Undergraduate student inventor–entrepreneur Joseph Linzon pitches "PowerSole" at the University of Virginia's 2011 Entrepreneurship Cup. Photo by Cole Geddy.
Rising second-year Joseph Linzon, of Toronto — whom you may recognize as the “face of U.Va. Innovation,” above — has been named to Canada’s “Top 20 Under 20.” The annual program recognizes Canadian youth whose “leadership and innovation has led to the betterment of [their] school, community, province and/or country.”
Inventor of the PowerSole, a shoe that converts kinetic energy into electrical energy with each step its wearer takes, Linzon is seeking to “empower the powerless” in developing countries. The PowerSole concept came in second overall in last year’s U.Va. Entrepreneurship Cup, for which Linzon was awarded $10,000. [Read the full story.]
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June 13, 2012 | 9:46 am
Tobias A. Dengel, CEO of WillowTree Apps Inc., discusses the future of mobile technology. Image credit: CNBC.
Charlottesville-based app developer WillowTree Apps Inc. was featured on CNBC this week when CEO Tobias A. Dengel gave his take on the future of mobile tech outside Apple’s 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. [Watch the video clip here.]
The company has built more than 100 apps for iPhone and iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry and Web, including “The Good Old App,” U.Va.’s official mobile application and Apple’s #1 “New and Noteworthy” education app. Among the free app’s lead features are interactive maps that allow users to search for and identify buildings on Grounds using GPS as well as push notifications for U.Va. athletics scores. [Download "The Good Old App" on iTunes and Android Market.]
Dengel, a former vice president at AOL, says WillowTree’s relationship with U.Va. extends far beyond the typical client–provider relationship. “Through our relationship with U.Va. and Darden we’ve been able to build a local tech business, have hired over 10 recent U.Va. grads, [and] have had over 15 U.Va. interns, all of which makes Charlottesville, U.Va. and WillowTree better.
“To us, this shows that U.Va. and Charlottesville can successfully take a page out of what Stanford, Harvard and others have been doing for years, and how U.Va. and Darden will hopefully continue to place a great premium on sourcing technology locally.”
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May 10, 2012 | 10:21 am
U.Va. Innovation invites you to attend the May installment of our Innovation Roundtable series, Innovation Initiatives at the FDA. Please join us for a conversation with:
Discover how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is pushing new innovative efforts from within and how it is showcasing new innovation initiatives and connections. Kwame Ulmer started as a Biomedical Engineer with the FDA, then as a branch chief, and he is now the deputy director (science and policy). Prior to joining the FDA, Ulmer worked as an engineer at the Naval Sea Systems Command.
He is part of the FDA Innovation Pathway Project. Since November 2011, the team has been working to shorten the overall time it takes for the development, assessment, and review of breakthrough medical devices.
Also, come out to experience “Bump-It“, a smartphone application developed by a U.Va. student team that allows users to manage playlists by adding or stopping certain songs. “Bump-It” received an honorable mention at the 2011 U.Va. Entrepreneurship Cup.
TIME: 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Food and refreshments provided. The event will be held at CitySpace (100 5th St. NE) on the Downtown Mall, above the Market St. Garage.
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| 8:54 am
Join us for a seminar titled “White House Grand Challenges & STEM Education” and a Q&A session featuring:
John Holdren Assistant to President Obama for Science and Technology Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Co‐Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Tech.
Prior to joining the Obama administration Dr. Holdren was Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and professor in Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Science. He was also Director of the independent nonprofit Woods Hole Research Center. Previously, Holdren was a faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where in 1973, he co‐founded, and co‐led until 1996, the interdisciplinary graduate‐degree program in energy and resources.
During the Clinton administration, Holdren served as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology through both terms and chaired studies requested by President Clinton on preventing theft of nuclear materials, disposition of surplus weapon plutonium, the prospects of fusion energy, U.S. energy R&D strategy, and international cooperation on energy and technology innovation.
