the most groundbreaking ideas. (More)
