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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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    Caterpillar Celebrates Grand Opening of Data Innovation Lab

    URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Caterpillar Inc. today announced the grand opening of its first data innovation lab, located in Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The lab brings together resources from key fields for the company’s research and development (R&D) efforts, including engineering, computer science, operations research and statistics, to drive innovative development through data analysis. Today’s announcement builds upon work underway at Caterpillar’s existing simulation center, also located on the Urbana-Champaign campus, which operates in conjunction with the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Work at the new data innovation lab will focus on exploration of emerging and disruptive data-based technologies, as well as advanced analytics technologies, demonstrated through proof of concept projects. “We are thrilled to announce the grand opening of our data innovation lab here at the University of Illinois and look forward to further collaboration with our university partners and researchers,” said Gwenne Henricks, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Product  Development & Global Technology for Caterpillar. “By examining the world of data analytics, we can uncover hidden insights on how our customers use our products and services, and deliver that feedback to our product and customer support teams to drive better solutions and further our R&D efforts.” “Caterpillar has been a tremendous partner with the U of I – ours is a strategic relationship that helps drive success at our respective institutions,” said University of Illinois Vice Chancellor for Research, Dr. Peter Schiffer. “The Research Park is a natural fit for a tech-focused company like Caterpillar, and this new innovation lab will leverage Illinois strengths in computing and data analysis in exciting ways.” The new lab also expands upon the existing recruitment efforts with the university to engage future science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent through additional research and development opportunities, and is a key component of the company’s innovation strategy. As work at the data innovation lab evolves, more information will be made available about the various activities that take place there. For more information on Caterpillar’s efforts, please view the following video: http://youtu.be/QfVIJD0Vd0Y. News CoverageWILL radio: Caterpillar Opens New Data Analysis Lab At U Of I Research ParkWAND TV: Caterpillar announces opening of data innovation lab About Caterpillar: For nearly 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2013 sales and revenues of $55.656 billion, Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three product segments – Resource Industries, Construction Industries and Energy & Transportation – and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

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    EnterpriseWorks News Partnerships & Acquisitions

    Revolution Medicines Receives 45 Million to Research Fungal Disease Treatment

    REVOLUTION Medicines, located in the EnterpriseWorks incubator, has received a $45 million dollar investment from Third Rock Venture, a financing investment firm.  Although the initial goal is to find treatment for fungal disease, the hope is to find other disease treatments in the future as well. REVOLUTION is the leading antifungal program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus and has signed a license agreement stating exclusive rights to develop certain technology at the University. “Illinois has just created really powerful resources to allow that to happen, and so we’ve definitely benefited from that tremendously.” –Martin Burke, Head of REVOLUTION Company Overview:  REVOLUTION Medicines will develop a platform to rapidly open chemical space hereto inaccessible for drug development while enabling PhD chemists to focus on the utility of the molecules rather than the synthesis of the molecules.

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards

    Governor Rauner Visits EnterpriseWorks

    CHAMPAIGN, IL Feb 15, 2015 — Governor Rauner visited EnterpriseWorks for the launch of Uber service in Champaign-Urbana. He spoke about his new Innovate Illinois Advisory Council and helping support the growth of technology companies throughout Illinois. Following his remarks, he toured EnterpriseWorks and talked with incubator companies. Links to Media Coverage:News Gazette (Online)Northwest HeraldWILLWAND

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    News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    Ameren Innovation Center Opens at the University of Illinois Research Park

