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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks

    EnterpriseWorks News Research Park

    Gerald O. Wilson Added to Research Park’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program

    Dr. Gerald O. Wilson, the President and CEO of Autonomic Materials, Inc. (AMI) joined the EnterpriseWorks Entrepreneur-in-Residence program in September 2020. Wilson is now available to meet with technology entrepreneurs as well as startup ventures. AMI is a deep-tech startup that commercialized University of Illinois technology and graduated from the EnterpriseWorks incubator in 2012.  AMI utilizes self-healing technology to create chemistry coatings for improved resistance to corrosion without any manual intervention. Wilson was part of the team that developed the technology at the Beckman Institute. He has a P.h.D in Materials Science and Engineering and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Entrepreneur-in-Residence(EIR) Program allows entrepreneurs to seek help from experienced and successful members from the EIR over a variety of topics including business consulting, strategy assistance, marketing and communication help, investor preparedness. This program also hosts a series of events featuring the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. To learn more about the Entrepreneur-in-Residence program or request to meet with Wilson, click here: https://researchpark5.wpenginepowered.com/resource/eir/ 

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Aspiring Universe Partners with ARPA-E to Create Sustainable Future for Agriculture

    The University of Illinois has been awarded $4.5 million by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)  to create and commercialize carbon credit tools. EnterpriseWorks startup Aspiring Universe, will be in charge of the commercialization of this project to achieve ARPA-E’s “technology-to-market” goal. Aspiring Universe is a farming financial risk modeling company that aims to de-risk and sustain modern agriculture for humanity. “We are developing novel technology to enable a thriving market-based solution to promote agricultural sustainability. Our developed technology will enable a carbon credit market, which will incentivize farmers to adopt management practices that benefit the soil, the environment, and then reward themselves,” says Kaiyu Guan, founder of Aspiring Universe and Blue Waters Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and College of ACES at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For the full article, click here. Aspiring Universe’s Achievements: Aspiring Universe Wins 2020 OCP Innovation Challenge Aspiring Universe Corporation Awarded 2020 Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    AirV Labs Wins Prestigious Manufacturing Innovation Award for Novel Virtual Reality Technology

    AirV Labs, a global leader in rapid creation of mixed reality content for advanced human centered applications, has won the NASSCOM Manufacturing Innovation Challenge 2020 in the 360° Virtual Tour of Plant category for the company’s novel use of 360° video technology. Launched by NASSCOM Centre of Excellence (CoE), the challenge offered a premier, collaborative platform for industry leaders and startups to bring about a digital shift in the manufacturing sector while fostering the innovation ecosystem in India. With the award comes a guaranteed commercial project from Bayer Crop Sciences, India. AirV Labs is a technology company based at EnterpriseWorks that specializes in virtual reality-based solutions, including analytics. Among its groundbreaking product solutions, it has developed a proprietary authoring tool called the AirVu™ Platform for industrial, enterprise, and educational 360° video applications. The award-winning technology allows integration of 360° video of a given scenario with three-dimensional (3D) data such as CAD, graphs, medical charts, functioning model of machines, and automation, as well as with enterprise-level information like bill of material, circuit diagrams, inventory, barcodes and more. AirV Labs can rapidly prototype highly-advanced cyber learning platforms that leverage the strengths of virtual, augmented andmixed reality technologies to create a new immersive interface for the users. “AirV Labs is proud to be the winner of 360° Virtual Tour of Plant, selected from a crowded field of competitors,” said Mr. Faisal Yazadi, CEO AirV Labs USA. “Winning such a prestigious award is validation of our novel technology, which is primed to meet the growing demands of industry to deploy cost-effective, scalable solutions, while addressing collaboration in distributed environments and advanced training with minimized social interactions. Our global team is ready to deliver innovative, mixed reality projects through collaboration and partnerships with industry leaders.” “The current business scenario has undergone a paradigm shift and it necessitates businesses to re-strategize,” said Mr. Chinmay Sengupta, CEO, AirV Labs India. “Our technology will enable businesses to conduct their global operations more sustainably, while changing the way their teams experience and learn through progressive virtual environments.” AirV Labs was founded by Dr. Kesh Kesavadas, professor of industrial engineering and computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Read the entire news release online. 

