Noted: A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and UW-Madison’s law school, she worked for the federal government before providing legal counsel to former governor Tony Earl. She has been an executive at Miller Brewing and Kraft Foods and also directed the Department of Employee Relations at the City of Milwaukee.
Category: Business/Technology
The Story Behind Cellular Dynamics’ Sale to Fujifilm
Last week, Cellular Dynamics International CEO Bob Palay described the $307 million acquisition of his company by Fujifilm as a union of two businesses that “share a common strategic vision for achieving leadership in the field of regenerative medicine.”
?/?-Peptides Could Offer Low-Cost Alternative To Antibody Drugs
UW–Madison chemistry professor Samuel H. Gellman, engineering professor William L. Murphy and bacteriology professor Katrina T. Forest have created and tested amino acids that could serve as cheaper, longer-lasting substitutes for antibodies in drugs (like some cancer treatments) that target large proteins in the body.
UW alumnus Dan Thoma named Grainger Institute director
Dan Thoma, who earned a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering in 1992 from UW-Madison, will become director of the Grainger Institute in June, the university said Monday. The institute, funded in 2014 with $25 million from the Grainger Foundation in Illinois, is an incubator for transdisciplinary research in the UW-Madison College of Engineering.
The Real Science Behind The Crazy Night Vision Eyedrops
Quoted: James Ver Hoeve, a scientist with University of Wisconsin’s ophthalmology department put it more bluntly in an email: “administering drops is not a particularly effective way to get drugs to the retina.”
Engineers buttress Wisconsin industries
Quoted, in a story on the importance of engineering jobs and education, John Archambault, assistant dean for engineering student development at the UW-Madison College of Engineering: “It’s really about wanting to help people. It’s a helping profession.”
UW-Madison surveys grads about their business start-ups
In an effort to better understand its entrepreneurial graduates, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has sent a survey to nearly 300,000 alumni.
Cellular Dynamics to be acquired by Fujifilm for $307 million
Noted: The company was co-founded in 2004 by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist James Thomson, who is viewed as one of the most influential stem cell scientists in the world. It became a publicly traded company in 2013 and is at the forefront of an area known as regenerative medicine, which uses our own cells, tissues and organs to promote healing.
Japan’s Fujifilm to buy Madison stem cell company Cellular Dynamics for $307 million
Noted: Cellular Dynamics was founded by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson in 2004.
UW alums technology firm SnowShoe makes tracks to angel investors
Just a few years ago, Claus Moberg and Jami Morton were graduate students studying air pollution at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Cellular Dynamics to be acquired by Fujifilm for $307 million
Cellular Dynamics International Inc. said Monday it has agreed to be acquired by Fujifilm Holdings Corp., Tokyo, for $16.50 a share or about $307 million. Madison-based CDI uses the cell-reprogramming techniques of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist James Thomson to manufacture large quantities of human cells.
Madison startup wants to help millennials unplug — starting with summer camp
A native of New Berlin and a University of Wisconsin-Madison grad, Bown came up with the idea for Unplugged Events last summer during an outdoor-based leadership training session in California’s redwood forest.
Indiana University team wins first “Kohls Invitational”
Noted: The student teams arrived in Milwaukee on Tuesday and presented their proposals to Kohls executives at the corporate headquarters in Menomonee Falls on Wednesday. Besides Indiana, students came from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Penn State University, Texas State University, the University of Arizona, Florida State University, Iowa State University, Michigan State University, Northern Illinois University, San Diego State University, Virginia Tech and Washington State University.
Meet the “Thumbs” of UW
Nate Moll has the capability to reach thousands, perhaps millions, all over the world. All it takes is less than 140 characters and the click of a button. He’s the social media specialist at University Wisconsin-Madison.
HJ Heinz buying Oscar Mayer-parent Kraft Foods in deal to create food giant
Noted: This type of merger is not a big surprise, said Hart Posen, associate professor of management at the UW-Madison School of Business. “It reflects, in part, the need for bigger scale in this industry,” he said.
