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Economic Impact (EI) of the MS Aquarium in the City of Gulfport
USM researchers were asked to prepare
an economic impact study of the proposed Mississippi Aquarium for the City of Gulfport and Gulfport Redevelopment Commission including a tourist spending behavior study. The research was led by Dr. Sungsoo Kim, College of Business Assistant Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management, and Economic Development graduate students Obie McClure and Kristen Mitchell.
The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of tourists' expenditures on the local economy (i.e., local earnings). Researchers spent five months conducting intercept surveys to collect and analyze tourism spending data to determine visitor spending habits relative to the MS Aquarium. The results will be used as part of overall planning for the MS Aquarium.
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Research Sought on Higher Education/Military Nexus
Targeted Call for Submissions in the
Journal of Economic Development in Higher Education: Higher Education and the Department of Defense. Many higher education institutions across the country have close ties with defense and military programs. Some institutions are in close proximity to military bases or installations, while others have extensive sponsored research relations with the military or the defense industry. This issue attempts to extend the base of knowledge on how higher education/military interactions influence human capital formation; research and innovation; and quality-of-place strategies that make communities attractive places to live, work, operate businesses, and raise families.
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Retired Major General Blount Speaks to Southern Miss Students
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USM's new Hacking for Defense (H4D) program kicked off with an introductory social event in which students heard from guest speaker and advisor Major General, (Ret.) Buford Blount III during a special presentation last week on the Hattiesburg campus. Blount is a Southern Miss graduate and was commissioned from the ROTC program as an armor officer in 1971.
Blount addressed H4D students concerning his personal experiences with new technologies and equipment in the field of service which caught the attention of the students, facility, and staff in attendance.
The H4D course, which begins this summer, will be administered through the Interdisciplinary Studies for Undergraduate and Graduate Students at USM. The course seeks to provide students with hands-on experience in understanding and working with the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Intelligence Community (IC) on actual problems they encounter.
Students will learn how to innovate in real time and to deploy solutions using lean methods to solve national security problems. Currently, the focus of the H4D class is solving DOD and IC problems. However, USM will include DHS problems in its curriculum, in hopes of discovering dual-purpose solutions. The approach is very general and can embrace the challenges faced by a range of organizations that measure their success, not in terms of revenue and profit, like most private sector companies, but rather, by mission achievement and creating public value for their constituents. For more information on the course visit the website
here. To read the full article on Southern Miss now,
click here.
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