For the third time in five years, a team of UW-Madison accounting students has won a national case competition.
The UW team won the PricewaterhouseCoopers xTAX competition in Washington, D.C. Each student won more than $3,000 and a small silver Tiffany and Co. bowl.
The competition involved teams offering the best solution to a real-world tax policy problem.
TomoTherapy – considered one of Madison’s shining stars in the new tech economy – could also shine on Wall Street, experts said Monday, after the company filed papers seeking to raise up to $201 million in a public stock offering.
MADISON, Wis. – TomoTherapy Inc., which makes radiation equipment used in treating cancer, filed papers Monday seeking to raise as much as $201 million in an initial public offering of its stock.
Following the most successful season in UW-Madison football history, the UW System Board of Regents approved an amended contract for head coach Bret Bielema Friday.
THE ONLY real surprise in this week’s announcement that the UW-Madison Center for Real Estate will be renamed in honor of the late James Graaskamp is that it took this long for it to happen.
….Graaskamp’s students revered him. Time and again I come across news accounts of projects all over the country in which the developer lists Graaskamp as a mentor.
Wisconsin hospitals are preparing to fight a new tax that Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to unveil on Tuesday when he releases his new two-year budget.
The tax would be used to pay for health care costs and other expenses, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal reported in Friday’s editions. Doyle spokesman Matt Canter said Friday he could not confirm that the tax would be proposed in the governor’s budget, but that all sources of federal money were being looked at.
An oft-heard complaint about UW-Madison, justified or otherwise, is that its academic and research fruit falls close to the tree. It has world-class scientists and well-developed mechanisms for turning their best ideas into products or services, but most of that commercialization takes place within a half-hour drive from campus.
It is said that a black panther is able to hunt and kill animals up to 15 times its weight. Conversely, an animal found on the other side of the globe, the timid badger, does not usually seek to attack, but its great muscular power and tough hide render it a formidable opponent.
Faced with these facts, the UW-Milwaukee Panthers should make veritable colleagues for the UW-Madison Badgers in the future, as UW-Milwaukee grows into Wisconsin�s second major research university. The universities� chancellors and state representatives concur.
Several graduate students from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture presented their ââ?¬Å?greenââ?¬Â plans for renovations to UW-Madisonââ?¬â?¢s School of Human Ecology building Wednesday.
Employers can substantially help lower-paid workers by helping them do their taxes, according to new research that has prompted a pilot program in Madison.
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is trying out the idea, which came from John Hoffmire, director of the Center on Business and Poverty at the University Innovation Center.
Aruna Biomedical, a Georgia-based maker of neural stem cell kits for researchers, will relocate to Wisconsin if it can raise sufficient amounts of angel capital, the Wisconsin Technology Network reported.
….Aruna is a licensee of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for its human embryonic stem cell technology, and (management team member Jim) Stice told WTN the company would like to relocate to Wisconsin to take advantage of stem cell research synergies offered by the UW.
Economic development in south central Wisconsin is getting a multi-million dollar shot in the arm.
The Capital Region Collaboration Council, a group of volunteer leaders from business, government, education and nonprofit organizations, surpassed its goal of $2.4 million in contributions by raising $2.6 million to be used for improving the economic quality of life in the region.
Madison, Wis. – Wisconsin officials and investors who are trying to come up with the financing that will enable a Georgia life science firm to relocate here have a fight on their hands.
The state Legislature should quickly approve Gov. Jim Doyle’s request to expand tax credits for angel investors.
Public schools are gaining ground as CEO factories. Here’s a trend sure to humble private-school alumni clubs everywhere: The University of Wisconsin churns out more big-time CEOs than Yale.
As a physician and researcher who specializes in alcohol problems, I’d like to inject some science and logic into the discussion on the downtown alcohol density plan.
It’s a fact that most downtown crime, violence and disturbances involve alcohol. It’s a fact that numerous scientific studies show that neighborhoods with high alcohol outlet density have higher rates of crime, violence and disturbances than those with low density.
….Let’s opt for some medicine now while our disease is treatable. Let’s not wait till downtown hits bottom, when urban fright, flight and blight become a vicious circle.
Richard L. Brown, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
After fundraising and gathering support since the late 1990s, Chazen Museum supporters received their first glimpse Thursday night of a 62,000-square foot expansion project.
