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    News

    EnterpriseWorks News Partnerships & Acquisitions

    New Entrepreneur-in-Residence at EnterpriseWorks: Alan Singleton

    EnterpriseWorks hires Entrepreneurs-in-Residence to assist entrepreneurs and inventors that are starting a business. EnterpriseWorks hires local-experienced entrepreneurs that have effectively commercialized technology to provide consultation to local entrepreneurs at no cost to the company. The EIRs provide advice on business development, attracting investment, revenue creation, and engagements with industrial clients. They also provide entrepreneur training, and help fill early management guidance for startups and help inventors determine a path for starting their business. EnterpriseWorks will cover the cost of the consulting services for Research Park clients and other University of Illinois entrepreneurs. EnterpriseWorks requires a request for counseling submission to be completed. Alan Singleton specializes in corporate formation and transactions, intellectual property, and securities law. He has over 17 years of experience working with entrepreneurs to develop solutions to the wide variety of business and legal issues they face in establishing and growing their companies.  Alan regularly advises clients on issues including company formation, raising capital, securities compliance, taxation and implementing stock option plans, mergers and acquisitions, and asset sales.  Alan has established a reputation for being a leader in technology commercialization and early stage companies in East Central Illinois.  In recognition of his work, Alan was selected by the University of Illinois and the Champaign County EDC as the 2008 recipient of the Entrepreneurial Advocacy Award.  Alan is active in both the business and educational communities.   His firm organizes the business plan review group Second Saturday and he has served as a judge for the V. Dale Cozad Business Plan Competition.  While maintaining an adjunct faculty appointment with the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Alan has given guest lectures for the University of Illinois MBA course on technology commercialization, the senior Capstone Design Course in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Idea to Enterprise Workshop, the Technology Entrepreneur Center Advanced Invention to Venture workshop and for medical residency programs throughout the state.

    New Entrepreneur-in-Residence at EnterpriseWorks: Alan Singleton Read Post »

    News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    Software company opens center in Research Park

    Canadian software company Infobright has opened a satellite development center in EnterpriseWorks at the University of Illinois Research Park. Infobright, based in Toronto, Ontario, markets a high-performance analytic database designed to support companies’ needs for analytics and business intelligence. The Champaign office plans to recruit five student interns to work with community manager Jeff Kibler on projects, the company announced this week. The interns are to develop new applications that will work in conjunction with the database to help users take greater advantage of business data.

    Software company opens center in Research Park Read Post »

    Internships News Recognition & Awards

    2010 Outstanding Research Park Student Interns Announced

    Roman Semenyuk, BS Molecular & Cellular Biology, Autonomic Materials:Roman advanced the research and development of self-healing coatings and healing chemistries while also providing direction on projects to the other interns.Ryne Beeson, MS Aerospace Engineering, Caterpillar Simulation Center:Ryne mastered the use of complex engineering simulation software and contributed to over 30 projects over three years alongside full-time engineers.Tyler Deitz, BS Business, Cazoodle:Tyler singlehandedly established contacts with clients and handled sales and negotiations with local and national media executives.Nicole Phillips, BS Community Health, State Farm Research and Development Center:Nicole is a business research analyst and is contributing to the start-up of a new department. She also serves as a senior resource and corporate liaison for her team members.David Goldstein, BS Computer Engineering, Watchfire Signs:David was a strong contributor on software projects: streamlining the distribution the company’s art collection, and automatic driver installation for end users.Jude Holscher, BS Agricultural Engineering, Waterborne Environmental:Jude traveled the country completing water quality sampling and data analysis projects from Indiana to Nebraska, with very little oversight needed from his supervisors.The event also recognized additional nominees that were selected by their companies including: Conner Grant, BS Chemical Engineering: Archer Daniels Midland, Inc. (ADM) Bryan Mishkin, BS Computer Science: State Farm Research & Development Center Kai Van Horn, Ph.D Electrical and Computer Engineering: Waterborne Environmental Carrie Cuno-Booth, BS History: Green Purpose Kyle McElmury, BS Aerospace Engineering: Caterpillar Simulation Center Roshan Choxi, BS Electrical Engineering, Merge.fm Eric Wilson, BS Speech Communications and Business: Serra Ventures Pawan Gaargi, MBA Program: Cazoodle Truman Shuck, BS Computer Science: Cazoodle Brian Gladden, BS Computer Science: SAIC, Inc. Hio Lam Lao, BS Actuarial Science: State Farm Research & Development Center Bob Skowron, BS Applied Mathematics: State Farm Research & Development Center

    2010 Outstanding Research Park Student Interns Announced Read Post »

    Features Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards

    Forbes Cites University of Illinois Research Park as a Technology Incubator Changing the World

