February 18, 2021 | 11:30 am - 1:00 pm
The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) is proactively soliciting interest in Smart Communities projects throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have several programs to support innovation in Smart Technologies, including grants and seed-stage funding opportunities. CIT Smart Communities is the team that helps entrepreneurs and stakeholders move Smart ideas, innovations, and inventions through the testing and pilot phases to prepare them for commercialization, funding, and success in the market. CIT Smart creates opportunities through facilitating partnerships, research support, raising capital, and community development. The goal is to connect public and private resources so that Virginia can more quickly realize the value and benefits of Smart Communities initiatives for our citizens, businesses, non-profits, and visitors.
For example:
- You may have heard that Stafford County partnered with CIT to help define "Smart" for the new "Smart" Downtown Stafford. CIT helped with the vision and plan and is an active part of ongoing project execution through pilot funding and technical expertise. (How did that get started? Read about what sparked it: Stafford targeted to become Virginia's first Smart Community)
- The Fredericksburg Riverfront Park. CIT has worked with city planners and IT staff to help design and define what will make the park "Smart." Solutions include fiber conduit replacing electric conduit to save costs, a leading-edge electronics package for the lighting poles to support Wi-Fi access, cameras, sensors, and built-in room for future technology growth. Plans for a concert area and informational kiosk and integration to the city IT infrastructure are also focal points of this project.
Let's discuss what we want to plan for our Shenandoah Valley!? What project lends itself? Autonomous shuttles? IoT for public safety?
Let's prep:
1. What is the difference between a Smart Community and a Smart City?
A Smart Community is a town, suburb, rural area, county, or city that uses a variety of technologies to enhance the quality of life. A Smart City is just one example of a Smart Community. Smart Communities employ technology to address unique local needs such as improving government services, boosting performance and lowering costs, lessening environmental impacts, and bettering where we work, live, and play. The benefits of Smart Communities come from new technology-based job opportunities, new public services, and cost efficiencies of using data proactively to address local issues. These benefits are the result of better access to broadband networks, sensor-driven data, analytics, and newly enabled information applications. Smart Communities
are the building blocks for smart regions, states, and countries
2. CIT SMARTSmart Community pilot projects rely on "Community-Driven Innovation" to identify topics relevant to each community and connect commercial technology partners to demonstrate solutions. CIT Smart helps coordinate the Community-Driven process by jointly developing a technology vision with the community, establishing partnerships, and providing pilot project funding. Smart Communities VA - Program Overview
About Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA)
The Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA) was established in 2020 to support the life cycle of innovation, from translational research; to entrepreneurship; to pre-seed and seed-stage funding; as well as acceleration, growth, and commercialization, resulting in the creation of new jobs and company formation. The Authority provides a collaborative, consistent, and consolidated approach that will assist the Commonwealth in identifying its entrepreneurial strengths, including the identification of talents and resources that make the Commonwealth a unique place to grow and attract technology-based businesses.
About the Speaker
 Mr. Ihrie has over 40 years industry experience as a direct innovator in the fields of satellite and terrestrial communication, computing, and information science, and has been a principal in seven startup companies. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, Mr. Ihrie has helped build four national scale business accelerators for the Intelligence Community, for DHS, and in the areas of cybersecurity and smart cities. Currently he is leading the Virginia Strategic Initiatives portfolio including Smart Communities initiatives, the Virginia Unmanned Systems Center at CIT and the SCITI Labs program with DHS Science & Technology focused on public safety capabilities. Mr. Ihrie has a Master of Science degree in Business from MIT, specializing in the Management of Technological Innovation, and a B.S. from MIT in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science.
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Seeking Volunteers for Harrisonburg FIRST LEGO League Tournament on Sat., February 6
**ENTIRELY ONLINE**
 
The Harrisonburg FIRST LEGO League Regional tournament is in need of volunteers to referee and judge for the upcoming competition on Saturday, February 6th. This year the competition will be entirely online; teams will be sending in videos and meeting virtually with judges to compete to go to the Championship event. In order to help this event run smoothly, we need a number of people to help volunteer to ref and judge the day of the event, ~8:30am-3:30pm. If you are interested in volunteering for this event, please follow the following instructions by Friday, January 15th. If you have any questions about volunteering, please email Emily Winter at winterea@jmu.edu.
