Through Thursday, the Journal Sentinel will report on a sampling of the white papers to be presented at the Wisconsin Economic Summit. Arthur J. Rolnick, senior vice president and director of research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, on Thursday. Wisconsin native John Morgridge, chairman of Internet networking company Cisco Systems Inc., on Friday. The University of Wisconsin-Madison ranked among the nation's top campuses in patenting technology but lags behind other major schools in spinning off brainpower. The school ranked third in 1999 in the number of inventions coming from the campus, according to the Association of University Technology Managers Inc. Faculty members generated 278 inventions, ranking behind the University of California System's 818 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's 381, the association said.
Inventions are evenly divided between engineering, life sciences and medical research.
UW-Madison spun off four companies in 1999, ranking eighth with at least seven other colleges or university systems across the country, the technology managers said. These and other issues will come up again at a conference beginning today at the Midwest Express Center in Milwaukee. Sponsored by the UW System, the Wisconsin Economic Summit will look at ways the state can take advantage of an economy of tomorrow built increasingly around technology. Gulbrandsen said he sees some promising signs. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 29, 2000.