Emerging Technology : Innovation + Job News

We often hear the University of Minnesota described as the "economic engine" of the state. From bioscience to information technology to agriculture, the U is indeed a source and driving factor behind many of Minnesota's successful economic endeavors and sectors.

Earlier this month, the university's Office of the Vice President for Research hosted an event to recognize the innovators at the very beginning of the continuum from research to commercial application.

"It's a key part of what we do as a university, and we want to acknowledge the folks who play a vital role in [the innovation] process," says John Merritt, director of communications for the Office of the Vice President for Research. "They are really the source of the intellectual property and technology that emanates from this place."

In the past two years (fiscal years 2990�2010), 161 inventors from 10 colleges generated 106 patents and 84 license agreements--contributing to the nearly $390 million in revenue over the last five years.

That dollar amount reflects the economic importance of innovation to the state and the nation, and it is a very necessary return on investment that supports additional research at the university. Merritt stresses how critical innovation revenue is to research funding--especially right now.

"As public support declines, as the support of the state in particular declines," says Merritt, "we're looking towards [technology commercialization] revenue to help fill some of that gap."

The university has seen an upward trend in a couple of key measures, says Merritt. The number of disclosures of inventions by faculty increased from 217 in FY2008 to 255 in FY2009. Likewise, the number of patent filings rose from 52 to 66 in that same period.

"We're seeing a nice growth of revenue here that comes from products," says Merritt, even above and beyond the U of M's revenue "home run"--innovation drug Ziagen, licensed to Glaxo Smith Kline (but set to roll off patent in 2013).

Inventors of recently applied research honored at the Feb. 10 event include:

-- Dr. Erik Cressman of the Medical School, whose discovery of a novel treatment for chronic venous insufficience resulted in the formation of the device startup XO Thermix Medical;

-- biochemistry professor Gary Nelsestuen, who licensed technology in 2008 using modified vitamin K as an anti-coagulant or pro-coagulant;

-- Kevin Groenke, coordinator for the College of Design, whose desk for architecture students has been licensed to three companies since 2009;

-- Vipin Kumar, head of the Computer Science and Engineering department, who developed software that allows researchers to track the growth and degradation of forests worldwide;

-- and Tom Levar, forestry and horticulture specialist at U of M Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute, whose technology to protect plants from browsing by deer and mice was licensed to Repellex, which will release the product this spring.

The event also recognized patent and licensing activity from the St. Paul campus, including:

-- Honeycrisp apple trees;
-- La Crescent, Frontenac gris, and Marquette grape varieties;
-- FINPACK software for farm financial planning and analysis;
-- and the technology behind recent startup NewWater.

Even as it celebrated its recent patents and licenses, the university was finalizing an exclusive, worldwide license agreement with Paris-headquartered biotechnology company Cellectis for gene-modification technology, according to a press release.

U of M representatives will take part in a MOJO Minnesota-hosted conversation about the other end of the research continuum--the transfer of technology to the market--on Wednesday, Feb. 23. (More on that next week.)

Source: John Merritt, University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

It's a simple solution to a widespread problem: stormwater sediment.

The new startup Upstream Technologies is delivering the "SAFL Baffle"--a perforated stainless steel barrier that, once installed inside a manhole, traps debris like leaves and gravel while allowing water to flow through.

Developed at the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) of the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering, the baffle is a more cost-effective measure because of its simplicity.

"The current devices that are on the market have a lot of features that are generally not needed," says A.J. Schwidder, CEO of Upstream Technologies and an MBA student at the U of M.

Schwidder connected with co-inventor and civil engineering professor John Gulliver last summer at the university's Office of Technology Commercialization and soon after began to look into applications and markets for the new technology.

"The market looked big enough to justify starting a new company," says Schwidder.

Now in its third week since a Feb. 1 launch, Upstream has 20 orders for the $3,500 baffle--including four in Minneapolis and others in Prior Lake, Bloomington, and Blaine.

Schwidder, who has a background and degrees in civil engineering, believes cities are interested in long-term implementation. One is considering putting it into their 5-year sewer maintenance plan, he said, while another will use it to as part of their stormwater infiltration process.

Given the heavy winter, Schwidder expects installation to begin in April. In the meantime, Upstream is raising capital and taking in other orders. The company will focus on selling in the Upper Midwest, says Schwidder (particularly Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa), with plans for nationwide expansion in 2012.