Already achieving an international reputation for extensive and groundbreaking scientific research, the University of Wisconsin decided to take further strides last year by approving a multi-million dollar project to build a new research facility on University Avenue.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board Finance Committee proposed raising season football ticket prices for 2007 Tuesday.
State Sen. Ted Kanavas unveiled a new batch of economic development incentives last week that included tax credits for investors in start-up companies and in companies springing from nanotechnology research in the Chippewa Valley. Noticeably absent: the Biomedical Technology Alliance.
The alliance, a consortium of five universities, has been a catalyst for collaborative research since it was launched more than two years ago, and Kanavas (R-Brookfield) has been a key supporter in the past.
Are you looking for a new genetically engineered mouse? Maybe you are seeking a new imaging technique to detect heart disease.
Entrepreneurs or large companies seeking inventions to drive the next blockbuster product and scientists seeking to advance their research have a new way to discover these and other intriguing technologies.
An offshoot of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation on Tuesday unveiled a revamped version of its iBridge project. At the heart of the initiative is a Web site, www.ibridgenetwork.org, that provides searchable and clear descriptions of university innovations and how they can be used to advance other research or develop commercial products.
The Regent Street-South Campus area is settled by both student and non-student residents. City officials and residents discussed future plans for the uniquely-arranged neighborhood Monday night.
Meriggioli is on the board of directors of United Way and Second Harvest and on the advisory board for the UW-Madison School of Business Center for Brand and Product Management.
Molly Jahn, dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UW-Madison, was on hand at the Jan. 10 meeting of the board of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). Her task was to discuss agricultural issues and the future direction of CALS.
DATCP Secretary Rod Nilsestuen introduced the new dean to the board, noting “she brings a lot of scientific muscle to the job.”Although she’s only been at her job for the past five and one-half months, Jahn’s made it a priority to get out in the state and has shown up at most UW campuses across the state.
Embryonic stem cell research should advance a bit more freely because of policy changes announced this week by a major patent holder in this area, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). The move could clearly benefit biotech companies and possibly negate for now some criticism that the organization has endured.
“It creates a little more comfort in academic research institutions,” explained Tom Quinlan, an attorney in the San Francisco office of Reed Smith LLP. He added that the new guidelines would provide “an increased opportunity to get research going or continue.” It also would delay questions on “whether the WARF patents are going to continue to be challenged or should have been issued in the first place,” he added.
Gov. Jim Doyle is putting $30 million in his budget to help get all health care providers in the state to switch from paper to electronic medical record keeping systems.
The initiative would “reduce the cost and improve the quality of health care in Wisconsin,” Doyle said at a news conference this morning at Dean Health System’s East Clinic.
Doyle said health information now is often incomplete and filled with errors, which compromises patient health. He cited statistics from the U.S. Institute of Medicine that found that up to 98,000 people in the United States die annually from medical errors.
Ever get bugged during dinner by those earnest students shilling for their university’s endowment fund?
Feel free to use my excellent line: “Sorry, love to help you. But I’m still waiting for my college education to pay off.”
Heh, heh.
The Wisconsin foundation that holds patents covering U.S. embryonic stem cell research will waive some of its fees to encourage more industry-sponsored research.
The changes follow criticism from scientists who said the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s fees and its licensing system were driving some investment overseas.
Scientists around the country hailed the policy changes, which will let researchers share their cells for free and allow companies to sponsor research at universities without having to obtain licenses that cost up to $400,000.
Madison, Wis. – In a move that could bring additional investment partners to Wisconsin deals, Venture Investors of Madison will open an office in Ann Arbor, Mich. after receiving money from a Michigan venture fund.
The Madison venture capital firm, which recently moved into a larger space in the MGE Innovation Center in University Research Park, was one of three venture firms selected to receive funding through a competitive bidding process conducted by Venture Michigan Fund I. The three firms, which also include Arboretum Partners of Ann Arbor and Nth Power of San Francisco, will receive investment commitments of $95 million over the next three years.
One of America’s most acclaimed architectural firms – Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston – has been chosen by the state of Wisconsin to design the expansion to the Chazen Museum of Art at 800 University Ave.
The award-winning firm, which has designed many museums, will work on the 62,000-square-foot project in association with Milwaukee-based Continuum Architects and Planners.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundationââ?¬â?UW-Madisonââ?¬â?¢s fundraising armââ?¬â?is loosening its policies in hopes of increasing stem cell research opportunities and funding, foundation officials announced Tuesday.
