The latest innovation news in Texas includes new accelerator partnerships, a new Big Data master’s program in Big D, and a deep dive into biosciences’ place in the Austin economy.
—Google (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GOOG]]) announced Tuesday that Austin would be latest node on its now eight-city Tech Hub Network, a program that both hosts accelerator programs for startups and provides desks for budding entrepreneurs to begin work. Google for Entrepreneurs provides funding for the program, which will be based at the Capital Factory, an Austin accelerator founded and run by Xconomist Josh Baer. Other cities in the hub are Minneapolis, MN; Chicago; Waterloo, Ontario; Nashville, TN; Durham, NC, Denver; and Detroit.
—In other accelerator news, the Dallas Entrepreneur Center on Tuesday announced it has joined the Startup Federation, a network of incubators brought together by 1776, the Washington, DC-based accelerator. Other hubs in this network include Venture Hive in Miami, Cross Campus in Los Angeles, and Benjamin’s Desk in Philadelphia. The DEC was founded last year and run by Xconomist Trey Bowles.
—The University of Texas at Dallas announced Tuesday that this fall it will offer a separate master’s degree in data analytics. It previously had offered a track in Big Data in its IT management and marketing programs.
—The Austin Technology Council released a report last week that, for the first time, measures the impact of the life sciences sector on the Austin economy. The analysis, conducted by local research firm Civic Analytics, reported that the sector contributes $1 billion to gross regional product and represents 206 businesses and 6,000 jobs. The council said it aims to update the report yearly in order to track expected growth of the sector as the new Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin comes online.
