05/18/04

Lt. Governor Tours UMBC Research Park, Technology Center

BALTIMORE, MD (May 18, 2004) – Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele , accompanied by UMBC representatives and local and state economic development officials, today toured UMBC's Research and Technology Park, as well as the university's incubator and emerging technology facilities. While there, the Lt. Governor had the opportunity to meet with several CEOs of techcenter@UMBC's incubator companies.

Following a brief tour of bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park and a meeting with one of the park's companies, RWD Technologies, Lt. Governor Steele headed to the university's South Campus for a tour of the techcenter@UMBC Park. The Lt. Governor toured both the Biotechnology Building and the Technology Center Building and visited with several incubator companies, including Cognate Therapeutics, Next Breath, Epitaxial Technologies and TechGuard Security.

bwtech@UMBC is a 41-acre research and technology community being developed by the international commercial real estate firm Grosvenor in collaboration with UMBC. The park has a total capacity of up to 330,000 square feet of office and laboratory space and will ultimately house five new state-of-the-art buildings occupied by research and technology firms. The techcenter@UMBC is the university's on-campus incubator and home to 17 start-up and six emerging high-tech and biomedical companies. The companies at techcenter@UMBC provide more than 300 jobs and employ more than 30 UMBC students. The companies work closely with 40 UMBC faculty and staff. The techcenter@UMBC also operates an Idea Lab to help UMBC students and faculty develop businesses.