Aoy Tomita-Mitchell, co-founder of biotechnology companies TAI Diagnostics and Ariosa Diagnostics, will be a keynote speaker at the Oct. 5 Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit on the IUPUI campus. The event will start 8:30 a.m. at Hine Hall Auditorium, 875 W. North St.

Tomita-Mitchell is a professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin and an investigator at the Children’s Research Institute/Herma Heart Center. She co-founded two biotechnology startup companies, TAI Diagnostics and Ariosa Diagnostics, the latter of which was acquired by Roche in January 2015.

Tomita-Mitchell graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied mechanical engineering as an undergraduate and received her Ph.D. in bioengineering in the field of genetic toxicology.

The Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. It also receives support from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and the Indiana University Innovation and Commercialization Office.

Jesus Soriano, program director at the National Science Foundation, will be a keynote speaker at the Oct. 5 Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit on the IUPUI campus. It will start at 8:30 a.m. in Hine Hall Auditorium, 875 W. North St. The event is open to the public, although registration is required. Women and underrepresented minorities are especially encouraged to attend.

Soriano joined the NSF in February 2012 as SBIR/STTR program director for biomedical and smart health technologies after 20 years of international experience in executive leadership in the biopharmaceutical and nonprofit sectors, startup formation and funding, technology commercialization, and academic teaching and research. He holds an MBA in corporate finance from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School; a Ph.D. in medical sciences from the University of Geneva, Switzerland; and an M.D. from the University of Alicante, Spain.

He spoke to Crimson Catalyst about the importance of encouraging women and underrepresented minority researchers to commercialize their work and become entrepreneurs.

“U.S. leadership in science and engineering, which leads to new discoveries and innovations, relies on the participation of people from all parts of society. Yet, women and other minority groups remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” he said. “NSF recognizes the tremendous potential of women and underrepresented groups in innovation. We hope the Accelerating Women and Underrepresented Entrepreneurs program will enable more underserved groups to get entrepreneurship training and achieve their technological and commercial potential, as well as help enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering.”

The NSF supports the Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit through a grant awarded to IU, the University of Louisville, and Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Congratulations Subir Bandyopadhyay, professor of marketing at Indiana University Northwest and representative on the IU Council for Regional Engagement and Economic Development, or CREED. His book “Contemporary Issues in Social Media Marketing” has been published and is now available from Amazon and Routledge Publishing.

Bandyopadhyay edited the book with Bikramjit Rishi, associate professor of marketing at the Institute of Management Technology in Ghaziabad, Delhi, India. The book covers topics including social media and customer relationship management, social media and recruitment, and microblogging strategies. Experts from more than 10 countries contributed to the book.

Bandyopadhyay and Rishi found several books by social media practitioners, but none that compiled existing academic research.

“Most of the academic research is disseminated through academic journals,” Bandyopadhyay said. “In light of this lack of any significant academic textbook on social media marketing, our book could fill a critical void in the academic literature on social media marketing.”

Bandyopadhyay said “Contemporary Issues in Social Media Marketing” is ideal for students, academics, researchers and social media marketing professionals.

“It also can serve as a reference resource for organizations that would like to use social media marketing for their brands,” he said.

Menguin, an online suit and tuxedo rental company, has been acquired by Generation Tux for $25 million. Menguin is one of 13 companies in the Innovation Indiana Fund portfolio.

According to a news release, Menguin has experienced three years at an 800 percent compound annual growth rate. Menguin and Generation Tux will continue to operate as separate brands under the holding company Gen Tux Inc., while leveraging their combined operational, technological, fashion and fulfillment abilities.

More information about the acquisition is available online.

Allinaire Therapeutics has received $1.9 million in federal grants to support the development of treatments for lung diseases, including acute lung injury; Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

The company received a $1.67 million Phase II SBIR grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and a $213,000 Discovery Award from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Allinaire was formed by BioMotiv, a biotech accelerator associated with the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp., Innovate Indiana and BioCrossroads. The company’s lead project is based on technology exclusively licensed from IURTC, which is now known as the Indiana University Innovation and Commercialization Office.

More information about the grants is available online.

A two-year project called Regional Economic Development has received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The project will apply advanced data analytics to promote regional economic development and design policies appropriate for a particular region’s characteristics.

The project will build a complex computational model that integrates data science and regional economic science. In addition to drawing on traditional socioeconomic information and methods, it will make use of data from unconventional sources such as social media, mouse clicks and data extracted from websites via web-scraping tools.

Leading the project are Timothy Slaper, director of economic analysis at the Kelley School of Business’ Indiana Business Research Center, and David Wild, associate professor of informatics and computing and director of data science academic programs in the School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering.

“Economic development at the regional level is exceedingly complex, and it takes place in a continuously evolving environment,” Slaper said. “This project will bring together new tools for data capture and analysis to address concerns such as economic resiliency, broadening the beneficiaries of economic growth and encouraging innovation.”

“We are very excited to be part of this high-impact project that will benefit Indiana, the region and the nation,” Wild said. “We are bringing together top researchers in data infrastructures, nontraditional data sets and complex systems to create approaches focused on technological and scientific innovation. By partnering computational and domain experts, we believe we can advance the rapidly emerging field of regional economic development.”

More information about the project, its goals and the grant is available online.

The Indiana University Council for Regional Engagement and Economic Development, or CREED, held its first meeting of the 2017-18 academic year Sept. 13 on the IUPUI campus.

David Gard provided updates from the university, including the opening of the $45 million Arts and Sciences building at IU Northwest; partnerships in the first Internet of Things laboratory at Launch Fishers and The Union 525 in downtown Indianapolis; and the new names of the School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering and the School of Art, Architecture and Design.

