Make it yourself. Or get others to help you. All Hands Active lives up to its name as Ann Arbor's ever-industrious hackpace, a place where inventors, innovators, designers, and crafters plot the overthrow of the status quo... or just make some really cool stuff.
Who says government can't keep up? When it comes to municipal innovation in the digital realm, Washtenaw County landed in the top ten among the U.S.'s second-largest counties.Excerpt:"The Digital Counties Survey identifies the very best examples of how counties are aligning technology to support strategic priorities and create crucial operational and administrative efficiencies," said NACo Executive Director Larry E. Naake. "Especially important during these tough economic times, counties across the country are using innovative technologies to reduce county operations costs and enhance service delivery." Read more here.
We're not sure what it says about our commitment to Dungeons And Dragons, but Ann Arbor was ranked the 16th geekiest city in America. But seriously, we got faced by Huntsville, AL, Kennewick-Pasco, WA, and Ames, IA. How is that possible?Excerpt:In the "Science and Engineering Indicators 2010," the NSF ranked the top 20 cities in the United States by percentage of workers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics occupation.Based on the NSF's criteria, it turns out that the densest concentrations of geeks in U.S. cities is not necessarily where you would expect, with one big exception.Read the rest of the story here.
Dynamic Edge recently came out with a new problem-solving IT product, reason enough for the Ann Arbor-based company to look to fill a few new tech positions.Dynamic Edge has doubled the sales of its Fixed IT product over the last year, allowing the software firm to grow its revenue by 10 percent. The 12-year-old company is planning to hit a 20 percent jump in revenue this year and has three open positions for entry level computer support, server engineers, and a programmer. It already employs 28 people and two interns."A large portion of our growth will be with these sales," says Bruce McCully, CEO of Dynamic Edge. "Our programming department is also pretty busy designing iPad applications and smartphone apps."Its fastest growing product is Fixed IT. The software program helps prevent IT problems by nipping them in the bud."We have put together a product and process that allows this to fix these problems before they become outages," McCully says. "It fixes the problem before the users even know about it."Source: Bruce McCully, CEO of Dynamic EdgeWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Donald Hogan has been boot strapping his start-up, KnowledgeWatch, since he started it in 2006. Now it's gaining some traction thanks in part to the talent he is finding through Ann Arbor SPARK's Shifting Gears program.KnowledgeWatch's staff of five employees and an intern is developing software that aggregates, analyzes and sorts online content in a way that is similar to Google searches. Among the downtown Ann Arbor firm's target market are assemblers of trade publications or hobby sites (which number in the tens of thousands). It has found many of its employees and advisors through Shifting Gears, a program offered through Ann Arbor SPARK that helps professionals and executives transition from working at big corporations and into start-ups."We've found some diamonds in the rough through Shifting Gears," says Hogan, CEO of KnowledgeWatch.The company is also in the process of implementing more of its products with existing customers and developing new sales leads. It hopes to perfect its product offerings in Michigan over the next year and go national after that."We're ready to seek funding and we have a customer base that continues to grow," Hogan says.Source: Donald Hogan, CEO of KnowledgeWatchWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
ONL Therapeutics is working on a drug that will help prevent retina detachment specifically and one cause of blindness in general. It's a new technology that has caught the attention of the U.S. Dept of Defense as a way to help prevent soldiers from becoming blind after combat.The start-up spun out of the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Institute four months ago. It is developing a drug that could be injected into an eye to prevent the death of cells, retinal detachment and eventual blindness. Trauma from battle has made this a problem for the U.S. Dept of Defense."We hope to get the drug into clinical trials within two years," says Raili Kerppola, CEO of ONL Therapeutics. She is co-founding the start-up with Dr. David Zacks (the inventor of the technology and an associate professor of ophthalmology at U-M) and Dr. Jeffery Jamison. They are also working with Thomas Collette and the U-M Office of Tech Transfer.ONL Therapeutics was the runner up in Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest's New Business Idea category. The prize was $2,500 in seed capital. The start-up is also going after federal grants and hopes to fast track development because it's tackling a rare ailment with no cure."If it does work, we believe the development will be shorter than for your average drug," Kerppola says.Source: Raili Kerppola, CEO of ONL TherapeuticsWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Merit Network, an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit owned by the state's public universities, is further expanding into the upper peninsula of Michigan as it continues building one of the largest fiber optic networks in the country.The 2,297-mile fiber-optic line will run across the state of Michigan and bring access to technology to more people than ever. The BTOP (Broadband Technology Opportunities Program) project is a partnership between Merit, its subcontractors, and the federal government, which has awarded $102 million to Merit to build the network. Merit and its partners put in a 20-percent match to design and lay the network, which will serve 52 counties in the lower and upper peninsulas."The economic development opportunity that this infrastructure brings to the area is significant," says Elwood Downing, vice president of member relations, communications and services at Merit, in a statement.Merit currently provides connectivity to universities and school districts in the U.P. Its decision to open an office there and appoint a member relations manager is aimed at making the UP and Michigan an appealing place to live and work.Merit Network owns and operates America's longest-running regional research and education system and provides networking services to universities, college, school districts, libraries, state government, and health care and nonprofit organizations.Sources: Patty Giorgio, spokesperson, Merit NetworkWriter: Kim North Shine
Vision Computer Solutions has opened an office in downtown Ann Arbor so the Northville-based IT firm can better take advantage of the growth in the area's emerging technology sector."We would like to do more business with some of the companies out there," says Peter Marsack, vice president of business development for Vision Computer Solutions. "Ann Arbor is very loyal to Ann Arbor businesses so we want to make a splash out there."Prompting this move is the exponential growth of one of its largest clients, InstruMedics. The start-up specializes in surgical tool repair and equipment. "They're definitely in an aggressive growth mode," Marsack says.Vision Computer Solutions' Ann Arbor office will have 2-3 staffers. The company plans to expand that office while maintaining its downtown Northville headquarters. It employs 11 people overall.Source: Peter Marsack, vice president of business development for Vision Computer SolutionsWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Scientists at U-M have made a discovery that could possibly convert sunlight into electricity at costs far below those for today's photovoltaic cells. They envision an "optical battery" of sorts.Excerpt:"The breakthrough – unveiled Friday in a scientific paper in the Journal of Applied Physics – shows that if light is intense enough, it can, when traveling through nonconductive material, generate voltage from magnetic effects 100 million times stronger than earlier expected. Such magnetic effects produce a strong electric field that can be harnessed for electric power production, Dr. Rand and Mr. Fisher say.“This could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation,” Rand said in a statement. “In solar cells, the light goes into a material, gets absorbed and creates heat. Here, we expect to have a very low heat load. Instead of the light being absorbed, energy is stored in the magnetic moment.""Read the rest of the story here.
Detroit blogger Nikki Stephan invites Kyle Stuef, media consultant from The Whole Brain Group, to weigh in on the 42-mile gulf that disconnects A2 from Metro Detroit. Seem insurmountable to you? Consider this: The distance between San Francisco and Cupertino is 43.4 miles. Excerpt: "When I started working in social media and becoming involved in the new tech community, we were scattered all over the place. New channels were taking hold, and companies were just starting to see a value in building a strong online presence. Not surprisingly, people were starting to get “real jobs” doing just that. I saw the people I was getting to know start to condense and consolidate. Perhaps it was more noticeable to me, because it seemed as if everyone was leaving the Ann Arbor area to move east to Royal Oak, Troy, Southfield and Ferndale. The community was growing larger, but it was growing more segregated. Have you ever tried to get someone from Detroit to come to an LA2M meeting in Ann Arbor? Have you ever tried to get someone from Ann Arbor to come to Tweetea in Royal Oak? If you answered yes to either one of these, you know that a divide has appeared somewhere near Metro Airport." Read the rest of the story here.
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