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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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    Community Features Internships Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Real Impact: Synchrony Culture Empowers Next-Gen Innovators

    The University of Illinois System profiles the success story of the Synchrony Emerging Technology Center at Research Park. The article covers the cornerstones of the internship experience at ETC: access to top leaders and mentors meaningful work that impacts the company corporate citizenship Here’s a snippet: “At Synchrony, we don’t just prepare students for how to do the work. We prepare them for whatever comes next in their career,” Mike Storiale said. He is Synchrony’s vice president of Innovation Development and University Partnerships. For example, summer 2022 featured the clear expectation that interns work in person. “Many of our 50 student interns envisioned working remotely. We wanted them to build connections by actually seeing what others are working on. We wanted them to have those casual conversations in the kitchen,” Dor Markovich said. “Before we knew it, they were getting together after work and on the weekends.” Read the full article HERE.

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    Events Investments News Research Park

    ADM Makes Transformative Investment in Innovation at University of Illinois Research Park

    Champaign, Illinois (Sept 23, 2022) – ADM (NYSE: ADM) today celebrated the grand opening of the new ADM Science and Technology Center at the University of Illinois Research Park. The facility quadruples ADM’s footprint at the University of Illinois Research Park and reflects a significant expansion of its capabilities. In addition to its focus on process and financial modeling as well as business intelligence and business development, the new center’s portfolio will allow the addition of human nutrition research and development, wet chemistry, sensory science, data science, computational fluid dynamics, and customer interface and applications. “Our partnership with the University of Illinois has been a win for ADM, the university and its students, as well as the industries in which ADM operates, and we are so excited about this new facility and the future of our collaboration,” said Todd Werpy, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Chief Science Officer at ADM. “University of Illinois students and visiting scientists have helped ADM tackle big challenges and have developed business cases for important research projects. For the university and its students, the new facility will provide hands-on experiences working on real projects that are making an impact not just on ADM, but also on the world. “The expansion strengthens our relationship with the university, leading to more value for ADM, more opportunities for students, and more innovation to unlock the power of nature in order to enrich the quality of life.” The ADM Science and Technology Center will create opportunities for students across campus including chemical engineering, chemistry, information science, computer science, food science and human nutrition, technology management, agricultural and consumer economics, animal science and business programs just to name a few. “The new ADM Science and Technology Center at Research Park is a tangible outcome of the depth and breadth of our institutional strategic partnership,”  said Robert J. Jones, Chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “An alliance of this scale and scope is critical to the future of our region and our state. It also provides unique experiential learning opportunities for our students, which is critical for preparing our future workforce. It also further cements our campus and community as an epicenter of agtech.” ADM originally opened at Research Park in 2007. Then known as the Bioenergy Modeling Center, it focused on computational work, conceptual engineering, and modeling to evaluate the feasibility of manufacturing specialty chemicals. About ADM ADM unlocks the power of nature to enrich the quality of life. We’re a premier global human and animal nutrition company, delivering solutions today with an eye to the future. We’re blazing new trails in health and well-being as our scientists develop groundbreaking products to support healthier living. We’re a cutting-edge innovator leading the way to a new future of plant-based consumer and industrial solutions to replace petroleum-based products. We’re an unmatched agricultural supply chain manager and processor, providing food security by connecting local needs with global capabilities. And we’re a leader in sustainability, scaling across entire value chains to help decarbonize our industry and safeguard our planet. From the seed of the idea to the outcome of the solution, we give customers an edge in solving the nutritional and sustainability challenges of today and tomorrow. Learn more at www.adm.com. About the Research Park at the University of Illinois The Research Park at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a technology hub that cultivates startups and advances corporate innovation. Within the Research Park there are 120 companies employing both students and full-time technology professionals. More information at researchpark.illinois.edu. 

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Kocree’s Varshney Appointed White House Fellow

    Lav Varshney, a computer science professor at Illinois and co-founder of EnterpriseWorks startup Kocree, has been selected to serve as a White House Fellow as part of the 2022-23 class. Kocree is a music creation platform that uses artificial intelligence to allow users to cut melodies, rhythms, and arrangements to create a unique musical  piece. In addition to Kocree, Varshney also serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of EnterpriseWorks startup Ensaras, which uses AI to optimize wastewater treatment. Varshney will be working at the National Security Council, Deputy Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology. Founded in 1964, the White House Fellows program offers exceptional young leaders first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the Federal government. Fellows spend a year working with senior White House Staff, Cabinet Secretaries, and other top-ranking Administration officials, and leave the Administration equipped to serve as better leaders in their communities. Fellowships are awarded on a non-partisan basis.

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    Community EnterpriseWorks Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Illinois Investment Guide Highlights Entrepreneurship at Illinois

    An article published in the 2022 edition of the Illinois Investment Guide highlights the role of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and specifically the Research Park, in advancing entrepreneurship within the state. The article describes how the Research Park and its incubator, EntepriseWorks, support and propel startup activity. It features comments from UIRP executive director Laura Appenzeller. “We are growing new companies from scratch,” Appenzeller says in the article. “We have one of the top engineering schools in the U.S. That is a driving factor. Urbana-Champaign is a major hub of engineering and research for technology companies. They can come here and capture talent — particularly in the digital transformation space — that is otherwise very difficult to get.”

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    Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Forbes Deems University Of Illinois Top University For Entrepreneurs

    A Forbes article examines the current state of the University of Illinois entrepreneurship climate, lauding its commitment to supporting students and faculty as well as innovative partnerships with other institutions. The story, published Wednesday, was written by Chicago investor Pete Wilkins, a contributor to Forbes.com. “The university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem supports idea development with its programs, academics, and funding opportunities, and is consistently ranked among the top public universities for producing the most successful entrepreneurs,” Wilkins writes. The story reflects on the well-known entrepreneurial highlights of years past, but frames them within the lens of what is happening currently. Wilkins highlights recent funding announcements from Illinois startups, as well as programs and partnerships that advance the entrepreneurship enterprise, especially those at Research Park and EnterpriseWorks. Among the startups with EnterpriseWorks lineage highlighted in the article include: Ascent Integrated Tech  PhotoniCare Simbiosys Network Perception Natrion 

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    Events News Research Park

    Genective Expands Lab Space, Opens Phase 2 Champaign Headquarters

    Less than three years after its initial opening, agtech company Genective celebrated its Phase 2 expansion at Research Park with a celebration, tours and open house on Aug. 24. The company has increased its lab space by 30 percent to continue its focus on the research, development, and commercialization of transgenic traits, focusing on insect resistant corn. In his remarks recognizing Genective’s latest milestone, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert J. Jones reflected on how the company contributes to the growth of the Research Park ecosystem, as the university seeks to double the size of UIRP. “I can tell you that Genective’s presence is a big part of the achievement of that strategic goal,” said Jones. A joint venture between leading European seed companies KWS Group and LIMAGRAIN, Genective moved its global headquarters to Champaign from Paris, France in 2019. The company celebrated its grand opening in March 2020, days before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. Yet that was no hindrance. Under Qiaoni “Linda” Jing‘s leadership, the company has quadrupled in size, recruiting scientists and crop experts locally and from around the country. “Only if you are successful do you justify further investment from your stakeholders. …It was obviously a great decision to move here,” said bogegeard member Thomas Ehrhardt, of KWS Group.

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    HabiTerre’s Guan Honored as Innovator of the Year

    Dr. Kaiyu Guan, co-founder of EnterpriseWorks startup HabiTerre and the Blue Waters associate professor in ecohydrology and remote sensing, was honored as the Illinois Innovation Network’s Innovator of the Year in the Computing & Data category. The awards recognize individuals from the IIN’s 15 hubs who have made key advances in research, technology commercialization and education. HabiTerre provides 360° in-depth intelligence for every plot of farmland across the globe, together with unprecedented field-scale insights for businesses in the broader agricultural industry. The Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) announced recipients of its second-annual innovation awards Wednesday at the Illinois State Fair’s Tech Prairie STEAM Expo. The awards were presented to faculty, staff or scientists from IIN hubs in four of the IIN’s key subject areas: computing and data, environment and water, food and agriculture, and health and wellness. The IIN also presented awards for an open category of innovation and to a student innovator from IIN hubs. “It is our honor to celebrate these innovators and their discoveries,” said Jay Walsh, vice president for economic development and innovation for the University of Illinois System, which coordinates the IIN. “They all are shining examples of the fantastic research and discovery happening across our state.” For more on this honor, see the full story HERE. 

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    Events News Research Park

    Illinois AgTech Accelerator Seeks Early-Stage Startups for Fall gBeta Cohort

    Applications are now open for the Fall 2022 gBETA AgTech program, run by the Research Park-based Illinois AgTech Accelerator. gBETA AgTech is a seven-week accelerator for early-stage AgTech and Agriculture startups. Each gBETA AgTech program is capped at five teams innovating in AgTech and Agriculture. While the Illinois AgTech Accelerator recruits globally, the Fall 2022 gBETA AgTech will be a hybrid program with some in-person components. Illinois-based teams are strongly encouraged to apply. The Illinois AgTech Accelerator is operated by the nationally-ranked startup accelerator gener8tor and powered by Champaign-based Serra Ventures. The benefits of the gbeta AgTech program include: Individualized coaching and mentorship from the team of nationally-ranked accelerator gener8tor on company growth and investor readiness Facilitate introductions to over 50 mentors and investors $1M+ in deals and perks from vendors like IBM Cloud, Rackspace, Amazon, Paypal, Zendesk, Hubspot and Microsoft This program is completely free for the startup; there are no fees and no equity is taken. gBETA AgTech takes a broad view of food and agriculture technologies and is committed to supporting early-stage companies. With this in mind, its selection process will consider the following: The Illinois AgTech Accelerator works with startups across the Ag and food sectors, favoring enterprise solutions over consumer products gBETA AgTech recruits internationally but heavily favors Illinois-based startups While an MVP/Beta is definitely helpful, there are no revenue/traction requirements. We just need to know that you are committed to building a high-growth company. Key Dates: Applications Due: September 9 Kickoff: September 23rd Program Conclusion: November 11 Got questions? Contact Illinois AgTech Accelerator Managing Director Jack Marck at jack@gener8tor.com, or sign up for office hours via this link. There will be in-person office hours at EnterpriseWorks on Aug. 23.

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    Internships News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Excellence Recognized at 2022 Research Park Intern Awards