He holds advanced degrees in aerospace engineering and theoretical plasma physics from MIT and Stanford. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a foreign member of the Royal Society of London and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served as a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s Board of Trustees from 1991 to 2005, as Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control from 1994 to 2005, and as Co‐Chair of the independent, bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy from 2002 to 2009. His awards include a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship, the John Heinz Prize in Public Policy, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and the Volvo Environment Prize. In December 1995 he gave the acceptance lecture for the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international organization of scientists and public figures in which he held leadership positions from 1982 to 1997.
Where: Olsson Auditourm , Room 130 Rice Hall.
When: May 17, 2012
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
For more information and to RSVP please contact Cheryl Wagner at cheryl-vpr@virginia.eduor 434-243-1100. The event is sponsored by the U.Va. Office of the Vice President for Research.
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May 7, 2012 | 9:28 am
Stratasys, a manufacturer of 3D printing and rapid prototyping systems, recently published a case study focusing on the impact of the uPrint 3D Printers and the Fortus 3D Production System on U.Va.’s rapid prototyping lab.
U.Va.’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences began using Stratasys uPrint 3D Printers to provide students with hands-on learning. Since early 2011, the printers have become an integral part of the educational experience by providing practical opportunities for students to apply the theories they learn in the classroom.
These 3D printers foster cross-discipline projects, such as the mechatronics project. Students come together to apply their expertise in mechanical, electronic, computer, software, and control engineering with system-design to create and manufacture products. These cross-discipline application enrich students’ education and prepare them for jobs after college.
Design lab engineer at UVA’s rapid prototyping lab, Dwight Dart said, “It’s this kind of creativity and vision that makes the 3D printer an invaluable tool for our students.”
For more information about the case study, click here.
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April 30, 2012 | 9:08 am
As part of the Tom Tom Festival’s “Place Based Innovation” series, this panel of biotech experts will examine how a biotechnology hub develops around a world-class research university like the University of Virginia. Charlottesville’s numerous biotechnology innovators are establishing start-ups in Charlottesville and one local firm has proposed redeveloping the historic Coca-Cola bottling plant on Preston Avenue into a bio-tech start-up hub. With a renewed focus on innovation at the University of Virginia, what does the future hold for biotechnology in our community?
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| 8:56 am
The pharmaceutical industry unfortunately is viewed negatively by the public, who believes that companies do little to ensure the safety of its medicines and that the main goal is to make profits at the expense of an unsuspecting public. Furthermore, people believe that drugs are really discovered in universities, research institutes or the NIH and that pharmaceutical companies simply license and manufacture new medicines. This is simply untrue. This talk will give concrete examples of the value that the pharmaceutical industry adds to the overall healthcare system.
John LaMattina was the Senior Vice President, Pfizer Inc. and President, Pfizer Global Research and Development. In this role, he oversaw the drug discovery and development efforts of more than 12,000 colleagues in the United States, Europe and Asia. LaMattina joined Pfizer as a medicinal chemist in 1997 and over the years, he held positions of increasing responsibility for Pfizer Central Research, including Vice President of U.S. Discovery Operations in 1993, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Discovery Operations in 1998 and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Development in 1999.
During his tenure as Head of Global R&D, Pfizer produced new treatments for cancer, smoking cessation rheumatoid arthritis and AIDS. Dr. LaMattina is the author of numerous scientific publications, holds a number of U.S. patents and he is the author of “Drug Truths: Dispelling the Myths About Pharma R&D.” Dr. LaMattina has received a number of awards including the 1998 Boston College Alumni Award of Excellence in Science, an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of New Hampshire in 2007, and the 2010 American Chemical Society Earle Barnes Award for Leadership in Chemical Research Management.
Dr. LaMattina is a Senior Partner at PureTech Ventures, he serves on the Board of Directors of Human Genome Sciences, the Board of Directors of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, and the Scientific Advisory Board of Trevena.
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| 8:45 am
The 2012 SEBIO Investor Forum connects investors and emerging companies. There will be more than 30 emerging life sciences and medical technologies companies presenting to an audience of over 350 attendees. The forum provides an opportunity for presenting companies to increase visibility to investors, industry partners, and media exposure. Early stage companies also benefit from a private advisory session with experienced business professionals. Companies also have increased access to SEBIO and the opportunity to arrange one-on-one meetings. Representatives from presenting companies will receive complimentary registration.
