2010 – Page 65 of 78

Stout Systems hires 12, plans to add another dozen jobs

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February 24, 2010

One of the favorite words the leadership at Stout Systems likes to use is flexibility. The company is building some solid growth numbers around that word."We call ourselves technology agnostic," says John W Stout, president and founder of Stout Systems. "We don't align ourselves with just one system or vendor."That has allowed the Ann Arbor-based firm to make a dozen new hires, including some recent college graduates, over the last year. The 16-year-old company's staff now stands at 30 employees and the occasional intern. Headcount is up from 25 since we checked in with the company last summer. Plans are afoot to hire another dozen people in 2010.The software development firm specializes in everything from helping firms with technical staffing, such as computer programmers or project managers, to creating smart phone applications. It's also expanding into the business intelligence sector as it grows beyond Ann Arbor and Michigan. "We've developed a national reach," Stout says.Source: John W Stout, president and founder of Stout SystemsWriter: Jon Zemke

New U-M research breakthroughs revolve around electricity

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Innovation News

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February 24, 2010

Energy, and how best to utilize it, is the focus of a couple of new innovative research initiatives at the University of Michigan.A National Science Foundation-funded team of scientists at the university is working on ways to make the new hybrid-electric vehicles more self sufficient. That not only includes creating cars that consume less energy, but vehicles that can generate their own. The idea is that if vehicles can harness wind and solar energy either while running or stationary, they will consume less electricity from the traditional grid.The concept is called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) integration. Jeff Stein, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Michigan, and his colleagues envision a world where the electric cars become "distributed" storage, doubling as mobile holding tanks for electricity and ready to serve in their down time.U-M researchers are also developing an artificial foot that recycles energy otherwise wasted in between steps. The idea is to harness this energy that could potentially help amputees walk with greater ease. The human walking gait naturally wastes energy between steps. Since prosthetics don't produce the same reaction, amputees spend 23 percent more energy to walk. U-M's energy-recycling foot captures the wasted energy and channels it to help an ankle to push off. A microcontroller tells the foot to return the energy to the system at precisely the right time. The foot was developed by Art Kuo, professor in the University of Michigan departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, and Steve Collins, a former U-M graduate student. Watch a video demonstration of it here.Source: University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s VC community looks to student ventures

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Economic Development

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February 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.

Start-ups discover Michigan’s shores

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Entrepreneurship

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February 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.

Former Ann Arborite now plays critical role in Detroit

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Community Development

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February 24, 2010

The woman who honed her skills at Ann Arbor's city government is now putting them to use as the new director of Detroit's Buildings and Safety Engineering Department. Excerpt:Karla Henderson decided to spend her first week on the job figuring out what her employees actually do.So the then-new director of Detroit's Buildings and Safety Engineering Department had one-on-one meetings with supervisors to compare the job descriptions of employees with their actual jobs.Few matched. And some employees had never seen their job specifications.One meeting was with a woman who said she was a special events coordinator."Here, I'm thinking she's talking about coordinating the vendor licenses (for big events) at Hart Plaza," Henderson said. "But when I talked to her, she said, 'No, I coordinate the employee picnic and the party and office stuff.' That was a job responsibility."Henderson needed fewer parties and more help, so she transferred the employee. The woman, whose salary was $60,000 a year, soon retired.Welcome to change.Henderson, who joined Mayor Dave Bing's team last July after years of city service experience in Highland Park and Ann Arbor, is bringing Bing's no-nonsense approach to the department that deals with everyday business: inspections, permits, licenses, zoning questions and demolitions. She and her deputy director, Kimberly James, an attorney with institutional memory and a keen sense of savings, form a dynamic duo who want to change the conversation in Detroit about buildings, property maintenance and beauty.Read the rest of the story here.

Latest skinny on the Fuller Road Station

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Community Development

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February 24, 2010

Want to know the transit oriented development possibilities in downtown Ann Arbor? The Ann Arbor Chronicle has every dirty detail in this story.Excerpt:Chris Leinberger was blunt in his assessment of the proposed Fuller Road Station: If the parking structure is built as proposed, in 20 years it will be torn down.Speaking at a forum on transit-oriented development, Leinberger – a University of Michigan professor of practice in urban planning – said current plans for the joint UM/city of Ann Arbor project do a good job of incorporating different kinds of transit, from bikes and buses to perhaps, eventually, commuter rail.But Leinberger criticized the project for taking some of Ann Arbor's most valuable land and turning it into something that won't generate revenue for the city. He told Eli Cooper, the city's transportation program manager, that "whoever's in your position 20 years from now will tear it down."Read the rest of the story here.

Dexter’s Good Harbor Golden Ale receives some golden press

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Healthy Communities

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February 24, 2010

Local beer is famous in these parts, but some brews in Dexter are gaining big-time mainstream attention. This time The New York Times is providing the recognition.Excerpt:The diversity of these beers also makes their appeal very personal. I mentioned a beer that reminded me of a lambic — that was the No. 4 beer of our top 10, the Good Harbor Golden Ale from Leelanau, brewed in Dexter, Mich. We loved this beer, but it has an unusual flavor that some may find off-putting at first. I recommend sticking with it, though, because once you begin to like these sorts of beers you can’t help but seek them out.Read the rest of the story here.

Domino’s CEO Brandon comes home to U-M

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Healthy Communities

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February 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.

EMU takes over Michigan’s Historical Marker program

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Community Development

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February 24, 2010

Eastern Michigan University's revered historic preservation program is extending its reach now that it's taking over Michigan's Historical Marker program.EMU is working with the Michigan History Foundation and the Michigan Historical Commission to run the program. This means every time you see one of those new historical markers detailing the story behind a building, EMU will have helped make that possible. "We have a long relationship with Eastern Michigan and we know the students there," says Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan Historical Center in Lansing. "They were interested so we thought this would be best for Michigan's historical markers."The program began in 1955 to ensure that markers tell the important, accurate stories about Michigan's past. There are now about 1,630 markers across the state. An executive order shook up the normal agency that has overseen the program, so handing it over to EMU and its partners was done as a cost-cutting move.EMU will incorporate the historical markers into its graduate Historic Preservation Program. Selected students will prepare marker texts as the final project for a master's degree and present them to the commission for approval. EMU's Historic Preservation Program is the largest graduate program in historic preservation in the nation, and the only such program in Michigan.Source: Eastern Michigan University and Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan Historical Center in LansingWriter: Jon Zemke

Heritage Row development pushes towards approval

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Community Development

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February 24, 2010

After months and months (it feels like years and years) of starts and stalls, the downtown Ann Arbor project once called City Place is making significant headway.The development, now called Heritage Row, is moving through the city's planning commission process and heading toward a possible approval as soon as late spring or summer."We're making some modifications and some final selections," says Alex de Parry, the developer of Heritage Row. "We're making adjustments."Those include giving the new construction portion a more traditional look. The ideas is to match the historic homes to be renovated during the project.The development calls for preserving the original houses along Fifth Avenue just north of Packard Street and building a series of three apartment buildings behind them. It's a layout that is reminiscent of the Chicago- or C-style apartment buildings of the early 20th Century.Project financing is already lined up, de Parry says. However, he adds, a construction start date is still uncertain right now. That might change now that a number of neighbors have gotten on board with the new plans after months of bitter opposition. "I don't think we'll please everybody, but we are trying to please a majority of the people," de Parry says. "This is the compromise."Source: Alex de Parry, developer of Heritage RowWriter: Jon Zemke