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Forbes.com’s list of technology incubators that are changing the world included the University of Illinois Research Park. The Champaign park was included in an April 16 online story — “In Depth:10 Technology Incubators That Are Changing the World” –because of it’s the combination of established firms and start-ups in close proximity, student employment in companies and the history of innovations from the University of Illinois. The University of Illinois Research Park was lauded for having a combination of large corporate operations alongside new technology startups. This creates an opportunity for interaction that allows small firms to learn from large corporations and for the established firms to develop entrepreneurial approaches to innovation. “The Research Park at the University of Illinois has effectively attracted and grown operations for large corporations and also supported technology commercialization,” said Avijit Ghosh, U of I vice president for technology and economic development. Located on campus, The Research Park at the University of Illinois opened in 2001 and has grown rapidly. Currently the park has 80 companies and 607,000 square feet of building space. The Research Park has been developed as a public-private partnership between the University of Illinois and Fox/Atkins Development. The Research Park at the University of Illinois provides an environment where technology-based businesses can work with the research faculty and students at the Urbana campus to take advantage of opportunities for collaborative research and easy access to University labs, equipment and services. Publically traded firms in the Research Park include: ADM, Abbott Laboratories, Caterpillar, Deere & Company, QUALCOMM, Littelfuse, Riverbed, SAIC, Sony, State Farm and Yahoo. “One of the secrets to our success has been the growing employment of students by Research Park companies,” said Laura Frerichs, associate director of Research Park and Incubation Facilities. Research Park companies employ 440 students in positions that are typically year-round placements and provide hands-on learning in paid positions.   “This continuity of employment allows companies to leverage student talent all year, reduce workforce costs by hiring students as research staff, achieve a flexible staffing model and create a recruiting pipeline of future talent to cherry-pick after graduation,” said Frerichs. The article and full list of incubators selected by Forbes is available at:http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/16/technology-incubators-changing-the-world-entrepreneurs-technology-incubator_slide_8.html.                                                              #### University of Illinois/Research Park contacts Research Park website: researchpark5.wpenginepowered.com Avijit Ghosh, Vice President for Technology and Economic Development (217) 265-5440 vpted@uillinois.edu Laura Frerichs, Associate Director of Research Park and Incubation Facilities  (217) 333-8324 lfrerich@illinois.edu Fox/Atkins Development, LLC Peter FoxManaging Member(217) 351-1430peterf@fox-companies.com About the University of Illinois: The University of Illinois is a world leader in research and discovery, the largest educational institution in the state with more than 71,000 students, 24,000 faculty and staff, and campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield. Since its founding in 1867, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has earned a reputation as a world-class leader in research, teaching, and public engagement. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a long history of innovations and technology invented by students, faculty, and alumni that have changed the world including: the first public demonstration of sound on film; Prof. John Bardeen’s theory of superconductivity and his previous work inventing the transistor; Illiac, the first digital computer built and owned entirely by an educational institution; Mosaic, the first popular graphical browser for the World Wide Web; Plato, the first computer based education system; nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) that led to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); You Tube developed by former computer science students Steve Chen and Jawed Karim; PayPal founded by Max Levchin; Siebel Systems founded by UI alumnus, Thomas Siebel; and Beckman Instruments founded by UI alumnus, Arnold Beckman. About Fox/Atkins Development, LLC: In a joint effort with the University of Illinois, Fox/Atkins Development, LLC, a partnership that was formed between Fox Development Corporation and The Atkins Group, was selected to develop The Research Park at the University of Illinois. www.foxcompanies.com.

    Forbes Cites University of Illinois Research Park as a Technology Incubator Changing the World Read Post »

    News Recognition & Awards

    Innovation Celebration 2010 Winners – Congratulations!!

    This year was the fifth annual Innovation Celebration, on Thursday, February 25, 2010. The Innovation Celebration recognizes those individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions, taken risks, and provided leadership to ensure the continuing economic success of Champaign County, the ongoing success of the University’s economic development mission, and the growth of entrepreneurial talent and energy in our community. Eight awards were presented, recognizing the various ways in which individuals and organization have utilize innovation, creativity, and leadership for entrepreneurial endeavor and economic development in the community. The winners were: Social Entrepreneurship Award: Tanya Parker – Founder & Publisher, Unity In Action Magazine Entrepreneur Advocacy Award: Brian Lilly – Adjunct Professor, TEC Economic Development Impact Award: Gary Durack – Founder and CEO of iCyt, a Sony Group Company Technology Transfer Award: Jonathan Beever- Founder AgriGenomics, Inc. Innovation Discovery Award: Hans-Peter M. Blaschek – Founder & Chief Science Officer TetraVitae Bioscience Entrepreneurial Excellence in Management Award: Brian Kucic – Founding Principal, R Systems Longevity Through Innovation Award: Quesnell Hartmann & David Ahmari – Co-Founders Epi Works Student Start Up Award: Matt Gornick & Ryan Matthews – Co Founders Orange QC, LLC We also congratulate nominees from the Research Park: Shawn Carlson – Director of Crop Genetics, Chromatin, Inc Walter Shore – Site/Senior Staff Engineering Mgr, Qualcomm Dr. Kevin Chang – President, Cazoodle Yi Lu – Founder, ANDalyze, Inc. Brian Jurczyk – President, Starfire Industries Adam Steele, Will Leinweber, and August Knecht – Co-Founders, Merge.fm

