There was the theme from several panelists during an event in Hanover held by the Greater Baltimore Committee. Maryland is still often cited as a net loser in college graduate retention, if gains are being made, as some said during the event.

In that interesting contrast, despite 87 of every 1,000 private-sector jobs being in the technology sector, recruiting seems to be a recurring concern for tech companies (and startups) here.

Appropriately enough, panelists shared those thoughts and more during the Tuesday morning event called “Tech Impact: Taking Maryland to the next level in tech.”

Here’s what they said:

• Ursula Powidzki, assistant secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development: “Businesses do not make their decisions based on a one-time incentive,” but rather consider a variety of things in a state’s “support system” — the tax impact, access to capital funds and the labor market.
  
• Ira Levy, chair of the Inter-County Broadband Network: “I don’t know that the relationship right now is conducive to long-term infrastructure initiatives.” Levy was talking about public-private partnerships between government and business, and whether the two in properly synced to, say, maintain a high-speed fiber network throughout the state.
• Denis Dunn, AT&T public policy team: The telecom giant has invested $650 million in Maryland in the last two years, he said, because “it’s a phenomenal market for AT&T” with high-income families and a “top” state for college-level education.
• Yair Flicker, founder of SmartLogic Solutions: Flicker was a bit more specific, and offered two proposals for keeping recent college grads in state: a tax incentive for employers hiring people who moved to Maryland to attend college, or some kind of tax break for college graduates looking for, and accepting, jobs locally.
• Marc Mercilliott, senior VP for technical operations at Iron Bow Technologies: “Recruiting is our number one challenge as an organization,” he said. To that end, Iron Bow has recently taken a “more aggressive approach” to hiring college grads. which includes an in-depth mentorship program so new hires learn more about the company and their respective roles inside it.

The Baltimore Business Journal reports:

Rawlings-Blake headlined a morning discussion, called Redefining Rust Belt, including participants from Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Detroit. Her speech highlighted ways Baltimore can attract 10,000 new families by 2020, which include a $20 to $25 million renovation of Lexington Market.

With a few improvements — such as the Lexington Market project — Rawlings-Blake said Baltimore could be poised to attract new residents from places like Washington, D.C.

Her comments were part of an event organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

who’s getting funded?

Clear Guide Medical, based in Guilford, is looking to raise $500,000 in equity, according to SEC filings. The life sciences startup, based in the FastForward incubator at Johns Hopkins University, produces medical imaging and device technology to solve clinical problems through engineering solutions.

who’s making moves?

• Blue Wave Semiconductors, a semiconductor product developer based in Baltimore County, is interested in raising a first round of funding worth $500,000. It works from the UMBC Research and Technology Park.
• Ocular Proteomics, a biotech startup “leveraging a new class of biomarkers found in vitreous fluid of the eye to more accurately diagnose and treat retinal diseases,” has relocated to the University of Maryland BioPark. The company recently won a Small Business Innovation in Research grant from the National Institutes of Health.
• Seven startups were announced winners last Friday at the 13th Incubator Company of the Year awards.
• SocialToaster, a social media startup that works with companies (including NFL teams) to turn Facebook fans and Twitter followers into “brand ambassadors,” expects to close a round of $1 million in funding in the next two months en route to a Series B round between $5 million and $8 million.
• Frank Bonsal III has been chosen as interim director of the TowsonGlobal Business Incubator, according to an e-mail notification from the incubator. Former TowsonGlobal director Clay Hickson stepped down and started a new job in late May.

Maryland ranks 12th overall in terms of the steepness of its combined federal, state and local rate of mobile phone taxation.

Read the report here.

It’s the “most regressive form of taxation,” said Denis Dunn of AT&T during Tuesday’s panel discussion on what must be done to take Maryland to the “next level” in tech. Though clearly any mobile carrier’s business benefits from lowering the tax burden for its product, Dunn focused his remarks on the greater burden on poorer families, who are fast adopting smartphone technology.

