Auto-Owners Insurance Co. and the Dart Foundation are giving the Boys & Girls Club of Lansing $65,000 for a new, 25,000-square-foot energy-efficient roof. The club is located at 4315 Pleasant Grove Rd.

Construction is expected to begin in August, but the roof will not be covered with plants, like a traditional green roof, due to potential ongoing maintenance issues, says Joseph Yang, the club’s director of finance.

Students in the club’s GET (Green Energy Technology) City program are helping research the most energy efficient roof system, which may ultimately include solar panels, Yang says.

About 20 middle and high school students meet weekly with visiting Michigan State University (MSU) professors to learn about information technology as well as math and science.

The students have already put up a GET City web site with links to their video about climate change. GET City is funded with grants from the National Science Foundation, the Dart Foundation and the Capital Region Community Foundation.

Last summer, an urban island project took the students around the city surveying temperature increases due to pavement and buildings.

Once the new roof is installed, the students will track data as to how much the club is saving in energy cost to heat and cool the building, Yang says.

About 200 children ages 7 to 17 attend the Boys & Girls Club during the school year. The number grows to 300 in the summer.

“The Boys & Girls Club is not just a place to play. We have a strong educational program as well,” says Yang.

Source: Joseph Yang, Boys & Girls Club

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

Michigan’s agricultural industry has plenty to crow about. According to a Michigan State University Product Center (MSU) study, the systems that raise our food and grow fuel products showed nearly a 12 percent increase in economic impact in 2007 over 2006. More recent figures are not yet available.

According to the study’s authors, Bill Knudson and H. Christopher Peterson, the total economic impact of Michigan’s agri-food and agri-energy system is estimated to be $71.2 billion, an increase of approximately $7.6 billion or 11.9 percent over 2006.

The authors attribute this increase to higher prices for farm products.

“Michigan’s agri-food system represents almost 20 percent of the state’s overall economic engine, making it the second largest industry in Michigan, and it employs a quarter of the state’s work force,” Don Koivisto, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, says. “This report further underscores the importance of this growing industry in rebuilding and diversifying Michigan’s economy."

The study shows the state’s agricultural economy expanding more than five times faster than the growth rate of the general economy (11.9 percent versus 2 percent) between 2006 and 2007.

Evidence also suggests that employment in the agri-food system has increased since the last economic census data was made available in 2004.

“We won’t have updated job figures until 2010, but signs point to job growth, putting Michigan jobs related to agri-food well over 1 million,” says Knudson.

Production of corn for ethanol yielded economic impact of nearly $600 million.

Those wanting to learn more about the agri-energy portion of the state’s economy may attend a conference in Kalamazoo March 30 and 31, hosted by the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The Michigan Agri-Energy Conference will focus on bioenergy and renewable fuels.
 
Source: MSU

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

When Lansing Community College registered more than 9,000 students for online courses this spring, it made all the more important the college’s new identity management for its 35,000 users.

“Lansing Community College was the first in the state to offer a degree completely online, and now offers 24 degrees and certificates online through its eCampus. Registrations for online classes totaled 9,174 seats with 422 sections and 197 courses being offered,” says Linda Heard, college information specialist.

“LCC continues to have the largest community college online enrollment in the state,” Heard says.

To make the online experience more secure and ease staff time, the college contracted with New York-based Mycroft to implement an identity management system.

The college uses the Oracle Identity Manager and Mycroft’s proprietary Higher Education OIM framework, gaining greater control over use access protocols, thus resolving some critical information-access challenges faced by all colleges and universities, says Mycroft.

“We determined that our prior identity management system required some operational improvements, particularly to reflect the fact that, as a community college, we tend to build more short-term student relationships than four-year institutions,” says Christopher Bennett, director of information security at LCC.“Mycroft was able to use a far more efficient, consistent and automated process, tailored specifically for higher-education institutions.”

Source: Linda Heard, LCC

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

A Michigan State University (MSU) associate professor of sociology conducted a study that shows the arts can be an economic development tool, especially in hard times.

“Many people believe that the arts are only for the rich, and this is especially true when you are worried about holding onto your job, your house, or your car,” says Toby Ten Eyck, who surveyed 120 people attending two art shows in Lansing last summer.

