Interview with Hart Posen of the Wisconsin School of Business.
The End Of Bon-Ton And The Challenges In The Brick & Mortar Retail Industry
Wisconsin Public Radio
Category: Business/Technology
Some day passengers might travel 700 mph underground thanks to UW students’ efforts
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Some day, if billionaire inventor Elon Musk’s idea comes to fruition, humans will travel from city to city via Hyperloop.
Driverless shuttle to give rides at UW
WISC-TV 3
Community members will have the opportunity to take a ride in an autonomous shuttle next week on campus, according to a release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Local brewery partners with UW-Madison Arboretum
WISC-TV 3
Something new is brewing from fruit collected at the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum.
UW tech transfer program, D2P, gets new director
Wisconsin State Journal
Andy Richards started April 1 as director of the UW-Madison’s Discovery to Product program, better known as D2P.
These $500 leggings are no ordinary workout clothes. They’re Bluetooth smart.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Holtzman assembled a team of friends with varying experiences to form Torq Labs’ group of six co-founders. The team first met in November 2015. By the beginning of 2016, they had a prototype and established a company, Torq Laboratories Inc. Five of the six co-founders graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The sixth went to UW-Milwaukee.
UW professor awarded grant to study how to best support student, faculty businesses started at universities
Badger Herald
Survey from 2015 found 2,500 Wisconsin alums have started their own businesses.
Tom Still: Outside Wisconsin’s biggest cities, academic research growing in prominence
Wisconsin State Journal
Based on issued patents, licensing agreements, licensing income and startups, the rankings by the California-based Milken Institute showed that WiSys – which was created to manage intellectual property on University of Wisconsin campuses outside Madison and Milwaukee – is coming into its own.
Madison-based gaming company unveils ‘Disney Heroes’ game, its first under new partnership
WISC-TV 3
PerBlue was started by a few University of Wisconsin students in a college apartment 10 years ago. Since then, it’s grown into a multi-million-dollar business.
Foxconn’s promised jobs boom could sputter a few miles away in Racine
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: At the request of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the leading ACE researchers at UW-Madison aggregated five years of statewide data, from 2011 through 2015, and broke out results for the four ZIP codes that cover the City of Racine. The four main ZIP codes encompass the urban center but also reach well into the suburbs, including the affluent lakefront Village of Wind Point, home of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Wingspread campus for the Johnson Foundation.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained: How to create a new entrepreneurial spirit in Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Wisconsin Idea — the concept that the knowledge and innovations from the university reach to the borders of our state and beyond — highlights the pre-eminent role that our university system plays in creating a better quality of life for citizens.
5 things to know about food delivery app EatStreet as its rapid national growth continues
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Madison-based food ordering and delivery app EatStreet is one of the recent success stories in the Wisconsin startup scene. The company founded in a dorm room at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010 has become a real player in the online food ordering business across the United States. EatStreet connects diners in more than 250 cities to more than 15,000 restaurants.
UW-Madison Taps Andy Richards to Lead Discovery to Product Program
Xconomy
D2P is housed at @1403, an on-campus building that three years ago was rebranded as a hub for entrepreneurs. The startups that have formed with D2P’s help include Stem Pharm, Xemex, and Spectrom, which New York-based MakerBot acquired for an undisclosed sum in 2015.
Your favorite Disney and Pixar heroes join forces in a new video game from a Wisconsin company
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: PerBlue began in a college apartment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008. The company has raised millions of dollars in venture capital and has more than 40 employees. In 2016, it sold the game “DragonSoul” to GREE International Entertainment for $35 million.
Who’s going to win the Amazon hustle?
Chicago Tribune
“He is one of those executives who wants to be remembered as being on the right side of history,” said Thomas O’Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Business. “Part of the quid pro quo is there will be none of this stupid gender bathroom stuff. They are going to demand that the city do everything it can to fight voter suppression. They are going to demand high attention paid to meaningful spending on the environment and more efficient greenhouse reductions.”