    Media Coverage: News-Gazette Ameren opens center in research parkSt. Louis Post-Dispatch Ameren opens Innovation Center at University of Illinois  CHAMPAIGN, IL (Feb. 10, 2015) – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced today that Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE), a St. Louis-based Fortune 500 energy company, has opened an Innovation Center on campus. Ameren is the first major energy company to open an office at the University of Illinois Research Park. The Ameren Innovation Center will collaborate with university students and faculty and other companies across multiple industries at the Research Park. The goal is to foster an exploratory environment that focuses on innovations to help Ameren better meet the future needs of its customers. “By establishing an innovative and collaborative work center at a world-class research university with access to top students and faculty, we can better leverage information technology to seize business opportunities and improve our customer satisfaction,” said Mary Heger, vice president of Information Technology and Ameren Services Center and chief information officer, Ameren Services. “We also hope to develop a talent pipeline to help us continue to build a skilled workforce. This is important as we transition to smart grid technologies and explore future new energy services that may be wanted and needed by our customers.” The Center is hiring for several positions and eventually plans to employ up to 12 students. Undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines will work on a part-time basis on projects ranging from data analytics and mobile applications to projects that focus on the needs of the utility of the future. Some of these projects will leverage Ameren Illinois’ Technology Application Center in Champaign, an on-grid testing facility for smart grid technologies that opened in August 2013. A full-time Ameren site manager will supervise the students and serve as liaison between the Innovation Center and the University of Illinois. “The Ameren Innovation Center will give our students the opportunity to work on smart energy solutions for the Midwest and beyond,” said Chancellor Phyllis Wise. “Such real-world experiences are examples of the transformative educational opportunities at Illinois that grow from our leadership in engineering, computing and energy.” The Research Park, located on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign, provides an opportunity for technology-based businesses to collaborate with students and faculty. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s College of Engineering is among the highest ranked in the nation, and is a highly sought after as a partner for pursuing information security for the energy industry. About Ameren St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation powers the quality of life for 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area through its Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois rate-regulated utility subsidiaries. Ameren Illinois provides electric delivery and transmission service as well as natural gas delivery service while Ameren Missouri provides vertically integrated electric service, with generating capacity of 10,300 megawatts, and natural gas delivery service. Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois develops regional electric transmission projects. Follow the company on Twitter @AmerenCorp. For more information, visit Ameren.com.

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    EnterpriseWorks News

    Petronics Talks About Success and Innovation

    CHAMPAIGN, IL Feb 9, 2015 — Petronics, a startup company within EnterpriseWorks, was recently highlighted in the News-Gazette. In the article, the three founders (Michael Friedman, Dave Cohen, and David Jun,) who are past and current doctoral students at the Univeristy of Illinois, speak about their success with their Kickstarter campaign as well as future developments. “A robot that could interact meaningfully with pets would be a step toward building one that could interact with humans — something they feel is still far down the road.” Read the whole article here. Company OverviewPetronics makes high-tech health and entertainment products for house pets. Our first product is Mousr, an artificially intelligent robotic mouse that can see and react to a cat’s movement, just like real prey. Interested in learning more from co-founders, Dave Cohen and David Jun? Visit the link.