Sign up to Volunteer for the virtual Harrisonburg FLL Tournament
- Go to https://flltournament.com
- Click "Sign Up to Volunteer at a Tournament"
- Select VA in the Region/Country dropdown
- Locate VA/DC FLL RePLAY Regional Qualifier 5 (Harrisonburg) and click "Volunteer"
- Fill out form and click "Submit"
- Complete Online Consent Form
- Go to https://my.firstinspires.org/AccountManager/Account/Register
- Fill out registration form or login
- Go to Dashboard
- Go to Volunteer Registration
- Click on Event Volunteering
- Search for Harrisonburg Regional Qualifier
- Fill out form
- Begin Youth Protection Screening
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Entrepreneurs of the Shenandoah Valley creating community...one cup of coffee at a time
(next meeting 2/10)
2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month | 8am | Virtual
Based on the idea that entrepreneurs solve problems and engage with their communities over copious amounts of morning coffee, the Staunton Creative Community Fund (SCCF) is starting a morning "check-in" for entrepreneurs across the Valley. Participants will brainstorm with two local entrepreneurs at each meeting, and meetings will be virtual until in-person gatherings are possible.
This is an incredible opportunity for you as entrepreneurs to establish a supportive space for testing, tweaking, or simply validating your ideas, while also becoming connected to similarly diverse, driven members of your community.
The next upcoming meeting will occur on February 10, 2021.
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February 6-27, 2021 (Saturdays) | 9 am - 12 noon
Memorial Hall, James Madison University
College for Kids provides an enriching, educational, and fun experience for children in grades 1st-8th. Children work with JMU faculty and students, as well as experts from the community, to explore and discover talents they never knew they had!
Winter 2021 College for Kids will take place on Saturdays from February 6th - 27th. This program will be held in person. Your child's safety is our greatest priority, therefore all children will be required to wear a mask, and we will be practicing guidelines in keeping with CDC recommendations. See safety protocol here.
Course options include, but not limited to:
- Learning to Be a Mad Scientist (1st - 4th Grades) - Science is a whole world of curiosity. In this class, we will learn all about the science that is in our world around us. We will have fun getting to be hands-on and experimenting with science.
- Lego Engineering (1st - 4th Grades) - This class is for young Lego enthusiasts who are ready to delve into the world of engineering and computer coding. Each week, students will be presented with a different LEGO Engineering challenge designed to spark their creativity and put their technical problem solving skills to work. Participants will also get to work in teams to build and program Lego robots using the We-Do Lego curriculum.
- Instrument Construction Projects (6th - 8th Grades) - Have you ever wanted to make your own musical instrument? Get your hands ready to create a rainstick, thunder tube, didgeridoo, and more! Learn how different materials create unique sounds. Construct musical projects to take home and perform. We will even add some technology to a lesson to see how computers and technology can make everyday objects become musically alive!
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February 17, 2021 | 3 pm - 4 pm
Working from home has presented new challenges for companies that depend on bridging the digital-paper divide. In this webinar, you'll learn about the latest solutions that will help you to stay efficient and organized -- whether working in the office, from home, or elsewhere.
E-N Computers has helped Virginia businesses succeed with innovative IT solutions for more than 23 years. And Shenandoah Valley Office Equipment has supported the area's businesses with their printing, copying and faxing needs for more that 75 years. Listen as experts from ENC and SVOE, along with Kyocera Document Solutions, explain how the latest office machines and IT infrastructure can enable your business in a changing landscape.
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February 26, 2021 | 5:30 pm | Innovault, Winchester
Reserve your seat as an audience participant by getting one of the Attend tickets or apply to pitch by getting one of the Apply to Pitch Tickets.
Pitch Applicants Do you have a business idea but you're just not sure how or where to begin? Do you know there's an opportunity to scale your current business but just need some expert advice or funding to get you there? Do you have questions about patents, intellectual property, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, getting investors? This is your opportunity to pitch your idea for a new Product, Service, Business OR your idea to scale your current business to a panel of business experts and investors! Innovault, Winchester's Idea LaunchPad, TechTeam, Virginia's IT Support Experts, and Crystel Clear Business Strategies, Virginia's Most Sought After High-Performance Business Coach is launching Pitch Night 2021!
3 Selected entrepreneurs (and or people with cool or crazy ideas) will be provided with - Live training, (via Zoom) with Alex Skinner, economic anthropologist, CFO of startup IP Haus, and Founder of InnoVault Coworking, through his proven Pitch Masterclass
- Alex's step by step template to creating and perfecting your pitch
- Opportunity to Pitch to Investors, Entrepreneurs, Financial Gurus and other Business Experts
- Feedback from the experts
- Exposure on any of the following media platforms utilized for Pitch Night 2021
- Social Media
- Television
- Radio
- Newspaper
The winner of Pitch Night 2021 will receive: - One-Month of business coaching with High-Performance Business Coach and Best-Selling Author, Crystel Lynn Smith ($1,200.00 value)
- One -Year Flex-Time Membership at Winchester's sought after Innovault ($2,388 value)
- AND $1,000!