The virtual future of internships
As Assay Depot is proving that virtual internships aren’t just for PR companies looking for someone to run their social media, Professor David Williamson Shaffer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is preparing to launch the next generation of virtual internship. Shaffer, the director of the Games and Professional Simulations research group in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, is working on creating simulated internships that will allow companies to train would-be interns in the exact skills they’re looking for before they ever start a real internship, and to track the skill acquisition of interns as they progress through the program.
Tom Still: Keeping the pipeline filled with engineers essential for Wisconsin business
At the UW-Madison College of Engineering, the state’s largest engineering school, the past few years have seen a dramatic rise in the number of engineering students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. There were about 4,850 students enrolled in the fall of 2014, which exceeded what the college predicted for the fall of 2015.
Start-up OnKöl gets boost from clever technology, personal connections
Noted: Marc Cayles educational background is hardly one youd associate with tech start-ups. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he majored in rural sociology.
Tammy Baldwin proposes engineering education funding increases
Quoted: an Robertson, dean of UW-Madison’s College of Engineering, supported the bill in a letter to Baldwin’s office. “We at UW-Madison, College of Engineering, have remained international leaders in advanced manufacturing research and have recently launched initiatives in this research area,” Robertson wrote. “This bill provides important new incentives that could allow us to expand and strengthen those initiatives for our students and industry partners.”
A ‘technology sandbox’
What is the Internet of Things? If you have a “smart” thermostat made by Nest, you’re already part of it. The Internet of Things IoT connects uniquely identifiable devices to the Internet. A networked smart appliance can text you if things are out of the ordinary, track usage and accept programming changes sent from a smartphone. Leveraging new tools that live on the Internet, objects that had seemed fixed in form are being reimagined all around us.
Madison app developer Fetch Rewards receives state loan
Noted: Fetch was founded in 2013 by Wes Schroll, who was a University of Wisconsin-Madison student at the time. The company says its app provides benefits to three parties: Shoppers gets coupons, award points and expedited check-out; grocers get greater shopper loyalty and engagement; and consumer brands get the ability to deliver coupons to shoppers in the aisle at the point of decision.
Bill in Congress would establish manufacturing universities
Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison is among 20 universities on record as supporting the bill. Being listed as a supporter doesn’t mean UW-Madison automatically would be among the 25 manufacturing universities, according to Baldwin.
Businesses cash in on Badger fever
From t-shirt sellers, to bakers, to local drink makers, businesses are cashing in on March Madness.
Tech and Biotech: Madison Vaccines adds muscle to its fight against prostate cancer; bb7 boasts a honey of a brew
MVI-816 is aimed at men who have been treated for prostate cancer and show a high risk that it will spread. The trial is underway at UW-Madison; now, The Johns Hopkins University and the University of California-San Francisco will participate, too.
INSITE center helps students maximize their chances of starting business
University of Wisconsin students hoping to develop entrepreneurial skills can look to a center on campus that seeks to boost innovations from students.
UW cultivates nations future farmers
Amid a statewide decline of dairy farms, the University of Wisconsin is aiming to provide programs to assist young and aspiring farmers.
Madison health IT start-up, HealthMyne, draws investors
Established in early 2013, several of HealthMyne’s cofounders are serial entrepreneurs, well-known in Madison. Thomas “Rock” Mackie is director of medical engineering at the UW-Madison’s Morgridge Institute for Research. He was a cofounder of TomoTherapy, whose radiation machines are used to treat cancer and are now part of California-based Accuray.
Career Corner: Parents influential in children’s career choices
Career Corner is a monthly column written by staff members of the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies.
Fostering entrepreneurship at the UW-Madison: Executive Q&A|John Surdyk
When it comes to entrepreneurship at the UW-Madison, John Surdyk is smack-dab in the middle of the action, right where the ideas start.
Wisconsin Brewing Co. to produce UW student-created amber lager
An amber lager, created by a trio of UW-Madison students on a pilot brewing system in the Department of Food Science and the Center for Dairy Research, was selected Thursday as the winning brew in a competition to have a beer from the university commercially produced and distributed statewide by Wisconsin Brewing Co. in Verona.