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards

    Third Rock Ventures Invests $45 Million in Revolution Medicines

    Revolution Medicines is currently located in the EnterpriseWorks incubator at the University of Illinois Research Park. San Francisco/Redwood City, Calif. – February 4, 2015 – Third Rock Ventures, LLC today announced the formation of REVOLUTION Medicines, Inc. with a $45 million Series A financing to discover and develop new therapies derived from natural products. REVOLUTION Medicines’ innovative approach reconfigures these complex chemicals of life into best-in-class medicines. Veteran industry leader Mark A. Goldsmith, M.D., Ph.D., is the founding president and chief executive officer of REVOLUTION Medicines. Dr. Goldsmith brings to the company more than 25 years of experience as an academic scientist and senior executive in the biotechnology industry, and is a partner at Third Rock Ventures. REVOLUTION Medicines builds upon the vision of the company’s founder and scientific advisory board chairman, Martin D. Burke, M.D., Ph.D., professor of chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Burke invented a transformative method for synthesizing original compounds that are pharmaceutically optimized analogues of complex natural products. The company has entered into an exclusive license agreement with the University of Illinois to practice and expand this technology, and is pursuing a rapid clinical development path with its lead antifungal program that originated in Dr. Burke’s laboratory. “With this major advance in chemical synthesis, we now have the opportunity to unlock the full medical benefits of natural products that have been selected through a billion years of evolutionary pressure,” said Dr. Goldsmith. “Marty is a remarkably inventive chemical biologist, and REVOLUTION Medicines is working closely with him in his role as scientific advisory board chairman to exploit his breakthroughs for industrial-scale drug discovery through redesigning complex molecules. Our strategy should produce high-impact treatments for serious infections and non-infectious diseases, among them our lead product candidates for patients with life-threatening fungal infections.” The arduous process of synthesizing natural products often requires years of trial and error to reconstruct a single chemical scaffold. In contrast, REVOLUTION Medicines’ approach is a rapid, standardized and powerful process for assembling simple “chemical building blocks” into refined natural product-like structures. These optimized compounds have significant potential as best-in-class drug candidates. REVOLUTION Medicines’ first drug candidates exploit and improve upon the properties of amphotericin B, a powerful, broad-spectrum antifungal compound found in nature that has avoided generating significant drug resistance in 50 years of clinical use. Full therapeutic benefit from this highly efficacious natural compound is significantly compromised by inherent dose-limiting side effects, principally kidney damage. Using the building block synthesis platform to create new molecules, Dr. Burke and his research group overturned decades of scientific dogma and demonstrated that the antifungal efficacy of the amphotericin B scaffold can be separated chemically from the major mechanism that underlies human kidney cell damage. REVOLUTION Medicines is developing novel compounds that leverage the proven therapeutic mechanism for killing fungi while minimizing toxic effects on human cells. “Professor Burke and his group have demonstrated the power of research at our school to uncover methods and drug candidates that can be enormously impactful on human health,” said Phyllis Wise, Ph.D., chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “As one of the nation’s original land-grant institutions, our mission at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is to serve the public good through learning, discovery and outreach. Third Rock Ventures has launched REVOLUTION Medicines to translate these discoveries into important human benefits.” REVOLUTION Medicines Team The REVOLUTION Medicines team brings deep expertise and a track record of building exceptional life sciences companies. In addition to Dr. Goldsmith, founding president and chief executive officer and Dr. Burke, founder and scientific advisory board chairman, the team includes: David Pompliano, Ph.D., founding chief scientific officer, who is a leading drug discovery and development expert who previously led infectious disease research at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline; Peg Horn, J.D., general counsel and senior vice president, corporate development, a seasoned corporate executive with extensive experience in small and large companies; Neil Exter, interim chief business officer, a member of REVOLUTION Medicine’s board of directors and partner at Third Rock Ventures, who brings more than 20 years of experience leading business development and strategy, including service as chief business officer of bluebird bio (NASDAQ: BLUE) and Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ: FMI); and Alexis Borisy, a member of REVOLUTION Medicines board of directors, partner at Third Rock Ventures, and entrepreneur and chemical biologist who brings more than 20 years of experience launching and operating innovative science-based organizations, including Blueprint Medicines, Warp Drive Bio, Foundation Medicine and CombinatoRx.

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    News Research Park

    AbbVie Innovation Center Opens at Research Park

    CHAMPAIGN, (January 20, 2015) — The University of Illinois today announced that AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), a global research-based biopharmaceutical company based in North Chicago, IL, has opened the AbbVie Innovation Center on campus at the University of Illinois Research Park in Urbana-Champaign. The AbbVie Innovation Center plans to employ more than 18 students, from undergraduate to graduate level, on a part-time basis throughout the year. Eight students have started working on several AbbVie Research & Development Information Technology projects, which is the initial focus of work in the AbbVie Innovation Center. AbbVie is currently hiring for several open positions. “At AbbVie, we know that advancing science requires strong collaboration and different ways of working. Establishing this innovative and collaborative work center at a world-class research university offers us access to top students and faculty who can help us explore new ideas,” said Mike Carlin, Vice President, R&D Information Technology, AbbVie. “The AbbVie Innovation Center is a great example of how AbbVie is partnering in unique ways to find new solutions that will have an impact for patients.” Students will work on real-world projects ranging from utilizing visualization software which can help AbbVie scientists see clinical trial research data in new ways, to harnessing the power of reporting tools which helps AbbVie medical teams identify additional areas of research, to using informatics, text mining and other analytics software to uncover connections in medical research – all of which can lead to discoveries that will improve patient care. While students will gain real-world professional experience by working directly with AbbVie project managers, an AbbVie Site Manager will manage the students and serve as liaison between the AbbVie Innovation Center and the University of Illinois. “The AbbVie Innovation Center will give our students the opportunity to be at the forefront of information technologies for leading-edge therapies that can make a difference in people’s lives,” said Chancellor Phyllis Wise. “Such real-world experiences are examples of the transformative educational opportunities at Illinois that grow from our leadership in engineering, big data, and biomedical sciences.” The Research Park, located on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign, provides an opportunity for technology-based businesses to collaborate with students and faculty. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s College of Engineering is among the highest ranked in the nation, and is a highly sought after partner for pursuing the integration of engineering, computing, and medicine. About AbbVie AbbVie is a global, research-based biopharmaceutical company formed in 2013 following separation from Abbott Laboratories. The company’s mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to develop and market advanced therapies that address some of the world’s most complex and serious diseases. AbbVie employs approximately 25,000 people worldwide and markets medicines in more than 170 countries. For further information on the company and its people, portfolio and commitments, please visit www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter or view careers on our Facebook or LinkedIn page. For more information, email innovationcenter@abbvie.com. NEWS COVERAGE:News-GazetteSmile Politely