The Best & Brightest Business Majors – Class of 2018
Poets & Quants
Noted: The “Best and Brightest” piece on the BBA Class of 2018, features Alexis Pae and Bui Tan.
UW-Madison professor receives $425,000 grant to study entrepreneurship on campus
Wisconsin State Journal
What does a community need to foster the type of entrepreneurial environment that will bring jobs and wealth into the region? That’s what a new study will explore, and UW-Madison will be part of it.
New online course aims to guide potential entrepreneurs
Daily Cardinal
Students and community members looking to start their own business can now take an online course from the Wisconsin School of Business to guide their way.
Amazon’s HQ2 Search Is About Politics, Too
Bloomberg
Quoted: “He is one of those executives who wants to be remembered as being on the right side of history,” said Thomas O’Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin school of business. “Part of the quid pro quo is there will be none of this stupid gender bathroom stuff. They are going to demand that the city do everything it can to fight voter suppression. They are going to demand high attention paid to meaningful spending on the environment and more efficient greenhouse reductions.”
These guys think they’ve made the best transit app
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: The co-founders’ first project together was an app for students to more efficiently get around the UW-Madison campus.
WashU, Wisconsin take battle over AbbVie drug patent to court
Chicago Tribune
Washington University in St. Louis is challenging the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which handles licensing for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, citing “shabby treatment” by its former partner. It’s seeking more than $38 million of the royalties the foundation gets from the sale of an AbbVie kidney disease drug.
Weigh if a Part-Time MBA Program Is the Right Fit
US News and World Report
Abrianna Barca, an IT supervisor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, takes classes in the university’s lockstep program two evenings a week. When she graduates in spring 2018, she will have spent three years with her 55-person cohort, including a two-week intensive course in Hong Kong, China and Vietnam.
A Cryptocurrency Course Is Teaching MBAs About Bitcoin, Blockchain, And Ethereum
Business Because
Cryptocurrency courses are coming to the Wisconsin School of Business as schools worldwide catch on to a new intersection of technology and finance.
The US military wants AI to dream up weird new helicopters
MIT Technology Review
Noted: One project selected for funding by DARPA is D-FOCUS, from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PARC, the research company spun out of Xerox.
Tom Still: In Wisconsin’s quest to produce more workers and startups, don’t forget liberal arts
Wisconsin State Journal
What’s missing in the UW-Stevens Point conversation, which has attracted notice nationwide, is an honest assessment of what employers expect from college graduates they hire. Do they want an emphasis on STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering and math — or a liberal arts background that may be more adaptable?
History, culture, research, big business and talk of tariffs for Wisconsin’s cranberry industry
Wisconsin State Journal
Proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imported into the United States has the 28-nation European Union considering retaliatory tariffs on $3.5 billion worth of U.S. goods. … Cranberries, which are extensively studied at UW-Madison and ingrained in our state’s history and culture, have also been targeted.
How to make your cover letter shine
Wisconsin State Journal
Cover letters are powerful tools in your quest for a new job. A good one can get you an interview and make you a top candidate. Even if the position you’re seeking doesn’t require much writing, it’s important to demonstrate your communication skills and tailor your message to both the employer and the job. Here are some tips for crafting a compelling message.
Cryptocurrency on campus: One-credit class expected to launch at UW this upcoming fall
Badger Herald
Along with universities like New York University and Princeton, the University of Wisconsin will launch classes on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to train students in the nascent but potentially transformative industry.
Business schools rethink MBA strategy as market demand shifts
Financial Times
When the London School of Economics launched its department of management, the university’s most senior academic decided not to offer an MBA as the flagship qualification.
Virtual clues
Isthmus
In a recent study, two UW-Madison researchers conducted an experiment having subjects play a virtual reality version of the arcade game Pong. Wearing an Oculus Rift headset, the participants were tasked with whacking a virtual ball with a virtual paddle.
