Sen. Dick Durbin Visits UI Research Park to Learn about Innovation, Entrepreneurship

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois toured the Research Park on Monday, Oct. 24, to learn about how high-tech companies in Champaign-Urbana are adding jobs through innovation and entrepreneurship. 

Durbin saw demonstrations from two IT/software startups at the EnterpriseWorks high-tech incubator, Nuvixa and Cazoodle, before touring three other buildings. He visited with representatives from Starfire Industries, a plasma engineering firm that has attracted significant funding from federal Small Business Innovation Research awards. In addition he heard from Chromatin Inc., a biotech company that also graduated from the incubator. 

His last two stops were at Littelfuse, where he saw a demonstration of the high-power testing lab, and Yahoo!, where the Senator met one new hire who was on his very first day on the job. 

Photos from the Senator’s visit can be found at our Facebook page.