Media Mentions

Rashid Bashir, the dean of Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Dennis Beard, Managing Partner at Serra Ventures, will officially participate for the first time as newly appointed University of Illinois Research Park LLC Board of Managers in the upcoming meeting on Oct. 7. The Research Park is governed by the Board of Managers, a public-private board that consists of nine members. It meets three times a year to discuss Research Park operations. Its members are appointed by the U. of I. Board of Trustees. Bashir and Beard were approved by the Board of Trustees at its meeting on July 11, 2024. Bashir is currently the dean of the Grainger College of Engineering at U. of I. He holds the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, which fosters multi- and interdisciplinary studies and serves as a springboard for pioneering projects. Beard is a managing partner with Serra Ventures and is responsible for leadership and management within the venture capital firm. He has spent more than 20 years with the Illinois technology community and is a founding member of the university’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence program at the EnterpriseWorks incubator. Bashir will serve as one of the two faculty representatives on the board, replacing Jeffrey Brown, who recently stepped down as dean of the Gies College of Business and went on sabbatical. Dennis Beard joins the board as a private sector representative; longtime board member Rick Stephens recently completed his final term.

Brunswick’s Research Park innovation center is now known as the Brunswick Boating Intelligence Design Lab (BI DesignLab). The company is enhancing its ACES (Autonomous, Connected, Electrified, and Shared) strategy with the announcement of Boating Intelligence™, a comprehensive initiative to incorporate AI features into its products. The newly named Boating Intelligence Design Lab (BI DesignLab), under the direction of Jeff Reifsnyder, is refocusing its programs on developing Brunswick’s AI talent and capabilities, as well as supporting Brunswick’s product development teams as they incorporate AI into Brunswick’s next generation of products. “We see an opportunity to embed AI functionality as one focus for our next phase of advanced technology and feature development, creating an opportunity for boats to evolve from an experiential product to an experiential partner,” said Brunswick Corporation CEO Dave Foulkes. BI DesignLab has already supported the development of Brunswick’s autonomous docking technology, AI-powered virtual agents, smart assistance, and more. Brunswick’s Research Park innovation center opened in 2017 as the Brunswick I-Jet Lab. It moved into its first permanent residence in the Research Park, 1904 S. First St, on December 11, 2017, where the company stayed for four years. By 2021, the Brunswick BI DesignLab had tripled in size and moved to a new facility at 1907 S. Fourth St. to accelerate support of the company’s ACES strategy and use technology to enhance the recreational boating experience. Read the full press release on Global News Wire.