Category: Business/Technology

Campus entrepreneurism: A decade ago, it was difficult to find organized entrepreneurial education programs on Wisconsin campuses, the exceptions being the Weinert Center of Entrepreneurship at UW-Madison and the Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship at Marquette University.

A new program to help prepare women and minorities start their own businesses is being offered by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the UW-Madison Small Business Development Center

As debate about the monitoring of online activities continues in the public sphere, a review of the University of Wisconsin?s information system privacy policies found administrators can only access student email after a written request is approved.

With backing from UW-Madison, Terry Sivesind and Toni Sikes created MERLIN (Madison Entrepreneur Resource, Learning and Innovation Network) Mentors.

While Wisconsin continues to lag in the creation of net new companies, directions in sectors that are sources of young, high-growth companies promise to help over time. Here are 10 trends shaping the future of Wisconsin?s tech-based economy.

University Research Park associate director Greg Hyer has been named interim director of the West Side business complex, following the retirement of Mark Bugher.

After hearing about an employer asking a college student to share access to personal social media accounts while applying for a job, Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, authored a bill to provide privacy to young people, which could reach the Senate after Tuesday?s session.

Noted: CDI was founded in 2004 by Thomson, who is also a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.

Noted: It took three years (“you can?t rush a good thing”), but with help from the Dairy Business Innovation Center and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Williams and Shaw managed to reproduce the once-popular cheese.

When Great Oaks Venture Capital decided to expand its reach and build digital start-up companies in Wisconsin, it didn?t take long for the New York firm to figure out where to begin: Madison. Andy Boszhardt Jr. and John Philosophos, two University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni, turned to their alma mater?s highly regarded computer science department to collaborate on a venture that invests in and supports technology companies launched by student entrepreneurs.

A few weeks into the fall semester, Bruce Maas, chief information officer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, received an e-mail from his chancellor: A junior living in campus housing was frustrated with the wireless network, which he said often left him unable to connect to the Internet. Mr. Maas, who describes the university?s wireless capacity as “very robust,” asked his networking staff to investigate.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation on archiving commemorative African fabrics, through the course of which I learned about the University of Wisconsin?s Digital Collections Center. As a historian-in-training and digital archive enthusiast, I became immediately intrigued by all the resources and projects described by Melissa McLimans, a digital librarian who works with the Center and helped digitally archive the fabric. After the talk, I decided to reach out to Melissa via e-mail to learn more about the UW Digital Collections Center. I also spoke with the Center?s resident audio expert, Steven Dast. I do work for the Oral History Review, after all.

4490 Ventures will invest in early-stage information technology companies, mostly in Wisconsin. It is being organized by the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Noted: CDI was founded in 2004 by Dr. James Thomson, a pioneer in human pluripotent stem cell research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

GenCell USA moved into its 1,000-square-foot suite at University Research Park?s Innovation Center a few months ago, Roeven said

Lynne M. Thomas, curator of rare books and special collections at Northern Illinois University Libraries, used to maintain two work-related Facebook pages and a blog. This past summer, she put them on hiatus?and took to social media to explain why.

Founded in 2008 based on UW-Madison research, NeuWave?s minimally invasive Certus 140 thermal ablation system attacks cancerous lung, liver or kidney tumors with microwave energy.

Noted: Helping to educate cheesemakers about Hispanic cheeses is the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Researchs Luis Jimenez-Maroto, a native of Mexico City.

Noted: The University of Wisconsin at Madison, for example, has been doing flipped classroom teaching for almost a decade, combining online content with active learning in the classroom. They have demonstrated significant success in reducing the student failure rate in introductory engineering courses.

UW-Madison grad Tom Werner is returning to his college roots this weekend with a dual purpose: to see the Badgers win a football game and dispel some myths about solar energy.