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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Research Park

    Research Park

    News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    Granular Celebrates Opening of New Regional Headquarters in Champaign

    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

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    Media Mentions News Research Park

    FOX 55 27 Segment on Capital One Grand Opening

    CHAMPAIGN – Fox 55 27 recently ran a segment on the grand opening of Capital One’s Digital Research Lab at Research Park. Writes FOX Illinois: “The financial services company is trying to stay on top of what they call the ‘digital disruption’. Its the idea that everything happens in the digital world from booking a flight to ordering food. Capitol One wants to stay current too. The lab will have full time  employees and students researching and working on the company’s core services for products and research.”

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    News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Ameren’s Mary Heger Named Leader in STEM, Touts Research Park Innovation Center

    Ameren Vice President and CIO Mary Heger was named a leader in STEM by STEM Connector for her success within the company. In her essay for STEM Connector, Mary highlights how the University of Illinois and Research Park have helped Ameren to continue to excel and grow. Writes Mary Heger: “The Research Park provides an opportunity for technology-based businesses to collaborate with students and faculty. The University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign’s College of Engineering is among the highest ranked in the nation, and is highly sought after as a partner for pursuing information security for the energy industry. Since its opening, the Ameren Innovation Center has been collaborating with university students and faculty and other companies across multiple industries at the Research Park. “This really is all about our customers: The goal is to foster an exploratory environment that focuses on innovations to help Ameren better meet the future needs of our customers in Missouri and Illinois. It can’t be overstated why we are doing this: By fostering an innovative and collaborative environment 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.” Mary also discussed Ameren’s plans to expand their research at their Innovation Center at Research Park. “We also plan to grow our projects at the Innovation Center to expand data analytics research. There are several active projects that can be applied immediately to enhance both customer and operational insights. A mobile application development center will be created to support our customer’s needs of getting information in real-time and on the go. And we’ll continue research in cybersecurity to ensure the safety and security of our assets and our customer data, as we all know data security is paramount in today’s environment. “Ameren has long backed a variety of academic research around energy-related technologies, and we’re pleased to support an acclaimed institute such as University of Illinois. Its special interest in science, engineering and business curricula intersects with our goal to support the development of tomorrow’s workforce in the energy sector.” This is not the first time Mary has been recognized for her career excellence. She has received the “Leader of Distinction” from the YWCA in 2010, and was recoginized by Diversity Journal as among their list of “Women Worth Watching” in 2011. In 2013, she was named one of the most influential business women in St. Louis by the St. Louis Business Journal, and received Maryville University’s Deans’ Award in the School of Business in 2014.

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    News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    Capital One Opens the Illinois Digital Campus Lab at Research Park

    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.

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    News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    University of Illinois, Dow AgroSciences Celebrate Grand Opening of Innovation Facility at Research Park

    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.  

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    Community News Research Park

    Research Park Hosts Inaugural PygTech Festival

    The first Pygmalion Tech Festival is underway at Research Park. From Thursday (9/24) to Saturday (9/26), the top minds in tech from around the Champaign-Urbana community will converge to host panels, discussions, product demonstrations and more. The Pygmalion Tech Festival has already generated plenty of buzz with local media, including The Daily Illini, WAND17 and ChicagoInno. Associate Director of the Research Park, Laura Bleill, explained the significance of the festival to The Daily Illini: “‘The idea of the tech conference is to showcase what’s happening in Champaign-Urbana as it relates to tech innovation, and (Research Park) is probably the hub of that. A lot of what the panels are about, reflects the topics that (Research Park’s) clients and community are interested in,’ said Laura Bleill … ‘Student employment, tech innovation strategies and tech-talent. We want to utilize this opportunity to get our messages out there, but to also showcase what’s happening in tech in our community and some of the challenges and opportunities that exist for others to get involved.’” ChicagoInno likened the Pygmallion Tech Festival to Champaign-Urbana’s own SXSW: “Adding a tech focus to Pygmalion was a natural fit for the festival, as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been a technology and innovation powerhouse over the years. The school has one of the best engineering programs in the world, and UIUC has produced tech visionaries like Netscape founder and notable VC Marc Andreessen, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and YouTube co-founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim.”