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    EnterpriseWorks Media Mentions News

    MulticoreWare Ranks in 110 Fastest-Growing Private Companies

    CHAMPAIGN, IL, Nov 18, 2014 — MulticoreWare, founded by University of Illinois professor Wen-mei Hwu, has recently been ranked by Inc.com as one of the 110 fastest-growing private companies. This distinction comes in light of MulticoreWare’s recent and rapid growth and skyrocketing revenue. “MulticoreWare saw a three-year growth of 3,322 percent, with revenue increasing from $224,601 in 2010 to $7.7 million in 2013. ‘It’s really about how we make the best use of parallel hardware and increase the application capabilities and efficiency for customers,’ said Hwu, about the company’s growth.” MulticoreWare will graduate from EnterpriseWorks by the end of 2014. Read the full article here. MulticoreWare Inc is a Software and Systems Integration solutions company which provides heterogeneous multicore (h-multicore solutions) for high performance computing applications using multicore and many core processors. We are currently working with applications in the Defense and Aerospace, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, Imaging, Scientific Computing and Financial Services industries. MulticoreWare embraces heterogeneous computing and its h-multicore solutions benefit customers who require a higher order of magnitude performance with power and space constraints. MulticoreWare Inc., has recently launched a new product called Mcore Platform Analyzer. Mcore Platform Analyzer is a powerful and versatile tool that allows a developer to easily instrument, visualize, and interpret the way different parts of the application interact with one another, as well as with the CPU and GPU. – See more at: https://researchpark5.wpenginepowered.com/news/multicoreware-inc-opens-enterpriseworks#sthash.3XKz0DSW.dpufMulticoreWare Inc is a Software and Systems Integration solutions company which provides heterogeneous multicore (h-multicore solutions) for high performance computing applications using multicore and many core processors. We are currently working with applications in the Defense and Aerospace, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, Imaging, Scientific Computing and Financial Services industries. MulticoreWare embraces heterogeneous computing and its h-multicore solutions benefit customers who require a higher order of magnitude performance with power and space constraints. MulticoreWare Inc., has recently launched a new product called Mcore Platform Analyzer. Mcore Platform Analyzer is a powerful and versatile tool that allows a developer to easily instrument, visualize, and interpret the way different parts of the application interact with one another, as well as with the CPU and GPU. – See more at: https://researchpark5.wpenginepowered.com/news/multicoreware-inc-opens-enterpriseworks#sthash.3XKz0DSW.dpuf

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards

    Tech Crunch features Rithmio for Receiving $650K in Seed Funding

    CHAMPAIGN, IL, Sept. 26, 2014 — Rithmio has just announced that they have reached their fundraising goal of $650,000 that will enable them to build and release the first gesture recognition platform.  Rithmio’s software will help brands integrate gesture recognition into wearables and smartphones. Funding was led by Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes, with BonaVentura, Fox Ventures, Illinois Ventures, Techra Investments, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Serra Ventures. Rithmio will use the funds to accelerate the development of their current product, expand the team with additional developers and implement marketing plans. Read the full Tech Crunch article.

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