At this time, manufacturing is subcontracted to Custom Fab Solutions. Both companies are based in Chanhassen.

Source: A.J. Schwidder, Upstream Technologies
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

The phrase "Fill 'er up!" is taking on new meaning--albeit it slowly--with the introduction of electric vehicles. Since the beginning of the year, the Twin Cities has stations for the filling--in Downtown St. Paul and on the 3M campus in Maplewood.

The first of Coulomb Technologies' ChargePoint Network stations was installed in early January in the public parking ramp at St. Paul's First National Bank Building, 332 North Minnesota Street. Located near the Central Corridor light rail line, the station will use 100 percent wind energy as part of Xcel Energy's WindSource program.

Meanwhile, 3M installed a ChargePoint station in the visitors' parking lot at 3M Center, its company headquarters in Maplewood, on Feb. 10. 3M will install a second station in the spring.

Jean Sweeney, vice president of environmental, health, and safety operations, called the addition of the stations "a great way to align our culture with a continued commitment to reduce impact on the environment and underline the connection between 3M values and sustainability."

Last year, 3M's energy savings programs prevented the use of nearly 8 million KWH of electricity and 585,940 Therms of natural gas, according to a press release.

An interactive map on the ChargePoint Network website shows dozens, if not hundreds, of stations across the country, but only three in Minnesota. Another is located in Rochester.

Electric car owners can search for Charge Point Network stations online or find them using an iPhone app.

Sources: Coloumb Technologies, 3M
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Social media has given researchers of every stripe a mountain of new data to explore.

As tweets and status updates work their way into studies across the University of Minnesota campus, from computer science to environmental studies, a group of researchers have recognized a need for more cross-department pollination.

This week they'll hold the first monthly gathering of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Group in Social Computing. Organizers have put the call out to researchers across the university who are exploring social media and its impact on society.

"This is our first rattling of the bushes to see who shows up and it should be pretty interesting," says Nora Paul, director of the SJMC Minnesota Journalism Center.

So far, potential participants include students, staff, and faculty from the English department, computer science, journalism, writing studies, public health, mathematics, environmental studies, youth development, and Spanish/Portuguese studies.

The kick-off event will consist of a round of introductions. Participants are asked to bring a single PowerPoint slide and a short description of their work related to social media. After that, monthly meetings will likely revolve around a speaker from outside the University.

The group is particularly aimed at graduate students, but Paul says they want to have the events open to the community as well, with a goal of spurring collaboration not just across departments but also with people outside the University.

The meet-and-greet kick-off event is 4-6pm Thursday, Jan. 27, in the Digital Technology Center Auditorium, room 402 in Walter Library.

Source: Nora Paul, SJMC Minnesota Journalism Center
Writer: Dan Haugen

A public-private partnership plans to launch a new web portal this summer aimed at better connecting Minnesota startup companies and angel investors.

The Minnesota Angel Network is the result of two years of planning by the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota and several partner organizations, all stemming from a recent report that identified a need for better "full-spectrum" funding opportunities for growing companies in Minnesota.

The network won't be funding companies, nor will it be making recommendations about what companies deserve investment. Instead, it'll be a clearinghouse of standardized information about startups seeking money.

"Although there are investors throughout the state that are looking for deals, there's no single resource or single access point where they can find quality deals. They can only find the ones that are in their own network," says Todd Leonard, director of the Minnesota Angel Network.

The goal is to standardize a process to help entrepreneurs prepare and organize all of the information that investors are going to expect from them. They'll enter summaries and business plans into a standardized format, and then have them reviewed by mentors to make sure all the pieces are in place.

Once a startup's information is ready, it will be added to the network. Certified investors will then be able to anonymously view summaries of any company in the system. Confidential or proprietary information about a company can be stored in the system and only revealed to specific investors with permission.

While the project is being initiated and hosted by the BioBusiness Alliance, it's meant to serve startups and investors in all industries, not just bioscience. The site is currently being beta tested and is scheduled to be up and running by the middle of this year, likely in July.

Source: Todd Leonard, Minnesota Angel Network
Writer: Dan Haugen

Sen. Amy Klobuchar outlined a national innovation agenda last week at an Innovation Summit at the University of Minnesota.

Klobuchar shared the stage at the Mayo Auditorium with Carlson Companies' chairman Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Medtronic CEO William Hawkins, and University research vice president Tim Mulcahy, among others.

