ISTC in the News – 2014
STEM Learning Exchange Challenge Inspires Innovation, Real-World Problem-Solving for Chicago Students
Posted December 19, 2014 | Source: www.microsoft-chicago.com
This past week, Microsoft Chicago teamed up with Illinois Science and Technology Institute’s R&D STEM Learning Exchange and Lake View High School to kick off the R&D STEM Learning Exchange Challenge. As part of this partnership, we are encouraging Chicago Public Schools students to perform original student-driven research and development.”
Chicago Inno: The End-of-the-Year Beat
Posted December 18, 2014 | Source: www.youtube.com
Thank you to Chicago Inno for the shout out to the Corporate Startup Challenge in their end-of-the-year The Beat video! Chicago Inno (short for “innovation”) is a digital media & events company, producing fun, disruptive content & events for Chicago’s innovation class.”
An Unexpected Source of Innovation: Chicago Tech Center 1871 Expands
Posted December 16, 2014 | Source: www.forbes.com
Innovation can crop up where and how you least expect it. In our series “An Unexpected Source of Innovation,” we will visit some of America’s little-known hubs of technological creativity. According to a study conducted by the Illinois Innovation Council, Illinois ranks second in the nation (after California) in the number of high-tech startups.
State Farm, Microsoft sign up for startup speed-dating
Posted December 3, 2014 | Source: www.chicagobusiness.com
The Corporate-Startup Challenge, which introduces startups to the state’s largest companies, is gearing up for a third round. The program, run by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, has signed up State Farm, Microsoft, Underwriters Laboratories and Danfoss, a Danish manufacturer with a facility in Loves Park, for its next installment.
NuCurrent, Molex announce deal on wireless charging technology
Posted December 3, 2014 | Source: www.chicagotribune.com
Chicago-based wireless charging startup NuCurrent is teaming with Molex, looking to embed its antenna technology into a growing portfolio of platforms for mobile devices, the company announced Wednesday. NuCurrent, which grew out of Northwestern University’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, said the deal will broaden its reach and boost its engineering power.
Good for Business, Great for Families: Let’s Finish What the President Started
Posted November 25, 2014 | Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
“According to the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, at least 36 of the 223 active startups spun off from Illinois universities since 2010 were founded or co-founded by an immigrant. I want the next startup-turned-Fortune 500 company to grow jobs right here in Illinois, not in another country because of outdated immigration laws.”
Business has Obama’s back on immigration
Posted November 20, 2014 | Source: www.chicagobusiness.com
President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration is a welcome step but no substitute for comprehensive reforms that only Congress can enact, Illinois business leaders said in reaction to his prime-time speech Thursday night.
Glenbrook South students take part in STEM project
Posted November 3, 2014 | Source: www.chicagotribune.com
Glenbrook South is joining 27 other Illinois high schools in the Research & Development STEM Learning Exchange, a program that connects high schools with businesses, organizations and universities to help students prepare for careers in science, technology, engineering and math fields.
Program links ADM, emerging businesses
Posted October 3, 2014 | Source: www.heraldreview.com
A group of emerging businesses moved closer Thursday to securing a working relationship with one of the state’s largest companies that could provide them with a needed opportunity to grow. A panel from Archer Daniels Midland Co. met with representatives from 11 businesses at the James Randall Research Center in Decatur as they competed during a Demo Day in the Illinois Corporate Startup Challenge. The program is led by the state-supported Illinois Science and Technology Coalition.
Where Illinois should lay its bets on tech
Posted September 16, 2014 | Source: www.chicagobusiness.com
When it comes to science and technology, just what is Illinois really good at? The Illinois Science and Technology Coalition spent the past six months figuring that out, and some of the answers might surprise you: Medicine/biotech; Advanced materials, such as metal alloys and polymers; Nanotech; Batteries/energy storage; and Biomass/energy. With the help of patent-advisory firm OceanTomo, publisher Elsevier and University of Maryland researcher Scott Dempwolf, ISTC looked at where Illinois universities get the most high-quality patents (neuroscience), or where their research is cited by others (batteries and energy storage).
