Partnerships & Acquisitions

Graybar and University of Illinois Announce the Opening of the Graybar Innovation Lab at Research Park CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (May 1, 2017) – Graybar and the University of Illinois today announced the grand opening of the Graybar Innovation Lab at Research Park. At this facility, Graybar will collaborate with University of Illinois students and faculty to develop industry-leading digital capabilities that strengthen its position in the supply chain. “Graybar has a long history of innovation, dating back to the original founding of our company,” said Kathleen M. Mazzarella, Graybar Chairman, President and CEO. “We’re proud to continue that tradition here at Research Park. The Graybar Innovation Lab will accelerate our digital transformation by combining leading-edge technology with fresh ideas from the University of Illinois’ students and faculty. I’m excited to see how this collaboration will drive supply chain innovation and raise the bar for our entire industry.” The Graybar Innovation Lab at Research Park also provides a unique opportunity for students to become familiar with Graybar and the wholesale distribution industry, as the innovation lab will provide full- and part-time positions for undergraduate and graduate students. “We’re always looking for bright, energetic individuals to join our company,” said Mazzarella. “This will give students a way to explore potential career paths within wholesale distribution.” “We’re excited to welcome Graybar and its new Innovation Lab. This is a great first step in our relationship with Graybar but also clearly reinforces our commitment to working with industry partners,” said Chancellor Robert J. Jones. “By tapping into the broad diversity of talent here, Graybar will offer University of Illinois students new opportunities that will expand their skills and education in ways that go far beyond the classroom.” The University of Illinois Research Park is home to innovation centers for multinational corporations and publically traded firms including Abbott, ADM, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Caterpillar, Capital One, CME Group, John Deere, State Farm, and Yahoo. About Graybar Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of 290 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. For more information, visit www.graybar.com or call 1-800-GRAYBAR. Read more coverage from The Daily Illini, Smile Politely, and The News-Gazette. View photos from the event here.

CHAMPAIGN– The new TDFC IV building is now open in the Research Park, and Mixed Use building will open later this year. The Mayor of Champaign, Deb Frank Feinen, had some positive comments about the approval of the new buildings.  She says, “I think the Research Park has been a tremendous economic engine for both the City of Champaign and the community. Continuing to support the Research Park is in everyone’s best interest.” The TDFC IV building will be primarily used for research for power optimization for mobile electronics. The Brunswick Innovation Laboratory is the first new tenant that will be opened in the mixed-used building. Learn more about how Brunswick will engage students and provide opportunities to collaborate with University of Illinois researchers, through this link.  Read more about the expansion and approval on The News Gazette and WILL’s websites.   

The Carle Sports Medicine and Orthopedics facility officially opens in Research Park this month, but the public is invited to a community open house on Thursday, Jan. 12. On January 12, the new building will be open to the public from 6—8 p.m. Guided tours will be available as well as refreshments and meet-and-greet with Carle providers. The 52,000 square foot facility is the 15th building in the University of Illinois Research Park. It sits at the corner of Windsor and First Street in Champaign. News Coverage: The News-Gazette The Daily Illini

New Office to Strengthen Recruiting and Research Ties with the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois SAN FRANCISCO – November 11, 2015 – Granular, a leader in farm management software, has expanded its operations to the Midwest, opening a regional headquarters in the University of Illinois Research Park. This new location will fuel the growth of Granular’s customer success, data science and engineering teams. Additionally, it will serve as a live training center for customers, and will allow Granular to work closely with farmers as they look to boost profitability across their operations “Granular has been very active in the U of I community, and by opening an office in the middle of our campus, it further affirms Granular’s dedication to our school, our community and the ag industry,” said Bruce Sherrick, professor of farmland economics and member of the Granular Advisory Board. “Granular’s forward-thinking team, which is dedicated to bringing solutions to help farmers increase productivity and profitability, combined with the university and other academic ag experts, has incredible potential.” Granular expects to continue strengthening its ties with the university to better understand farmers’ workflows and the business decisions they are making using Granular. “We have had great success hiring young men and women who grew up on farms and have studied agricultural economics or engineering at a top university,” said Sid Gorham, Granular co-founder and CEO. “Champaign-Urbana was an obvious choice for our second office given our collaboration with the university’s economics faculty, the strength of the ACES program, and the geographic dispersion of our customer base.” “Granular’s decision to expand here reflects the growth of agricultural technology as a cluster in Research Park, which leverages the knowledge of our faculty,” said Robert J. Hauser, dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Granular’s presence in Champaign will open new opportunities for students at our college, giving them tools that will augment what they are learning in the classroom.” Granular is currently recruiting for a number of roles in different functions to help serve its growing customer base. For more information on Granular, including career opportunities, visit http://www.granular.ag. Read more about Granular’s grand opening in the News-Gazette. About Granular Granular is an agriculture software and analytics company dedicated to helping industry leaders build stronger and smarter farms. With cloud, mobile and advanced data science technology, the Granular platform makes it easier to manage a large farm and use data for critical business decisions. Granular’s rapidly growing network of farms in the U.S. and Canada is finding new ways to profit from aggregated data, expertise and market power. Granular is headquartered in San Francisco. http://www.granular.ag

