Innovation + Job News

Hollywood director Jack Bender, the man behind the hit series "Lost," chose University of Detroit Mercy's McNichols campus over nine other universities as the location for the pilot episode of "The Prince of the Motor City" a few weeks ago.

The TV series is about a Harvard professor who returns home to take over his dad's auto company, á la Hamlet. Bender choose the lecture hall in UDM's Chemistry Building because it best mirrored Harvard's campus.

Photos from the shoot can be found here.

Source: University of Detroit Mercy
Writer: Jon Zemke

Brain tumors are about to become easier to see now that a Wayne State University professor has received a $1.5 million grant to develop a brain-tumor-detection device.

Dr. Csaba Juhasz, assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology, will use the grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to develop a new imaging technique that will allow doctors to detect and diagnose brain tumors faster and more accurately.

The new technology will help find new tumors in brain cancer patients and allow doctors to see whether it really is a tumor or damage from surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. It could also let doctors to determine a tumor's type.

If the technology proves successful, it could help with detection of tumors in other types of cancer, too.

Source: Wayne State University
Writer: Jon Zemke

SpaceForm plans to add six new jobs in the next 6 to 12 months on the expectation that its welding technology will revolutionize the manufacturing industry.

The TechTown start-up, founded in 2005, has developed welding technology so quick, efficient and cost effective that the company's president, Alain Piette, can see it helping bring more manufacturing jobs back to North America.

"We basically negate the cost of labor," Piette says.

The company, a Delphi-spin-off, has worked with major government agencies, like NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense. Even though the technology is still in its infancy, Piette wants to form more partnerships with commercial manufacturers for products like wheelchairs, automobiles and bicycles.

"If it's intended to have wheels and move, we can do it," Piette says.

Source: Alain Piette, president of SpaceForm
Writer: Jon Zemke

Embargo, smargo. Detroiters are just a few minutes away from a Windsor-based flight that can take them to the sunny skies of Cuba.

Excerpt:

A new jet service taking off in December from Windsor Airport will bring the allure of a forbidden Cuban vacation within minutes of downtown Detroit.

Sunwing Airlines, a Canadian leisure carrier, will offer weekly flights to Varadero, Cuba, a popular beach resort about 50 miles east of the capital, Havana.

While U.S. citizens are mostly barred from spending money on travel to Cuba, officials with the airline and airport expect Americans to make up at least half the passengers on the route.

Read the rest of The Detroit News story here.

Learning is becoming a year-round activity in some of the local schools as the city's charter schools continue lessons throughout the year.

Excerpt:

Summertime is the season for kids' baseball games, fishing excursions with dad and movies with the whole family.

Unfortunately, for too many youngsters, it's also when lessons learned during the long hours at school fly straight from their thoughts.

Students enrolled at six Detroit-area charter schools will get a second chance to keep their grade point averages high.

Youngsters studying at the Detroit Enterprise Academy, Detroit Merit Charter Academy, Flagship Charter Academy, Detroit Premier Academy, Warrendale Charter Academy and Hamtramck Academy have signed up for summer enrichment classes offered by Building Educated Leaders for Life.

BELL, a Boston-based organization, was founded in 1992 by Harvard Law School students eager to raise children's academic performances and their self-esteem.

"We want to instill within them a sense of giving back, so when they do great things after college, they will turn back and give to their community," said Earl Martin Phalen, CEO of BELL.

Read the rest of the Detroit Free Press story here.

Wayne State University received $150,000 for two state grants to help nurture new businesses and research at the college.

The Michigan Initiative for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, a consortium of the state's 15 universities, gave out the two grants as part of its first round of awards totaling $1.3 million. The idea is to distribute $75 million in grants over the next decade to help transform the state's brawn-based economy into a brain-based one.

The money comes from 2,200 philanthropic foundations. It hopes to create as many as 200 new start-up firms in the state within 10 years. It plans to do this by aiding the commercializing of university research and other ways of creating new economy businesses from the state's homes of higher education.