“Don’t tax things that discourage investment” in innovation and technology, he said. Montgomery County has a $3.50 tax, he added.

That hasn’t discouraged AT&T from investing in its mobile infrastructure in state: the telecom firm has spent $650 million in Maryland over the past two years.

With the Sun‘s Baltimore Homicides map (which is behind the newspaper’s paywall), you can see where each homicide occurred by address, as well as a breakdown of homicides per month, homicides per police district and the means used to commit each murder.

H/T Baltimore Sun crime reporter Justin Fenton.

“Cell phones are the new, best way to solve crimes,” said Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger at the Maryland State Bar Association‘s annual meeting last week. Your cell phone address book and call usage can help law enforcement nab you as a suspect.

The map is sparsely populated right now. Perhaps it makes sense to include farmers markets in the surrounding counties, and not solely those in the city? (The state Department of Agriculture has 131 farmers markets around Maryland on file.)

Contact Howard here to let him know what he’s missing.

See last week’s summary here.

Episode 7 summary:

For the penultimate challenge, the teams were challenged with a real-world military application: create a device that automatically detects and prevents unauthorized access at a gated checkpoint.

As a civil servant for the Department of Defense, I pass by these checkpoints every day, and found this challenge an interesting problem. Each team was given three days and $5,000 to complete their design.

With only four contestants remaining, the stakes were high. To make things even more intense, there were no individual eliminations. That meant the two contestants on the winning team would move on to the finale, a double elimination for the contestants on the losing team.

[Editor's Note: Andrew was already eliminated for the top prize, but still competes with the BLUE team, where fellow Maryland contestant Corey remains active.]

After everything was said and done, the BLUE team was victorious, meaning Amy and Corey will be going competing in the finale for the grand prize: $50,000 and a one-year contract at WET design and engineering firm.

If you missed the episode, you can watch it here.

Episode 7 in-depth coverage (for those interested in the RED Team’s design, and the behind-the-scenes “dirt”):

BLUEPRINT CHALLENGE: Very similar to my approach, Tom had laid low with regards to the blueprint challenge, as it was obvious winning them (especially as runner-up) was a disadvantage. Also, and only speculation, I wasn’t surprised when Tom was selected as a team captain, since it seemed like regardless of what we would have proposed, it was our turn to take on a leadership role in one of the two challenges leading up to the finale. The judges picked Amy as the blueprint challenge winner and Tom as the runner-up. The major flaw in the implementation of our similar strategies was that we did not win the blueprint challenge (only runner-up), meaning Tom (like I was in challenge 6) would be dealt two forced picks.

THE CHALLENGE DETAILS: The details regarding the challenge (some mentioned, some not) made this much harder than initially anticipated. The passengers and the car were not to be damaged, the system had to be automatically triggered and the design could not be naturally closed (my design). An accelerometer was also installed inside the car to measure the g-forces the car experienced when impacting the design, a metric stated would be used in the judging criteria.

TEAM SELECTION: Another pattern that was seen throughout the competition was that the eliminated contestant from the previous challenge was always picked last, a trend continued in this challenge with Dan and me being picked last by the teams. Although Amy was selecting the team, Corey (whom she picked from the remaining contestants) was freaking out because Amy hadn’t picked me yet. I ended up on the Blue Team, Amy’s team, along with Gui and Alison.

DESIGN: Amy’s original design was a trailer re-designed to be an oversized mouse trap for a car. Not attached to her design, the team came up with a sled design, which would use a pop-up gate (powered by pneumatics, triggered by an Arduino and limit-switch attached to the gate) to stop the car, take the front wheels off the ground and slide/drag across the ground until it came to a stop. The entire sliding platform sat on guide rails that were lubricated with grease, reducing the drag against the ground and guiding it for the first 20 feet.

