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Small manufacturers think big about partnerships during COVID-19

Posted on by IU Communications

How SMEs are teaming up with public research universities and MEP centers to boost innovation capacity

By Shalin R. Jyotishi, assistant director for economic development and community engagement, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities; and Sheila Martin, vice president for economic development and community engagement at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities

The U.S. manufacturing industry has lost a staggering 5 million jobs and thousands of manufacturing establishments over the past two decades, according to a report from MForesight. Stalled manufacturing productivity growth and overseas competition are two major drivers of the decline.

COVID-19 is likely to make matters worse, but the industry may also experience five years of innovation within the next 18 months as existing and new digital technologies gain traction.

American small- and medium-sized manufacturers, or SMMs, have been especially hit by the productivity lull, and their survival will depend in part on their ability to adopt emerging technologies required to spark a revival in productivity growth. Doing so isn’t just key to their survival; it’s essential to securing U.S. competitiveness as other nations and larger manufacturers adopt these technologies and require their supply chain partners to do the same.

That’s where public research universities, SMMs and federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers can partner to help American manufacturers adopt these new technologies.

The complete article is available at the Industry Week website. Indiana University is a member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.

Even during a pandemic, investing in entrepreneurs and their startups matters

Posted on by IU Communications

By Teri Willey, executive director of IU Ventures and fund manager of IU Philanthropic Venture Fund LLC

At IU Ventures, as we invest in and support IU-related startups and new ventures, we have been asking ourselves: Is what we are doing important? Is it important enough?

Teri Willey

We are reading and hearing that small companies and the entrepreneurs who drive them will be critical to the post-pandemic recovery. Development of health care technologies, therapies, devices and diagnostics — COVID-19-specific or not — are and will continue to be critical to public health.

So we continue to intently support emerging science and technology entrepreneurs, founders and our portfolio companies, realizing that maybe what we are doing matters more than ever.

Other individuals and organizations in Indiana also continue to support entrepreneurs and their startups. Please join me for a discussion about this with representatives from Frazier Healthcare Partners, Avenue Capital Group and BioCrossroads at noon EDT on June 4 for the webinar Investing in Life Science and the Future of Health Tech.

IU research office, Kelley School provide financial support for social ventures coming out of ‘Idea Sprint Weekend Against COVID-19’

Posted on by IU Communications

Hodge Hall at the Kelley School of Business on the IU Bloomington campusBy George Vlahakis, Kelley School of Business

In mid-March, faculty at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business organized a three-day “virtual idea blitz” to address impacts of COVID-19 across the arenas of health, education and small business in communities and through changed purchasing behaviors.

Regan Stevenson
Matthew Josefy

Led by Regan Stevenson, an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship and the John and Donna Shoemaker Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship, and Matthew Josefy, an assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship, the initiative resulted in 21 ideas with corresponding pitches developed in five thematic areas: health needs, education, small business, community and purchasing.

Josefy and Stevenson documented their reflections in an article published in Business Horizons, an academic journal published at Kelley.

Impressed with the effort, the IU Office of the Vice President for Research funded a proposal to provide multiple mini-grants of up to $2,500 to accelerate entrepreneurial responses coming out of the “Idea Sprint Weekend Against COVID-19″ initiative. It complements other support from within the Kelley School.

A blog post about the virtual idea blitz and the mini-grants is available online.

IUPUI team awarded $112,500 to advance work on voice AI for law enforcement

Posted on by IU Communications

From left: Carmel police officers James Semester and James Grose with IUPUI’s Mayur Srivastava, Bhavani Prasad Rao Ejanthkar, Swarnamouli Majumdar, Lou Lenzi and Aamir Khan. Team member I Ting “Tiffany” Tseng is not pictured. Photo courtesy of Swarnamouli Majumdar

NIST Tech to Protect Challenge recognizes students, alumni for development of ‘Alexa-like’ technology

By Kevin Fryling, news and media specialist, Indiana University

A team of recent graduates from the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI and the School of Science at IUPUI has been awarded $70,000 from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, or NIST, for developing artificial intelligence technology to help police officers conduct their work more safely and efficiently.

Along with funds previously awarded, NIST has granted the team a total of $112,500 under the Tech to Protect Challenge, a competition sponsored by the institute’s Public Safety Communications Research Division that provides entrepreneurs, programmers, students and others the opportunity to create solutions to public safety communications challenges faced by fire, law enforcement and emergency medical service responders.

The support recognizes the team’s development of Zenext, a voice-command virtual assistant based on Google Assistant that helps law enforcement conduct critical tasks hands-free. The technology works similarly to Siri or Alexa.

A news release about the team of recent IUPUI graduates, NIST, the Tech to Protect Challenge and Zenext is online.

Kelley offers no-cost assistance to help small Hoosier businesses shift their operations online

Posted on by IU Communications

Hodge Hall at the Kelley School of Business on the IU Bloomington campus

By George Vlahakis, Kelley School of Business

To help small companies in Indiana hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the Indiana University Kelley School of Business is offering no-cost assistance to businesses needing to shift operations online, while also providing paid internship opportunities for its students.

Kelley is partnering with Indiana Small Business Development Centers and will also work with economic development centers, chambers of commerce and business hubs such as the Dimension Mill in Bloomington. The program is called the Kelley HOPE Digital Project.

Bipin Prabhakar

“COVID-19 is having a tremendous impact on the state’s economy,” said Bipin Prabhakar, chair of Information Systems Graduate Programs at the Kelley School and a Fettig/Whirlpool fellow. “Particularly hard-hit are small businesses that have traditionally operated in person, not online. For some, going online will be a lifeline to survive.”