"Innovation has always been a catalyzing force in the American economy," Klobuchar said.  "In recent years, however, the country has fallen behind in its efforts to research, develop, and compete in the global economy. We are resting on our laurels at a time when other countries, including China and India, are moving full-steam ahead."

Her strategy to help America regain its innovation edge consists of a series of targeted tax breaks and regulatory reforms, as well as a longer-term focus on improving science, technology, engineering, and math education.

Klobuchar has been collaborating on the legislation with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who also spoke at the event. Warner said too much brain power was wasted building a "financial house of cards," and that the country needs fewer financial engineers and more "real engineers."

Other speakers noted Minnesota's struggle converting basic research into commercial products, as well as efforts for the University of Minnesota to work more closely with private companies in the state.

Klobuchar is on the Senate Commerce Committee and chairs the Subcommittee on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Export Promotion.

Source: Sen. Amy Klobuchar Innovation Summit
Writer: Dan Haugen

Pentair expects water reuse systems like the one it installed at Target Field to be big business in certain fast-growing global markets.

Pentair CEO Randy Hogan spoke at a clean technology and renewable energy conference last week in New York, where he said the company forecasts that water reuse systems will become an $8.4 billion market by 2016.

Marketing drove the decision to install the water reuse system at Target Field, but in parts of India, China, and Latin America where clean water can be in short supply, economics will be the driver of demand.

Hogan compared on-site water treatment to wireless technology. Many newly developed countries skipped over wired infrastructure and focused instead on building wireless phone and internet infrastructure. Pentair predicts a similar trend is going to emerge around water supplies.

"They're going to go pipeless," Hogan said.

The economics of Target Field's water reuse system were good, says Hogan, but the math is far more compelling in places where population growth is outstripping (or already has outstripped) the supply of clean water.

The company is installing a graywater reuse system at a Ritz Carlton in Bangalore, India, that will be used for irrigation and sanitation. Meanwhile, Brazil is planning to incorporate water-reuse systems in seven new stadiums for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Hogan says Pentair hopes to win at least a few of those contracts.

Hogan also said Pentair doubled the number of new products it introduced in 2010, and it hopes to do the same in 2011. R&D grew to account for about 2.3 percent of the company's spending last year, and Hogan says they're on track to eventually increase that amount to 4 percent.

Source: Randy Hogan, Pentair
Writer: Dan Haugen

A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on, according to an old proverb. And that was before Twitter and other social networks wired the world.

That's the challenge a St. Paul nonprofit media project is grappling with: how to help the facts around important environmental topics catch up with all of the misinformation that can spread so easily and quickly online these days.

Dialogue Earth is a collaboration between the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment and the Foundation for Environmental Research. This week it announced the completion of a pilot project involving a crowdsourced video contest.

The mission is to find ways to inject timely, trustworthy information into the public debate on environmental issues, without advocating for any particular action or solution.

Its recent video project demonstrates one way in which that goal might be accomplished. Dialogue Earth sponsored a video contest in which all entries had to incorporate information from a list of 12 objective facts about ocean acidification. The other rule: videos couldn't make any specific call to action.

"The only thing we're advocates for is getting good information out," says Dialogue Earth founder Kent Cavender-Bares.

First, participants made short pitches for their ideas. Seven concepts were chosen, after which participants were invited to create 90-second videos based on one of the winning concepts.

The result: a collection of creative, factual videos, ranging from a cartoon starring a snail reggae band to a black-and-white public service announcement parody. The idea is to build a collection of videos that can educate, rather than polarize.

"In order for media to be consumed, we feel that if it's science-based, ultimately it's got to be trustworthy. We also realize it's got to be engaging," says Cavender-Bares.

It also needs to be relevant. The next phase will involve finding ways to produce videos more quickly so that they can be released while a topic is still timely. This contest lasted six weeks, an aeon in Internet attention span.

Dialogue Earth is also preparing to launch a social media/public opinion analysis tool in early 2011 called Pulse, which will seek to track what environmental topics people are talking about. That data could then be used to plan topics for future videos.

Source: Kent Cavender-Bares, Dialogue Earth
Writer: Dan Haugen

Minnesota has an economic opportunity ahead of it in designing, developing and implementing less harmful chemical products.

That's the message of the Minnesota Green Chemistry Forum, which hosted a conference January 7 at the University of Minnesota covering topics from public health to environmental marketing.

Green chemistry is a term to describe the production of non-toxic or less toxic chemical products. Examples include plastics made with plant material instead of petroleum compounds.

