Ann Arbor

METAL design and fabrication studio opens near downtown Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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April 27, 2011

All that glows is not gold, but it may well be metal. About 500 people attended the recent opening of METAL, an Ann Arbor-based design and fabrication shop run by a trio of artisans and found object devotees. "I've been scraping my way though the bottom of plant baskets for metal and combing beaches as long as I can remember so I have a love of a rusty object as well as one that's polished and pristine," co-owner Claudette Stern says.Partners John Walters, Claudette Stern, and Don Billmaier occupy 5,000 square feet of space in a former petroleum and fuel oil distribution center near downtown at 220 Felch Street, just off Main. The brick building topped by a smoke stack sits near the railroad. "I do like the train tracks. I've always lived by the train tracks," co-owner John Walters says. "Plus once we saw what the roof structure of this shop looked like I knew that it was the right place because it just has a wonderful antiquated first growth pine arched ceiling."The shop dabbles in sculptural interpretations, mechanical parts, and useful things with one element in common: metal. Its showroom takes up a quarter of the space and is filled with repurposed antiquated objects and a vintage and industrial line of rust belt period furniture. The fabrication shop sits in an old garage bay. That's where the crafting of sculptures and architectural interior and exterior accent pieces, restoration (including old cars), and R&D (research and design) is done. "Research and design is for people who are looking to make their ideas come to fruition, either within industry or in a more personal nature," Walters explains.The company works with the University of Michigan's school of art and architecture on various projects. On the morning of our interview, Walters had just dropped off some dies for a CNC mandrel bender used in bending pipes. "Specifically we're working to provide support in the build and R&D of this mandrel bending apparatus for this seven-axis robot. It can cut stone, cut styrofoam with a heated wire, can cut logs at various complex angles with a saw apparatus. It's a shop platform which tries to have one machine [the robot] do the functionality of many."The partners are looking to start an apprenticeship program with students from local colleges and Eastern Michigan University and U-M. A summer intern will be starting in May. They also plan to offer classes in blacksmithing, CNC production, milling, fabrication, and the refurbishing and repurposing of outmoded objects.Sources: Claudette Stern and John Walters, co-owners of METALWriter: Tanya Muzumdar

Game Theory: A Q&A with Matt Toschlog

By Jeff Meyers

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Community Development

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April 27, 2011

The computer gaming industry rakes in nearly $9 billion each year. Michigan has only a very small sliver of that pie, and part of that sliver is Quantum Signal in Saline. Concentrate chats with Matt Toschlog, who heads up the company's simulation and gaming division. He weighs in on the state of the industry in Michigan, our film and video game incentive program, and the strategic advantage of having dreadlocks.

The future of libraries is in the hands of geeks

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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April 27, 2011

Reference is dead. All hail the IT staff! At a recent librarian symposium, Ann Arbor District Library associate director Eli Neiburger delivered the news that the way of the future for libraries across the nation involves data storage and distribution - which means big servers and the geeks who service them. Needless to say the message made some ripples. Excerpt: "We need big servers and the geeks to take care of them," Neiburger said. "What are we going to cut to be able to hire a geek? We are going to cut reference staff. Reference is dead," he said. Despite the fact that a trained librarian can bring value to a reference interaction, the patron today, acclimated to Google searches, does not feel that way, and librarians cannot change their mind, Neiburger said. "Travel agents were outmoded because people felt they had better access to the information than they could get from the travel agents. We're in a similar sort of spot," he said." Rad the rest of the story here.

Sakti3’s batteries viewed as one of the top technologies of 2011

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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April 27, 2011

As electric and hybrid vehicles account for a greater percentage of cars on the road, the need for cheaper and better batteries grows. MIT's Technology Review thinks Sakti3 could be the company that makes that happen, with their cutting edge "solid-state battery."Excerpt:"To make solid-state batteries that are practical and inexpensive to produce, Sastry has written simulation software to identify combinations of materials and structures that will yield compact, reliable high-energy devices. She can simulate these materials and components precisely enough to accurately predict how they will behave when assembled together in a battery cell. She is also developing manufacturing techniques that lend themselves to mass production. "If your overall objective is to change the way people drive, your criteria can no longer only be the best energy density ever achieved or the greatest number of cycles," she says. "The ultimate criterion is affordability, in a product that has the necessary performance."Although it may be several years before the batteries come to market, GM and other major automakers, such as Toyota, have already identified solid-state batteries as a potentially key component of future electric vehicles."Read the rest of the story here.

SPECIALIZE DESIGNS creates new toys for blind and sighted kids

By Newsroom

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Diversity & Equity

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April 27, 2011

Tiffany Huang hasn't spent a lot of time in the professional workforce, but she's been there long enough to know she would prefer to be her own boss.The University of Michigan Ross School of Business student spent a few months working at a major Metro Detroit-based automotive supplier last summer, and didn't like being a small fish in a big pond with no real decision-making ability. That inspired her to pursue her own start-up with some classmates from U-M this year: SPECIALIZE DESIGNS."It was so large I felt I had no say in what was being done," Huang, queen of operations for SPECIALIZE DESIGNS, says of her previous experience. "I wanted to have a say in something smaller."SPECIALIZE DESIGNS is that something smaller. The TechArb-based start-up (founded by Huang and Shaili Dasi) creates toys that can be used by both blind and sighted children. Its first toy is a cross between Simon and Bop It, is shaped like a plate, and requires its users to pay attention to noise and vibrations.Huang and Dasi (along with another U-M student who is no longer with the company) have noticed how the blind community is becoming more integrated with mainstream society. They hope this toy will help further integrate both. "We want to create a solution to bring children together in schools," Huang says.The partners are still working on the prototype and are planning to shop the concept around at toymaker trade shows this summer. Huang expects to bring the toy to market within the next year, with its main customer being schools. Source: Tiffany Huang, queen of operations for SPECIALIZE DESIGNSWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

MedHub signs global clients to bolster local growth

By Newsroom

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Education

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April 20, 2011

MedHub is working to add more staff at its Ann Arbor base by growing its market reach around the globe. The University of Michigan spin-out has recently signed contracts with teaching hospitals in Europe and the Middle East. The company uses web-enabled enterprise residency management solutions to improve communication, collaboration and residency information management in teaching hospitals. Simply said, the 7-year-old firm provides a system that tracks residents and fellows (advanced medical school students in training to become doctors) in order to ensure hospitals get all of the Medicare reimbursements they are entitled to. "We're probably bringing on 3-4 academic teaching hospitals per year," says Peter Orr, president of MedHub. "We have now penetrated the international market."The international customers include the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland and Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar, the largest teaching hospital in the Middle East. It also serves a variety of name brand domestic teaching hospitals, such as the Cleveland Clinic, Stanford University, and the Duke University Health System. The new international clients are adopting U.S. health-care professional training standards, making services like MedHub attractive."Our system fits very well with what they are requiring," Orr says. "That opened up a nice market for us."The firm has hired one person over the last year, rounding out its staff to four employees. Orr plans to add another three positions by the end of the year, primarily in software development.Source: Peter Orr, president of MedHubWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

JV BioLabs deploys skin test tech, doubles in size

By Newsroom

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Education

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April 20, 2011

JV BioLabs has doubled the size of its research team as the University of Michigan spin-out continues to add clients interested in its new skin research technology.The 3-year-old firm got its start when Dr. Kent Johnson and Jim Varani, two U-M professors, decided to commercialize their skin-test technology three years ago. Today the Ann Arbor-based company has a team of four people and plans bring on another 1-2 consultants later this year."We continue to bring new tests online," says Dr. Kent Johnson, president of JV BioLabs. "We're also growing our client list in part from word of mouth from companies."JV BioLabs has developed a series of tests that helps eliminate the need for animal testing. The tests will take skin cultures and attach them to the backs of immune-deficient mice that won't reject the skin grafts. The skin cultures are then used to test properties like toxicity."There is a lot of interest in this technology because it's a good testing bed," Dr. Johnson says. "It's a much quicker system and it's more precise, so it's more attractive to these companies."Source: Dr. Kent Johnson, president of JV BioLabsWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Wolverine Energy Solutions & Technology receives federal funding, triples staff

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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April 20, 2011

Wolverine Energy Solutions & Technology is a green energy company that doesn't dabble in things like wind, solar or biofuels. The University of Michigan spin-out is developing an organic material for super capacitors that will make them more energy efficient and bio-degradable."The material allows it to handle really intense energy, and it can do it over a long period of time," says Stephanie Goodson, president of Wolverine Energy Solutions & Technology. She is also the wife of Theodore Goodson III, a U-M chemistry professor who first discovered the technology.Wolverine Energy Solutions & Technology has already developed a prototype and is using funding from federal agencies, such as the U.S. Dept of Defense, to further development of the organic material in real-life scenarios. This has allowed the company to expand its staff from two people from its inception in 2009 to six today."We'd like to see our employee number double over the next year, and have a good business plan to market our technology to a major corporation," Goodson says.Source: Stephanie Goodson, president of Wolverine Energy Solutions & TechnologyWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Rudolf Steiner Schools go solar, get energy efficiency audits

By Newsroom

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Development News

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April 20, 2011

You can say that this spring, students will graduate from Rudolf Steiner High School with green distinction. The high school and Lower School are the only ones in Ann Arbor thus far to receive grants from Energy Works' Michigan Renewable Schools Program for both a renewable energy project and energy efficiency upgrades. At the end of May, Rudolf Steiner High School will be installing a 10kW photovoltaic solar panel system on its roof. The $85,000 system cost was covered through a $42,500 grant from Energy Works, $24,000 in rebates from DTE Energy, and the school paying the remaining $18,500 balance, according to Katrina Klaphake, development director at the Rudolf Steiner School. As part of the grant, science teachers attended a workshop on how to integrate the renewable energy system into their curriculum, and there will be opportunities to bring speakers in to discuss careers in the renewable energy field with students.The solar panel installation is in line with the high school's eco-friendly ethos, which includes a Conservation Club that has preserved an acre of hardwood forest and planted another with prairie flowers. Students have made field trips to a working organic farm and also run recycling and composting programs.And the Lower School recently received a $5,000 Energy Works grant to conduct an energy efficiency audit. The school has implemented most of the recommendations, including a new boiler installation and replacement of all lightbulbs and ballasts with compact florescent reflector flood lamps and screw-in lamps, Klaphake says.One piece of anecdotal evidence of energy savings at the Lower School over the last few months, Klaphake says, is that DTE Energy sent service people out to check on the electric meter. "So they actually thought the meter wasn't working because it looked like we hadn't been using as much energy as we had in the past at the same time during the year."Cost savings factors into the schools' eco-conscious model, Klaphake says, "but it also shows our students and educates our families on how solar energy works and what you can do with it."Source: Katrina Klaphake, development director, Rudolf Steiner SchoolWriter: Tanya Muzumdar

Pixel Velocity has triple digit growth on strength of gov’t contracts, expects to add positions

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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April 20, 2011

All this talk of federal budget balancing and project slashing hasn't scared Pixel Velocity or its executive team. The Ann Arbor-based firm continues to grow at a triple-digit rate thanks mainly to federal and local government contracts for its digital image processing products.The 10-year-old company clocked a 400 percent revenue increase over the last year with contracts for its products at Wayne County Port Authority and Midway Airport in Chicago. "It's better than ever in regards to federal sales," says Eric Sieczka, president and CEO of Pixel Velocity. "This is a significant year for us. We're doing some significant roll-outs. We see a pretty prosperous horizon."Pixel Velocity creates high-speed digital image processing products for the surveillance and medical imaging markets. One of its biggest markets is installing this technology at points of entry throughout the country, such as ports, airports, and border crossings. Sieczka also expects his company to expand into the petrochemical (oil and gas) market.He expects to add about two new hires to the company's staff of 15 people later this year, depending on Velocity's business.Source: Eric Sieczka, president and CEO of Pixel Velocity Writer: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.