U-M continues to build, no matter what
Source: The Detroit News, 3/10/2010
Continual growth for the foreseeable
future is the name of the game at the University of Michigan, which
makes it a point to keep building up its campus and curriculum even if
its local peers are not.
Excerpt:
The University of
Michigan and Michigan State University are separated by 60 miles and a
few billion dollars. Both are public universities. Both have fiercely
loyal alumni and are a few thousand apart in numbers of students. Yet
MSU is enacting painful program cuts and layoffs, while U-M is adding
staff and is in the midst of one of the biggest building booms in school
history. The budget gap between the two schools has ballooned to almost
a half-billion dollars per year and is growing.
Read the rest of
the story here.
Tech Brewery comes of age as home for Ann Arbor start-ups
Source: AnnArbor.com, 3/10/2010
The Tech Brewery in Ann Arbor is more
about the former than the later (Ie. tech not beer) as a good cross section of Tree Town's
new economy entrepreneurs continues to congregate where the good beer is
made.
Excerpt:
Ann Arbor’s technology
entrepreneurs chose office space in the Northern
Brewery building on Jones Drive over the years because of its
location, its historic loft-like offices and its reputation as a
creative hub.
But for nearly a year, a portion of the building
has been building its own identity as a unique collaboration among many
early-stage companies.
Dubbed the Tech Brewery, a vacant
2,000-square-foot space now offers short-term desk space in a
collaborative environment that makes it unique among Ann Arbor offices.
Most
office incubators provide services and shared resources, founder and
entrepreneur Dug
Song said.
"That's not really what we're doing here," he
said. "…There's a lot more social interaction. More synergistic
relationships, since there are a lot of companies doing similar kinds of
things."
Read the rest of the story here.
Sakti3's Sastry points way to Mich recovery with green jobs
Source: Crain's Detroit Business, 3/10/2010
Green businesses are the path to
sustainable firms that produce long-lasting jobs and improving the over
all environment in Michigan. At least that's what one of Ann Arbor's
best known entrepreneurs believes.
Excerpt:
Ann
Marie Sastry, CEO and co-founder of Ann Arbor-based Sakti3, said
Michigan can lead the way in vehicle electrification and, in doing so,
reduce the state’s carbon footprint and oil dependence and create green
jobs.
Read the rest of the story here.
U-M's silver medalist skaters recount Olympics
Source: The Michigan Daily, 3/10/2010
It ain't gold but it's hardly a loss.
After all, second best in the world is still second-freakin'-best in the
world. Two University of Michigan students have quite the story to tell
after doing just that in the Winter Olympics.
Excerpt:
It's
not every day that University President Mary Sue Coleman calls students
on their cell phones.
But after University students and ice
dancers Charlie White and Meryl Davis won silver medals in the 2010
Olympic Winter Games last month, Coleman did just that.
"I was
just listening to my voicemails after the free dance, and I came upon
one that said, 'Oh, hi Meryl, this is Mary Sue Coleman,' and I was a
little shocked but very excited and honored," Davis said in an interview
last week.
Read the rest of the story here.
Ypsilanti biz helps IdeaPaint become reality
Source: CNN, 3/10/2010
When only family and friends believed in
IdeaPaint, a promising Massachussetts-based start-up, Ypsilanti's CAS-MI
Laboratories gave them a shot at the big time.
Excerpt:
The
young entrepreneurs refused to believe it. "Our joke was, if we could
put a man on the moon, we can make dry-erase paint," says Newman, 25.
Then
they found CAS-MI Laboratories in Ypsilanti, Mich., where the
scientists were willing to give their plan a shot and even cover some of
the development costs.
With the help of $1 million from family,
friends and a few angel investors, the group spent the next four years
fine-tuning their recipe.
Read the rest of the story here.
Unique Ann Arbor house turns heads
Source: AnnArbor.com, 3/10/2010
No two houses are exactly alike in Ann
Arbor, and this little cottage is definitely one of a kind.
Excerpt:
Tim
and Cyndy Vachon took a 500-square-foot, single-story, cinder block
house, added creative touches that come from being artists and
eco-friendly touches that come from being green to create what they call
the "Curious House."
This whimsical, eclectic and - yes -
curious house is hidden behind a stand of trees on South Maple Road near
Pauline Road in Ann Arbor. It is a showcase for stone and tile, with
leanings toward Arts and Crafts style and a cottage look.
But it
is also a repository for discarded material that could have ended up in
the landfill: A sturdy glass light shade that turned on its head and is
used as a bathroom sink, the soapstone kitchen countertops with a rich
patina that once served as the tabletops in a chemistry lab of a old
Detroit high school and the walnut and oak discarded by relatives used
for trim and to make the stairway that leads to the second floor.
While
the Vachons had the artistic and architectural skills to create the
Curious House, they also had the building skills to turn the vision into
a house. Except for part of the framing, the drywall and the roof, the
couple built Curious House themselves, adding another 1,200 or so square
feet to the original structure.
Read the rest of the story here.