“It is in times like these, however, that the arts can provide retailers unique opportunities. People crave entertainment, excitement, and hope, and the arts can provide all three,” he says.

But Ten Eyck’s survey found they can do more.

He queried people attending shows at Downtown Lansing's Lansing Art Gallery and Old Town’s Banyan Gallery and learned those same people also spent time at local restaurants and other retail shops.

More than 75 percent thought that the arts were "very" or "somewhat important" to Lansing’s economy. In terms of creating foot traffic in the area, more than 43 percent said they came specifically to see the shows, while another 20 percent had planned on shopping at other stores while in the area.

Ten Eyck’s study was funded by the College of Social Sciences as well as the Provost’s office at MSU.

He offers a final note for city planners.

“A handful of the people came to the galleries during the Be a Tourist in Your Own Town event,” which is presented every May by the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Others said they stopped by after attending a conference. Art and city festivals do drive traffic to retailers, and efforts should be made to promote these creative opportunities.”

Source: Toby Ten Eyck, MSU Department of Sociology

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be contacted here.

Many of those who walk or ride bicycles in the Capital region are looking for ways to make it safer.

Enthusiasts of the bike movement cite health benefits, safer neighborhoods, and increased property values, but the impediments are large. Every three days someone is hit by a car or truck while walking or bicycling in Michigan.

So people in Lansing and Clinton County are working to change that picture.

Lansing’s Walking and Biking Taskforce, created by Mayor Virge Bernero, is hosting three evening sessions next week and an afternoon session March 7 to seek help to design a sidewalk, trail, bike lane and crosswalk network for the city.

Clinton County’s Green Space Commission is holding one meeting next week and another March 26.

Jessica Yorko, with Walk-Bike Lansing, wants to teach Lansing how a network might look and function, but she also wants to hear the community's ideas. Her intent is to match the public’s recommendations with maps to be drawn by Andy Kilpatrick, head of the city’s Transportation Office and task force co-chair. A draft plan will be presented at a public meeting at the end of March.

“We’ll be asking then what we missed,” Yorko says. She hopes that when the plan is complete, it will be folded into the city’s master plan.

The Lansing effort is funded by the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), Mid-Michigan Environmental Action Council (MidMEAC) and the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance.

Chuck Nelson, chair of the county’s Green Space Commission, said a network would “offer increased opportunities for physical activity, boost property values, and enhance business districts, parks and other communities.”

Source: Jessica Yorko, Walk-Bike Lansing

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

When Michigan State University student Jonathan Brier is typing at 60 words per minute on his computer keyboard, his computer is actually multi-tasking. He has signed it up to do volunteer work.

While the supply chain management senior is doing homework, in the background his computer is processing information for global science projects that are measuring things like the work of solar cells or seeking a cure for malaria.

Through a Brooklyn-based nonprofit called GridRepublic, computers can work together creating a virtual supercomputer.

“Solar cell research, which would take 20 years of work in a lab, can be simulated in two years or less,” Brier says.

The concept is not entirely new. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been trying for 10 years to detect intelligent life outside earth. More than 940,000 users have offered their computers to help find narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space. The project is sponsored by the University of California, Sun Microsystems, the Planetary Society and others.

But in recent years, a plethora of projects have been added and a new Web site, bringing them together, makes signing up easy with a couple of clicks. Security is a high priority, Brier says. The BOINC platform, which GridRepublic uses, has been thoroughly reviewed by experts including IBM. It can run on Windows, Macintosh, or Linux.

“It’s really safer than browsing the Internet,” he says.

Volunteers can learn about the projects they are supporting by clicking on the community section of the site where they can ask scientists questions and learn about new discoveries. They can also set preferences to give as much computer time as they wish.

“In the past, volunteer computing was seen as something for geeks. But now anyone who can check his or her e-mail is good to go."




Source: Jonathan Brier

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

For the first time, the Lansing Symphony Orchestra hasoffice furniture that is not just functional and beautiful. Noweverything matches, too, says Virginia Allen, longtime symphonysupporter.

