ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 1997 TAG: 9704220049
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
As anyone who has gone shopping for the latest in ever-advancing computer technology knows, the pace of change is accelerating. It has been more than 26 years since Alvin Toffler gave us a term for our reaction to that, "Future Shock," but it's obvious even here in the scenic New River Valley.
When Rep. Rick Boucher announced federal funding last year for the New River Valley Competitiveness Center, a small-business incubator to be built on the former AT&T property at Fairlawn by mid-1998, he said it would be the first new building to go up in what is now a Pulaski County industrial park.
And that was true, then. But already that building, which will be owned by the New River Valley Development Corp., will have at least two other buildings ahead of it by the time it goes up. Motion Control Systems Inc. and Boitnott Machine both have started work on buildings in that park within the past few months.
The pace of scientific change is probably nowhere as evident in the valley as at PPL Therapeutics Inc., one of the 55 private companies working out of Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center.
The cloning research in Scotland which produced a sheep named Dolly last July has applications for PPL Therapeutics, which manufactures proteins for medicine to treat human diseases. PPL Therapeutics produces cows and other animals with DNA mixtures to get the needed proteins from the animals' milk. The cloning process developed in Scotland may eventually be used with cows here as a more efficient way to come up with the desired proteins.
We won't even get into the pros and cons of the "smart" road. But other transportation changes in the valley are also under consideration.
Change is continuing on the education front, too. Virginia is establishing new learning standards for math, science, English, history and social science, defining what students are expected to learn in those areas and by what grade level.
The Pulaski County school system has scheduled an information session on the new standards for 6:45 p.m. Thursday in the cafeteria of Pulaski County High School. The meeting will follow a 5:45 p.m. dinner, scheduled to encourage a large turnout by parents to hear what material their children will be expected to master.
Apparently it worked. Pulaski County School Board members underwent a form of future shock themselves last week when Associate Superintendent Phyllis Bishop told them some 800 people had registered to attend.
There is obvious interest by Southwest Virginians in using computer technology in business, too, judging by the response to Boucher's conference on that topic scheduled from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 12 at New River Community College in Edwards Hall.
A staff member in Boucher's Abingdon office was inundated with conference registrations last week, to the point that she was worried over whether they would have to be cut off before the May 9 deadline. The limit is 500 people.
There is a saying to the effect that, unless you are growing and changing, you're in trouble.
We're OK.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB