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By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. When Joshua Hodgson was 12 years old, he lost his right leg to cancer in an amputation high above the knee. He was fitted with a succession of prosthetic limbs that often were ill fitting and painful. At first, he cushioned the hard plastic prostheticRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. TULSA — Take 45 bioscience research scientists, put them in a room together with no real agenda and you get what exactly? The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) did exactly that this week with its first Bioscience Networking Luncheon atRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) was created by the state Legislature during the depth of the oil bust in 1987. OCAST was established to diversify and grow Oklahoma’s economy through science and technology-based activities that would ensure that theRead more

By Scott Meacham It’s always interesting to me how archetypal change in a state comes about. I’m talking of change that is so far-reaching and ultimately disruptive that it bores deep into a state’s DNA and puts that state on a different path. The evolution of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Oklahoma is a homegrown exampleRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. In writing this series of columns, it has been enjoyable and informative to consider current innovation in Oklahoma in the context of innovation and inventors from our history. I like history as a teacher, and from readers’ comments, so do you. We’re making innovation historyRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Company Last week, against the backdrop of yet another shortage in spendable revenue for Oklahoma’s legislature for the FY 2018 budget year, Gov. Mary Fallin set forth a bold and brave vision for Oklahoma. It wasn’t that she announced some new program or startling initiative trumpetingRead more

By Chad Mullen and Ed Long Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Company Even in times of economic prosperity, state agencies in Oklahoma may not have the resources to develop and launch innovative tools for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery and program administration. Fortunately, cross-sector collaboration makes it possible for state governmentRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Company As a fourth-generation attorney, I can’t help my evidentiary mindset. I want the facts to tell the story; I look to the data to prove the case. That’s why I feel like titling my next series of columns “Just How Much Proof Does Oklahoma Need?”Read more

Scott Rollins, CEO of Selexys Pharmaceuticals/Oklahoman photo provided by OCAST By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Selexys Pharmaceuticals president and CEO Scott Rollins reflected on the lessons learned in the wake of the richest transaction in the history of Oklahoma biosciences — the recent $665 million sale of Selexys to industryRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Author, visionary, and predictor H.G. Wells has been called the father of science fiction. In his most famous book, “The Time Machine,” Wells propels his main character forward by more than 800,000 years to imagined worlds. When Wells was drafting this best-seller (long before thereRead more

  By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. I’ve been writing (and talking) a lot about the exits of WeGoLook and Selexys over the few weeks. In fact, when I sat down to work on this column, my wife even asked me if I was ever going to come up with somethingRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. As 2016 draws to a close, entrepreneurs and early stage investors in Oklahoma are ending the year with big smiles. In the past few weeks, the exits of Selexys and WeGoLook have been strong validations that in this state we do have the talent, capitalRead more

By The Oklahoman Editorial Board Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. OKLAHOMA legislators have another tough session ahead, one in which they are expected to have perhaps $600 million less to appropriate than they did in 2016 — when there was $1.3 billion less than the year before. It will be challenging work, toRead more

The Tech Showcase audience also heard presentations from Pryor’s HE&M Saw; Optecks and Synercon, both of Tulsa; Spiers New Technologies from Oklahoma City; and Amethyst Research Inc. of Ardmore. The event was sponsored by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST).

TokenEx, a company founded in 2010, had won the 2016 Metro 50 Award. TokenEx was recognized as the Oklahoma City metro area’s No. 1 ranked company with three-year revenue growth of 578 percent. While it may have flown under the radar locally, TokenEx is having a major impact in the data protection industry.

The Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology will receive $1 million for business and technical support to manufacturing and service companies to help diversify their products and expand sales globally. The project is expected to create higher-wage jobs by restructuring business models and targeting new markets.

i2E was born from an Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) initiative and has now become a nationally-recognized private not-for-profit corporation that invests in entrepreneurs who are building high-growth companies in Oklahoma. i2E works directly with entrepreneurs, researchers and companies to help them commercialize their technologies, launch and grow new businesses and access needed capital.

Advanced Processing Technology is a service company that provides software, training and installation of sensors used in manufacture of composite materials for the aviation industry. The tools developed by AvPro measure and control the process of applying heat, pressure and time to carbon fibers and epoxy materials in an oven-like autoclave.

So, you’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and are convinced your idea, concept or prototype will be the next big thing. If only you could get some expert guidance, financing and a network of like-minded advocates to help propel you to success, right? Well, be thankful you live in Tulsa. The city abounds with organizations geared to help would-be entrepreneurs develop their ideas and then launch the businesses of their dreams.

In many places, the emergence of this sector of the economy happened spontaneously. Take, for example, Silicon Valley. Or the growth of biotechnology businesses in the greater Boston area. Our state’s leaders understood that this sector was too important to Oklahoma’s long-term economic health (and the health of our population) to ignore. So they took some farsighted steps to try to catalyze the development of science and technology in Oklahoma.