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    Internships News Research Park

    2015 Intern Award Winners Named

    RESEARCH PARK HONORS MOST VALUABLE INTERNS OF 2015 CHAMPAIGN – A collection of Research Park’s most exceptional interns were honored Thursday, August 5, 2015 at the Research Park Intern Awards Picnic.  More than 500 highly skilled students work for Research Park tenant companies, where they gain valuable work experience as well as make meaningful contributions to internal corporate research and development programs.  The interns nominated for this year’s Intern Awards represent a wide range of backgrounds, and are all students at the University of Illinois. A team of Research Park professionals evaluated all nominations and voted on the finalists and winners. The honorees are as follows: Jae Won Choi, Most Outstanding Undergraduate, Electrical and Computer Engineering, OceanComm. “Jae is hardworking, a great team-player, and quick to get up to speed in areas he was unsure of initially. His code is 100 times faster, and since it can run on the BBB, it is 100 times cheaper than our previous system version.”   Finalists: Dylan Plecki, Dow AgroSciences; Jacob Waterman, Dow AgroSciences Eric Marburger, Most Outstanding Graduate, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Caterpillar. “Eric has exceeded the technical and professional expectations of his group. His current responsibilities are comparable to a full time engineer. Eric’s results are presented in a clear and concise manner. His finite element analysis saved significant time and money.” Finalists: Kristy Du, Abbott; Boyang Hua, Abbott Joel Kelleher, Most Advanced Marketing and Business Development, Mater of Science in Statistics, State Farm. “Joel has demonstrated creativity, initiative, and technical prowess far beyond expectations for an intern. Joel’s technical skills are among the best we’ve ever seen in an intern. These skills, coupled with Joel’s creativity and initiative, resulted in Joel being the driving force in meeting the overall objectives of his projects as well as with the small problems that arose along the way.“ Finalist: Jenna Cooley, Ameren Jerome Davis, Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup, Chemical Engineering, Xerion Advanced Battery. “Jerome has exceeded our expectations in countless ways. He has demonstrated leadership, situational awareness, insight and extreme intelligence. Having little prior laboratory experience, Jerome effortlessly mastered the skills required to manage complicated fabrication processes.”   Finalists: Sarah Cho, Intelliwheels Ruichao Qiu, Best Technological Innovation, Master of Computer Science, Yahoo! “Ruichao showed his prowess and professionalism from the day 1 with his quick grasping power, eagerness to learn and attention to details. Ruichao is a great team-member with patience, down-to-earth nature and a helpful attitude. He is going to be a valuable asset to any team he will be part of.”   Finalists: Chris Zwilling, AB-InBev; Abraham Dio, Quicket

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    Media Mentions News Research Park

    Forbes cites Research Park as factor behind increased startup funding in IL

    CHAMPAIGN, IL., July 28 – 2015 is shaping up to be a strong year for the startup and early stage investor ecosystem. Activity in Illinois, centered on both Chicago and the U. of I. tech ecosystem, may be a leading indicator of significant growth in funding applications in that region. Writes Forbes: “Texas continued in its number 3 spot with a slight increase in total funding applications over Q1; 4.3% compared to 4.7%. However several new states have entered the top ten, including Illinois at the number 5 spot with 3.4% of total funding applications, Georgia at number 7 with 2.9%, and Missouri at number 10 with 2.2%. Activity in Illinois, centered on both Chicago and the University of Illinois tech ecosystem, may be a leading indicator of significant growth in that region.” Startups in Research Park made headlines this month for successfully raising capital for their companies. In July, Aptimune Biologics raised $2.75 million in Series A Funding, and Agrible raised $4.1 million in Series A Funding.

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    News Research Park

    UIUC Launches Startup Accelerator for Student Ventures

    The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has launched a startup accelerator for student ventures on its campus. 13 startup companies, all founded by UIUC students, will participate in the new 9-week program. Writes ChicagoInno: “The program gives startups workspace at Illinois’ research park, mentorship from advisors, trips to interact with Chicago’s entrepreneurship scene, and $2,500 in funding with the opportunity to apply to get up to $10,000 more. Though the accelerator just runs for the summer, support for the ventures will continue throughout the year.” Startups participating in the University’s startup accelerator include FlipWord, Psyonic, MakerGirl, Swimable, Spotlight, Share A Chair, Resdin Technologies, The Mouve, Muscle Metrics, Kofman Technologies, I-Cubed, Corvae and Blink.