And the price was right. Lansing-based Smart Office Systems donated $64,000 worth of furnishings to the city orchestra’s administrative offices.

“We’re just really grateful,” says Allen.

After three decades in the Michigan Dental Association building at 230 N. Washington Square, the LSO offices moved to the NuUnion Credit Union buildingat 501 S. Capitol Ave. On Jan. 7, the LSO welcomed board members,volunteers and the business community to its newly furnished space.

“We are pleased to be able to help our local community by doing whatwe do best—office furniture,” says SOS President Paul Covert. “The Lansing Symphony is a key component to the vibrancy and culture of ourcommunity, and we are proud to be in a position to support them.”

In recognition of their gift, SOS is named the title sponsor of Timothy Muffitt’s Music Director Chair, underwriting the position forthe remainder of the 2008/2009 season, as well as the next two seasons.

SOS sells new, remanufactured Haworth and Herman Miller systems furniture and used office furniture.

“Thanks to their generosity, the LSO offices are now a reflection ofthe beautiful music we produce,” says David Gross, symphony executivedirector.

Source: Catherine Guarino of LSO, Virginia Allen

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

ETM Enterprises, Inc., based in Grand Ledge, is making news in two ways. The former parts maker for trucks and recreational vehicles has landed a multi-million dollar green contract with one of the largest companies in the world, Siemens A.G., to make parts for wind turbines.

In doing so, it also won a grant from Capital Area Michigan Works to train up to 50 entry-level, green-economy workers.

Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy, predicts that jobs like these are the solution for both the country’s unemployment numbers and the overheating planet. Jones will speak in Lansing in May at the Green Today/Jobs Tomorrow Conference.

Prospective E-T-M employees for this program need to be able to read, write and have math skills, and be able to lift heavy equipment, Steven Mohnke, E-T-M vice-president, says. CAMW will screen applicants at three service centers: 2110 S. Cedar St. in Lansing, 101 W. Cass St. in St. Johns, and 311 W. First St. in Charoltte. The trainees are expected to be in place by mid-March, Mohnke says. The entry-level workers will earn $9.50 to start, but Mohnke expects they will quickly earn more. Positions include laminators, finishers, fork lift drivers and quality technicians.

The Siemens contract with subsidiary Siemens Power Generation, Inc. is worth $5 to $6 million, Mohnke says, reticent to disclose the exact amount. The workers will make 440-pound parts that will be trucked to Iowa where they will be attached to the bases of wind turbine blades.
 
Source: Steven Mohnke, E-T-M; Kate Tykocki, Capital Area Michigan Works

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs Editor, may be reached here.

Lansing-based  Neogen Corporation, specializing in food and animal safety, has named Dr. Jennifer Rice as the company’s Senior Scientific Officer. In the newly created position, Rice will have responsibility for the overall direction of Neogen’s research activities, says CEO James Herbert.

“Dr. Rice brings outstanding experience and educational background to this new position. She has a good understanding of opportunities for future product development and the experience of managing global programs involving large groups of scientists and multiple product activities,” Herbert says.

Rice worked in the Department of Animal Health Global Product Development with Dow AgroSciences in Indianapolis, where she led a program to develop and license the first plant cell produced animal vaccine, and the only such vaccine to be approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

She also served as Director of Research and Development for Biocor Animal Health where she was responsible for all aspects of design and development for animal vaccines and diagnostic tests. Her team was responsible for the licensure of several bovine combination vaccines.

Rice spent five years with Merial, an animal health company based in the United Kingdom. From her Athens, Georgia office, she was Director of U.S. Biological Discovery and Development.

She is listed as an inventor in numerous patents and patent applications.

Neogen has also been added to the Standard & Poor’s SmallCap 600 GICS Health Care Supplies Sub-Industry index.

Source: Neogen

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

If ever you wanted to start a business, do it now, when you can get the kind of support that would ordinarily cost beaucoups bucks.

The Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) has collected a cadre of specialists to smooth the way for early-stage companies that have the potential to bring innovation—and job opportunities—to the Capital Region. The new program is called SpringBoard.

