Hot Topics

Hofstra University

Pandemic Primer July 30, 2020

Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic and its evolving aftermath are reshaping the world around us, and myriad Long Island forces – large and small, corporate and nonprofit, industrial and academic – have risen to the challenge. Innovate Long Island presents Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus as a real-time journal of this region’s resourceful response to the greatest global challenge since World War II. Stay healthy, dear readers.   Fore! New York will host fan-less U.S. Open…

Opinion July 23, 2020

Coghlan: Opportunity abounds, for the flexible

By HARRY COGHLAN // It is disorientating (to say the least) to think back on our original plans and goals for 2020, and realize how so many of them had to be revised or abandoned. But as Robert Burns (sort of) said, best-laid plans often go awry, and when they do, the organizations that prevail are the ones able and willing to adapt, react and produce. In short, flexible organizations stand the best chance. While…

Coronavirus July 6, 2020

Phase Four arrives on LI, with bombs bursting in air

By GREGORY ZELLER // Strap yourselves in, Long Island, but keep strapping on those facemasks. And batten the hatches for some political fallout, too – Phase Four has arrived, with fireworks. Governor Andrew Cuomo, one of President Donald Trump’s more vocal critics, pulled no punches in Monday’s daily briefing, in which the governor announced strong COVID-19 numbers across the state, confirmed that indoor dining in New York City is on hold indefinitely and essentially accused…

Newsletters June 12, 2020

No. 509: On peanut butter cookies, LaGuardia Airport and kelp – plus baseball (remember that?)

  Phase 2 Friday: You’ve done it again, dear readers! Another tough workweek conquered – and, as your reward, Long Island’s first weekend under Phase 2 reopening protocols. Well played! It’s June 12 out there, and while you’re probably itching for your teenager to find a summer job after a half-year of home learning, it is indeed the U.N.’s World Day Against Child Labour, which is a very different matter and no joke. That’s, like,…

Newsletters June 3, 2020

No. 506: On eggs, Olds, strategic tax breaks and Anderson Cooper, plus a rare Adelphi honor 

  Stuck in the middle: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as Long Island languishes in Phase 1 and we innovate our way through another quasi-quarantined workweek. Ready, set, Joe’s: It’s June 3 out there, and before we begin, Innovate LI is thrilled to introduce our newest sponsor – St. Joseph’s College, which operates campuses in Patchogue and Brooklyn (in addition to SJC Online) and this week joins our pantheon of prestigious boosters. More on St….

Startups June 2, 2020

At Hofstra, getting pretty good at this pandemic pivot

By GREGORY ZELLER // Still planning an in-person grand finale for October, one of Hofstra University’s most popular entrepreneurship efforts has transitioned – smoothly, if temporarily – to a virtual format. Hofstra’s Healthcare Entrepreneurship Community Challenge has performed the pandemic pivot, with a full week of online mentorship and study commencing Monday for 31 participating healthcare startups, including four based on Long Island. Engaging them online is an impressive cross-section of health, law and med-tech…

Coronavirus May 28, 2020

A summer sans internships? No way, schools say

By GREGORY ZELLER // With canceled internships and rescinded job offers adding insult to injury for shortchanged U.S. college students, Long Island universities are working hard to keep their flocks working this summer. Longstanding career- and business-development programs at Adelphi University and Hofstra University have refocused their efforts through a pandemic-friendly lens, with a growing number of virtual internships and other remote-working (and remote-learning) opportunities now in play. The need for a Summer 2020 internship…

The Debrief May 12, 2020

Debrief: Topper, on a world of reinvention and hope

Thirty years later, Hilary Topper – part marketing ace, part social influencer, all 21st century It Girl – is still going strong. Game-changing technological jolts, 9/11, the Great Recession and now, of course, the great 2020 coronavirus pandemic … none have stopped the clever self-promoter and fierce businesswoman from building Long Beach-based HJMT Public Relations into one of Long Island’s best-known and most-respected marketing brands. With a new book (“Branding in a Digital World: How…

Newsletters May 1, 2020

No. 497: It’s May Day, but don’t panic – new month, same pandemic (plus BASIC lingo … and mmm, parfaits!)

  Yes, you May: Welcome to Friday (we checked, it’s true) and a brand-new month in the surreal odyssey that is the Age of Coronavirus. It’s May 1 out there – the earliest date Mother’s Day can fall in Samoa, Hong Kong, Hungary, Lithuania, Mozambique, Portugal, Spain and Romania, though today is not Mother’s Day in any of those places (nor in the States, where it falls two Sundays hence). Legally delish: It is, however,…

Newsletters April 29, 2020

No. 496: In which gender barriers bust, childcare costs spiral and Hofstra pivots, with pride

  Rock on: It’s another work-from-home Wednesday, dear readers, as we muscle through a tough workweek marked by bitter national divisions, phased re-openings and no real endgame (yet) for the great 2020 pandemic. The good news is, a mile-wide planet-killer asteroid zooming through the Solar System at a breezy 19,000 miles per hour will narrowly miss Earth today. So, no worries there. Wish list: On that cheery note, welcome to April 29 – World Wish…

Entrepreneurs April 28, 2020

Hofstra biz-plan contest ventures into new territory

By GREGORY ZELLER // The coronavirus couldn’t stop tradition at Hofstra University, where the regularly scheduled Hofstra-Digital Remedy Venture Challenge went off without a hitch, virtually. Now in its eighth year, the business plan contest – which challenges Hofstra students to come up with new products or services and create business plans to commercialize them – held its final competition round April 24. As per custom, the penultimate pitch-off pitted 10 finalists in a winners-take-all…

Coronavirus April 16, 2020

CSHL, partners track COVID-19 culprit to tricky NET

By GREGORY ZELLER // An international research consortium with Long Island roots may have identified the culprit behind COVID-19’s worst cases. It’s been well-documented that a large majority of patients who contract SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, suffer only mild to moderate symptoms and fully recover. Much more documented: The novel coronavirus can kill, with severe COVID-19 infections leading to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, pulmonary inflammation, airway-blocking mucus secretions, blood clots and…

Education April 14, 2020

Island colleges ease tough senior moments, virtually

By GREGORY ZELLER // Long Island’s top-shelf institutions of higher learning are springing to action to help one of the pandemic’s healthiest – and most negatively affected – populations. Among other well-documented chaos, COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on every level of national education, but especially among university-bound high-schoolers who are a) losing out on proms and other senior-year victory laps and b) caught in the middle of their college-application processes. No doubt, academia’s coming recovery…

Education March 25, 2020

For future physicians, a Match Day like no other

By GREGORY ZELLER // An emotional rite of passage for future physicians has made a high-tech, if slightly more impersonal, Age of Coronavirus pivot. Match Day is an annual event during which graduating medical students across the nation open personalized letters from the National Resident Matching Program, revealing the next steps of their long educational journeys: their residencies, where they will spend years finishing off their medical educations. Usually a joyous tearjerker featuring packed college…

Entrepreneurs March 19, 2020

All things being unequal, Hofstra’s Challenge lives on

By GREGORY ZELLER // Health equity – a concept freshly redefined by our times – takes center stage in this year’s Healthcare Entrepreneurship Community Challenge. Hofstra University’s long-running entrepreneurship competition is offering $50,000-plus in cash and business-resource prizes to early-stage enterprises addressing socialized healthcare problems in underserved Long Island, New York City and Hudson Valley communities. This year’s “challenge topic” is “advancing health equity,” focused on innovative products and services that “improve the total health…