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Pharrell Williams, Georgia Tech, and Amazon invite you to engage your students in an inspiring new learning experience that explores the ways music, computer science, and entrepreneurship can be tools to advance racial equity.
Students explore how computer science, music, and entrepreneurship can advance equity. Using Georgia Tech's EarSketch platform, students code a 30 second - 3 minute musical remix using Pharrell's new song "Entrepreneur". Submitted remixes will be judged based on quality of music, code, and messaging by a panel of industry professionals.
Students can compete with their class or on their own from January 15 to June 4, 2021. Five students will win a $5,000 scholarship or grant to start a business, and five teachers will receive $1,000 for above and beyond instruction.
There will be two rounds:
- Round one opens on January 19, 2021 and closes March 12, 2021
- Round two opens on March 15, 2021 and closes June 4, 2021
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March 3 - 31, 2021 (Wednesdays) | 1: 00 pm - 3:30 pm
JMU Ice House, Harrisonburg
Curious? Competitive? Detailed? Enjoy using computers and machines? If you answered yes to any of these, this exciting robotics camp is for you! Each day you'll use the latest robotic arm technology to learn a variety of technical skills required to complete robotic task challenges that will have your heart racing!
All children will be required to wear a mask, and the camp will be practicing guidelines in keeping with CDC recommendations. Students may not participate unless they are symptom free per CDC guidelines.
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Looking for a grant to help start up your FLL team? Each year, the Shenandoah Valley Technology Council sponsors up to three new FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams from the Shenandoah Valley. Approximately half of the start-up cost of a new team is reimbursed, up to $350.
To be eligible, teams must be located in the footprint of the Shenandoah Valley Technology Council's area of operation. Applicants must also intend participate in the FLL competition within one year of receiving the grant. This grant can be used towards any equipment required for competition in FIRST LEGO League, including one or more LEGO robotics kits, a competition practice table, and an FLL field setup kit.
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FLL was created through a partnership between FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and the LEGO company and inspires future scientists and engineers. it is an international competition that challenges young participants to think like scientists and engineers. Every year FLL introduces kids to a real-world scientific topic, and teams are challenged to find a solution. They also build a robot and compete in a friendly, FIRST-style robotics event specially designed for their age group.
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| | FIRST LEGO League Challenge RePLAY | Season Launch Video |
About the local / Virginia league: Your state and local -Virginia and Shen. Valley- connection to FLL is VA-DC FLL (https://va-dcfll.org/), located in Harrisonburg. Virginia is one of the largest leagues in the world with over 600 teams. Start a conversation with Kaitlin and crew and see how you can get involved, right here in the Shen. Valley. (https://va-dcfll.org/who-we-are/)
Science and technology leaders are made, not born.
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Have a Virtual Technology Event?
We'll Share it in our Newsletter and Calendar!
Are you a local tech meetup/user-group or organization hosting a virtual tech event
within the Shenandoah Valley?
With the recent impacts of COVID-19, we're looking to help promote all of the Valley's technology community events that have now gone digital by adding them to our newsletter and calendar (our publicity).
Click the button below to share your event!
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Shenandoah Valley Open Tech Jobs
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Full Stack Ruby Engineer, Showcase IDX | Fully Remote
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Principal Software Engineer, Sproutly | New Market
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3D Developer - AR Support, The Scylla Group | Winchester
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Front End Developer, The Scylla Group | Winchester
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Solder Technician, VIRTEX | Waynesboro
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IT Operations Technician, Segra | Waynesboro
GOT ADDITIONAL JOBS THAT SHOULD BE PUBLICIZED? SEND US A NOTE AND WE'LL PUBLICIZE THEM.
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Participate in the local tech conversation: Rocktown Tech (Slack)
Currently there are 18 channels and over 450 members. Sign-up
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SVTC MEMBERS INVITATION: DISPLAY YOUR MEMBERSHIP STATUS
Membership Badge Available
Use our new graphic on your own website (and remember to link back to our website www. svtc-va.org!)
Choose the graphic file of your choice:
Let us know when you incorporate this graphic and we'll mention your site in return!
Examples:
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The Shenandoah Valley Technology Council does not endorse the companies, organizations, teams, or events mentioned, or take a stand on any of the articles or notices or events included.
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Silver Level Member
Level III Members
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>> Ready to become a member, too? Membership Benefits
& Prices >> How have you benefited from participating in our activities and/ or from membership? Tell us! Info@svtc-va.org |
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Contact Us
Shenandoah Valley Technology Council
800 S. Main Street MSC 3615
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807
540-568-7882
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