Hoboken As Startup Hub?

Could be. Our local technology press has lit up with a few announcements made at a conference held yesterday at Stevens Institute of Technology. Stevens President Nariman Farvardin is “committed” to setting up a technology incubator associated with the university in Hoboken.

I’m hoping the incubator will have a street address reading Frank Sinatra Drive.

It was an interesting gathering of local educational leaders from Stevens and Rutgers, as well as a few Washington folks, including NJ’s Senator Lautenberg and an FCC Chairman, who can probably now claim his first visit to ‘Boken. Lautenberg and FCC Chairman Genachowski announced a NJ Apps Challenge open to students, faculty, and alumni from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stevens, and Rutgers.

Did I read that right?

Isn’t there another university with ivy-covered walls whose students should have a shot at this as well, not to mention a few other Jersey-based colleges? And why limit it to NJ-students?

Hey NJ, take a lead from what NYC Big Apps does with their contest by opening it up to anybody regardless–or as we say here, irregardless–of their location. It could be, uhm, a way to promote the NJ technology scene on a national level, and then perhaps encourage winners to move to the Garden State to make their app into a viable startup.

By the way, the winner of this NJ contest gets to meet Dennis Crowley, CEO of NYC-based Foursquare.