Our quest for the perfect economic elixir never ends: A new study of university scientists who received federal dollars from the National Cancer Institute found that they generated patents at a rapid pace and started companies in surprisingly high numbers.

The study published this week by economists at Indiana University and the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Germany found that one-quarter of the scientists who were awarded patents said they started their own businesses, displaying "an astonishingly high rate of entrepreneurship," according to the authors.

"These scientists are doing a lot more than sitting in labs and publishing papers," said David B. Audretsch, an Indiana University economist.

Of course, the authors questioned whether the direction of research was being overly influenced by the marketplace. "No one really knows the answer to that question," said co-author Toby E. Stuart, professor of business at Columbia Graduate School of Business.

Celebrations are planned at Carnegie Mellon University next week, beginning Wednesday and concluding Saturday, marking 50 years of computer science at the education and research institution.

Before CMU, computers were "crude, number-crunching machines," said a spokeswoman of what was then known as the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Now the school is leading research in the field and compelling the likes of Internet titans such as Google to set up local bunkers in hopes of gaining access to its treasured resources.

To partake in the four-day celebration that includes an open house, a visit by Gov. Ed Rendell, a history of computer science and a technical symposium, visit the Computer Science 50 Web site: (www.cs50.cs.cmu.edu)

On Thursday, a one-day symposium honoring CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute's founding in 1994 will address how people are using telephones, appliances and other "increasingly complex technologies." Speakers include CMU alumnus Stuart Card, senior research fellow at Xerox Corp's Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif., and Dan R. Olsen Jr., founding director of the Human Computer Interaction Institute who is now in residence at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City. To register, go to www.hcii.cmu.edu/HCII_Anniversary/index.html.

Hurrah for tech workers who finally may get to partake of the pleasures and perks that befell them during the dot.com heydays of the 1990s, according to a study by Chicago-based consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The days of bidding wars and signing bonuses could make a comeback, as employers report IT labor was getting harder to find and keep.

Jerry Paytas, who directs CMU's Center for Economic Development, said the effects could resonate locally. "The tech sector was severely pruned following the IT bubble and the recession-driven reduction in business infrastructure." In other words, it's time for raises. Remind your boss of this fact as you pop out for a two-hour, two-martini lunch next week.

Tech investors, take note: Next week rings in the first of four earnings seasons this year, in which a slew of balance sheets and corporate conference calls, some bearing good news, others not so good, come to pass. State College-based cable software and equipment maker C-Cor Inc. kicks off the financial party before the market opens on Thursday.

That same day, South Side-based software firm Ansoft is holding a special shareholders meeting to approve the 2006 stock incentive plan, among other business, at 9 a.m. at its corporate headquarters at 225 West Station Square Drive, Suite 200. Only shareholders with proof of ownership are allowed to attend. For more information, investors should e-mail arnold@ansoft.com.

This week, Donald P. DeCorte was named vice president of development at TeleTracking Technologies. Mr. DeCorte previously held another vice presidential position at Atlanta-based CareCentric.