Innovation News

Systems in Motion hosts entry level job fair in Ypsilanti

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October 14, 2009

Systems in Motion isn't wasting any time breaking into the Ann Arbor-area market.The newest darling of the Silicon Valley IT start-up world chose Ann Arbor to make its first major investment earlier this fall. Today it will hold an information session about its Entry Level Training Program for the IT industry at Ann Arbor SPARK's East Incubator in downtown Ypsilanti, 215 W. Michigan Ave.The program is working with Michigan Works! To help people who have been laid off, are about to lose their jobs or in households making $40,000 a year or less to get a foot in the door in the growing IT industry. The training sessions will be held from November through January and they come with a good likelihood of future employment."They're basically recruiting with the understanding that the people going through the training will more than likely be hired," says Elizabeth Parkinson, vice president of marketing and communications with Ann Arbor SPARK.Systems in Motion is investing $15 million over the next five years to create a new IT support center in Ann Arbor. The IT firm expects to create 1,084 jobs with the investment. It is also evaluating investing in other marquee college towns, such as Austin, Texas and Durham, North Carolina.The California-based firm is only 3 months old but has already been able to lock down some venture capital funding and hire 20 people. Systems in Motion plans to create the next generation of IT infrastructure and workers by setting up IT support center at college towns across North America. The combination of the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College made the Ann Arbor area a prime target for Systems in Motion.For information on the IT information session, call (734) 484-7247 or send an email to amy@annarborusa.org.Source: Elizabeth Parkinson, vice president of marketing and communications with Ann Arbor SPARKWriter: Jon Zemke

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Mobatech begins hiring at Ann Arbor SPARK Central

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Economic Development

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October 7, 2009

Creating a iPhone application is so common these days it's almost cliché. But Ann Arbor's Mobatech thinks it has the experience and the skills to help make its applications stand out from the 75,000 others in Apple's App Store."Everybody from your brother, sister and grandmother is creating mobile applications today," says Greg Schwartz, founder and CEO of Mobatech.Schwartz founded the firm in 2003 in Ann Arbor. He started with making a checkbook application for smart phones before everyone and their extended family began writing code for mobile applications. "When I started it was all about the web," Schwartz says. "By the time I graduated the bubble had burst and I had moved to mobile phones."He kept it as a side gig when he worked in New York City, but made it his full-time job two years ago when he moved back to Tree Town. Today he employs five people and four summer interns from Ann Arbor SPARK's Central Incubator in downtown Ann Arbor. He hopes to hire 3-5 people within the next year."We're definitely trying to build out the team," Schwartz says.Mobatech has concentrated on the Blackberry app market so far, which has helped it pump its revenues up to 300 percent in the last year. It expects to start putting out iPhone apps by the end of the year.Source: Greg Schwartz, founder and CEO of MobatechWriter: Jon Zemke

Bank of Ann Arbor hires 13 in A2, Ypsilanti

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Economic Development

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October 7, 2009

Last year was a terrible year for most financials, but the Bank of Ann Arbor was able to turn that sow's ear into a silk purse.The downtown Ann Arbor-based added 13 people to its payroll as it capitalized on one of the worst financial meltdowns in decades. The bank now employs 96 people in five branches in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. It's all thanks to more and more people choosing to bank locally. It's a trend with a future, according to the Bank of Ann Arbor brass."I don't think this local first movement is a one-year wonder," says Tim Marshall, president and CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor. "We continue to grow and I think that trend will continue."So much so that he expects Bank of Ann Arbor to continue to hire. He doesn’t foresee adding any more branches in the near future, but expansion is in the firm's plans during a time when most banks wouldn't even think about such things."Most companies are downsizing and cutting employees," Marshall says. "We have taken the opposite approach of hiring good people for the benefit of the bank and the community."Source: Tim Marshall, president and CEO of Bank of Ann ArborWriter: Jon Zemke

