Happy New Year Friends of the Research Park,
We had a wonderful year in 2015 with many reasons to celebrate. We hosted a holiday party for the Research Park and shared updates of the companies in the Research Park, new startups, and events that took place in 2015. Please see this informal slideshow to recap our activities: http://www.slideshare.net/secret/rdEOTv99Fl62Qt
A few highlights:
· Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, SBIR technical consultants, and our Designer-in-Residence had 629 meetings with entrepreneurs in 2015
· 19 new startups became tenants & affiliates at EnterpriseWorks incubator, 6 student startups became clients
· 8 startups graduated successfully from the incubator, 5 attracted VC funding, 1 had a large corporate acquisition, and 2 have major corporate customer affiliations
· $4.7 Million in SBIR/STTR awards were made to EnterpriseWorks companies: ATSP, Charmworks, EP Purification, Inprentus, Intelliwheels, Network Perception, Phi Optics, TipTek, Veriflow, and Xerion received awards.
· Strong venture capital funding included: $45 million for Revolution Medicine, $4.1 million for Agrible, $3 million for Rithmio, $2.75 million for Aptimmune Biologics
· IVenture Accelerator first annual cohort hosted in the Research Park with 13 student startups receiving fellowships and mentors to work on startups over the summer
· New corporate operations in the Research Park included: Ameren Innovation Center, Caterpillar Data Analytics Lab, Capital One Digital Campus Lab, Granular, Dow Agrosciences, Jump Labs, and Grainger.
· State Farm celebrated its 10th anniversary in the Research Park employing more than 700 students since opening, Yahoo celebrated the grand opening of their new Research Park building
· You’re Welcome CU launched as a campaign to attract tech talent to Champaign-Urbana, www.yourewelcomecu.com
· Governor Rauner visited the Research Park and new DCEO Commerce Director Jim Schultz
· Champaign-Urbana was named a top startup city by Popular Mechanics
· 156 events were hosted for Research Park companies and employees by UIRP, including inaugural Pygmalion Tech Festival, Big Data Summit, Mobile Development Day
· Food trucks added to the Research Park, 13 rotated placements throughout the Research Park
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UPCOMING RESEARCH PARK EVENTS
Wednesday, January 20, 12:00 – 1 PM
Event: Best Practices: Writing a Job Description
Location: EnterpriseWorks Conference Room 130
About the Event: Our colleagues from Career Services will review how to best promote the opportunities available in your company to attract the right candidate. Whether for internships, part-time or full time positions, crafting a detailed and focused job description is key to attracting the best talent. Come have some lunch and learn from the experts! Geared towards Research Park companies.
Thursday, January 21, 12:00 – 1 PM
Event: EIR Workshop: 7 Mistakes Scaling Companies Make
Location: EnterpriseWorks Atrium
About the Event: If your company reaches that rarefied air of scaling the company rapidly, you won't want to miss this EIR workshop. Craig Vodnik, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UIRP, will share 7 mistakes that inexperienced entrepreneurs make. Craig will share his own experiences and mistakes made over the past 9 years and will offer insight into how entrepreneurs can avoid them.
Sponsors: EnterpriseWorks
Friday, January 22, 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Event: 11th Annual Innovation Celebration
Location: Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (Main Lobby)
About the Event: Innovation Celebration provides recognition of 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.
Sponsors: Champaign County Economic Development Corporation, University of Illinois, and Parkland College
Finalists announced: http://www.champaigncountyedc.org/2016-innovation-celebration-finalists-announced
Wednesday, January 27, 12:00 – 1 PM
Event: Best Practices: Career Fair
Location: EnterpriseWorks
About the Event: Elizabeth Chominski and Jana Lithgow of the Business Career Center will address best practices for University of Illinois career fairs.
Sponsors: University of Illinois Research Park and the Career Center
Tuesday, February 2, 12:00 – 1 PM
Event: Introduction to TEKMILL
Location: EnterpriseWorks Atrium
About the Event: Gary Durack, CEO and principal engineer, will present about how TEKMILL turns raw materials and novel ideas into finished products. TEKMILL is located in the Research Park on Hazelwood Drive (next to the Yahoo building). TEKMILL delivers machining and fabrication services to both large and small companies. The facility is equipped with CNC vertical mills, CNC lathes, surface grinders, arc welders, and other metal and plastic fabrication equipment. TEKMILL provides its clients with regulatory (FDA, CE, UL, ISO) consulting and quality management systems (QMS) consulting, as well as design engineering and solid model development, custom fabrication, and small scale manufacture. In addition to his role at the TEKMILL, Gary is an investor in technology startup companies and spends considerable time advising and encouraging their founders. All Research Park companies are welcome to attend. Lunch will be served.