Date October 31 – November 1, 2012 Location The Breakers Palm Beach, Florida Apply SEBIO 2012 Investor Forum Applications due Friday, June 29, 2012.
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April 19, 2012 | 1:38 pm
Oliver Platt Mills
Adam Kerpelman
U.Va. Innovation invites you to attend the April installment of our Innovation Roundtable series with Adam Kerpelman and Oliver Platt-Mills. Please join us for networking with University and community innovators, with food and refreshments provided. Kerpelman will disuss his recent involvement with the Startup Bus-Washington and Oliver Platt-Mills will speak about his vision behind the Tom-Tom Festival. The Innovation Roundtable will be held at CitySpace (100 5th St. NE) on the Downtown Mall, above the Market St. Garage.
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April 16, 2012 | 8:40 am
By Brevy Cannon U.Va. Today News Release
2011 Venture Summit
Technology and business ventures with ties to the University of Virginia will be pitched to an audience of investors from across the country, representing roughly $20 billion in active capital funds, at U.Va.’s fourth annual Venture Summit, being held April 19 in the Old Cabell Hall auditorium and April 20 in room 50 at the Darden School of Business.
At the past three summits, “between two-thirds and three-quarters” of the presenting start-ups found funding from investors attending the summit, said W. Mark Crowell, executive director of U.Va. Innovation and associate vice president for research. The annual event is perhaps the best example of U.Va.’s efforts to become an ever-stronger engine of innovation and job creation powered by fundamental research, Crowell said. And the success of those efforts is starting to get noticed in Congress. On Thursday morning at 10, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) will discuss (via video link if the Senate is in session) the Start Up Act (S.1965), legislation he introduced in December that would promote innovation and start up businesses by relaxing several tax and regulatory hurdles.
One of the bill’s most significant provisions, dealing with ways to speed up the transfer of research and technology from university laboratories to the marketplace, was written with major input from U.Va., Crowell said.
In the six years from 2006 through 2011, U.Va. researchers reported the invention of 981 technologies, 341 of which have been licensed to companies and institutions for further development. U.Va. researchers were awarded 37 patents in 2011, 32 in 2010, and 128 total from 2006 through 2011. More than 600 of the University’s early-stage research discoveries have been put on the path to commercialization, many through strategic research partnerships with major corporations and industry leaders such as AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Rolls-Royce.
“The University of Virginia has rapidly become a global destination for technology-based venture creation,” Thomas C. Skalak, vice president for research, said.
As part of the Venture Summit’s focus on big-picture innovation and technology transfer issues, Aneesh Chopra, who stepped down in January as the nation’s first U.S. chief technology officer, will be part of a panel discussion on Thursday, “Innovation: A New Day in the U.S.” Vonage CEO Marc Lefar and Weather Channel CEO David Kenny will discuss “Opportunities and Challenges for Traditional Businesses in a Digital World.”
Thursday’s public events will conclude with a panel of veteran venture capitalists who will discuss the state of the venture capital industry. Five Charlottesville-based companies – Cardagin, Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, iTi Health, Lend Street and ProteiosBio, all founded or led by a U.Va. alumnus, faculty or staff member or student, or based on a technology developed at the University – will participate in the summit’s interactive showcase, on Friday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in room 50 at the Darden School of Business. Each company will pitch to an audience of investors, followed by a question-and-answer period. Presenters will then receive feedback from a panel of experienced investors including Jonathan Aberman, founder managing director of Amplifier Ventures; Doug Garland, chief revenue officer of Shazam; Cody Nystrom, a senior associate at SJF Ventures; and Rob Patzig, senior managing director and chief investment officer at Third Security.
After that, the investor panel will also hear pitches from and give feedback to four student-led startup business plans: the two top finishers from this year’s Darden Business Plan Competition, held Thursday – WalkBack and RadioFetch – and the two top finishers in the last U.Va. Entrepreneurship Cup, held in November: Memoria and Powersole.
“To be able to pitch and receive invaluable feedback from this elite group is really a tremendous opportunity for our innovative U.Va. and community entrepreneurs,” Crowell said.
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