Plans for a massive University of Wisconsin research facility progressed Tuesday as officials named the building�s construction firm.
Stem-cell companies can now sponsor research using Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation-patented technology at an academic or nonprofit institution without obtaining a license from the foundation after three major policy changes Tuesday.
Reciprocity between Wisconsin and Minnesota state universities has been around for decades ââ?¬â? but it may soon come to an end.
“We’ve had tremendous success, especially with companies spun out of the nation’s fourth largest research institution (UW-Madison),” Neis said. The University of Michigan is the nation’s third largest research institution, he said, calling it “fertile territory.”
The Corporation for Enterprise Development’s conclusions are also a good argument for continued emphasis on university research – at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Medical College of Wisconsin – and for mining that research for start-up companies. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in Madison, long a licensing powerhouse, is paying more attention to spinning out start-ups. And that’s a good thing.
Scott Converse, director of technology programs for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is part information technologist, part futurist, and part ââ?¬Å?anti-change agent,ââ?¬Â as he demonstrates in Part II of this interview. In Part I, he addressed information technology workforce development issues. In Part II (below), he addresses creating a culture of innovation and finding IT talent.
Burying a portion of a controversial proposed power line along the Beltline more than doubles the cost of the project, American Transmission Co. said today.
ATC said its yearlong analysis of burying portions of its proposed Rockdale-West Middleton line determined that underground construction adds between $9 million and $15 million per mile to the cost compared with overhead lines.
Opponents of stem cell patent and licensing practices by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation praised changes in procedures announced by WARF on Monday, but said that more review and change is needed.
WARF, which holds the basic patents on UW scientist’s James Thomson’s method of isolating and defining human embryonic stem cells, said it was changing policies to increase access and make it easier to move technology forward. But a legal challenge and much criticism preceded the changes.
The new policies will enable companies to sponsor research at an academic or nonprofit institution without a license, regardless of location and regardless of intellectual property rights passing from the research institution to the company.
UW-Madison�s on-campus gallery, The Chazen Museum of Art, announced Monday the team of architects chosen by the state who will design a 62,000 square foot expansion plan, funded by a $20 million gift from the Chazen family in May 2005.
Licenses and fees of up to $400,000 will be waived for non-commercial stem-cell research, UW-Madison’s tech transfer organization said Monday in a move welcomed by researchers who had complained the cost impeded their work.
California’s voter-approved stem cell research institute cleared a roadblock Monday when a University of Wisconsin alumni group said it would not seek to collect licensing fees on discoveries made with institute grants.
Proposition 71, passed in 2004, created the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and all but promised taxpayers royalties in return for approving $3 billion in bonds for research. A move to collect fees out of any royalties would likely have led to a court battle.
Madison, Wis. – With its first ââ?¬Å?accelerator buildingââ?¬Â fully committed, University Research Park in Madison will break ground this spring on a new, 50,000 square foot Accelerator 2 facility.
The foundation that manages the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s patents on groundbreaking discoveries on embryonic stem cells is backing away from many of the aggressive licensing demands it had been making on academic scientists.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which had angered many scientists with its tactics (The Chronicle, September 15, 2006), said it hoped three changes, announced late Monday, would improve the climate for embryonic-stem-cell research in the United States.
The University of Wisconsin has reaped $850 million from technology transfer successes over the years. A large portion of that came after one of its leading scientists, Harry Steenbock, discovered a way to add vitamin D to food in the 1920s.
Panelists include Tom Eggert, an adjunct professor at the UW-Madison School of Business; John Neis, managing director and founder of Venture Investors of Wisconsin; Mohan Warrior, chief executive of Araflight; and Toni Sikes, founder and chief executive of The Guild.
State officials have shelved a controversial plan to lease broadcast frequencies potentially worth up to $100 million to private telecommunications companies.
The state Educational Communications Board (ECB) announced on Friday that it was canceling a request for bids to lease the 33 educational broadband service frequencies owned by the state.
ECB officials said that while the bidding process was completely legal, they wanted to restart the process with more public input and full consideration by the ECB’s board of directors.
Young Wisconsin companies pulled in just a sliver of the reported $25.75 billion of venture investments made in U.S. companies in 2006.