Sponsors: University of Illinois Research Park and EnterpriseWorks
Thursday, February 4, 12:00 – 1:30 PM
Event: AWARE Networking Luncheon
Location: Illini Union, Room 104 (east side, first floor)
About the Event:Want to start a business? Have a technology that has commercial potential? Please join us for an informal program and networking event where we will share more information about programming, proof-of-concept grants, and other resources/ opportunities for entrepreneurial women and underrepresented groups on campus. Karin O’Connor, the entrepreneur-in-residence who supports AWARE entrepreneurs, will be on hand to describe the EIR program. AWARE encourages and support the participation of more women and those from underrepresented groups in the science and technology entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Sponsor: AWARE (College of Engineering and EnterpriseWorks)
RSVP Requested: http://go.researchpark.illinois.edu/AWARENetworking
Monday, February 8, 12:00 – 1 PM
Event: Research Park Lunar New Year Celebration and Networking
Location: EnterpriseWorks Atrium, 60 Hazelwood Drive
About the Event:How are you celebrating the Year of the Monkey? The Research Park will celebrate the Lunar New Year together in style with an informal networking event. There will be a mix of food, music and good company. Food is first come, first served.
Sponsor: EnterpriseWorks and Research Park
Wednesday, February 17, 2016 5-7 PM
Event: Agriculture Technology Innovation Summit Reception
Location: College of ACES Library, Heritage Room
About the Event: Please join us for this networking event the night before the Agriculture Technology Innovation Summit. We will have a short program and meet and greet, as well as appetizers and beverages. The opening reception is being hosted by the College of ACES. Registration at http://go.illinois.edu/AgTech.
Sponsors: University of Illinois Research Park, the College of ACES, the Office of Corporate Relations
Thursday, February 18, 2016 8:30 AM- 3 PM
Event: Agriculture Technology Innovation Summit
Location: iHotel and Conference Center
About the Event: Modern agriculture is being transformed by a confluence of advancing technologies. As a result, record-breaking investments in the sector are supporting new ventures. Illinois is uniquely positioned where agriculture, engineering, and technology intersect and is on its way to becoming a hub of agriculture entrepreneurship activity. This event will include speakers from industry, investors, and successful examples of entrepreneurship. Register at http://go.illinois.edu/AgTech.
Sponsors: University of Illinois Research Park, the College of ACES, the Office of Corporate Relations
Monday, March 14, 2016, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Event: Pi Day Lunch
Location: EnterpriseWorks Atrium
About the Event: Join us for a fun lunch and informal networking/learning event. New this year: we will celebrate with a pizza pie potluck – we will have pizzas from a wide variety of C-U locations. We are also going to offer a speed networking format to help meet your neighbors in the Research Park. Food is first come, first served.
Sponsor: EnterpriseWorks
Tuesday, March 15, 2016 4:30 PM – 7 PM
Event: Research Park Career Fair
Location: iHotel and Conference Center
About the Event: The 10th annual Corporate Internships & Careers in the Research Park will be held on March 15th, 2016 at the i-Hotel and Conference Center at 1900 South First Street, Champaign. The Career Fair is a great way for students who are specifically interested in working in the Research Park to meet with employers, both startups and corporate operations. Students do not need to register for this event. Registration for companies will open in late January, and it is FREE to Research Park tenants. For more information, visit the Facebook event page. Questions? Contact Dana Cohen, dfcohen2@illinois.edu
SAVE THE DATE
Thursday, April 28, 2016, 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
Event: Entrepreneurship Forum and Cozad New Venture Competition
Location: Illini Union
About the Event: The Provost’s Roundtable on Entrepreneurship annually holds a campus-wide Entrepreneurship Forum, highlighting the entrepreneurial activities across our campus for faculty, students, and academic professionals. Hear from experts on topics including social purpose entrepreneurship, building a team for your startup, lean startup methods, and funding options for your company.
NEW ENTERPRISEWORKS TENANTS/AFFILIATES/STUDENT STARTUPS
H30
H30 is a smart seating system, which helps monitor the real-time sitting postures, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature and weight, at the same time correcting bad posture with an automated airbag for lumbar region. This hardware system will work with an app which provides info on stress analysis on spine and tail bone, long term health condition, and health improvement suggestions.
Energy Driven Technologies LLC (Editekk)
Editekk LLC combines advanced particle-beam technology to tailor multi-functionality on micro and/ or nano-structured coatings, surfaces and interfaces to enhance performance.