“It’s a win for everyone,” says LEAP President and CEO Denyse Ferguson. “The SpringBoard gives our region’s most promising young companies the help they need to get off to a strong start and create jobs in our region. It also gives our eight partner companies new clients who can strengthen and diversify their existing businesses.”

The partner companies are Andrews, Hooper & Pavlik P.L.C. (certified public accountants); CiesaDesign (graphic communications); Edge Partnerships (marketing and public relations);Loomis, Ewert, Parsley, Davis & Gotting, P.C. (attorneys-at-law); the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center (counseling, training and research); North Coast Technology Investors (strategic guidance and evaluation); Thomas M. Cooley Law School (legal education) and Worksighted, Inc. (IT support).

The program was unveiled Feb. 5, although is has been working with early-stage companies in the Capital region for at least six months. One beneficiary is EnerFusion, Inc. that makes mobile power vending stations for public places to enable people to recharge small portable electronic devices, such as cell phones, laptop computers and PDAs. One such station, called a power doc, can be viewed at Lansing’s Capital Regional International Airport.

“It’s been a great experience for us to work with LEAP,” says EnerFusion President Joe Kobus. “LEAP has connected us to the right resources at the right times to get us help with our business plan and help with our marketing strategy. They’ve really worked with us to get our name out there and bring attention to what we’re doing.”

Source: Patty Mallett, LEAP

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

What started at Michigan State University could become part of a national bridge safety measuring system, and may even be used on missions to the Moon and Mars.

Two years ago Monarch Antenna was formed to commercialize a product developed by Michigan State University and Delphi Corp. called the Self-Structuring Antenna (SSA) technology. The SSA antenna alters its shape and configuration through an electric field based on feedback signals for optimum transmission and reception in real time. 

Now, Monarch, based in Ann Arbor, and in association with the University of Michigan and several collaborating companies, has joined nine teams to implement a $19 million, five-year project to develop a system for assessing the structural integrity of major infrastructure elements such as bridges on a regional basis. Monarch’s SSA will enable reliable wireless data sharing among the sensors.

Monarch expects to receive up to $500,000 over the duration of the program and is proud to help commercialize the sense and monitor system for America’s 600,000 bridges, says University of Michigan professor Jerry Lynch.

The contract was awarded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, under its Technology Innovation Program.

Meanwhile, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is evaluating the SSA technology for use in its missions to the Moon and Mars in the coming decades, says the Great Lakes IT Report’s Matt Roush.

Source: Great Lakes IT Report

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be contacted here.

Lansing Community College management and faculty had better hang on to their buttoned down shirts. A strategic planning firm, Marble Leadership Partners, has been hired to “develop a portfolio of improvement opportunities for consideration” and is known for its right brain creativity. 

According to a New York Times article last year, Leslie Marquard, the Chicago firm’s co-founder, is known to bring her clientele into rooms full of pogo-sticks, ethnic art, hammocks, vintage furniture and a pillow “harem.” 

Her goal is to jar loose stayed thinking and move people into a realm of what could be.

“The new method owes some debt to the books, A Whole New Mind, by Daniel H. Pink, and The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida. Both books expound on the need for creative thinking in the market place,” the Times article says.

Marquard was introduced to LCC faculty and students Feb. 5 when college president, Brent Knight, announced the contract at the State of the College address. The company is expected to present its list of opportunities in 60 to 90 days.

Marquard worked with Ernst & Young, and helped Wal-Mart develop its first enterprise strategy, according to the Marble web site. She has broad experience in utilities, textiles, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense, insurance, banking, music and health care.

Her partner, Bill Marquard, is a former adjunct professor of finance at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. His MBA comes from Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management.

Source: Linda Heard, LCC

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

If you get or give flowers on St. Valentine’s Day, it’s possible Watertown Township’s John Henry Company had a part in everything except the blossoms.

John Henry prints and packages items for the horticultural industry, ranging from bows and labels to the plastic picks that might be attached to a bouquet. Gift cards and stationery come off its presses. It also markets materials for corsages (think proms and weddings) and for grower and garden centers.