Wisconsin companies raised $58.47 million of venture funding – about 5% more than in 2005 – in 12 deals last year, according to figures that will be released today by Ernst & Young LLP and Dow Jones VentureOne.
Editor’s note: As the director of technology programs for the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, Scott Converse is at the forefront of trends in information technology workforce development. In part one of this interview, he talks about the market need for courses that help IT professionals in their progression from technologist to manager or CIO. Look for part two next week.
It is the surest way to see the results of our labor. That’s why in this special issue we celebrate organizations, individuals, and one scientific breakthrough, all of which embody the very best of Madison business – its progressive and productive climate, and its thoughtful and visionary leadership.
In 2006, Gov. Jim Doyle helped authorize $50 million in state funding for the University of Wisconsin’s planned Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. This funding by our state taxpayers was in part to further jump-start Wisconsin’s still fledgling stem cell research and development initiative.
During this same period Doyle also funded a $5 million plan to recruit and retain stem cell companies. Some $3 million has gone into Dr. James Thomson’s two companies Cellular Dynamics Inc. and Stem Cell Products Inc.
Steps were also taken to waive the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s royalty fees for companies that conduct stem cell research in Wisconsin.
All of this funding, mind you, without establishing any terms whatsoever for obtaining any returns on the taxpayers’ investment…..
UW-Madison scientist and entrepreneur James Thomson believes it may be decades before stem cells produce treatments that cure diabetes, Parkinsons disease or help the paralyzed walk again.
But these basic building blocks of life are already changing how research is conducted in thousands of labs around the globe and may soon lead to the creation of new medical products, Thomson said during a Madison Magazine Best of Madison Business luncheon at the Monona Terrace Convention Center.
State officials have announced a new initiative that would reward innovative ideas tailored to the needs of specific Wisconsin companies.
Under the Wisconsin Idea-Link program, the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network – through funding from the state Department of Commerce – would provide competitive grants of up to $10,000 for evaluation and marketing costs for a maximum of 10 projects. Companies would provide additional prize money as incentive for entrepreneurs and others to develop solutions to specific challenges.
Debra Malewicki, WEN interim director, said Wisconsin Idea-Link is an attempt to draw large corporations into WEN activities.
Quoted: Willie Ney, director of the UW Multicultural Arts Initiative.
Is the state about to auction off surplus educational digital broadband frequencies – which could be worth millions to telecommunications companies – at bargain-basement prices?
That’s how some critics see a move by the state Educational Communications Board to seek bids from private firms on more than 30 educational broadband frequencies the state now holds.
Former Dane County Executive and UW Regent Jonathan Barry and his business partner, telecommunications consultant Ralph Evans, have filed a formal protest to the bidding process and are seeking to halt the deal.
Dear Editor:
….The students are a valuable and core part of our community, but they are no longer the only valuable part of the spectrum as far as life downtown. Those “glistening condominiums” are filled with people who have made an investment in Madison – an emotional investment as well as an economic one that strengthens our tax base.
….Capping the number of liquor licenses is not, as Austin King suggested in the Times, a return to Prohibition. It’s a matter of common sense that hundreds of other cities have already implemented.
The state is looking for a cleaner and more efficient power source than its coal-burning power plant in downtown Madison.
The state Department of Administration announced Thursday that it was launching a study to review the performance of the Capitol Heat and Power facility at 624 E. Main and look at alternatives. The aging facility is owned by the state and provides heating and cooling for state, city and county offices around the Capitol Square.
The Sierra Club, which in recent years has urged the state, Madison Gas & Electric and the University of Wisconsin-Madison to cease burning coal at its power plants, commended the state on its move.
Technical advancements in placing extended portions of the transmission lines underground has prompted the city of Madison to formally request the American Transmission Co. to consider burying portions of a power line proposed along the Beltline if the project’s need is demonstrated.
….”There’s nothing special about the Beltline that would warrant it … Undergrounding doesn’t work well as well from a technical viewpoint, it costs too much and it creates a precedent for it if we do it along the Beltline,” (ATC vice president Mark) Williamson said.
….”The Beltline is a huge, ugly highway … I drive it every day. It’s not a view worth saving,” he said.
State officials said Wednesday that they’ll evaluate the state’s power plant on Madison’s Near East Side for ways to produce steam and electricity more cleanly and efficiently, including upgrading the plant or building a new one.
The move comes a month after the announcement of an environmental lawsuit against the state for alleged violations at the plant.