RESEARCH PARK ANNOUNCEMENTS
Community Volunteer Opportunity
The Young Entrepreneurship Program (YEP) is being offered to help interested high school students in Champaign understand how to start a business. The program matches up students with local mentors to expose the students to all aspects of creating a small business. We are looking for mentors with a variety of backgrounds to help these students learn from their experiences. The program runs from January through May 2016 with a kick off event on January 26th. Anyone interested in helping mentor a student can contact Marc Changnon at changnma@champaignschools.org or Dana Cohen dfcohen2@illinois.edu for additional details. Several Research Park employees are involved in this program.
January is National Mentoring Month. Unit 4 schools in Champaign have a mentoring program and they are seeking tech professionals from the Research Park to volunteer. They have mentor training (2 hrs) at the end of Jan and beginning of Feb. The mentoring program asks volunteers to devote one hour a week (this includes travel time), during school hours, during the school year. Contact Suzanne Loechl at loechlsu@champaignschools.org.
EnterpriseWorks Martin Luther King Jr. Day Closure
Due to the University holiday schedule, EnterpriseWorks will be closed on Jan. 18. The building will not be staffed on those days and the doors will be locked. If you are an EnterpriseWorks tenant or affiliate and your employees do not have after-hours access to the building, please contact facility manager Jim Wells at wellsj@illinois.edu.
EnterpriseWorks Data Center Rack Space Available
Rack space is available in the EnterpriseWorks data center. The EnterpriseWorks data center includes: 1Gb Connection to UIUCnet, locked security cages, Card-reader access-controlled doors, Security cameras, Redundant cooling units, Back-up generator power, UPS power to bridge main/emergency power transition, clean agent fire-suppression system, and environmental monitoring. There is no additional charge for power consumption. Contact Paul Wagner for a quote (pwagnr@uillinois.edu).
CAMPUS EVENTS OF INTEREST
iVenture Accelerator
Applications for the 2016-2017 iVenture Accelerator are now open! Round 2 Applications are due February 10th at 10 pm. The iVenture Accelerator is an educational accelerator for the top student startups at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that supports entrepreneurs creating economic and social value. It provides startups with co-working space, funding, expertise, and access to world-class University of Illinois resources and alumni. Student startups refine value propositions, build prototypes, deploy programs, secure key advisors, and accelerate the growth of their ventures. More information: http://iventure.illinois.edu/
Wednesday, January 27, 5:30 p.m.
Event: “CODE: debugging the gender gap” screening
Location: NCSA auditorium, Urbana
About the Event: This is an exclusive screening of the documentary “CODE: debugging the gender gap.” NCSA, CSE, and THW are sponsoring the screening to raise awareness and promote discussion around disparities in gender and minorities in engineering fields.
Sponsors: NCSA, CSE, and THW
Wednesday, January 27, 6 PM – 8 PM
Event: SocialFuse
Location: Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
About the Event: SocialFuse is a recurring pitching and networking event that brings students, faculty and community together from a variety of majors and backgrounds and fuses them through skills, ideas and entrepreneurial ambition. Attendees can pitch their startup ideas, find teammates, improve presentation skills and get feedback. The event begins with a round of short pitching and idea sharing followed by informal networking. Registration is mandatory in order to pitch.
Sponsors: Technology Entrepreneur Center
February 3 and 4, 2016, 2 PM – 6 PM
Event: Spring 2016 Business Career Fair
Location: Activities and Recreation Center (ARC), Champaign
About the event: Meet top-notch students—and connect with potential candidates at the Business Career Fair. More information: https://business.illinois.edu/bcs/recruiters/engage/career-fairs/
Sponsor: Business Career Services
February 4 & 8, 12 PM – 7 PM and February 5, 11 AM – 4 PM
Event: ECS Resume Mania
About the event: To help prepare Illinois students for career search success, ECS is inviting Illinois employees and alum to help lead the various Career Services workshops and programs planned for this spring. Please register for the Spring 2016 program(s) that you're interested in participating in.
February 10, 2 PM – 7 PM
Event: Spring 2016 Engineering Career Fair
Location: Illini Union
About the event: The world's top companies are drawn to Illinois because of our global reputation for leadership in engineering research and education. The Illinois environment offers a distinctive combination of the brightest people and a unique culture of collaboration and innovation. Visit I-Link to register. Your registration will be confirmed on I-Link ONLY after payment has been received. Fairs fill up quickly (as early as 48 hours after registration opens). Registration will close when fair is full and you will be placed on a wait list.
Sponsor: Engineering Career Services
February 11, 2 PM – 6 PM
Event: ECS/Founders Startup Career Fair
Location: Activities and Recreation Center, Champaign
About the event: ECS/Founders Startup Career Fair, being held at UIUC on Thursday, February 11th at the Illini Union. Everything you need to know about the fair can be found by clicking here. Startups will be charged $400 (includes 2 reps). The cost of additional representatives, up to 2 more, is $50 each. Startup Companies located in the University of Illinois Research Park will be charged $200 (includes 2 reps). The cost of additional representatives, up to 2 more, is $50 each, with a maximum of 4 reps.