    Innovation Celebration 2010 Winners – Congratulations!! Read Post »

    News Recognition & Awards

    Yahoo Congratulates Research Park Employees Creating Patents and Papers

    Yahoo in the Research Park is recognizing their engineering staff who have submitted patents and published papers in academic journals. Their team is working on many innovations that will help advance Yahoo and provide improvements for users and advertisers. Impressive work! Dale Nussel and Allie Watfa: Commercial Incentive Presentation System and Method, Interactive System for Internet Information Retrieval and Exploration, Using Spam and User Actions to Infer Advertisements, Binary Interest Vector for Better Audience Targeting, Web Hosted Framework for Mobile Applications. Scott Preece: System Method Using a Streaming Captcha for Online Verification Aaron Klish: Advertising Through Product Endorsements in Social Networks Allie Watfa, Dale Nussel and Jon Kilroy: Image Content Based Advertisment System, Billboard for Local Social Ads/Deals, Grouping Then Mapping User Properties for Faster Interest Targeting Nathan Roberts, Jeanie Zheng, Chung Sohn, Kihwal Lee, John George, Chuck Neerdaels: Method for Distributed Direct Object Access Storage, Method for Efficient Storage Node Replacement

    Yahoo Congratulates Research Park Employees Creating Patents and Papers Read Post »

    News Partnerships & Acquisitions

    Sony Joins Research Park at U of I by Acquiring iCyt

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Sony Corp. announced at a celebration today (Feb. 10) that it had acquired iCyt Mission Technology Inc., a fast-growing University of Illinois Research Park biotechnology company. iCyt’s flow cytometry machines use electronic devices to count, examine and sort cells and chromosomes for diagnostic and research purposes. iCyt’s customers include university research laboratories, major hospitals, private labs, as well as corporations, such as Monsanto. The Sony acquisition represents a new venture into the health care market for the electronics giant offering potentially new and powerful applications of its optic, data-transmission and Blu-ray disc technologies. Keiji Kimura, Sony’s executive vice president, also cited his company’s bringing “expertise in manufacturing consumer products” to the enterprise. iCyt (www.i-cyt.com), founded in 1995, moved its staff of two into the university’s research park incubator in 2000. In 2005, they moved into the iCyt Building, expanded and added manufacturing and assembly operations in 2007. The company now has 44 full-timeemployees. iCyt founder and CEO Gary Durack continues to lead the new fully owned subsidiary of Sony Corp. of America (www.sony.com). “The University, Research Park and community have all been very supportive of iCyt. They have helped us function like a big company and compete with big players in our industry,”  Durack said. “When Sony was evaluating our business, they appreciated the collaboration with the University and the facilities in the park that support our business. I am extremely thankful to the University, Fox/Atkins Development, our investors and the community for their support,” he added. iCyt has collaborative research projects with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s College of Veterinary Medicine and its Institute for Genomic Biology with the Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana-Champaign (/www.igb.uiuc.edu/facilities&services/scf.html). Local angel investors and IllinoisVENTURES (www.illinoisventures.com), the U of I’s early-stage technology investment firm, provided early-stage funding for iCyt, and Open Prairie Ventures provided additional funding. Avijit Ghosh, University of Illinois vice president for technology and economic development, said iCyt’s fast progress is a 21st century prototype of starting with university-based research, growing the startup at the research park, making smart decisions about growth and taking products to market. “Acquisition by Sony Corp. represents the next stage of iCyt’s growth into a major biotech player,” Ghosh said. The U of I’s research park (researchpark5.wpenginepowered.com) celebrates its 10th birthday this year. Sony news release: http://www.i-cyt.com/news/2010/sony-icyt-merger.htm Contact: Gary Durack                                                Avijit Ghosh CEO                                                                Vice President for Technology and iCyt                                                                 Economic Development (217) 693-4500                                          (217) 265-5440 gary.durack@i-cyt.com                         vpted@uillinois.edu                                                                         Laura Appenzeller Frerichs                                                                         Director                                                                         University of Illinois Research Park                                                                         (217) 333- 8324