The company has just benefited from the financial market downturn by picking up 10 employees from a rival firm, TMG-Mazer, a division of Vandalia, Ohio-based Mazer Corp. Mazer, a printer of education-related materials, closed its doors Dec. 30 with no notice to its employees, according to the Dayton Daily News. A Mazer spokesperson attributed the closure to a reduction of orders.

But John Henry was able to hire some of the workers who will be sent to a Texas subsidiary.

John Henry is owned by New York-based Multi Packaging Solutions. Multi Packaging was tied to Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, which was an independent affiliate of Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. before New York’s JPMorgan Chase Morgan & Co. took over the investment bank, according to the Lansing State Journal.

Source: Lansing State Journal, John Henry and other web sites

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be contacted here.

Ever grumble at the seemingly wasteful layers of paper and plastic stuff shrink-wrapped around an item that takes forever to get into? Michigan State University is fixing to do something about it, with the creation of its Center for Packaging Innovation and Sustainability, and Coca-Cola has stepped up with the first grant of $400,000 to get it started.

Plans for the new center were revealed Jan. 27 at the college’s School of Packaging’s Packaging Executives Forum at the Kellogg Center on campus.

People involved with packaging are quick to note that simply reducing layers of wrapping may not be sustainable particularly if the product inside is thus damaged. The center will serve as a think tank for packaging innovation and sustainability as well as a research and education hub to measure and reduce packaging’s environmental impact.

The center will involve the MSU Colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources (School of Packaging), Engineering and the Eli Broad College of Business (Department of Supply Chain Management). It will work with industry and serve as a bridge between corporate and packaging professionals and university scientists, says Satish Udpa, dean of the MSU College of Engineering.

For Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co., the center is a good fit.

“Our company has set ambitious environment goals to not only deliver quality products but to also have minimal impact on the environment,” says Ingrid Saunders Jones, senior-vice president of global community connections for The Coca-Cola Co.

Source: MSU

Gretchen Cochran, Innovations & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

Sam Hogg, founder of the two-month old GiftZip.com, has taken second place in the Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest contest. The $1,000 award is for the business plan that the MSU Eli Broad Graduate School of Management grad developed for his online gift card business.

Hogg calls it a virtual gift card kiosk and it appears to be a hit. Over the holidays, the site got 10,000 page views.

“I conceived of the idea in a sustainable supply chain class,” he tells Media Rica in a podcast on the GLEQ channel. The wasted resources in packaging gift cards and requiring people to get in their cars to pick up something weighing four ounces seems ludicrous, he says.

“Why not put it all in one place?” says Hogg.

The GiftZip site enables users to browse through images of cards from retailers in a variety of categories, including gift cards for kids, pets, sports, technology, clothes, food, travel and more. Shoppers can click on the pictured card and link directly to the point-of-sale on the retailers’ Web site. Users do not give any information to GiftZip, nor does the service cost anything.

Hogg says he’ll use the $1,000 prize for site development. He envisions an iPhone application so users can send, receive and scan gift cards. He also plans to plug into Facebook.

Source: Lauer Sauer, Netvantage Marketing; Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest

Gretchen Cochran, the Innovations & Jobs editor, may be contacted here.

If doctors ever said “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning,” how would they say it in Spanish?

Fourteen health care professionals are taking a pilot class at Lansing Community College this term to learn how to communicate in Spanish with their patients and clients. The class will become an official offering this summer and again next spring.

“After you say ‘Ola’ (hello), then what?” says Keith Philips, class designer and teacher.

He takes the students through various scenarios in simple conversations.

Enrollees include a Red Cross worker, a medical insurance specialist, nurses-in-training, and physicians.

This is the up and coming mode of community colleges reaching new audiences, Philips says. The class is taught through the college’s Center for International Business, Education and Research.

Included in the Spanish class are cultural components such as food and nutrition, and taking a look at vocabulary variations. There are five words in Spanish for “banana.” “Taco” is not a food in Spain, he adds.

“You have to communicate to do business,” he asserts.

The three-hour class meets at the downtown Lansing campus and costs about $250, not including book purchases. Under exploration now is a class called Spanish for Business to be offered in the fall over three concentrated weekends. French for Business is coming as well.

Source: Keith Philips, LCC

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie