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Category: Business/Technology

Milwaukee Succeeds initiative names Danae Davis its new leader

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.

UW alumnus Dan Thoma named Grainger Institute director

Madison.com

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.

Cellular Dynamics to be acquired by Fujifilm for $307 million

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.

Cellular Dynamics to be acquired by Fujifilm for $307 million

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.

Indiana University team wins first “Kohls Invitational”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.

The virtual future of internships

The Week

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.

Tammy Baldwin proposes engineering education funding increases

Daily Cardinal

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’

Isthmus

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

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.

Internet Of Things 101: Inside The Latest Trend In Higher Education

Forbes

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

Madison.com

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

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

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

Capital Times

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?

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.”

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.