I found this press release today which mentions the Space Elevator. It's for a software company called Emcien who are sponsoring a team for the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) competition. The competition as you'll read below is focusing on nanotechnology this year.

What I find interesting is that the non-profit running the competition was founded by Dean Kamen. Dean Kamen is wealthy entrepreneur and inventor who founded the DEKA Research & Development Corporation. His inventions include a mobile dialysis system, an all-terrain electric wheelchair called iBOT and of course the Segway. I wonder if he would be willing to allocate some of his resources to the developing some of the core Space Elevator technologies??

"This year’s challenge is based on Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is a new scientific frontier that will impact many facets of society, such as medicine, computers, and the environment. The nano world is 100,000 times smaller than the thickness of a single strand of hair. At the nano level, everything jumps and shakes – even solid things like tabletops. For the competition the robots compete on tasks that include individual atom manipulation, self-assembly, powering a molecular motor and operating a space elevator."