U-M helps push URC past benchmarks

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Economic Development

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October 7, 2009

The University of Michigan is playing a key part in the growth of Michigan's emerging University Research Corridor.URC is made up of the state’s three major research universities – Wayne State, Michigan State and U-M. The idea is to create one of the premier research and development clusters in the U.S., churning out patents, start-ups and higher-education graduates. A study by the Anderson Economic Group entitled "Empowering Michigan" shows that the URC has improved in a number of key areas since it was founded in 2007.Among its accomplishments are upping the URC's economic impact by 10 percent in the last two years to $14.5 billion and doubling the number of university spin-offs from 14 to 28. URC is responsible for 48,786 jobs, 132,826 students and 572,123 alumni in Michigan. It’s also the home to $1.4 billion in research, 129 patents and 135 licenses between 2004-09."U-M adds quite a big of economic impact because of its medical campus," says Caroline Sallee, lead author of the Anderson Economic Group's Empowering Michigan study.The university is also the big bread winner for federal research funding. It has also been able to follow through on developing that research with its tech transfer and commercialization initiatives."They have a bit more tech transfer activity than the others," Sallee says.Source: Caroline Sallee, lead author of the Anderson Economic Group's Empowering Michigan studyWriter: Jon Zemke

EMU’s economic, social impact trends upward

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Innovation News

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October 7, 2009

How much economic impact would you guess Easter Michigan University is responsible for in Michigan? Several million? Maybe a few hundred million? But not the several billions of dollars that the state's research universities (U-M, MSU and WSU) are responsible for, right? Wrong.A new study by the Ypsilanti-based university pegs EMU's annual impact on Michigan's economy at $3.7 billion as of 2008. That's a $42 return for every dollar the state invests in it annually. That in turn creates $166 million in state tax revenue. A study EMU conducted five years ago yielded similar results."The economic impact has a lot of factors in it besides the research aspect of it," says Charles Monsma, a political science professor at Eastern Michigan University and co-author of the study. He was alluding to how much of Michigan's research universities economic impact is concentrated on federal research funding.The report, "Economic And Social Impact Of Eastern Michigan University, 2008," also looked at other aspects of the university's impact, such as socially and through student retention. About 90 percent of EMU's student come from Michigan 75 percent of its graduates stay in the state.The university's location in the middle of a large metro area, also plays a part in its impact. Monsma points out that being a part of Metro Detroit and close U-M and WSU helps it capitalize on its resources."It increases the impact," Monsma says.Source: Charles Monsma, a political science professor at Eastern Michigan UniversityWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s Current Motor Co delivers first electric scooters

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Economic Development

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October 7, 2009

John Harding was Current Motor Co. first customer before the business even existed.Harding wanted a sustainable electric scooter, but the only ones he could buy were powered by fossil fuels. So he and Erik Kauppi started Current Motor Co. last year on Ann Arbor's far west side."I wanted an electric vehicle," says John Harding, president of Current Motor Co. "I am motorcyclist as well and a two-wheeler makes a lot of sense."The company now employs 10 people from its headquarters on Jackson Road. There they put together scooters --mostly from stock parts-- while creating their own electric package. They even issue their own vehicle identification numbers. The company makes its first delivery of eight bikes to customers later this month."We're rolling out slowly," Harding says. "We're ramping up our marketing now that we have our first bikes out."The next shipment of bikes will be sold out of the firm's new dealership at its headquarters, 6241 Jackson Road, which is set to open by the end of the month. Current Motor Co. plans to product about 100-200 electric scooters within the next year. At the same time it plans to develop a national network of dealerships."2011 is when we want to grow that dealership network nationally and sell thousands of bikes," Harding says.Source: John Harding, president of Current Motor Co.Writer: Jon Zemke

