2010 – Page 28 of 78

Ann Arbor’s Vault of Midnight receives San Diego Comic Con award

By Newsroom

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July 28, 2010

If you're a comic book geek, you know the significance of an award from the San Diego Comic Con. If you're not, trust us on this one. It's a big deal that a little comic book store in downtown Ann Arbor, Vault of Midnight, won. Excerpt:The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, presented under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego, is given to an individual retailer who has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large.Read the rest of the story here.

Ypsilanti’s Water St demolition turns brownfield to green

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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July 28, 2010

Minimal surprises and an extra funding boost are helping the demolition of Ypsilanti's Water Street properties go as planned."We are still doing demolition, and we should be done by the end of August," says Ypsilanti's assistant city manager, April McGrath. "Everything is going as planned. That'll be really nice for our community, not to have to see the blight anymore."The city has been demolishing half a dozen vacant buildings, ranging from small residential and commercial to industrial, on the site. The project also received an additional $150,000 grant from the Downriver Community Conference to remove a cement slab, bringing total funding to $1 million.Fortunately, McGrath says, no gas tanks or anything else requiring expensive cleanup were found at the site; the trickiest thing removed so far were hoists used for changing oil. That frees up more grant money for remediation of the site and otherwise readying it for future developers."We were really happy that was all we found," she says. "We're going to do everything we can to prep that site."McGrath said there still aren't any specific plans for the plot of land, with the economy and credit market in a downturn. However, city officials still get calls from potential interested parties waiting for a market upturn. The 38-acre parcel just east of downtown was assembled a few years ago with the idea of redeveloping it into a dense, urban area that capitalizes on both its border on Michigan Avenue and the Huron River. Those plans took a big hit when the initial developer pulled out and the real estate market crashed.The fallout occurred when the city fell into a budget crunch while paying off the bonds used to acquire the property. However, city leaders are sticking to the urban-based theme for the site.Source: April McGrath, assistant city manager for YpsilantiWriter: Kristin Lukowski

Electrified: A Q&A with the Founders of Current Motors

By Jon Zemke

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General

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July 28, 2010

John Harding and Erik Kauppi turned their tech coop prototype into a microloan investment and now Current Motor Company is poised to achieve electric scooter world dominance. Okay, we're probably getting ahead of ourselves on that last part, but the duo's transition from Ford engineers into innovative entrepreneurs is a good indication that southeast Michigan has begun its economic evolution.

Technology, problem solving focus of Ypsilanti New Tech High School

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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July 28, 2010

In the real world, people don't work in one spot on one subject for an hour and then turn in a homework assignment. They work together to solve real-life problems. So how do you better prepare students for the real world? You design a school to emulate it.That's the idea behind the New Tech family of schools, one of which will be opening in the Ypsilanti Public school district this September. Ypsilanti New Tech High School at Ardis, in a former elementary school, will help students learn by working on projects that solve problems that integrate subject matter, explains Cory McElmeel, Interim Dean of Instructional Services.The basis of New Tech is engaging students in context. When presented with a program, they create a know and a need-to-know list, including what they yet need to learn to complete the project. Everything is based on the required Michigan curriculum.However, it's not done in typical one-class-per-hour fashion. Longer classes integrate subject matter: Biolit will be a combination of biology and English language arts, perhaps studying literature about ecology or genetics. Other combinations are Geoart (geometry and three-dimensional art), and Historytech, combining American history and geography with technology and communications. Double-sized classrooms will accommodate two teachers apiece, one for each of the integrated subjects.New Tech will also help students prepare for college; graduates are required to earn college credit and complete an internship. College freshmen often see a drop in grades as they get used to their new freedoms, and "part of New Tech is to get students to understand those freedoms," McElmeel says.Among the updates that had to be done was remodeling bathrooms to high-school size and installing lockers and windows to ready the school for its fall opening. A science lab will be built next year. Wireless Internet and additional electrical outlets were installed for MacBook computers, refurbished from previous teacher use, that each student will use. Interactive whiteboards were also brought over from now-closed schools, saving money."Having a laptop is key for students," McElmeel explains, enabling students to congregate and move around to solve a problem. "That desktop becomes a barrier between the students. Laptops can be moved aside."Enrollment is capped at 125 and includes a range of students, not just those who happen to be technologically minded. "It works for all the gamut of students," McElmeel says. "This program, because it's built on a need-to-know curriculum and working in groups, it works for any type of student."Ypsilanti New Tech was supported by grant funds, including a $450,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Community Foundation for new software and professional development. The facility update came from leftover bond funds."We do feel very lucky in Ypsilanti," he says of receiving the funding. "It's key to us. We would not have been able to bring this awesome program to our district."Ardis, at Ellsworth Road near Hewitt Road in Ypsilanti Township, was closed by the district in 2005 as part of a budget-cutting move.Source: Cory McElmeel, interim dean of instructional services for Ypsilanti New Tech High School at ArdisWriter: Kristin Lukowski

Law School Goes Global

By Michelle Martinez

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Community Development

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July 28, 2010

Trade agreements, copyright, multinational corporations - it was inevitable that U.S. law schools would start to orient themselves toward the global market. With multiple campuses in Michigan (the newest is here in Ann Arbor), Cooley has not only become the largest law school in North America, it also boasts one of the biggest foreign-born student populations.