New invention leads to cleaner hands in hospitals
Source: The New York Times, 3/3/2010
Experts from the University of Michigan
are easy to find, even if you are a reporter from The New York Times
looking for the inside dope on new plasma hand sanitizers.
Excerpt:
HOSPITAL
workers often have to wash their hands dozens of times a day — and may
need a minute or more to do the process right, by scrubbing with soap
and water. But new devices could reduce the task to just four seconds,
cleaning even hard-to-reach areas under fingernails.
Instead of
scrubbing, the workers would put their hands into a small box that
bathes them with plasma — the same sort of luminous gas found in neon
signs, fluorescent tubes and TV displays. This plasma, though, is at
room temperature and pressure, and is engineered to zap germs, including
the drug-resistant supergerm MRSA.
The technology is being
developed in several laboratories. Gregor Morfill, who created several
prototypes using the technology at the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, says the plasma quickly
inactivates not only bacteria but also viruses and fungi.
Dr.
Morfill and his colleagues have tested their devices on hands and feet.
“It works on athlete’s foot,” he said. “And the nice thing is, you don’t
have to take your socks off. They are disinfected, too.” (The cleaning
takes a bit longer when socks are added to the job, he said — about 25
seconds. “And it doesn’t yet work through shoes,” he added.)
Plasmas
engineered to zap microorganisms aren’t new. During the last decade,
they have come into use to sterilize some medical instruments. But using
them on human tissue is another matter, said Mark Kushner, director of
the Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering and a
professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “Many thousands of
volts drive the generation of plasma,” he said, “and normally one
doesn’t want to touch thousands of volts.” But the design of the new
hand sanitizers, he said, protects people from doing so. Reassured by
that design, about five years ago he put his naked thumb into a jet of
microbe-destroying plasma at the lab of another plasma researcher.
Read
the rest of the story here.
U-M libraries bid farewell to their card catalogs
Source: AnnArbor.com, 3/3/2010
Not all mediums of information are eternal
at the University of Michigam. It's graduate library is getting rid of
its card catalogs ...and maybe even its books one day in the future.
Excerpt:
Nothing
lasts forever.
So it will be said about the University of
Michigan Library's card catalogs when they are removed from their home
in the bowels of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library on March 8.
Twelve
and a half million volumes strong, the card catalog has been in disuse
for more than 20 years, ever since the university established the MIRLYN
electronic catalog in 1988.
By 1991, every book in the library
system had been catalogued onto MIRLYN, and the card catalogs were a
relic of the past.
"I'm sad to see them go," said Paul Courant,
U-M's Dean of Libraries. "This is truly the end of an era. But it is
time to move on."
Read the rest of the story here.
Small Company Innovation Program helps U-M start-ups
Source: The Associated Press, 3/3/2010
More and more non-traditional ways are
materializing to help local start-ups bridge the seed capital gap. One
of the latest from the University of Michigan involves the Small Company
Innovation Program and the $30,000 it recently awarded.
Excerpt:
Software
that translates drawings of chemical compounds into standard notation
is moving from a campus research project toward commercial application,
with help from the University of Michigan.
Officials say it's
part of a broader effort at Michigan to encourage a spirit of
entrepreneurship on campus.
Read the rest of the story here.
Longer hospital stays maybe cheaper, U-M study says
Source: Reuters, 3/3/2010
Researchers from Ann Arbor continue to
prove conventional wisdom wrong. This time it's that longer hospital
stays are indeed cheaper in the long run.
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Hospitals that send patients home earlier can save money
and the policy does not end up costing more later, researchers reported
on Monday.
The intensive look at two common conditions --
pneumonia and heart failure -- showed that it may be possible to lower
costs in the U.S. system without hurting patients, the researchers
reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Most evidence did
not support the 'penny wise and pound foolish' hypothesis that low-cost
hospitals discharge patients earlier but have higher readmission rates
and greater downstream inpatient cost of care," Dr. Lena Chen of the Ann
Arbor Veterans Affairs Medical Center and colleagues wrote.
Read
the rest of the story here.
Ann Arbor subcultures step into spotlight
Source: The Michigan Daily, 3/3/2010
Ann Arbor's sub cultures aren't always
completely underground. Recently its comic book and body modification
(think piercing, tattoos, etc.) scenes stepped into the limelight for a
quick bow.
Excerpt:
Proudly perched among the fine
dining and fancy boutiques of Ann Arbor's Main Street is Vault of
Midnight, a store whose vibrant blue exterior transfixes the gaze of any
casual passerby. “Comic Books & Stuff” reads its wittily vague
subtitle, and a peek inside clarifies why “stuff” is perhaps the only
term that can sufficiently summarize the store’s impressive assortment
of merchandise. Aside from new comic books, Vault of Midnight is packed
wall to wall with graphic novels, figurines, board games, T-shirts,
statues, manga and an enormous six-foot Uglydoll named Icebat.