Palmer’s Steakhouse owners working to create $1 million endowment for transplant research
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Their new goal will be no small feat. They are working to create the endowment at UW Health for transplant research, with the help of a $500,000 donation. UW-Madison donors John and Tashia Morgridge will give $500,000 to create an endowment in Tony’s name, but to get the money the Arenas family must match that donation in five years.
Kohler provides $1 million for UW-Madison engineering studio
Milwaukee Business News
Kohler Co. provided $1 million in funding to create the Kohler Innovation Visualization Studio in Wendt Commons at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering. Leaders from the company and college dedicated the space on Thursday.
Say goodbye to UW’s ‘Cards Against Humanity’ — ‘College Cards’ to shut down after threat of legal action
Badger Herald
University has pre-established process for companies wishing to sell UW-branded products.
Cards against Wisconsin? College Cards to shut down production
Daily Cardinal
Students will no longer be able to buy College Cards, a UW-focused version of the game Cards Against Humanity, after the company illegally used the university’s trademark.
Appointments, Resignations, Deaths (2/23/2018)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Noted: Barry Gerhart, acting dean and senior associate dean for faculty and research at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, to interim dean of the school.
Madison community leaders say business models need to be more sustainable
Badger Herald
The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management hosted a lecture Thursday on sustainability-focused business and conservation.
Video gaming offers new, exciting way to educate children, researcher says
Badger Herald
Jim Mathews, educational director of a team of game designers and education researchers at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, gave a speech Monday night on how games can be used to increase empathy, raise awareness on important issues and leverage a child’s learning ability.
The Demise Of The Full-Time MBA
Forbes
Wake Forest halted its two-year full-time program in 2014. In August, the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business announced it was shuttering its full-time MBA program. And in October, the University of Wisconsin—one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious public business schools—suggested it might as well.
Chicago flower delivery startup Flowers for Dreams moves into Milwaukee, just in time for Valentine’s Day
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Steven Dyme, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, started Flowers for Dreams in 2012. It started filling orders in Milwaukee last year and has assembled a small team based here.
Gerhart to continue as Wisconsin School of Business interim dean
Daily Cardinal
Following Anne Massey’s single semester as dean of UW-Madison’s School of Business, Barry Gerhart, senior associate dean for faculty and research, will continue as the school’s interim dean.
Polisis AI Reads Privacy Policies So You Don’t Have To
Wired
Today, researchers at Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan announced the release of Polisis—short for “privacy policy analysis”—a new website and browser extension that uses their machine-learning-trained app to automatically read and make sense of any online service’s privacy policy, so you don’t have to.
Wisconsin company gains federal approval to make a medical isotope that hasn’t been produced in US in 30 years
Wisconsin State Journal
SHINE, an offshoot of UW-Madison research, recently completed the first of several buildings and moved its equipment in last week.
Audit: UW System hasn’t protected computer systems
AP
MADISON — A new state report indicates the University of Wisconsin System hasn’t developed a comprehensive computer security program.
University Research Park wants to add coffee shops, companies and camaraderie
Wisconsin State Journal
Change is afoot at University Research Park — at least, if the park’s leaders and tenants have their way — and it could urbanize the sprawling tech-transfer center into a place where you can buy a cup of coffee, grab lunch or play a game of racquetball.
Here’s a sweet recipe for cheap, green plastic—sugar and corncobs
Science
Plastic has a huge carbon footprint: Producing the petroleum-based material accounts for at least 100 million tons of carbon emissions each year. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison has invented an inexpensive way to make plastic with a much lighter touch, from sugar and corncobs. If it can be made cheaply enough, the material could one day replace one of the world’s most common plastics—polyethylene terephthalate (PET)—found in food packaging, soda bottles, and even polyester fabric.
FluGen to launch new test of its universal flu vaccine in May
Wisconsin State Journal
FluGen, 597 Science Drive, was founded in 2007 based on the research of UW-Madison scientists Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Gabriele Neumann.