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    EnterpriseWorks Graduates Investments News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate PhotoniCare Receives Over $7 Million in Funding from Series A and Phase ll SBIR

    CHAMPAIGN, IL.- EnterpriseWorks Graduate PhotoniCare, Inc., a company dedicated to revolutionizing healthcare by providing physicians with better diagnostic tools, announced an oversubscribed $5.2 million Series A financing led by i2E Management Company Inc., with co-investment from OSF Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and Dreampact Ventures. The company also announced that it has received a $2.1 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health. The competitive NIH SBIR program funds early-stage small businesses seeking to commercialize innovative biomedical technologies. PhotoniCare is a graduate of the EnterpriseWorks incubator at Research Park, and its technology originated in the bioengineering research lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. PhotoniCare’s CEO and co-founder, Ryan Shelton, is currently the chair of the Champaign-Urbana Tech CEO Roundtable. For the full article, click here. PhotoniCare’s Achievements: PhotoniCare Wins Top Prize at SPIE and Photonics Media Prism Award EnterpriseWorks Graduate PhotoniCare Announces FDA Clearance for First-In-Class Technology for Imaging the Ear PhotoniCare, Inc. Receives Phase I SBIR Award from NIH

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    Community EnterpriseWorks Graduates News Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate Mesh++ Helps Champaign Schoolchildren Access Internet for Remote Learning

    Mesh++, a startup that came out of the University of Illinois startup ecosystem and graduated from EnterpriseWorks, is part of a collaborative effort to provide wireless Internet connectivity to Champaign Unit 4 students living in the Shadowwood Mobile Home Park. The partners include Ameren Illinois, which is a division of Ameren Corporation that also has a presence in the University of Illinois Research Park. New wifi equipment is being installed in Shadowwood with the goal of having the equipment fully operational to support online learning by the start of the fall semester. The City of Champaign is coordinating the project with cooperation from Unit 4 Schools, i3 Broadband, Mesh++, Ameren Illinois, and Shadowwood Mobile Home Park. “Helping bridge the digital divide by providing free Internet service to our underserved students to facilitate distance learning has never been more important than it is right now. I applaud everyone who quickly pulled together to make this project possible and wish all our students the very best as we kickoff a very unique school year,” Champaign Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen said in a news release. The project will provide wifi Internet connectivity for Shadowwood’s students to Unit 4 School’s online learning applications. This will be accomplished utilizing mesh-network wifi technology developed by Mesh++. Mesh++ spent a year at the EnterpriseWorks incubator, leaving in 2018. The company participated in various University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign entrepreneurship ecosystem activities, including placing as a finalist in the Cozad New Venture Competition and going through the iVenture Accelerator. It also received investment from Illinois Ventures. Now headquartered in Chicago, Mesh++ is led by president and CEO Danny Gardner, a University of Illinois alumnus. Underlying fiber connectivity for the project will be provided by i3 Broadband, who has waived all recurring fees for connectivity associated with this project while it is used to provide student access to online learning. Ameren Illinois is also assisting with the project by allowing the mesh-network equipment to be mounted on its light poles. Ameren Illinois and the City of Champaign will each provide bucket trucks and personnel to facilitate the equipment installation.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features Media Mentions News Research Park

    Illinois Soybean Association Examines AgTech Sector Growth at Research Park

    A report in the July issue of the Illinois Soybean Association magazine Soy Perspectives examines the burgeoning AgTech startup scene at the University of Illinois Research Park. Reporter Tim Alexander highlights two high-performing agtech startups, EarthSense and Aspiring Universe, as well as the new Illinois AgTech Accelerator that will launch officially this fall. EarthSense and Aspiring Universe are both located at EnterpriseWorks, the technology business incubator at Research Park. “In addition to gener8tor’s Illinois AgTech Accelerator program, which will take five fledgling agtech startups under its wing, others like Aspiring Universe and EarthSense are developing and marketing next generation, field-applicable technology that will benefit soybean farmers,” Alexander wrote.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features Graduates News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate IntelinAir Ranked in Inc. 5000

    Inc. introduced its annual ranking of private companies for 2020, and IntelinAir, a 2019 EnterpriseWorks graduate, came in at #714 in the list of 5000 companies.  Companies in the 2020 Inc. 5000 list are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2016 to 2019. Inc. reported that IntelinAir has grown by 659%. It is the only Champaign-based company honored in the Inc. 5000 this year. IntelinAir’s AgMRI gathers high resolution aerial images, temperature readings, humidity measurements, rainfall, soil samples, terrain type, equipment utilized, planting rates, applications, and more in order to determine patterns that agronomists and farmers can use in their decision-making.  On March 10, IntelinAir announced that it joined the NVDIA Inception program as a community member, allowing the startup to collaborate with industry-leading experts and other AI-driven startups. In early April of this year, Jacobs’ and IntelinAir announced their partnership, and IntelinAir also partnered with the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network. The agtech company released its AgMRI application for iPhone® in May 2020. IntelinAir is a full-season and full-spectrum crop intelligence company focused on agriculture that delivers actionable intelligence to help farmers make data-driven decisions to improve operational efficiency, yields, and ultimately their profitability. To see the full Inc. 5000 list for 2020, visit the Inc. 5000 2020 page.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate Eden Park Illumination Featured in Wall Street Journal After Pivoting Technology to Address COVID-19