Scott Walker wants to end funding for renewable energy program
In an about-face from his first term, Gov. Scott Walker wants to eliminate funding for a University of Wisconsin-Madison renewable energy research center that has played a key role in helping land one of its biggest government grants ever.
Angel investors criticized for hampering deals by protecting themselves
Noted: Taffora made his comments during a panel discussion about entrepreneurship sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madisons business school. They were part of a free-ranging discussion of the state of entrepreneurship in Wisconsin.
Colleges Move to Software-Defined Data Centers
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison UW-Madison, the university has become a part of a National Science Foundation program, called CloudLab, to create three testbeds for SDDCs.
WEDC to provide $9M in tax credits to Exact Sciences
Noted: Conroy said about 50 percent of Exact’s scientists and lab workers are graduates of UW-Madison.
Right-to-work effort winds around Great Lakes into Wisconsin
Quoted: “In some ways its the end of a very long decline of the strength of unions and a weakening of protections both at the federal and state level for unions,” said William P. Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison history professor.
Public’s voice missing in Legislatures rush to cut UW System budget
In the few weeks since it became public, Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System budget has produced three schools of thought within the state’s business community.
UW-Madison IoT Lab Honing its Role Amid Campus Entrepreneurship Push
When a small group of University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and staff launched a campus lab for developing connected devices just over a year ago, they weren’t sure what kind of response they’d get.
UW graduate students push for more women in computer programming
There are games for just about everyone nowadays, but according to the International Game Developers Association, less than a quarter of game developers are women.
Jean Gendreau: UW already serves workforce in Wisconsin — and the world
Saying that the university’s mission should be to serve Wisconsin’s workforce isn’t needed — the university already serves the state’s workforce. Anything less means crippling Wisconsin’s economy. To survive, Wisconsin manufacturers have to compete successfully in the global economy.
Tom Kaminski: Tech colleges, universities foster economic growth
As an engineering graduate student at the UW-Madison College of Engineering, I saw firsthand the depth and reach of university research. As a member of a high-tech startup responsible for recruiting talent, I hired a number of excellent UW graduates, attracted back from high-tech companies on the coasts, to the economic benefit of Wisconsin.
Internet Of Things 101: Inside The Latest Trend In Higher Education
For years, experts have predicted that the Internet of Things IoT will transform the way we live our lives. At CES 2015 President and CEO of Samsung Electronics, BK Yoon, declared that IoT is now a reality: “It’s not science fiction anymore. It is science fact.” And the classroom is one area where this new reality is taking shape. Take a look at how The University of Wisconsin-Madison is pioneering IoT in education with their Internet of Things Lab.
On Campus: For MBAs, UW-Madison taking care of business
UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank has not been shy making an argument about the university’s professional schools that boils down to this: they offer too much bang for too little tuition buck. A new report suggests that the basic storyline holds true at the business school. Among masters of business administration graduates, Wisconsin students come out making an average of about $109,000 annually, a similar but slightly lower haul as peers at more fancy schools.
Conroy: Cuts to UW System could seriously hurt state’s economic growth
Wisconsin is in a fight to create good-paying jobs for the 21st century economy. Wisconsin’s trend of declining household incomes only will be offset if we can generate new, good-paying jobs and stop the exodus of college graduates to other states. The recent proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System’s budget, in the absence of a concrete plan to ensure that our standards of excellence remain intact, will strike a blow to a key source of potential economic growth and undercut a major opportunity to translate the system’s scientific research into new, high-growth companies and jobs.
Cuts to UW System could seriously hurt state’s economic growth
Wisconsin is in a fight to create good-paying jobs for the 21st century economy. Wisconsin’s trend of declining household incomes only will be offset if we can generate new, good-paying jobs and stop the exodus of college graduates to other states. The recent proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System’s budget, in the absence of a concrete plan to ensure that our standards of excellence remain intact, will strike a blow to a key source of potential economic growth and undercut a major opportunity to translate the system’s scientific research into new, high-growth companies and jobs.