"Green chemistry is the way forward," said Sen. Al Franken, one of several policy-making officials who spoke at the conference. He said Minnesota companies are already proving that we can create safer, healthier products without sacrificing quality.

One example: Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day, whose CEO Kevin Rutherford spoke earlier in the afternoon about the company's environmental philosophy.

"We really like to uncomplicate things," Rutherford said.

The company employs about 50 people in downtown Minneapolis, and it's managed to grow despite the economy, and the fact that it makes a premium-priced product.

Environmental marketing consultant Georgean Adams, a former 3M employee, spoke about the challenges of green marketing, including confusion about definitions and standards. Worldwide, more than 370 green-marketing logos are currently in use.

Bethany Drake, an environmental scientist with Green Seal, spoke about how its certification requirements evolve. It's designed so that no more than 20 percent of products in a certain category can qualify. So as certain green practices become industry standards, the bar is raised.

Members of the Minnesota Green Chemistry Forum include: Activeion, Aveda Corporation, Eureka Recycling, Segetis, and Tennant Company.

Source: Minnesota Green Chemistry Forum
Writer: Dan Haugen

At The Beauty Room in south Minneapolis, the iPad has become as indispensable to its stylists as a pair of scissors.

The six-year-old salon, which recently moved to a new location at 4300 Chicago Ave. S. in the Longfellow neighborhood, was having an increasingly difficult time coordinating the schedules of its 19 specialists. If a customer needed a perm, a wax, and a manicure, for example, a clerk would have to consult three separate paper calendars to find a window of time when all three specialists would be available.

"It was just a nightmare," says owner Mi Shaun Schmidt-Schwab.

In November, the salon switched to an all-electronic scheduling system that syncs to everybody's personal iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. Now, instead of someone at the front desk spending up to five minutes searching for an open time, any of The Beauty Room's specialists can quickly schedule clients from anywhere using their Apple device.

The same system also allows staff to check-in clients when they arrive, which automatically pings an alert to the stylists' iPad or iPhone. It's eliminated the need for front-desk staff to track down people in the often busy salon to tell them their next customer has arrived.

Schmidt-Schwab says switching to the iPad solution has freed up front-desk staff to focus more on customer service, things like greeting and making customers feel welcome, instead of being tied up on the phone. If a customer wants to book another appointment, the stylist can do that from their station while they're still in their chair.

Several stylists already owned Apple devices. Others have since purchased them. The app that runs the scheduling system costs $4.99. Schmidt-Schwab expects the investment will pay for itself by freeing up time from administrative tasks to focus on its services.

Source: Mi Shaun Schmidt-Schwab, The Beauty Room
Writer: Dan Haugen

Minnesota is sprouting a green chemistry industry, and a forum at the University of Minnesota this week aims to fertilize it.

The Minnesota Green Chemistry Forum will host a conference on Friday, Jan. 7, called Adding Value Through Green Chemistry.

The event will feature speakers from 3M, Aveda, Ecolab, Segetis, Mrs. Meyers Clean Day--all companies that are using or developing products made with materials that reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous chemical substances.

"We're looking at this as a chance to profile what's going on in the state of Minnesota," says Tim Welle, renewable energy program manager for the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, a member of the Green Chemistry Forum.

Minnesota is at the forefront of the young green chemistry industry. It has academic and private sector expertise, with several companies already producing products made from green chemistry, many of which utilize plant materials as an alternative to petroleum-based chemicals.

The state has the potential to become an leader in the field because it has the expertise as well as the natural resources to support an industry, such as forestry and agriculture products.

The goal of the forum, says Welle, is to showcase what's happening today, as well as to get people thinking about the potential applications and long-term opportunities in Minnesota.

Source: Tim Welle, BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Minneapolis product development shop is partnering with a British telecommunications research firm to come up with new wireless products that use both companies' technologies.

Logic PD announced the strategic partnership with Roke Manor Research last week. The arrangement also gives both companies new contacts for selling across the pond.

Scott Nelson, Logic PD's executive vice president and chief technology officer, says the two companies got to know each other while working on a project for a client they had in common.

"We both fairly quickly identified the ability to be more together," says Nelson.

Roke Manor Research is an engineering and technology company with strong expertise in miniaturized radio frequency antennas. Logic PD brings design and creative strengths, says Nelson. The two companies will collaborate on work for clients, and they also think they'll be able to develop new products faster and with more features by sharing expertise and technology.