    Eden Park Illumination, a faculty-founded startup that launched at the  EnterpriseWorks incubator at Research Park, drew the attention of the Wall Street Journal for pivoting its UV light technology to address COVID-19. In the process, it has rejuvenated the company and has experienced unprecedented growth. Wall Street Journal reporter Ruth Simon profiled the company in her recent story, “Covid-19 Shuttered More Than 1 Million Small Businesses. Here Is How Five Survived.” Wrote Simon, in the Journal’s August 1 editions: “Eden Park Illumination Inc. had one product to sell before Covid-19: an ultraviolet light that distinguished real diamonds from fakes. The spread of a deadly virus across the globe shifted the focus of the tiny Champaign, Ill., startup to another ultraviolet light application that it had not planned to introduce for at least two years. This one would disinfect crowded spaces. Within weeks, the 10-person company began shipping prototypes. Eden Park has since delivered more than 1,000 of the lights and added a dozen workers, including a head of manufacturing.” Eden Park Illumination was founded by Gary Eden and Sun-Jin Park, then University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign electrical engineering faculty members (Eden is now an emeritus faculty member). It graduated from EnterpriseWorks in 2009. Eden and Park remain part of the company; it recently hired a new CEO, John Yerger. Now based on the west side of Champaign, the company manufactures flat panel, thin 222 nm UV lamps that “may provide immediate relief in mitigating COVID-19 outbreaks in populated indoor spaces, including factories, submarines, aircraft carriers, planes, waiting rooms, restaurants and more.” The company has also been profiled on Fox Business News with other mentions on ABC News and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  For more about the company and its technology, visit the Eden Park website.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features Media Mentions News Research Park

    EarthSense TerraSentia Featured in Successful Farming

    EarthSense, an agtech startup based in EnterpriseWorks, was featured by Successful Farming for their innovative robot, TerraSentia. 80 of these robots have been deployed as of July 2020, and the company intends to produce 100 before the year ends. Corteva Agriscience, a publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company with a research and development center in Research Park, currently uses EarthSense’s TerraSentia “to develop hardware as well as analytics to get the best possible data for our product development,” explained Neil Hausmann, Corteva Agriscience Field Sensing Lead and Distinguished Research Fellow.  Although Corteva began using drones in 2015, TerraSentia is unique since it is designed to “automate in-field plant trait collection” where drones cannot reach. “Using computer vision and machine learning, the autonomous robot is currently being taught to measure early vigor, corn ear height, soybean pods, plant biomass, and to detect and identify diseases abiotic stresses.” Hausmann said that TerraSentia is essential for Corteva because it “improves the outcomes for the grower not only to achieve higher yields, but also to help create more stable products for his operation.” EarthSense was founded in 2016 by Chinmay Soman and Girish Chowdhary. The company develops ultracompact autonomous robots that use machine vision and machine learning to collect and convert field data into useful information. TerraSentia, their first robot, is revolutionizing agriculture.  EarthSense received a Phase II SBIR award from the National Science Foundation in April 2020, was selected by the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator to join its seventh cohort in May 2020, and received accelerated funding from the National Science Foundation to transform TerraSentia into an autonomous sanitizing robot in June 2020.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features News Recognition & Awards

    ATSP Innovations, EnterpriseWorks Graduate, Selected for NASA Phase 1 Awards

    ATSP Innovations, an EnterpriseWorks graduate, announced on June 30, 2020, that the company was selected for a Phase I SBIR and a Phase I STTR by NASA.  These awards will be used for “Creep-Resistant Aromatic Polyester Thermosets for Thin-Ply Composites” and “Ultra-High Temperature Elastomer Sealing Materials”. ATSP Innovations was founded in 2010 and is engaged in developing and commercializing a new family of resins (Aromatic Thermosetting coPolyesters, i.e. ATSP) that demonstrate robustness in multiple environments and can be introduced to a variety of high-demanding applications.  In 2019, the company was awarded a Phase I SBIR from NASA for its “Extreme Environment Tribological Characterization of Advanced Bearing Materials”. ATSP was also awarded a Phase II SBIR grant totaling more than $480,000 from the National Science Foundation in 2012. The company was co-founded by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Prof. Emeritus James Economy, a faculty member in the Department of Material Science and Engineering, and Prof. Andreas Polycarpou, a former W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. Learn more about their selection in ATSP Innovations’ News.

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