    The Research Park celebrated its 16th annual Intern Awards Ceremony and Picnic to honor and recognize the outstanding work done by the student interns across the Park’s 120+ companies. The ceremony was held on Thursday, July 28, National Intern Day, which gave us all the more reason to host a celebration for the 800+ interns working throughout Research Park. This was the first year the ceremony was held in person since 2019. The students recognized as finalists and winners are comprised of a variety of disciplines, majors, and colleges from across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, representing the type of cross-curricular work that takes place at Research Park companies. These interns were able to make connections with their peers, co-workers, and supervisors that will last a lifetime, and they have sharpened skills that will aid them for years to come, in both their personal and professional lives. They have impacted the faces of our companies and the fabric of the Research Park through their hard work and innovation. Thank you to the managers and supervisors who nominated their interns, and an additional thank you to the panel of professionals who determined the honorees. This year, there were six awards presented.  Award Categories: Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup Best Technical Innovation Best Business Innovation Most Outstanding Undergraduate Student Intern Most Outstanding Graduate Student Intern Most Competent and Collaborative Team Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup Winner: Shivam Tailor – Natrion Laboratory Assistant Undergraduate in Material Science and Engineering | Grainger College of Engineering “Shivam has an eagerness to learn as much as possible and apply it towards the success of the company. Shivam was the only intern to have his own project, and not only did he take charge of every aspect of it, but he excelled rapidly. Within two months on the job, Shiv produced single-crystal NMC and artificial graphite tapes that are viable for commercial use, a process that is extremely long and arduous that requires painstaking optimization. Shivam is very meticulous. He has excellent attention to detail that was critical in his success in the project.” Finalists: Sarah Hashim – TipTek Engineering Intern Undergraduate in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Tianshu Wei – LifeFoundry Embedded Systems Intern Undergraduate in Computer Science | Grainger College of Engineering   Best Technical Innovation Winner: Teja Gupta – Corteva Agriscience Remote Sensing Scientist Graduate in Computer Engineering “Teja worked on cloud masking, an important and emerging technique that is a valuable addition to our organization and the global agriculture community. He created a classifier tool and later a software package inspired by the original cloud masks. This is an extraordinary feat considering the complexity of the situation. During this project, Teja demonstrated outstanding innovation, perseverance and humility resulting in a solution that addressed an existing problem. He also demonstrated a great deal of perseverance when creating a new dataset since it took a lot of trial and error to succeed in this task.” Finalists: Elizabeth Atkinson – Starfire Industries Electrical Engineering Intern Undergraduate in Electrical Engineering | Grainger College of Engineering Ved Shah – COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab Software Developer Intern Undergraduate in Computer Science | Grainger College of Engineering Best Business Innovation Winner: Cindy Phung – Cargill UX/UI Design Intern Undergraduate in Graphic Design | College of Fine & Applied Arts “Cindy is the sole designer on a 3-person intern team that is working on a Cargill Protein North America project tied to our Factory of the Future Initiative, a tool that leverages data to make predictions about potential safety risks on the factory floor that day. Cindy’s role has been to discover, design and prototype the views of that data and the ways the various fabrication floor managers log the response they plan to take. Cindy has set the bar high given the thoroughness of her research, professionalism of her designs, technical acumen behind her designs also being feasible and communication skills to socialize and persuade others on her ideas.” Finalists: Eric Goff – ADM Modeling Intern Undergraduate in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Ethan Rasmussen – AbbVie Business Analyst Intern Undergraduate in Information Systems | Gies College of Business Most Outstanding Undergraduate Student Intern Winner: David An – Ameren Data Science Intern Undergraduate in Mathematics | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences “This summer, David was a key player in many initiatives on our data science team at the Ameren Innovation Center. David was Project Lead on their Electric Vehicle Analysis project where he took complex business needs and transformed them into actionable results. All summer, David was the first intern to show up at the office every day and he was laser-focused on his projects. He was hungry to gain experience leading people. He wanted to improve himself, both technically and as a leader. Seeing such humility and desire to grow out of an intern is impressive. Along with his drive and work ethic, he added so much to the in-person intern experience with his jokes and levity. David is such an outstanding intern that he makes me a better manager.” Finalists: Ben Avila – State Farm Actuarial Intern Undergraduate in Actuarial Science | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Madison Park – Cargill UX/UI Design Intern Undergraduate in Information Science | School of Information Sciences Most Outstanding Graduate Student Intern Winner: Natalie Xiong – Riverbed Data Science Intern Graduate in Psychology | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences “If Natalie has a goal in mind, she will absolutely accomplish it. Natalie is super collaborative – she listens to the opinions of others, and she is considerate and respectful to all colleagues around her. For her summer internship she essentially acted as a data science consultant where her work has helped improve a complex AI/ML product that aims to automatically find and fix IT problems for Riverbed’s customers, many of whom are fortune 500 companies. Natalie is very investigative, which ultimately led to her internship success because she learned technical concepts very quickly.” Finalists: Brendan Brasch – AbbVie Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Developer Intern Graduate in Bioengineering | Grainger College of Engineering Mengfei Lan – Corteva

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Oak Ridge National Lab Selects Agriwater’s Bianca Bailey for Innovation Crossroads Cohort

    Oak Ridge National Laboratory Innovation Crossroads program has selected was Dr. S. Bianca Bailey, founder of EnterpriseWorks startup, Agriwater Corporation, for its next cohort of science and technology innovators advancing technologies they aim to commercialize. As a part of the ORNL cohort, she will work with ORNL experts, gain access to the facility’s unique assets (including the world’s fastest supercomputer), and join a mentoring network to develop business strategies. The latest group of Innovation Crossroads scientific entrepreneurs is the first to be onboarded in person and on campus since 2020. Each startup is focused on clean energy technologies. The fellows were chosen in a competitive merit-based process with applicants from across the country. Bailey has developed an electro coagulator, a device that purifies livestock wastewater for agricultural use. This system helps reduce expensive farmer discharge fines, produces clean water for multiple uses, and assists in preventing pollution. Congratulations to Dr. Bailey on this honor. Learn more about the program here.

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