CONTRIBUTIONS: The Blue Team as a whole worked well together. I spent most of my time at the beginning of the build welding and then the last day and a half building the pneumatic system and getting all the electronics working. It was a fun build where I got to do a lot of fabrication and build entire subsystems that were in my wheel house. For the pneumatic system, we actually reused the accumulator from the jumping robot (challenge 4), which was custom built (really well) by Tom.

COMPETITION: Both teams had really interesting designs, one being simple looking and unassuming (Red Team) and another that was robust and unique (Blue Team). At the end of the day, both teams were successful in stopping the car, but to different degrees.

BEHIND THE SCENES: The competition location was setup in a remote location with a lot of hills. As the speeding cars (controlled remotely from a setup several hundred feet away), the cars would lose connectivity due to a weird radio interference from a repeater. This happened multiple times for both teams and led to each team being subjected to three rounds of the “enemy car.” During one of the car attempts, it went “rogue” again and actually crashed into the pneumatic system, breaking off one of the threaded connection points on the accumulator (the crash can be seen in the background right before the Red Team enemy car starts). We were given two hours to fix the problem, but we were in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, after a lot of attempts and a little bit of luck, there was just enough threads to engage and seal the solenoid valve to the accumulator.

DECISION: To be honest, I thought we (Blue Team) lost. The Red Team stopped the car with more finesse, with a simpler design, and the car experienced lower g-forces. However, the judges seemed to be more interested in an innovative solution for this challenge and ultimately picked Amy and Corey as the two finalists.

WHAT’S NEXT: The last remaining question is whom do I root for at this point? Whom do I help cross the finish line and win it all? As stated in my challenge 6 write-up, I was supporting either Eric or Corey. With Eric eliminated, my goal is to help Corey succeed. You’ll just have to wait until next week to see if and how I’m able to do so.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

Comcast promises X1 users will be able to browse poster art, critics’ reviews or suggestions based on past viewing. And then, with one tap, you will arrive at your choice. … The X1 look and mind-set is visual instead of text-oriented … more like Apple TV than anything I’ve seen from Xfinity On Demand.

Finally, job seekers: on Friday is the city’s IT job fair. Head to the Workforce Reception Center, with resumes in hand, to land a job in the IT sector.

Tech Impact: Taking Maryland to the Next Level in Tech: Join the Greater Baltimore Council for a discussion of what the state needs to do to become more of a technology hub, and what impact the burgeoning tech sector has had so far on the state’s overall economy. Tuesday, June 18, 8 a.m. Greater Baltimore Committee, 7229 Parkway Drive, Hanover, Anne Arundel County. RSVP. $25.

Baltimore Mobile Meetup: Data forensics specialist Jason Briody will give a talk on the state of smartphone forensics today. Briody, a director at Atlantic Data Forensics, “has experience in performing defensible forensic collections and analysis on a wide range of media and system types.” Tuesday, June 18, 6:15 p.m. AOL/Ad.com, 1020 Hull St., Tide Point, Baltimore city. RSVP. FREE.

D.C. TechBreakfast: Downtown Baltimore edtech startup 1sqbox is one of the companies presenting at this month’s installment of D.C. TechBreakfast. Wednesday, June 19, 8 a.m. Microsoft: Friendship Heights, 5404 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, Montgomery County. RSVP. FREE.

Refresh Baltimore: Michael Cervieri, creator of the Future Journalism Project, will tell us all how The News should look and feel in the 21st century. If you’re thinking of launching a news site today, and are wondering how it should look, this is a discussion you won’t want to miss. Wednesday, June 19, 6:30 p.m. Betamore, 1111 Light St., Federal Hill, Baltimore city. RSVP. FREE.

The Mayor’s IT Job Fair: Looking for a job in the IT field? A six-hour IT job fair is taking place at the Workforce Reception Center on Friday. Bring resumes. Friday, June 21, 9 a.m. Workforce Reception Center, 100 W. 23rd St., Old Goucher, Baltimore city. FREE.