2010 – Page 63 of 78

U-M student start-ups take 98K from Mich Biz Competition

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March 3, 2010

More seed capital is creeping into the coffers of local start-ups now that the Michigan Business Challenge has awarded nearly $100,000 to student-led start-ups from the University of Michigan.The Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the U-M Ross School of Business awarded the grants to these new economy-based start-ups for excellence in new business plans and concepts. Eighty-five teams competed for the grants with a couple dozen walking away with money. That's a new record for the competition that is now in its fourth year.Two of the start-ups that landed four figures in seed money include $2,000 to North Coast Fisheries (an organic fish farm firm) for "Best Written Business Plan" and $1,000 to Milo (an e-commerce site for cosmetics for women of color) for advancing to the final round. Each found immediate uses for their winnings."These funds are a great first step as far as exploring all of the legal issues to create a legal entity," says Aaron Skrocki, a MBA student at U-M and CEO of North Coast Fisheries."The $1,000 went straight to the web designer," says Kimberly Dillon, a U-M MBA student and founder of Miilo.The Michigan Business Challenge lets the student entrepreneurs receive support, training and feedback from judges at each phase of the competition. The students are exposed to a rigorous business development boot camp that reinforces the notion that a solid business foundation is necessary to commercialize a great idea.A list of this year's major winners of the competition can be found here.Source: University of Michigan, Kimberly Dillon, founder of Miilo and Aaron Skrocki, CEO of North Coast FisheriesWriter: Jon Zemke

Wolverine Venture Fund scores 4th profitable exit with Mobius

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Economic Development

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March 3, 2010

The Wolverine Venture Fund is starting to hit a nice streak of profitable exits in the local start-up game.The student-led venture capital fund has announced its fourth profitable exit with the acquisition of University of Michigan spin-off Mobius Microsystems. This is on the heels of its most profitable exit ($2 million) with the sale of HandyLab."It allows us to participate but at a higher level now, and for more rounds," says Thomas Kinnear, who oversees the Wolverine Venture Fund. He adds that the fund's small size prevented it from investing in the later rounds of the HandyLab deal, but hopefully that will not happen again.The fund is 11 years old and worth about $3.5 million. It is run by students at the U-M's Ross School of Business. It has invested in more than 18 companies that have some sort of connection to either Ann Arbor or the University of Michigan. Its current portfolio is comprised of 13 companies.Kinnear says he would be very surprised if another profitable exit occurred for the Wolverine Venture Fund within the next 12-18 months. However, he says its possible since the Wolverine Venture Fund is invested in maturing start-ups like NanoBio."It's hard to say but there are several positive signs," Kinnear says. "But no one counts their money before it's in the bag." Mobius Microsystems deals with precision all-silicon oscillator technology. More simply said it is a company that makes microchips operate more efficiently. It was acquired by San Jose-based Integrated Device Technology.Mobius Microsystems was incorporated in Detroit and eventually moved to California after raising venture capital. It still maintained an office in Ann Arbor of 2008.Source: University of Michigan and Integrated Device TechnologyWriter: Jon Zemke

Small Company Innovation Program helps U-M start-ups

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Economic Development

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March 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.

Michigan announces Pure Michigan Living winners

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Community Development

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March 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.

New invention leads to cleaner hands in hospitals

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Healthy Communities

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March 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

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In The News

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March 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.

Longer hospital stays maybe cheaper, U-M study says

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Healthy Communities

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March 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

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Economic Development

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March 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.

New bike rules in Ann Arbor no longer require registration

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Community Development

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March 3, 2010

One would think a town as obsessed with alternative transportation and bike lanes as Ann Arbor would be expanding its bike registry. However, City Council is moving to eliminate what has become a cumbersome program.For decades, city has charged $8 for people to register their bike, primarily to help fight bicycle theft. About 650-700 bicycles are registered each year. That has meant that list has grown to thousands upon thousands dating back to the 1970s. Many of those registrations were logged by local students."The ones that were U-M students in 1986 and are no longer anywhere near the city anymore, we don't need those," says Eli Cooper, transportation program manager for the city of Ann Arbor.City staff had proposed reforming the system so any bikes registration that reaches five years old would be automatically culled from the lists unless it is renewed. Cooper estimates that could help push bike registration up to 1,000 bikes per year.However, there is the argument that a bicycle registration isn't necessary at all. Modern bicycles come with a serial number stamped into their frame. Those numbers can be logged onto an online database, National Bike Registry, which is also accessible to local law enforcement. Cooper argues that while the registry is useful it, a local bike registry makes it easier for local law enforcement to navigate a shorter list.Source: Eli Cooper, transportation program manager for the city of Ann ArborWriter: Jon Zemke

Germantown historic district moves forward in Ann Arbor

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Community Development

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March 3, 2010

The political football that is the Germantown Historic District is about to be hiked again now that a report advocating for the creation of the historic district has been released.The 28-page report says a public meeting about the creation of the historic district on the south side of downtown is expected to be held in May. The committee charged with exploring the creation of the historic district must also finish its work by September. Right now it's moving toward creating the historic district."Through its older homes, grid like layout and street alley … it reflects the period during which early settlement of Ann Arbor by Yankees as well as Germans immigrant families took place," the report state. "It contains the homes of a number of early city leaders."The proposed Germantown Historic District encompasses three blocks that include both sides of Fourth and Fifth avenues between William Street and Packard Road, along with both sides of Packard between Fourth and Fifth. It is also the area where the City Place development (now called Heritage Row) is proposed and near the proposed Moravian project. Both developments call for building dense housing geared toward people who want to live close to downtown Ann Arbor. The historic district has been used a political tool for local historic preservationists who are or have opposed either or both developments.Politics aside, the report contains some interesting information about the neighborhood. It includes 46 homes and one church that were built between 1838 and 1925. Most were built in the late 19th Century. Those homes represent a wide variety of architectural styles, including Greek Revival-style, Italianate, Arts and Crafts, Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival and Queen Anne homes. The Queen Anne was popular because of the easy access to lumber from Michigan's plentiful lumber mills. The church, Bethlehem Evangelical, was built in 1895 in a Romaneque Revival style with Gothic influences. Its stone work serves as the biggest architectural statement. It also is the church that spawned Zion Lutheran Church on the city's west side."This neighborhood is part of the original plat of Ann Arbor," says Rebecca Lopez-Kriss, who serves on the historic district creation committee. "Some of these houses sit on original plots."The neighborhood was originally settled in the early 19th Century by American Yankees. German immigrant families began moving into the neighborhood in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. By 1880 one out of nine of every Ann Arbor residents was German born. The population was served by a German newspaper, shooting club, cornet club, a large park and athletic society. The common denominator was the word German in the title.University of Michigan faculty and students began to move into the building as the 20th Century began to take shape. First it was through German families taking on boarders. "There was a significant period of time everyone had a boarder in their house," Lopez-Kriss says. "It was normal."The neighborhood converted to a mostly university off-campus housing by World War II when U-M underwent a rapid expansion. Today the neighborhood is a mix of a few local families and mostly university student renters. "Keep in mind," Lopez-Kriss adds, "the sole charge of the committee is to weigh whether the neighborhood has historic value. All other considerations like affordable housing, density, sustainability have to be weighed by city council. It's also not our job to evaluate the economic benefits or even whether someone would ever spend the money to restore these homes." Source: City of Ann Arbor and Rebecca Lopez-Kriss, member of the Germantown Historic District CommitteeWriter: Jon Zemke