Interest: A national group of technology managers has showcased five inventions by University of Georgia researchers, saying they have the potential to make the world a better place. Sometimes people think universities and university researchers want to pursue patents for medical or technology discoveries to make money, but that’s not true, said Sohail Malik, director of technology commercialization for UGA.
Interest: As individuals, companies and countries search for something magical to promote a competitive future, there is strong evidence that the ultimate wealth-creating machine is something created here in America and increasingly being noticed and copied by the rest of the world.
That something is the American research university, where a unique blend of the best and brightest students from around the world, top quality professors with aggressive research programs, and a close association with private
Interest: PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Business Plan Competition will award more than $200,000 in prizes to competition winners - including a $40,000 cash prize to the grand prize winner – at the May 3 Rhode Island Business Expo.
The competition encourages new businesses, early-stage and seed-stage companies that have an idea or concept but haven’t generated income yet to submit their business plans for review.
Interest: Crowdfunding if it passes the Seante tomorrow, will be the catalyst for needed innovation and jobs growth in this country. Small business represents 65% of our Country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is the leading employer of onshore US employees. What is Crowdfunding? Crowdfunding is a new concept. Basically it would allow start up entrepreneurs to solicit funds from individuals without having to adhere to existing Securities and Exchange (SEC) regulations.
Interest: The University of Texas System launched a new commercialization search portal as part of a broader effort to increase commercialization at its 15 institutions.
The Research and Technology Search Engine will enable visitors to search online through research and technology experts, news, centers, facilities and laboratory Web pages within the UT System.
Interest: DARTMOUTH —
Three University of Massachusetts Dartmouth professors have earned faculty awards from the National Science Foundation, including funding for their projects.
The awards are among the most prestigious that young faculty can win in any field, the university said.
Interest: A Los Angeles-based biotechnology company has ambitious plans to advance the ability of dentists to combat caries in their patients' mouths. Using a peptide developed at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), C3 Jian is working on a product that would target S. mutans in the oral cavity.
Interest: Newswise — A newly released mobile app designed to educate medical students, physicians and health care workers around the globe on how to care for burn victims is one of a fast-growing number of medical apps being developed at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Interest: The New Venture Challenge, the annual business-plan contest at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, received a record number of applications this year.
There were 119 entries, up from 89 a year ago, says Steve Kaplan, professor of entrepreneurship and finance who runs the New Venture Challenge.
Interest: HONOLULU, Hawaii: The University of Hawai‘i’s Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development (OTTED) recently signed a technology commercialization agreement with Pono Corporation. The agreement gives the Honolulu-based company ownership of three technologies developed by the University of Hawai‘i, including a proteasome inhibitor drug, humanized cobra venom factor, and a hybrid nanocarrier grud delivery system.
Interest: Longhorn Startup Camp, a new University of Texas at Austin initiative, is showcasing over two dozen new, UT-originated companies during the SXSW Startup Crawl.
The startup crawl, which takes place March 8 from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., is part of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. As a stop on the crawl, the Longhorn Startup Camp will showcase 27 new startups that launched from UT.
Interest: Forty-five teams competed in the 29th annual Michigan Business Challenge, a business-plan competition for innovative University of Michigan startups. What makes the competition unique is that it has four rounds and lasts about four months, with a March Madness-style process of elimination along the way. The final round has four teams giving a three-minute pitch to investors and U-M alumni, who then spend 20 minutes picking apart each idea.
Interest: Jim Hughes and Phil Robilotto see more than 100 ideas each year from scientists at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, potential innovations with a promise to better diagnose disease, alleviate pain, make medical care delivery more efficient, even save lives.
The biggest challenge is selling investors on the merits of research still in its infancy.
Interest: Will the promise of an all-optical replacement for copper-cabled Ethernet finally be fulfilled at the Boston University Photonics Center? If Irish company Intune Networks has anything to say about it, yes it will.
Interest: AzCati's expansion was made possible through persistent research and $4 million of funding received at the Algae Bio-Mass Organization's Conference in Phoenix last year. Half of the expansion costs were made possible through Science Foundation of Arizona funds supported by Brewer and half through Gilbert-based Heliae Technologies, which is working to design an industrial process that starts with the creation of high-fat strains of algae and ends with the commercial production of jet fuel.
Interest: More than 300 life sciences companies have been launched, and the industry has brought in more than $330 million in venture capital. But advances in gene mapping and stem cells have not produced therapeutic breakthroughs as quickly as people thought, and uncertainty over environmental regulations and reimbursements has cooled investors to the industry, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported.
Interest: For 21 budding entrepreneurs at the University of Northern Iowa, last summer was a time to be the boss, as well as make some money.
UNI recently reported that 21 students who ran their own businesses, as part of the 2011 Southwestern Advantage program, over the summer months made a combined gross profit of $343,278.
Interest: San Diego businessman Irwin Zahn has donated $700,000 to San Diego State University’s College of Engineering for an on-campus “incubator” where students will be able to turn their ideas into working companies.
The Zahn Center will guide teams comprising engineering, technology and business students as they turn their concepts into business plans and then connect with venture capitalists and go to market.
Interest: More than 80 West Virginia University researchers will meet with health-related private sector companies in what planners say is the largest bioscience/biomedical technology showcase ever held in West Virginia. The bioscience showcase will be Feb. 21 at WVU's Erickson Alumni Center. Organizers say it will serve as a platform for university researchers and private industry experts to explore possibilities for collaboration and cooperation.
Interest: Last week's Army order for 1,100 Recon Scout XT robots is worth $13.9 million, the biggest in the history of fast-growing ReconRobotics. The University of Minnesota, which first developed the technology at its robotics lab, is a "significant minority shareholder" in the privately held company that was capitalized with several million dollars by Bignall and other investors.