Logic PD was founded by two industrial designers in the 1960s and in the decades since then it's expanded its expertise to include mechanical engineering, electrical, and software.

"An entrepreneur or any company can show up at our doorstep with their idea and we can help them get that product to market," says Scott Nelson, Logic PD's chief technology officer.

The company employs about 100 people at its product development center in downtown Minneapolis, and another 300 at a manufacturing site in Eden Prairie.

Source: Scott Nelson, Logic PD
Writer: Dan Haugen

A new, first-in-the-nation indoor solar simulator at the University of Minnesota is already pulling in millions in research funding for the school.

The equipment is set up in a roughly ten-by-ten-foot space in a windowless room at the College of Science and Engineering. It uses seven high-watt bulbs, the kind you'd find behind a movie theater projector, and focuses them with a set of special reflectors.

The light that comes off the reflectors can match the intensity of 3,000 suns.

"It's really a 'wow' kind of thing, to see that you can put a plate of steel in front of it and burn a hole that's about an inch in diameter pretty quick," says Jane Davidson, a mechanical engineering professor and one of the lead solar researchers.

Davidson and others will use the simulator to try to develop new methods and technology for capturing and storing the sun's energy with chemical reactions. The extreme heat can be used to convert water and carbon dioxide into synthetic hydrocarbon fuels. The challenge is finding ways to do so that are both practical and economical.

"The power of the facility and the ability to control it are really amazing, and it's going to be a wonderful way for us to proceed, in a very controlled laboratory setting, to develop these solar reactors," says Davidson.

The simulator cost about $450,000, but it's already brought in a couple of big grants. University researchers have won nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation and $1.4 million  in grants from the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment.

Source: Jane Davidson, University of Minnesota
Writer: Dan Haugen

One of the taglines for Refactr's project-tracking software is "more useful, not more features."

At the company's Northeast Minneapolis headquarters this year, it's also meant more employees.

The four-year-old software development agency more than doubled in size in 2010, as its three co-founders hired four new employees to refine and relaunch their project tracking app, Lean-to. The cloud-based service came out of "beta" last week and it now accepting paying customers. Accounts range from free for individuals to $99 a month for unlimited users and projects.

Lean-to has been on the company's to-do list since Refactr was incorporated in 2006. Initially, it was developed as a tool for the co-founders to collaborate on software projects. Co-founder Ben Edwards says they found too many project management tools are overly complicated and emphasize reporting for managers over convenience for developers using it.

"We're going to use this every day. We wanted it to be easy and out of the way," says Edwards.

Edwards, Jesse O'Neill-Oine, and Scott Vlaminck, however, quickly found themselves tied up with consulting and outside development work, so progress on Lean-to went slowly. This year, they decided to hire three developers and a marketing person to give full-time attention to its own products, including Lean-to and an idea management app called MileMarker.

"We just said we're going to make the commitment to get these products where they need to be in 2010," says Edwards.

Refactr is looking to grow more soon, too. Edwards says the company is seeking to hire a designer and another one or two more developers as soon as they can find the right candidates.

Source: Ben Edwards, Refactr
Writer: Dan Haugen

A St. Cloud software marketer is trying on a new avatar: mobile video game publisher.

W3i was founded ten years ago in a dorm room at St. Cloud State by three brothers, Rob, Ryan and Aaron Weber. Their mission: to be a leader in the distribution of consumer applications.

At the time, that meant Windows desktop software -- a lot of clip art, wallpaper and screensavers. Windows is still a good business, but they now see mobile gaming as the best bet for future growth.

Last summer, the company made headlines for a new service called Apperang, which pays mobile users 25 cents every time they install an app by one of W3i's clients.

Last week, the company announced the launch of a new subsidiary, Recharge Studios, which is seeking to invest at least $1 million in mobile gaming in the next three to six months.

The market for mobile video games is anticipated to grow somewhere between $4.5 billion and $10 billion over the next few years.

"We think there are going to be a lot of developers who are going to try to go after that market, and we believe we can help them," says Rob Weber, W3i's vice president of business development.

In most cases, Recharge will look to help finance, develop and market new mobile gaming apps in exchange for a share of revenue. In some cases it may seek to acquire full ownership.

The studio already has a handful of games under production and plans to release its first title by the end of the month, followed by a few more in the first quarter of 2011.

Source: Rob Weber, W3i
Writer: Dan Haugen