Ypsilanti’s Mobile Sign Language takes on web and smart phone apps

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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July 28, 2010

Combining sign language with smart phone applications might not seem like the most obvious partnership, but it's an idea Mobile Sign Language is capitalizing on to create a new business.Jason Gilbert (a sign language interpreter) and Judy Yu (a web developer) started playing around with the idea of creating a web-based sign language translator four years ago and have built it into a start-up at Ann Arbor SPARK's East Incubator in downtown Ypsilanti. The company is a winner of its recent elevator pitch competition. It recently hired a programmer to help it get its app to translate speech to sign language on the market this fall."I don't know of anyone else who is doing it on a phone," Gilbert says. "It's something that is really needed."The start-up plans to create a variety of web- and mobile-based programs that enable sign language translation. Source: Jason Gilbert, CEO of Mobile Sign LanguageWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s Cerenis Therapeutics ropes in $51.7M VC investment

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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July 28, 2010

Cerenis Therapeutics has landed $51.7 million in venture capital, making it another Ann Arbor company that has hit an investment home run in an area that is on a hit streak.The 5-year-old firm, composed mainly of former Pfizer employees, will use the money to expand its operations here and in France. It employs 26 people that are evenly split between the two locations, with the Ann Arbor office giving work to another four independent contractors. Three positions have been added over the last year, with an expected ramp-up in hiring with this new infusion of capital."The funding will allow us to expand here and in France," says Bill Brinkerhoff, COO of Cerenis Therapeutics.Cerenis Therapeutics is working on creating and commercializing the first synthetic HDL, which is the so-called good cholesterol. The idea is to create a new way to remove plaque from heart tissue. The product could be on the market as soon as 2015."We're going to see if it can regress plaque rapidly in patients who have had a heart attack," Brinkerhoff says. "We have finished Phase 1 and this will pay for Phase 2, which is proof of concept."Source: Bill Brinkerhoff, COO of Cerenis TherapeuticsWriter: Jon Zemke

EMU becomes first Michigan university to receive DART mass spectrometer

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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July 28, 2010

Michigan's first spectrometer is heading to Eastern Michigan University, an addition that is making chemistry researchers green with envy across the Midwest."The Michigan State Police Lab is in the process of purchasing one now," says Ruth Ann Armitage, an associate professor of chemistry at Eastern Michigan University who quarterbacked the effort to attain the $200,000 National Science Foundation grant for the spectrometer. "I have a friend in the U.S. Customs office in Chicago that said, 'I am so jealous you have one of those."A spectrometer provides the shortcut to discovering the chemical makeup of a substance. Currently chemists have to go through an extensive, time-consuming process to learn this. The spectrometer allows them to put the substance in a chamber and get the chemical makeup within a few minutes. For instance, the chemists could put a mystery pill into the spectrometer and know whether it's Vicodin or Viagra or aspirin without the fuss and muss of physically breaking it down. EMU plans to use the spectrometer to research historical artifacts, looking for chemical clues about life centuries ago. They will be able to put a dish from a primitive culture into the spectrometer and be able to learn the composition of not only the dish but any food residue it contains."Finding out what these residues are tells us a lot of about life back then," Armitage says.Source: Ruth Ann Armitage, an associate professor of chemistry at Eastern Michigan UniversityWriter: Jon Zemke

Endra hires 6, expects to double life sciences staff

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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July 28, 2010

For Endra, moving from Boston to Ann Arbor made good money sense.The 3-year-old life sciences start-up set up shop in Ann Arbor last year with five people. It now employs 11 and expects to double its staff again in the next year. Ann Arbor's low cost of doing business is a big reason why that growth is possible."Operating here is less expensive," says Michael Thornton, COO & president of Endra. "Everything from salaries to office space is cheaper."And then there is the talent pool. Endra also choose Ann Arbor because of its proximity to the University of Michigan and a steady stream of local graduate students. Endra, which develops a preclinical product for small animal imaging (think lab rats), plans to expand its office space within the next year to accommodate its growth."We're basically building out the team here," Thornton says.Source: Michael Thornton, COO and president of EndraWriter: Jon Zemke

ICON Creative Technologies Group plans for 20% growth

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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July 28, 2010

ICON Creative Technologies Group is literally growing into its new home on the outskirts of downtown Ann Arbor, hiring four new people over the last year.The interactive marketing agency moved to the former second home of the Ann Arbor Art Center last year. It now has a staff of 25 people and a handful of independent contractors focusing on Internet marketing for firms in the bio-tech, automotive, and service industries."We're doing well," says Rob Cleveland, CEO of ICON Creative Technologies Group. "The year is going pretty much as planned."The 15-year-old company is focusing on a hybrid of 20 percent organic growth and mergers/acquisitions to expand its business over the next year. "Our top priority is people in the business development field," Cleveland says.Source: Rob Cleveland, CEO of ICON Creative Technologies GroupWriter: Jon Zemke