Investment : Innovation & Job News

This month, Lansing-based PTD Technology established a contract with The Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health (CAIANH), on the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado.

“PTD’s role — to build additional functionality and improve usability for the ImmunizeColorado.com site — will benefit the entire state of Colorado,” says Doug Wiesner, vice president of IT Solutions at PTD Technology. “The web site serves as the primary Internet-based tool for the Colorado Adult Immunization Coalition (CAIC) to uphold current immunization information for adults and enable them to find statewide influenza vaccination clinics."

PTD Technology has been working with public institutions for 30 years, offering IT solutions to business, educational institutions, government entities and non-profits throughout the country.

“The local impact is that the project is a nationwide data collection site developed, supported and hosted by a locally owned and operated Michigan company employing local staff,” adds Wiesner.

Source: Doug Wiesner, PTD Technology

Writer: Suban Nur Cooley

The Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM), located in Lansing's REO Town neighborhood, received a $10,000 grant from State Farm to support the Comprehensive Community Development Institute (CCDI). CCDI is a training program that will help offer members greater access to safe, affordable housing and address the effects of the foreclosure crisis. 

“The CCDI training will provide another tool for organizations to revitalize their communities,” says executive director, Jamie Schriner-Hooper. "State Farm's support will help to provide a positive impact on the communities they serve."

"As a company with agents located throughout the state, many of us are able to interact first-hand with community development organizations making an impact close to our own homes,” says, Lansing State Farm agent, Jim Hanlin. “We are thankful that these organizations have access to top-notch training opportunities through CEDAM that give them the tools to increase their abilities.”

CEDAM represents about 400 organizations and individuals throughout Michigan who are committed to rebuilding neighborhoods and revitalizing communities.

Source: Jamie Schriner-Hooper, CEDAM

Writer: Suban Nur Cooley

Budding entrepreneurs in the Lansing region will soon have a one-stop-shop for all the resources they need to get started, thanks to a new venture out of Michigan State University.

The MSU Entrepreneurship Network will be formally unveiled Aug. 19 at a celebration at East Lansing’s Technology and Innovation Center, 325 E. Grand River Ave.

The network is a collaboration of several MSU and local entities dedicated to incubating new business.

“There are so many components to entrepreneurship,” says Bryan Ritchie, network director and a professor in MSU’s James Madison College. “There’s the business side, the engineering and manufacturing side, the policy side. So what we did is bring together all these people who are already doing entrepreneurship activities and said, ‘How do we coordinate all these activities?’

“So we said. ‘Let's create a network of all the assets on campus and give them all the resources in the community so they can sit down with all the right people at the right time.’”

Among other things that will be offered by the msuENet will be a new certificate program called Venture Creation and the Innovative Mindset. Launching this fall, the program features two courses and an experiential component, all designed to introduce participants to all aspects of entrepreneurship – business, psychology, sociology and finance, Ritchie said.

The certificate program is open to 60 people this year – 45 MSU students and 15 non-students. Anyone wanting more information can visit entrepreneurship.msu.edu

Source: Bryan Ritchie

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

Lansing residents who want to strengthen their neighborhoods are invited to an upcoming conference sponsored by the NorthWest Initiative.

Called “Neighborhood…What? Creating Great Places,” the conference is schedule for Oct. 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the South Washington Office Complex, 2500 S. Washington Ave.

“It is a conference designed to engage, inform and inspire residents to take ownership in making Lansing neighborhoods safer, healthier and more connected,” says Stephanie Campbell, community outreach specialist with the NorthWest Initiative.

“We would like everyone to see why it is so important for them and their families to make their neighborhoods the best they can be.”

The conference is open to the public. Registration is $5, which will cover lunch and supplies. Child care may also be available.

For registration information or  other updates, visit www.lansingneighborhoodconference.wordpress.com.

The NorthWest Initiative is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the neighborhoods around the Grand River.

Source: Stephanie Campbell

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

Michigan State University hopes to take the lead in boosting the number of researchers dedicated to women’s health, and a new grant will help.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded MSU a $2.5 million grant to create a new program called Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health. The goal is to create a center where young researchers are paired with mentors and given the time and money to pursue research projects.

“This award provides an enormous opportunity for MSU and researchers in women’s health,” says Mary Nettleman, chair of MSU’s Department of Medicine. “This type of training grant not only encourages young investigators to come to MSU but also creates new networks and connections among researchers. It allows scholars to become independently funded women’s health investigators.”

The grant will help cover the salaries of young researchers to allow them time to apply for grants, set up projects and conduct researcher. The program will be open to researchers from across disciplines — not just medicine. 21 mentors have already been selected to work with them.

Source: MSU

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

If the Lansing region hopes to continue growing its high-tech manufacturing sector and compete in the future, we must train our youth today to be prepared for those kinds of jobs.

That’s the thinking behind a major grant announcement by the Capital Region Community Foundation, which has awarded two local organizations $75,000 each for programs aimed at introducing science, math and technology to children.