U-M plans to fill creative gap with new Montage mag

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Innovation News

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October 7, 2009

The smarty pants at the University of Michigan see a void in the coverage of what's going on at the university and is starting to cover it with its own webzine – Montage."We felt we had to get the story out there about the creative work people are doing here," says Frank Provenzano, a spokesman for the University of Michigan and former newspaper reporter.Montage is a website that will feature cultural news, faculty profiles, think pieces and student stories. The subjects will range from education to politics to art. The idea is to become a place for university creatives to share and comment using the latest social media. "We want to think of creativity that isn't unique to any one discipline," Provenzano says. There is definitely a lot of room for creativity in the Ann Arbor media landscape these days. The recent downfall of The Ann Arbor News has helped spur or empower a number of smaller, mostly web-based publications, including Concentrate. The result is a seismic shift in the local media landscape that is still sorting itself out."Everyone has to tell their story and traditional media isn't getting it done," Provenzano says.Source: Frank Provenzano, a spokesman for the University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke

Cybernet Systems opens Fla office, has 4 openings

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Community Development

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September 30, 2009

Cybernet Systems is spreading its tentacles beyond its Ann Arbor home.The company of 50 people and a few summer interns is opening a new office in Orlando. The handful of people will serve as information assurance capacity for clients of its military vehicle work down south. In the meantime the company has four jobs openings, including a mathematical engineer for its Ann Arbor headquarters."We're almost always accepting resumes and hiring," says Patrick Lewis, a spokesman for Cybernet Systems. The 20-year-old firm specializes in research and development in the defense and medical fields. It deals mostly with federal contracts. Among its products is the Large Caliber Automated Resupply, which loads ammunition into tanks and unloads unwanted casings or ammunition remotely. Its Automated Tactical Ammunition Classification System sorts ammunition, a costly and time-consuming task in the military. Cybernet Systems medical division developed a telemedicine service that enables physicians to remotely gather and review outpatient physiological data over the Internet. It was used in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.Source: Patrick Lewis, a spokesman for Cybernet SystemsWriter: Jon Zemke

MetaSpring adds 4, plans to do it again in Ann Arbor

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Economic Development

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September 30, 2009

MetaSpring didn't just move because its old space was too small and the start-up was growing too big. The Ann Arbor-based firm needed a space that represented its creative personality."We really wanted to define ourselves with our space," says John Paul Narowski, strategic marketing director for MetaSpring.So the web-development-and-marketing firm moved out of its subleased corner of SpamStopsHere's office and set up shop in 2,000 square feet near Briarwood Mall. About one third of that building was office-space and the rest was warehouse. MetaSpring built the rest of it out in chic loft-style office space, decked out in bright colors and creative spaces. That is expected to give the company space for is burgeoning growth. MetaSpring (Meta is programmer jargon for fancy code and spring is a reference to a river or brook) started with four people in 1999. Today it employs seven people, two interns and an independent contractor. Two employees and two interns were brought on within the last year. "We have been expanding at a pretty consistent rate," Narowski says.It plans to develop internal software this year that it plans to turn into software as a service product. That would allow the firm to diversify into both a consulting and subscription-as-a-service model. MetaSpring plans to use that as a launching pad for hiring 3-4 more people (programmers and designers) within the next year.Source: John Paul Narowski, strategic marketing director for MetaSpringWriter: Jon Zemke

ICON Creative Technologies grows staff in Ann Arbor

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Economic Development

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September 30, 2009

There is a reason ICON Creative Technologies Group is moving into a bigger space, mainly to accommodate the new hiring its doing right now.The Ann Arbor-based firm super sized from its old downtown digs to the former second home for the Ann Arbor Art Center just outside of downtown. That nearly tripling of space is allowing the company to continue to hire. It recently brought two more people to its payroll and plans to hire more soon."The more business we bring in the more we will hire," says Jennifer Peak, a spokeswoman for ICON Creative Technologies Group. The 14-year-old Internet firm now employs 27 people around the world, including with people in as far away as Germany and as close as Northern Michigan. It's Ann Arbor contingent measures out to 20 people. It hopes to hit 60 people within the next five years.ICON Creative Technologies Group is an interactive marketing agency focusing on Internet marketing. Its 60-some clients include firms in the bio-tech, automotive and service industries.Source: Jennifer Peak, a spokeswoman for ICON Creative Technologies GroupWriter: Jon Zemke