Mathworks

Natick-based software developer MathWorks has donated $3 million to an organization to boost initiatives focused on educational opportunities for women and children.

Core MetroWest communities, including Framingham, Marlborough and Natick, trailed the Greater Boston office market in new construction underway in the second quarter of the year, according to a new report by Perry Brokerage.

Natick software company MathWorks is opening a second campus in town this week on a former Boston Scientific site off Route 9.

The MetroWest STEM Education Network, which aims to prepare for students for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math, has joined a national alliance with 67 other groups.

The Discovery Museum in Acton and Natick's MathWorks have renewed their long-running program bringing STEM education to classrooms across the region.

STEM fields have very few women, but colleges are working to change that. At WPI, this fall's freshman class was 44-percent female, up from 34 percent a year ago – WPI's previous high mark.

Natick computer software developer MathWorks will gift $10 million to the Boston Museum of Science, the museum announced Thursday.

The market for MetroWest office, industrial and manufacturing space remained strong in the second quarter, according to a new report.

Office vacancy rates in Framingham and Natick were below 10 percent through the second quarter of the year, exceeding nearly every other region outside Boston and its core suburbs, Perry Brokerage Research of Boston reported Thursday.

MathWorks has become one of the region's largest and fastest-growing tech companies thanks to its products – as nondescript as it is – helping to run a seemingly endless list, from rockets to printing presses and artificial limbs to defense systems.