The 2010 Impact Grants went to Impression 5 Science Center and the Information Technology Empowerment Center (ITEC).

Foundation officials say they hadn’t planned on awarding two grants this year but were so blown away by the parallel goals of Impression 5 and ITEC that it only made sense.

“What impressed the committee about both the I5 and ITEC plans was how they felt like two parts of a larger whole,” says Robin Miner-Swartz, the foundation’s director of communications. “Both focused on developing science and technology training for youth in our region, but in different-yet-parallel ways.

"And the fact that I5 and ITEC already had an established collaboration, it felt like a natural opportunity for the Community Foundation to double down and make a statement: This type of education and training is vital to our community.”

Impression 5 will use the funds to create an Emerging Media and Technology Lab within the science center. ITEC plans to open ITEC Pathways, a learning center that will offer program instruction to train tomorrow’s scientists and engineers.

Source: Robin Miner-Swartz

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

Local entrepreneur Sam Hogg has become a regular face in national media, but he says he’s not letting it go to his head.

Hogg’s company, GiftZip.com, has twice been recognized by Entrepreneur magazine — once last March for being among a handful of young innovators who used class time to develop business ideas and again in June as one of “10 Hot Startups” to watch.

A lot of companies never land that kind of major press coverage, much less within their first two years of existence. But success, Hogg says, isn’t about landing great media coverage.

“It is always great to see folks writing about your business, as it tends to validate why you started it,” says Hogg, an MSU graduate. “However . . . lots of well-covered businesses flame out, and lots of very profitable businesses remain under the radar forever.”

GiftZip.com allows people to buy online gift certificates from popular retailers like Target, Barnes & Noble, Sephora and Home Depot, among many others.

Hogg came up with the idea for the company during a sustainability class at MSU. He started thinking about how much waste is generated from plastic gift cards and wondered if there was a way to supply e-cards instead.

“If there was any secret to how we got to where we are to date, it lies purely in the people that have worked on the venture, from the staff to firms like Netvantage Marketing and Nicholas Creative Media,” Hogg says. “Those are the people that run GiftZip.com on a day to day basis.”

Source: Sam Hogg

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

Have a great business idea but not sure how to get started?

Your dream may be about to come true. A national nonprofit aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship has chosen Lansing for a weekend-long event designed to pair idea-makers with the right teams to launch new businesses.

Called Startup Weekend, the event has become a global phenomenon in which promising entrepreneurs have the chance to pitch their business ides in roughly 90 seconds to a panel of judges. The best ideas are then assigned teams of volunteers with expertise in everything from marketing to computer programming to come up with a plan for turning idea into business.

MSU student Eric Jorgenson petitioned Startup Weekend to select Lansing after he attended Startup in Detroit a few months ago to pitch his own business idea. His was among those selected, and he’s almost ready to launch his company — before he has even graduated from college.

“It’s an incredible weekend,” says Jorgenson, a business and economics senior. “You show up Friday night, pitch your ideas and then get to work Saturday morning. You have 18 hours of work time to get your company launched. Some people walk away on Sunday with companies, with a website up and running.”

Startup Lansing is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 5-7 at Michigan State University’s Henry Center and at East Lansing’s Technology and Innovation Center. Registration has not yet opened, but updates will be available for now on Twitter with the hashtag #SWLansing.

Source: Eric Jorgenson

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

An MSU physician is testing a new theory that may lead to better therapies for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

John Goudreau, director of MSU’s Translational Neurobiology Research Unit, has received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. He’ll use the funding to study whether a protein known as parkin could help the human body fight off the damage caused by Parkinson’s.

“Parkinson’s is a progressive disease, and much of the research has been focused on slowing that progression by preventing cell injury and death,” Goudreau says. “But we are looking at why some neurons in the brain are able to fight off the disease through a unique ability to revive after being hit with an injury that kills other cells.”

Goudreau has been studying Parkinson’s at MSU for 10 years. He holds appointments in MSU’s departments of Neurology and Pharmacology/Toxicology in the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

“Understanding how parkin promotes recovery from injury may allow us to provide cells injured in Parkinson’s disease the necessary tools to survive,” he says.

Source: John Goudreau, MSU

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

America’s high-tech future demands that more young people today get excited about science and technology.

Which is the thinking behind a $60,200 grant from the Motorola Foundation which will allow Michigan State University to bring in underrepresented students from Lansing and Detroit to participate in a robotics building competition.

MSU’s uG9-12 Robotics Competition-Driven Mentoring Program received Motorola’s Innovation Generation grant, the fourth year the MSU College of Engineering has received the funding.

The grant will allow MSU to pair 20 first- and second-year engineering undergraduates with high school students in schools with predominantly African American and Hispanic students, as well as an all-girls high school.

“It is a service learning opportunity for our students, and it gets the high school kids excited about a future in engineering,” says Drew Kim, assistant to the dean for recruitment and K-12 outreach in the College of Engineering.

The Motorola Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Motorola.