    Sony Joins Research Park at U of I by Acquiring iCyt Read Post »

    EnterpriseWorks News Research Park

    Former US Speaker of the House Visits Research Park, NanoSi

    The Research Park was pleased to host Dennis Hastert, former United States Speaker of the House in the Research Park this week on 2/8/10. He was interested in learning more about technology commercialization at the University of Illinois. He also visited with Nanosi, an EnterpriseWorks company making ultra small fluorescent silicon nanoparticles. Nanosi founder, Munir Nayfeh has been talking with him about energy-efficient lighting. NanoSi, has been a partner with PolyBrite, a company that Hastert is consulting, in developing new lighting technologies. In recent years, Hastert has traveled with Nayfeh to Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Korea to pursue business opportunities.

    Former US Speaker of the House Visits Research Park, NanoSi Read Post »

    Community News

    “I” Hotel, Houlihans scheduled to open in mid-August

      CHAMPAIGN – Peter Fox said he hopes to have a certificate of occupancy for the new “I” Hotel and adjoining Houlihan’s Restaurant by July 29 and have both facilities open Aug. 11. The manager of Fox/Atkins Development said he’s spending much of this month at the site to make sure the 126-room hotel at First Street and St. Mary’s Road opens as scheduled. The five-story hotel, adjacent to a new University of Illinois-owned conference center, will have room rates starting at $119, with most guests expected to be business- or university-related, Fox said. The property is aiming for an AAA four-diamond rating by making extra services available. In addition to Houlihan’s, the hotel will have a small cafe that serves pastries, Starbucks coffees, beer and wine. Guests can also have access to massage, salon, chiropractic and dry-cleaning services through arrangements with local providers, Fox said. Each guest room will have an orchid in it, a print by a local artist and a collection of eight to 10 older books for browsing, he added. Guests will also have access to a series of walking trails south and east of the hotel. Other features include an exercise room and lobby video screens that can show information from UI affiliates, such as Krannert Art Museum and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. The adjacent UI conference center should be ready by the first of August, said Robert Todd, a retired UI associate vice president for administration who has been serving as a consultant on the project. Carpet and tile still need to be installed, as does audio-visual equipment, he said. “I’ve been around the university for 32 years, and since the late ’70s, the UI has wanted to have a conference center,” Todd said. “We tried it at least three different times, and finally we have a conference center. It’s a good facility, very flexible.” The center was designed to accommodate a conference of 500 in such a way that banquets can be set up without tearing everything else down, he said. There are breakout rooms as well, for smaller groups to assemble. The “I” Hotel is Fox’s second hotel investment. He was previously an investor in the Hampton Inn in Urbana, but sold his interest a couple of years ago. Fox said he chose Houlihan’s after looking at several restaurant chains, largely because he felt it was “family-friendly, but would also appeal to faculty.” The restaurant will accommodate about 220, with a semi-private seating area and an outdoor patio that seats about 70. Discussing other developments in the University of Illinois Research Park, Fox explained why Fox/Atkins on June 23 acquired the former Motorola building at the north end of the park. “We like the location. Motorola built a quality building,” he said. Plus, when Fox/Atkins shows the park to visitors and prospective tenants, “we don’t want to have an empty building languishing for a year and have to explain it,” he added. The upper floor will likely be reserved for a major tenant, while the lower floor will be divided for multiple tenants, he said. In regard to other developments, Fox said: Fox/Atkins will build a second Technology Development and Fabrication Center on South Oak Street, immediately north of the existing one. The new building will be about 20,000 square feet and is expected to be complete by November. Fox expects it to house small companies graduating from the EnterpriseWorks business incubator. The park’s next major office building will likely be built south of the new hotel and conference center on the east side of First Street. It’s expected to be three stories with 65,000 to 70,000 square feet, he said. Plans are still in the works for a 40,000-square-foot retail center at the northeast corner of First Street and Windsor Road, after First Street has been widened there. Fox said the center is expected to be somewhat similar to the Shoppes of Knollwood, the shopping center his company developed along South Neil Street. Fox and co-investors now have 15 Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwich franchise stores –two in Bloomington, Ind., and the rest in North and South Carolina. Some of the new stores in the Carolinas were acquired, and others were started from scratch. He continues to invest in several companies, many of them also supported by IllinoisVentures, the UI’s start-up services company. The investments include SmartSpark Energy Systems, RiverGlass, Eden Park Illumination and ShareThis. Fox said he has also invested in a machine tool business in Greenville, S.C.

    “I” Hotel, Houlihans scheduled to open in mid-August Read Post »

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