Alan Dennis

“Businesses may not have the time, knowledge or resources to implement an online model quickly,” added Alan Dennis, the Kelley School John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems. “Even after stay-at-home orders have been lifted, many consumers will still prefer to go online. We want to help these companies by offering a no-cost service to alleviate the operational barriers created by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

A news release about the Kelley HOPE Digital Project is online.

NBC Sports sportscaster to speak at the Economic Club of Indiana’s May 20 luncheon

Posted on by Steve Martin

Mike Tirico, sportscaster at NBC Sports, will speak at the Economic Club of Indiana’s luncheon Wednesday, May 20. The luncheon will be held at the Indiana Convention Center, 100 S. Capitol Ave.

Mike Tirico

Tickets for members of the Economic Club of Indiana are $30; tickets for nonmembers are $35. They can be purchased online.

Indiana University and IUPUI are platinum sponsors of the Economic Club of Indiana’s luncheon season.

IU Innovation and Commercialization Office supports you and your COVID-19 innovations

Posted on by IU Communications

By Simran Trana, associate vice president, IU Innovation and Commercialization Office

During the pandemic, researchers at all Indiana University campuses and academic centers have focused on creating innovations to help people respond to obstacles created by COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus.

Simran Trana

These innovations take the form of vaccines and therapies, diagnostics, health care equipment, and more. The IU Innovation and Commercialization Office is glad to support them in their efforts.

We can help with any SBIR/STTR grant opportunities and can also provide support for sections of other federal grants — namely, commercialization plans — that require input from our office. Grant writer Amie Frame, amiframe@iu.edu, is available to assist. When you contact Amie, please provide the Request for Application number or a link to the RFA in your email message. Please also include the complete contact information – name, title, phone number, email address — for all investigators involved with the research.

IU ICO looks forward to ensuring the development of competitive applications for the $2.5 billion SBIR/STTR grants and contracts related to COVID-19 research as well as other federal grants that require property management and commercialization plans.

Common rotavirus vaccine might be key to protecting children against COVID-19

Posted on by IU Communications

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its global spread, vaccine development is on everyone’s mind. Indiana University’s John Patton is no exception.

John Patton

Patton, an associate professor of biology and Blatt Chair of Virology in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington, has been studying viruses for more than 30 years. His main focus has been on rotavirus. As many parents know, rotavirus can infect infants and young children, causing nausea and diarrhea. Today, most infants in the United States receive a rotavirus vaccine, meaning over the last 20 years or so, “rotavirus as the main cause of sending young kids to the hospital has disappeared,” Patton said.

A story about Patton and his work that might protect children against coronavirus is on the IU Office of the Vice President for Research website. The IU Innovation and Commercialization Office has filed a provisional patent application on Patton’s idea for a COVID-19 vaccine.

IU Ventures portfolio company Diagnotes makes a positive difference during the COVID-19 outbreak

Posted on by IU Communications

By Teri Willey, executive director of IU Ventures and fund manager of IU Philanthropic Venture Fund LLC

Several health systems in Indiana, including IU Health, are using the sophisticated health care collaboration and telehealth features of Diagnotes to facilitate the screening and treatment of patients and reduce the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus or exposing high-risk groups.

Teri Willey

With Diagnotes, they are able to streamline infectious disease workflows, decrease the number of patients with non-life-threatening COVID-19 symptoms coming to the hospital and keep personal protective equipment for those in greatest need. These actions offer the potential to decrease the number of people who get the virus, slow the infection rate, and avoid overtaxing hospitals and care teams.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, IU Kelly School of Business of Medicine Program, the Regenstrief Institute and the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs will host a webinar to share strategies and tools for critical care team coordination and patient engagement during this COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

IU Ventures, through investments from the Innovate Indiana Fund and, more recently, the Indiana Philanthropic Venture Fund, has been an early investor and constant supporter of this innovative company and its determined team.

April 15 StartupIU Fair to engage IU students with startup, innovation interests

Posted on by IU Communications

By Davis T. Joseph, member, Shoemaker Scholars program

On Wednesday, April 15, members of the Indiana University community will meet online for the virtual StartupIU Fair from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. EDT. The free event will be hosted on the Zoom platform; participants can join at https://bit.ly/startup-fair-iu.

Davis T. Joseph, a junior from Bloomington, Indiana, majors in informatics in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering. He is in his second semester of the Shoemaker Scholars program.

Davis T. Joseph Photo by James Brosher, Indiana University

The virtual StartupIU Fair was created by students, for students, and is overseen by the Shoemaker Scholars program. We are a group of students from across different schools committed to every student on campus who wants to be a part of the entrepreneurship and innovation community at Indiana University.

The event was created to re-engage IU’s startup and creatorship community and help foster development of independent student-led ideas, projects and businesses. Through this virtual fair, entrepreneurs and creators will be able to share current plans for their ventures, updates about what they are seeking to accomplish and how students can get involved. They will also learn how IU startups are dealing with changes due to COVID-19.

For students who want to get involved with a startup, this is a perfect opportunity to gain real-world experience separate from the classroom. Students who are thinking about starting their own venture or are in the early stages of doing so can learn a lot from the journeys undergone from several startups, including hearing about the ups and downs of starting a venture while being a student.

For my fellow startup leaders, this event is your opportunity to market yourself to the growing community and tap into the collective experiences of your peers to better improve your end services and/or products. This is an unprecedented opportunity to speak to students who want to do meaningful work for your startup or to recruit students to join your entrepreneurial pursuits — all in one place and at one time. These affordances put a responsibility on both startups and students to collaborate and rally themselves and their peers to do the best that IU students can do.