Wayne State's first grant ($100,000) will go toward the University's Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics Commercialization Center. The center will help turn research that helps treat diseases into job-creating businesses.

Another $50,000 will help expand Wayne State's student-run advertising agency in TechTown so it can work with new start-ups in Michigan. The agency gives students real-world experience while helping promote TechTown's businesses.

Source: Wayne State University
Writer: Jon Zemke

Powerlink had already been growing quickly yet steadily in recent years, but the firm expects that type of growth to continue now that it has moved to Detroit.

The cleaning-firm just moved its headquarters from Warren to New Center this summer. It had grown from 100 to 387 employees in the last couple of years and expects to keep growing, reaching the 500 employee mark within the next two or three years.

The company is focusing on consolidating its recent gains and holding its growth to 25 percent or less in the near term so it makes sure it doesn’t sacrifice customer service. The plan is to invest in the company’s infrastructure and its people to ensure it can continue doing its job well for the likes of Henry Ford Health System and Steelcase.

"We have a strong belief that if you’re going to do something you should do it exceptionally well," says Scott Rice, vice president of Powerlink. "We are all about our people. It’s about selecting and training great people."

That’s a very important point to Rice, who adds that there are a lot of competitors in the industry.

And the company sees New Center serving its needs that way, too. The company has been doing a lot of work for customers in the neighborhood and has become increasingly enamored with it. Rice points out how its in the center of everything in the city, and its leaders have pushed for a lot of progressive initiatives, such as sustainability and establishing a mass transit system.

"We feel this is a critical moment in the growth of Detroit and we wanted to be part of it," Rice says.

Source: Scott Rice, vice president of Powerlink
Writer: Jon Zemke

Portage Media Solutions is an interactive agency that helps businesses build their brand names in the new media environment by helping them utilize things like web sites, blogs and podcasts. Business has been going well for the four years it has made its home in downtown Detroit, say business partners Jeremiah Staes and Eric Drader.

Revenues have basically doubled each year since the company was founded. It now has enough work to keep the two founders and four contractors busy. If business continues to go well, Staes sees the company adding two or three employees within the next 12 to 18 months.

It plans to do this by reaching out to more small and medium businesses that don't fully comprehend the power of new media, especially the Internet.

"There are a lot of businesses that don't understand how important online can be to opening up new markets," Staes says.

Source: Jeremiah Staes, Portage Media Solutions
Writer: Jon Zemke

Another TechTown company is making its name as a leader in alternative energy. Carbon Credit Environmental Services is an evolution of the life work of its president, Mike Dolkowski.

He has more than 30 years of experience dealing with environmental issues, starting with recycling. Today Carbon Credit Environmental Services specializes in making businesses greener, providing things like energy audits and pairing companies and events with local and global projects that help offset their carbon footprint.

The 2-year-old company started with three employees and has doubled that count to six today. It hopes to grow to 25 staff members by the end of next year and 50-60 people by the end of the decade.

The company sees a bright future in helping other firms make their impact on the environment carbon neutral. It is working on projects at home, including with the Friends of Belle Isle, and across the world, with things like the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Source: Mike Dolkowski, president of Carbon Credit Environmental Services
Writer: Jon Zemke

Alternative energy is about to lead to billions in investment in Michigan, and Detroit-based DTE Energy is one of the companies looking to lead the way.

Excerpt:

DTE Energy is getting ready to spend billions of dollars on alternative energy investments in Michigan, boosting the state's efforts to become a leader in this rapidly growing market.

The parent company of the Detroit Edison and MichCon utilities plans to make about $3 billion in renewable energy investments in Michigan over the next six to seven years, said Knut Simonsen, senior vice president of DTE Energy Resources Inc.

These investments depend on the state passing a new law mandating that 10% of its electricity come from renewable energy sources. The House of Representatives and the Senate have passed their own bills toward this goal, but major differences between the two must be reconciled.

"It's exciting times in the sense that clean tech investment's time has finally come," Simonsen said.

Read the rest of the Detroit Free Press story here.