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    News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    State Farm Research and Development Center Celebrates 10 Years in Research Park

            State Farm® Celebrates 10 Years at U of I Research Park Student innovation contributes to State Farm product development CHAMPAIGN, IL – State Farm® continues to lead the insurance industry with its innovative approach to insurance and meeting the needs of our customers. Today we celebrate the contributions of U of I student interns, faculty and staff, and State Farm researchers who, through their research and development strategies, have helped State Farm better serve our customers. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the Research and Development Center (RDC), and our continued partnership with the University of Illinois and the City of Champaign. The State Farm RDC is an extremely valued member of the Research Park.  Dr. Peter Schiffer, Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign describes it as “one of our strongest, most strategic and most treasured” partnerships. Vice president of State Farm strategic resources, Laurette Stiles echoed the importance of the partnership when she said her hope is that it will “sustain far into the future.” The center has succeeded “beyond our wildest dreams,” State Farm assistant vice president and actuary, Greg Hayward said.  The growth of staff and interns in the past 10 years has been remarkable, as well as the range of backgrounds that have come together under the RDC; this range includes freshman to doctoral students studying mathematics, technology, engineering and psychology. “State Farm’s innovative interdisciplinary student research model has transformative effects – the results of which we celebrate today,” said Schiffer “These experiential learning experiences are a win-win for the company, the students, involved faculty, and the Research Park. The University is proud of this 10-year partnership.” Opening in 2005, the RDC was created to leverage the talents of UIUC students and staff with the needs of the State Farm P&C Actuarial Strategic Resources departments.  Starting out with only 3 full-time staff and 7 interns, the RDC now has 13 employees and 80 interns, the largest in the U of I Research Park. The program was soon expanded to include work with the State Farm Systems Department and has since grown to support efforts with other areas across State Farm.  Since its opening, State Farm has employed nearly 750 interns who have worked on approximately 1,500 research and development projects. “The RDC offers real-world educational opportunities for the students and faculty who work with us,” Vice President of State Farm Strategic Resources Laurette Stiles said. “Our partnership with the university through the RDC gives State Farm access to efficient, immediate and diverse research resources with the opportunity to foster innovative research in a campus atmosphere.” State Farm actively recruits on all campuses of the University of Illinois.  As a result of on-campus recruiting efforts, nearly 30 University of Illinois graduates last year and over 200 graduates in the last five years opted for full-time employment at State Farm.  State Farm’s presence at the RDC provides ample opportunities for State Farm to get in front of U of I students in classroom, seminars and social settings.  Students’ work at the Research Center provides them with real world work experience and the opportunity to learn more about State Farm. RDC has been instrumental in research around State Farm products; including Steer Clear® Mobile app, web-based vehicle telematics; and research around safety aspects of mobile devices and intelligent homes. The Center for Consumer Feedback (CCF) began operation at the Research Park in 2007.  The CCF’s mission is to collect and process information on consumers’ knowledge, behaviors, perceptions and insights to facilitate strategic decisions at State Farm. The Research and Development Center (RDC) continues to grow and is excited to announce the addition of a “Maker Space.”  Lead by our Systems partners, and in collaboration with P&C Actuary and Strategic Resources, this space will serve to allow research into areas previously not tapped.  The RDC Maker Space will include 3D printers as well as microcomputers; Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi.  The 3D printers may be used for creating mock-up devices for display in presentations, while the microcomputers are able to develop systems like car-crash detection. This space will provide the RDC with capabilities allowing for broader project selection, strengthening the research possibilities within State Farm. About State Farm®: State Farm and its affiliates are the largest provider of car insurance in the U.S. In addition to providing auto insurance quotes, their 18,000 agents and more than 65,000 employees serve over 82 million policies and accounts – nearly 80 million auto, home, life, health and commercial policies, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats and motorcycles, is available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 41 on the 2014 Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com. Read more about the State Farm Research and Development Center.  

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