Source: MSU College of Engineering

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

Michigan’s public research universities are helping to fuel an advanced manufacturing base in the state, a fact that could position Lansing for a high-tech future, according to a report issued last week.

More than two-thirds of Michigan’s manufacturing jobs today are considered high-tech, the report by the University Research Corridor states.

The URC is a joint effort by Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University to align their resources to transform Michigan’s economy.

The report was prepared by East Lansing’s Anderson Economic Group. Among the study’s findings: a third of the research and testing jobs in the Midwest are based in Michigan, and advanced manufacturing jobs fared better in the economic downturn than traditional manufacturing jobs.

Because of the Lansing region’s connections with MSU, the area will benefit in the long run economically, says Jeff Mason, URC executive director.

“You're seeing a greater recognition of the role that MSU and the other research institutions play in benefiting the economy of our local areas,” Mason says. “Not only by leveraging the research strength of these universities, but also through the brainpower that exists in their faculty and students.”

Mason points to the success of Lansing’s Niowave, Inc. as a case-in-point. The company was founded by Terry Grim, an MSU professor who has spent 13 years working in MSU’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.

Source: University Research Corridor

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

A Korea-based corporation has pledged to invest at least $1 million in an East Lansing company that’s an off-shoot of research at Michigan State University.

The agreement between Hanwha Group and XG Sciences will allow the local company to increase production of a nano-sized material called xGnP graphene nanoplatelets.

The material was discovered and developed by MSU chemical engineering professor Lawrence Drzal and can be used to strengthen the properties of natural graphite.

“Graphite is a very cheap mineral and has a lot of attractive properties,” Drzal says. “It’s very lightweight, very stiff, and it doesn’t burn. But if you look at the structure of graphite, it looks like a stack of dishes. The forces that hold the layers of graphite together are very weak.

“So the thought that occurred to us was if we could produce these individual layers of graphite, then all those desirable properties of graphite could go into whatever we added it to. That was the basis of the work.”

Drzal and his partner in XG Sciences, Mike Knox, currently produce 25 pounds of the material every day from a refurbished plant in Lansing. The new funding will allow the company to eventually produce as much as 1,000 pounds a day, Drzal said.

Source: Professor Lawrence Drzal, MSU

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

Lansing-based web-hosting giant Liquid Web has unveiled a new product feature that will give its customers greater control over their own IT destinies.

Called Storm Bare Metal, the new technology does two things, says Travis Stoliker, director of marketing.

First, it creates an automated system that allows Liquid Web customers to make changes to their own server accounts – such as how much server space they need at any given time – without going through a technician.

Second, it allows customers to create their own personalized server configurations, depending on their IT needs.

“There are several things that led us in this direction,” Stoliker says. “First would be customer demand; the next would be efficiency. Now, we have this provision server that can automatically set up new servers; before, it would take the five to 10 people on our team to do that.”

Liquid Web, Inc. is a web hosting company founded in 1997. It now has more than 20,000 clients in 120 countries.

Source: Travis Stoliker, Liquid Web, Inc.

Writer:  Louise Knott Ahern

Looking for a place to eat, shop or hang out in Lansing? You can now just check your phone.

The Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau has launched a mobile application for iPhone or Blackberry that allows you to plan and map out your trip with a few thumb strikes.

GLCVB is the first in the state to offer such an application, said Tracy Padot, vice president of marketing communications.

The Greater Lansing app offers many of the same search-and-find functions of the organizations website, including information about festivals, businesses, hotels and attractions. It will also feed into the bureau’s live Twitter feeds.

“It uses GPS technology,” Padot explains. “So let’s say you clicked on shopping. . . You would get [info about] shops near your location. You would get a photo and a description. And if you wanted to figure out how to get to them, you could map it out.”

The application is available as a free download from www.lansing.org or from iTunes.

An app for Droid users should be available by fall.

Source: Tracy Padot, Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern

Fresh off the success of its first YouthBuild home renovation collaboration, the Ingham County Land Bank is now partnering with another nonprofit to train local workers in a new skill necessary for rebuilding older neighborhoods.

The Land Bank and the Michigan Historic Preservation Network are offering a two-week workshop to teach craftspeople the art of historic window preservation beginning July 26.

Participants will learn how to repair and rehabilitate wooden, double-hung windows in older homes while also helping renovate a Land Bank property.

Project coordinators say the project – which is based on a similar program in Kalamazoo – brings two benefits to the community.

First, craftspeople will gain new skills they can put to use in the job market.

Second, there will now be more people with the knowledge necessary to rebuild aging homes in neighborhoods that could be important to regional revitalization.

“Many of these targeted neighborhoods contain buildings that are older and historic,” Land Bank chair Eric Schertzing says in a statement. “Many of these buildings, both commercial and residential, will require rehabilitation to remain functional and efficient properties.”

For more information about the class, visit the MHPN’s website at www.mhpn.org

Source: Ingham County Land Bank

Writer: Louise Knott Ahern