Indeed,
Vault of Midnight is a veritable paradise for Ann Arbor’s aficionados
of comic books and other cool “stuff.” The store offers almost 100 new
comic issues each week and its entire comic collection runs into the
tens of thousands. But behind the stacks of old back issues of “The
Goon” is an incredible success story of an independent, locally owned
business.
Vault of Midnight first opened in 1996 in a one-room
house on South Ashley.
“We were so small when we opened, it was
ludicrous. I opened with my entire collection and a couple thousand
bucks,” said Curtis Sullivan, co-owner of Vault of Midnight, who was
just 21 when the store opened.
Read the rest of the story here
and about body modification in Ann Arbor here.
Michigan announces Pure Michigan Living winners
Source: State of Michigan, 3/3/2010
Is it any wonder that the two winners of
the Pure Michigan Living contest come from places in the heart of the
state?
Excerpt:
The Michigan State Housing
Development Authority (MSHDA) and the Michigan Economic Development
Corporation (MEDC) today announced the winners of the "Why I Choose
Michigan" essay contest. The contest helped kick off the recent launch
of PureMichiganLiving.com, a new Web site featuring the people, places
and things that make Michigan a great place to live, work and play.
The
recipients are:
- Gerry Callison of Jackson, who chose
to relocate in Michigan last year after his job was eliminated in
Wisconsin and now works at Commonwealth Associates in Jackson, an
engineering and consulting firm that specializes in electrical
transmission and distribution projects; and,
- Rita Noel, of Howell, was born and
raised in Michigan and has chosen to raise her family in Howell because
she believes Michigan is one of the nation's most attractive places to
enjoy cultural and recreational opportunities.
"The essays submitted by Rita and Gerry
exemplify the reasons why Michigan is retaining and attracting the
people our state will need to succeed in the new knowledge-based
economy," said Joe Borgstrom, a Division Director with MSHDA. "We are
delighted to reward their efforts with free weekend getaway packages to
two of Michigan's most outstanding resorts."
Read the rest of the
story here.
Domino's CEO Brandon comes home to U-M
Source: USA Today, 2/24/2010
David Brandon might not have strayed too
far from Ann Arbor in his professional life, but the new athletic
director is receiving quite the homecoming as he takes the reigns of
one of the biggest college sports enterprises in the U.S.
Excerpt:
ANN
ARBOR, Mich. — David Brandon may be the nation's only CEO who says
leaving a job with total annual compensation of $2.6 million for one
that pays up to $825,000 is a promotion.
But Brandon says he
barely thought twice before deciding to step down from Domino's Pizza
(DPZ) after 11 years running the franchise delivery giant and sign a
five-year contract as athletic director for his alma mater, the
University of Michigan.
In part, that's because the new job he
starts in March will take him full circle — returning him to the place
where he played college football, served on the Board of Regents and
that he relied on to save the lives of his twin sons and to treat him
for cancer.
"This feels to me like just such an appropriate next
step. It's leadership, but a different kind of leadership," said
Brandon, 57, discussing the impending move during an interview at
Domino's headquarters, a few miles from the university's main campus.
"This has provided me with an opportunity to connect with a place that
has been incredibly important to my life."
Read the rest of the story here.
Start-ups discover Michigan's shores
Source: ComputerWorld, 2/24/2010
Could start-ups be the answer to saving Michigan's hard-hit economy? One tech magazine says so.
Excerpt:
A start-up IT services firm -- headed by veteran offshoring executives
-- has opened up an offshoring alternative in Michigan, a state with a
17.5% unemployment rate and a well-educated labor pool.
Fremont,
Calif.-based Systems In Motion Inc. (SIM) has 35 IT workers in Ann
Arbor and hopes to employ about 1,100 in Michigan within five years.
SIM's plans for the state were cited by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm in her State of the State address earlier this month.
SIM's
business approach, which it calls "inshoring," emphasizes streamlined
processes and an intensive worker training program to keep costs 30%
below those of in-house IT departments.
Read the rest of the story here.
Ann Arbor's VC community looks to student ventures
Source: The Michigan Daily, 2/24/2010
The future of venture capital in Ann
Arbor might not be in the start-ups about to break out into very
profitable exits, but in the business students at the University of
Michigan.
Excerpt:
Devin Chasanoff, a finance and
accounting student at the Ross School of Business, graduated from the
University last spring, entering one of the toughest job markets for a
college graduate in recent history.
At the University he had
studied to become an investment banker and had hoped to get a job right
out of college. But after multiple interviews with recruiters from
investment banks and consulting firms around the country, and not one
offer in sight, he took an unpaid internship in New York City at Maxim
Group — the investment banking firm he had interned with the previous
summer. While the arrangement mirrored that of many of his B-school
friends who were also having trouble lining up permanent jobs,
Chasanoff was still disappointed.
"It hurt not to be able to
find a job after putting in so much work, going to one of the most
prestigious business schools in the country," Chasanoff said.
But just a week into the job, sitting in the company’s Chrysler
Building office on the east side of Manhattan, Chasanoff thought of an
idea that would pull the New York City native back to Ann Arbor.
Read the rest of the story here.