University of Illinois, Capital One Celebrate the Opening of the Illinois Digital Campus Lab at Research Park More from The News-Gazette CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (Oct. 23, 2015) – The University of Illinois and Capital One (NYSE: COF), today announced the grand opening of the Capital One Illinois Digital Campus Lab in Research Park. The Digital Campus Lab is Capital One’s newest lab and the company’s first partnership with a university. The Lab will focus on research and experimentation in data science and data technologies as well as on infrastructure automation and use of the most modern programming frameworks and technologies such as Open Source, Big Data, Cloud, DevOps, among others. University of Illinois students, both undergraduate and graduate, will work year-round in the Lab. “Engineering is a critical focus for Capital One and we’re attracting top talent – designers, software engineers, data scientists and product managers – and empowering them with the technologies they need to rapidly innovate based on what consumers want today,” said George Brady, Executive Vice President of Technology Operations at Capital One. The new Lab extends Capital One’s presence in Illinois, where it has a large facility in the Chicago area. The Digital Campus Lab will leverage the strength of data analytics research and education at the University of Illinois, which crosses many disciplines including computer science, math and statistics, finance, and information science. “With the opening of this Lab, Capital One has shown a commitment to providing real-world opportunities to our students as they apply in real time what they are learning in the classroom,” said interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson. “Adding a customer-facing corporation to the Research Park broadens the experiences our students may tap, enriching their Illinois education.” The University of Illinois Research Park is home to innovation centers for multinational corporations and publicly traded firms including ADM, Dow AgroSciences, John Deere, Yahoo!, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Caterpillar, State Farm, Citrix, Raytheon, and Abbott. About Capital OneCapital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., had $208.8 billion in deposits and $310.5 billion in total assets as of June 30, 2015. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has branches located primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “COF” and is included in the S&P 100 index.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (Sept. 28, 2015) – The University of Illinois and Dow AgroSciences LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), today announced the grand opening of a facility located in the Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This facility brings together resources from key fields for the company’s research and development (R&D) efforts, including statistics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering to catalyze innovation through analytics. Projects at the facility focus on exploration and implementation of analytics technologies applied to agricultural challenges. The facility allows students, most of them at the graduate level, to work year-round on various projects related to development of advanced computational tools and analysis of chemical and biological datasets. “The Dow AgroSciences Innovation Center at the University of Illinois brings us directly into the center of one of the nation’s top computational sciences campuses,” said Daniel R. Kittle, Ph.D., vice president, Dow AgroSciences Research and Development. “The University has excellent talent that will enable us to advance our global agricultural research efforts.” The Dow AgroSciences facility builds upon the momentum already established by The Dow Chemical Company Innovation Center which opened in 2013 and focuses on information technology applied to research and development. The two innovation centers are co-located and share resources. The new facility expands upon the longstanding research and development relationship between the University of Illinois and Dow AgroSciences. “The intersection of agriculture with data analysis continues to advance in intensity and complexity,” said interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson. “To work on such problems in real-world scenarios is an invaluable opportunity for our students, augmenting their education significantly and giving them an advantage as they go into the workplace. Agriculture is becoming a focal point for operations in the Research Park, and Dow AgroSciences is a key component of that peer group.” The University of Illinois Research Park is home to innovation centers for multinational corporations and publicly traded firms including The Dow Chemical Company, ADM, John Deere, Yahoo!, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Caterpillar, State Farm, Citrix, Raytheon, and Abbott.    About the University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignSince 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. Located on campus, the Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a technology hub for startup companies and corporate research and development operations. Within the Research Park there are more than 90 companies employing students and full-time technology professionals. For more information, please visit illinois.edu. About Dow AgroSciencesDow AgroSciences discovers, develops, and brings to market crop protection and plant biotechnology solutions for the growing world. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, Dow AgroSciences is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company and had annual global sales of $7.3 billion in 2014.  Read the AP story on the grand opening.  

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.