Sponsor: Engineering Career Services/Founders
February 18, 4 – 6:30 p.m.
Event: Graduate Student Job Fair at CSL
Location: Coordinated Science Lab, Urbana
About the event: The 2016 CSL Student Conference is a completely student run conference featuring invited talks by distinguished speakers from academia and industry, as well as CSL and selected students. This Graduate Student Job Fair will provide a great opportunity for Illinois graduate students to connect with various engineering firms. Companies will engage with students through networking and project displays. Free to attend and participate. More information, contact Sara at bahrami1@illinois.edu. Deadline is Jan. 15/ To register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1CVmzXtgH17M7lp8apDU9M91vLcwFckRVyc_Afz7fFj4/viewform?c=0&w=1.
Sponsor: Coordinated Science Laboratory Student Conference (CSLSC)
February 19-21, 2016
Event: HackIllinois
Location: Siebel Center
About the event: The area’s largest collegiate hackathon. The adventure begins again. Join us February 19 - 21st, 2016 and explore new frontiers. To register or learn more about participating and sponsorships, visit www.hackillinois.org.
LOCAL/REGIONAL EVENTS OF INTEREST
Export Training Series
The International Trade Center of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Champaign County EDC is hosting a 3-part export training series to help businesses understand the intricacies of exporting. Workshop dates are Jan. 19, Jan. 26, and Feb. 2. More information: http://www.cusbdc.org/export-training-series/
Champaign County Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber has a wide variety of programs and events to cover nearly all business interests, from educational workshops to networking events. http://champaigncounty.org/champaign-events-programs/
Greater Peoria Startup Weekend
The third semi-annual Startup Weekend in Peoria is February 26-28, 2016. Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event that helps educate, support, and empower people to become entrepreneurs. To learn more about this event, visit https://www.startuppeoria.com.
Clean Energy Trust Challenge 2016 Accepting Applications (Deadline: Jan. 12)
The Clean Energy Trust Challenge is a nationally recognized accelerator program and the largest single-day clean energy pitch competition in the nation. The Challenge has jumpstarted more than 60 startups in the Midwest to date, including the 2014 winner from EnterpriseWorks, EP Purification. The Clean Energy Challenge event is the premiere cleantech-networking event in Chicago. Over 400 entrepreneurs, investors, business executives, students, and university faculty attend each year. The event combines a business plan competition with presentations by leading clean energy thinkers and doers. http://cleanenergytrust.org/challenge/
Association for Women in Science National Summit On Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Health and Medical Sciences, March 31, Chicago
The Association for Women in Science (AWIS) is pleased to host a national dialogue on gender at the nexus of innovation and entrepreneurship with emphasis on the health and medical sciences sector. Building on the momentum generated from two previous Summits, the AWIS National Summit will center on how we, as a society, can fuel innovative solutions to global challenges facing all our citizens. We will focus on how to develop inclusive, fiscally-responsive systems to drive research excellence and feed long-term economic growth with experts from industry, academia, and government. As part of the AWARE program, we will be providing transportation and will provide registration for up to 15 women to attend this program. Please contact Laura Bleill (lwbleill@illinois.edu) for more information.
FLC National Meeting, April 26 - April 28, 2016, Chicago
Hear from some of the most forward-thinking minds in technology transfer at the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer's (FLC) 2016 national meeting, From Discovery to Commercialization in Chicago, Illinois, April 26 - April 28, 2016. With a membership of approximately 300 federal laboratories, research centers and parent agencies, the FLC is responsible for implementing federal technology transfer and working to ensure that the knowledge, facilities, and/or capabilities developed under federal research and development funding are utilized to fulfill public and private needs. More info: http://www.cvent.com/events/2016-flc-national-meeting/custom-20-bdf463f7fb454095aaf6f4bdb6f6d4f8.aspx
Techweek Chicago, Week of June 20th
Save the date: http://techweek.com/chicago/
SBIR and STTR ANNOUNCEMENTS
Experienced SBIR professionals have all been contracted by EnterpriseWorks to assist companies with SBIR and STTR applications with free consulting services to East Central Illinois applicants. Request technical assistance at: http://researchpark.illinois.edu/resources/sbir-technical-assistance-program .
NOAA FY 2016 SBIR Solicitation
Release Date: October 20, 2015
Application Due Date: January 14, 2016
For a complete list of open solicitations go to: https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/solicitation/current