Scientists are now rushing to develop a universal flu vaccine
CNBC.com
Noted: A different approach to the universal vaccine is under way at FluGen, a biotech firm in Madison, Wisconsin. Backed by both government and VC funding, the company is working with technology first discovered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Dr. Gabriele Neumann and exclusively licensed to FluGen.
Beer school – and U.S. Brewers Academy – coming to Milwaukee
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Ryder, who teaches fermentation sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wants the class to be geared to “regular people.” Ryder doesn’t imagine he’ll make brewers out of his students. He just wants to round out their knowledge “so they won’t feel intimidated about some of these beers. People don’t know what’s a good beer and what’s a bad beer and why.”
UW-Madison invests in computer science opportunities, department
Daily Cardinal
UW-Madison announced Tuesday that the Computer Science department is slated for review to keep up with demand and continue the growth of the major.
Study: States less likely to take action against failing insurers during election years
The study, conducted by researchers at the Wisconsin School of Business, compared data from about 3,200 firms from 1989 to 2011 with data on the electoral cycles of insurance commissioners—or governors in states where the commissioner is appointed.
Madison company to test universal flu fighting vaccine
WIZM-FM, LaCrosse
In the midst of one of the most severe flu seasons on record, a Madison company prepares to test what might be called a universal flu vaccine.
Maps As Storytelling
Wisconsin Public Radio
A new startup project out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Discovery to Product program sees maps as storytelling. We speak with LifeMapping founder and UW-Madison grad Dean Olsen about how the twists and turns in his own life inspired him to create the software.
Disney makes Madison-based tech company’s dreams come true with new gaming partnership
WISC-TV 3
Ten years ago, a group of University of Wisconsin graduates started the company as a way of putting their computer science degrees to use.
Wisconsin Public TV Show Highlights Jamf, Halmstad
VolumeOne.org
The entrepreneurial success of Zach Halmstad and Jamf Software – and how it has reflected and spurred the revival of downtown Eau Claire – is the subject of a new Wisconsin Public Television documentary, Start Up Wisconsin.
Klement’s Sausage names industry veteran as new CEO
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: “Being a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate and a resident of Wisconsin for most of my life, I understand the passion and dedication that the Klement family and all our current and former employees have shared to make Klement’s one of the leading sausage brands in the U.S.,” Danneker said in the statement. “I look forward to continuing to grow Klement’s strong position in Milwaukee and Wisconsin and to sharing our love of sausage with consumers throughout the country.”
London Beats New York Among Foreign Investors in Real Estate
Bloomberg News
Noted: The survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of last year by the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, at the Wisconsin School of Business.
Madison’s tech economy fares well in nationwide survey
Wisconsin State Journal
Basically, though, keeping the UW-Madison strong is a key element in producing new generations of tech-savvy students and in playing a role in developing new technology, (Jeff) Naughton, the emeritus professor, said.
UW-Madison School of Business Dean to resign, provost says
Wisconsin State Journal
The dean of the UW-Madison School of Business is resigning after just one semester, which included a proposal — since reversed — to end the school’s Masters of Business Administration program.
CEOs’ Risk Jobs if Taxes Differ Too Greatly from Competition
CPA Practice Advisor
Noted: Enacted in 2002 in response to jolting financial scandals at Enron, WorldCom and other major companies, SOX instituted a considerable tightening of federal corporate regulation. In the words of the study, by James A. Chyz of the University of Tennessee and Fabio B. Gaertner of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the “post-SOX period coincided with increased IRS scrutiny of aggressive tax positions and legislation that led to increased regulatory scrutiny over the tax function. Consistent with increased pressures to be less tax-aggressive, we find that being in the lowest quintile of benchmarked tax rates [became] influential in predicting CEO turnover… This is consistent with boards responding to…increase[d] political and reputational costs surrounding tax avoidance.”
D2P Shifts Focus, as Fund for Investing in UW Entrepreneurs Dries Up
Xconomy.com
Since its launch four years ago, a University of Wisconsin-Madison program has been working with students, faculty, and staff at the school to turn their ideas into startup companies.