Courtney Berner: Anti-government attitude offensive to state newcomers
The day after Gov. Scott Walker released his budget, I attended a forum on entrepreneurship hosted by the UW-Madison Business School where Lt. Gov. Kleefisch spoke. During her talk she shared a famous Reagan joke: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ’I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” The room went silent. Kleefisch chuckled, “I didn’t get a single laugh!” Did it occur to her that no one laughed because many of us felt personally insulted?
Timothy Shaw: Purpose of education is more than getting a job
We need a free-thinking University of Wisconsin now more than ever. What transpires in the next few months between our state Capitol and UW, just 2,000 human paces apart, may determine our “human condition” the next 2,000 years.
Randy O’Connell: Proposed cuts to UW warrant stiff resistance
Dear Editor: Why would anyone want to destroy a $15 billion economic engine for the state? That is an absolutely great return on a $1.2 billion investment as a state we make.
Murfie, UW grads’ business, builds ‘future for media ownership’
A hybrid between Spotify and iTunes, Murfie, a company created by three University of Wisconsin graduates, allows people to build “media ownership in the cloud.”
The possibilities of 3D printing
New technology is leading us to be able to print a tangible 3D object. The process of 3D printing has infiltrated its way into the Madison area more and more, proving to make life easier for some.
UW-Madison students use website to battle ‘fear of missing out’
As a busy college campus in an urban area, something is always taking place at and around UW-Madison. In response, students have banded together to create a website to help fellow UW-Madison community members never miss another important event.
One School’s High-tech Effort to Stop Hackers
The University of Wisconsin says planning and vigilance are the only ways to stay one step ahead of an attack
Madison first in U.S. metropolitan areas for STEM graduates
The Madison metro area ranked first in the nation for having the highest percentage of graduates in STEM fields.
UW-Madison Promotes Degree Options
UW-Madison unveiled a one-stop website Thursday, promoting the schools flexible and online degree programs.
Don’t cut research in a knowledge economy, tech chiefs say
Carl Gulbrandsen, whose job is to convert research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison into commercial businesses, needed less than a nanosecond Thursday to begin itemizing specific ways the school has enhanced the states economy.
Exact Sciences Laboratory gaining success and recognition in Madison
Exact Sciences is giving credit to University of Wisconsin graduates and Madison locals who are now employed there for the company’s recent expansion and success.
UWPD keeps tabs on Yik Yak use on campus for crime investigations
Currently being said around UW-Madison via the anonymous app “Yik Yak:” “Dear Gordon’s. I ordered my food two hours ago. Wtf,” “So much guac and no one to share it with…,” and “With the anonymity of this app I expected a lot more weirdos on here but…Nope, just me.”
Tech leaders say Madison shouldn’t be Silicon Valley, but it can grow
Conroy said even though the UW-Madison spends nearly $1.2 billion a year in research funding, the UW is at the bottom of the Big Ten schools in terms of research sponsored by corporations. That makes it very difficult to conduct clinical trials of potential drugs and medical devices, said Conroy. He said it can take nine months to go through a review by a UW panel to allow a clinical trial while the “Mayo Clinic can get it done in two months.”
WARF a world leader in issued patents
The private, non-profit foundation, entrusted with managing the lion’s share of UW-Madison’s intellectual property portfolio, is ranked sixth in the world in patents obtained for new technologies, with 160 patents issued to WARF in 2013.
Wisconsin Expands BBA Nearly 40%
The decision to expand massively the bachelor of business administration program at the Wisconsin School of Business came down to institutional duty, recruiter demand, and simple math. WSB, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was turning down hundreds of applicants to its BBA program every year.
UW-Madison ranks sixth in patents issued
With 160 patents issued, the University of Wisconsin-Madison ranked sixth among 100 universities surveyed around the world in 2013, according to a news release from the school on Thursday.