Tom Guevara, director of the IU Public Policy Institute, provided highlights from its 25-year history. The institute offers unbiased research on public policy issues, enabling decision-makers to create policies that work well for their regions. Its clients include state and local government, federal agencies, and not-for-profit agencies, although occasionally it has commercial clients.

Guevara said the Public Policy Institute will expand throughout the state, making use of multiple channels to share information with regional campuses about its work. It will celebrate its 25th year with a symposium on the implementation of practices outlined in the Thriving Communities, Thriving State program.

Keith Belton, director of the Manufacturing Policy Initiative, spoke about its focus on public policies affecting the U.S. manufacturing sector. The initiative is part of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Belton said Indiana leads the nation in the manufacturing sector’s share of employment and GDP. The sector’s real output in the nation has increased over the past 30 years, not including recessions, but employment in the sector has declined.

The Manufacturing Policy Initiative focuses on productivity, workforce, trade and national security. Its target audiences include policymakers, manufacturers, and researchers and analysts. Among other work, it is encouraging the creation of a course in manufacturing policy in Bloomington in the fall 2018 semester.

Carrie Docherty, interim associate dean for community and global engagement at the School of Public Health, said the school tracks faculty engagements with industry and communities. Faculty have established more than 500 partnerships; 40 percent are in Indiana, 40 percent are in other states and 20 percent are international. An internal database was launched so that visitors can learn about work being conducted by IU faculty and staff in these partnerships.

Among the school’s state initiatives are area health education centers, which are funded by a federal program that serves medically underserved states. Other initiatives include the Indiana Prevention Resource Center to address addictive behaviors and the Lawrence County Domestic Violence Coalition. The school is in the midst of conducting a robust, systemic community health needs assessment.

Docherty said the School of Public Health offers several certificates, courses and webinars — some of which are free — for residents across the state. These online courses are self-guided.

Campus Spotlight — IU Bloomington

Kirk White and Joe Carley from the IU Office of the Vice President for Engagement spoke about the IU Bloomington campus, including the fall 2017 student enrollment, faculty/staff positions and operating budget.

White told the group about the IU Health Bloomington Hospital and Academic Health Center, slated to open in 2020. It will include 620,000 square feet of hospital space and 115,000 square feet of academic space for medicine, dentistry, speech and hearing, nursing, optometry, and social work researchers.

White outlined partnerships with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division and the importance of keeping the relationship strong. He also summarized several collaborations between the university and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Carley outlined the formation of the Applied Research Institute, which has received more than $16 million in funding. Its goal is to coordinate multi-institutional research collaborations among IU, Purdue, NSWC Crane and industry. It will target large, multi-institutional awards and contracts. He also shared focus areas, approaches and methodologies of the Center for Rural Engagement.

RED Fund

CREED approved a $2,500 Regional Economic Development, or RED, Fund grant – matched by $2,500 from IU Northwest’s School of Business and Economics – for a workshop titled “All in the Family: Helping Small Family Businesses in Northwest Indiana Develop a Cost-effective Business Strategy.” The workshop was proposed by Cynthia Roberts, dean of the School of Business and Economics. Participants will receive a step-by-step template to develop and implement a business strategy for their family-run organizations.

Tony Prophet, chief equality officer at Salesforce, will speak Thursday, Sept. 14, during The Economic Club of Indiana’s opening luncheon of the 2017-18 season. The luncheon will take place from noon-1:30 p.m. at the Indiana Convention Center, 100 S. Capitol Ave., Indianapolis.

A member of the company’s executive team reporting to Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff, Prophet leads the company’s equality initiatives, focusing on gender, LGBTQ and racial equality to ensure that Salesforce reflects the diversity of the communities it serves. Prior to joining Salesforce, Prophet served as Microsoft’s corporate vice president of education marketing, where he defined the Microsoft Education business model, channel and market strategy.

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

IU and IUPUI are platinum sponsors of The Economic Club of Indiana. The Economic Club is proud to welcome many prominent state and national figures to the Indiana Convention Center stage to discuss issues and ideas that will help build a better future for the state of Indiana.

Entrepreneurs who live in Bloomington, including Indiana University students, faculty and staff, are encouraged to apply for the five-month B-Start pre-accelerator program, which provides business development workshops, consultations with local experts and a pitch competition.

The deadline to apply is Sept. 22.

B-Start has graduated 18 companies through the program since it launched as an initiative of the Bloomington Economic Development Corp. in 2015. Several graduating companies have participated in other business-pitch competitions and formal accelerator programs and have raised additional capital.

In addition to expanding the program to nonstudents, B-Start will have a renewed focus on customer building and lean business models. It will also add a summer program for the highest-performing startup to offset costs and encourage continued development of the business after the program ends.

“B-Start gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to engage with the local business community and learn firsthand about how to build the foundation for a successful business in Bloomington,” said Dana Palazzo, vice president of the BEDC. “We have great momentum in our community, especially with the recent venture-funding announcement by local startup Cheddar. It’s an exciting time to be a startup in Bloomington.”

A new organization has been established by leaders in Indiana government, research universities, industry, and the largest military asset to generate technology transfer and commercialization in military defense and other sectors of the state’s economy.

The Applied Research Institute provides streamlined access to more than $1 billion in state-of-the-art laboratories, equipment and research facilities across Indiana including Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division; Indiana University; Purdue University; and the Battery Innovation Center.

The ARI board of directors held its first meeting in Bloomington on Aug. 31. Among the board members are Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and IU President Michael A. McRobbie. During its meeting, the board approved up to $3.5 million over the next two years for its first major project: the development of trusted microelectronics, technology that is immune to a wide variety of emerging hardware- and software-based attacks, is resistant to counterfeit, and has applications in nearly all electronic devices.

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