Illinois Science and Technology Coalition honored by national group
Posted September 15, 2014 | Source: www.chicagotribune.com
The Illinois Science and Technology Coalition received an award from a national organization Monday for its Illinois Corporate-Startup Challenge, a state-backed program that links technology startups with area companies. The ISTC earned an “Excellence in TBED” award from SSTI, an Ohio-based organization that’s having its national conference in Chicago this week. SSTI, which supports tech-based regional economic development efforts, recognized the Illinois Corporate-Startup Challenge as the “Most Promising TBED Initiative.” TBED stands for technology-based economic development.
High Tech Exports: Everything You Need to Know About the August Innovation Index
Posted August 29, 2014 | Source: www.chicagoinno.com
Every month, the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) – in collaboration with the Illinois Innovation Council and World Business Chicago – publishes the Innovation Index, a deep-dive into a particular sector or trend to shed some light on where Illinois stands in the global innovation economy. This August, the Index took a look at Illinois’ exports and focused specifically on the High Tech Industry. Here’s everything you need to know about this month’s Index.
Illinois hits some export bumps, but Chicago scores in talent hunt
Posted August 28, 2014 | Source: www.chicagobusiness.com
A pair of just-released studies provide some insight into how the Chicago and Illinois economies are performing on two key measures: exports and attracting top, highly educated talent. The news on the first is so-so; on the second, surprisingly good, along with other cities in the so-called Rust Belt. The exports study comes from U.S. Census Bureau data crunched for the Illinois Innovation Index, a periodic report issued by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, World Business Chicago, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
High School Students Address Real-World STEM Problems in Baxter Partnership
Posted July 30, 2014 | Source: www.baxter.com
Baxter and other participating companies recently came together with 125 Chicago-area high school students to mark the conclusion of the first year of the Illinois Science and Technology Institute’s R&D STEM Learning Exchange STEM Challenges at a celebration of achievement held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Throughout the semester, participating students tackled real-world STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) problems.
Illinois Catching Up on STEM Programs
Posted July 20, 2014 | Source: www.altondailynews.com
The race for jobs pits city against city – state against state. Taxes, weather, and access to transportation are one thing – actually, they’re three things. But the head of the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition says it boils down to who has the best human capital. “The driving factor that we hear time and time again is that we live in a knowledge-based economy driven by innovation.”
Create jobs, don’t poach them, Illinois commerce chief says at 1871
Posted June 13, 2014 | Source: www.chicagotribune.com
According to an Illinois Innovation Index report issued last year, the state had a net gain in employment in 2012 through relocation but lost slightly more companies than it attracted. Companies that relocated to Illinois were larger on average than those that left, resulting in a net increase of more than 1,400 jobs in Illinois — relatively small compared with the state’s employment base of nearly six million, the report said. A total 275 businesses with a combined 7,957 employees moved to Illinois in 2012, while 283 companies with a total of 6,542 employees left the state. That same year, entrepreneurs created 22,351 new businesses in metropolitan Chicago; but the share of new enterprises, 4.8 percent of the 470,096 businesses overall, was slightly below other metro areas, the report said.
Tech Local: What the ‘Eat Local’ Trend Can Teach Us About Sustaining Chicago’s Innovation Ecosystem
Posted June 6, 2014 | Source: www.chicagoinno.com
The ISTC, the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, is starting a movement via the Illinois Corporate Startup Challenge. Every six months, the initiative assembles a class of Fortune 1000 corporations and pairs them with startups that address their innovation needs through a highly curated matchmaking process. Though “it’s a little too early to publicize the wins,” said Alya Adamany Woods, Managing Director of the Illinois Innovation Network, she did confirm that “50% of the startup pitches went on to second meetings, next steps, and beyond.” The initiative was also such a success that they’re already in the “needs-assessment phase with the next round of big corporations.”
Illinois DCEO: Why Illinois for Tech
Posted June 4, 2014 | Source: www.youtube.com
Illinois DCEO recently released a video showcasing Illinois’ vibrant tech community and environment. This video features Adam Pollet, Director of DCEO, Mark Harris, President & CEO of ISTC, and William King, Chief Technology Officer of DMDI Institute, discussing startups, incubators and Illinois’ overall potential to become the next tech and innovation hub in the United States.
Why Shedd gets kudos from the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition
Posted May 5, 2014 | Source: www.chicagotribune.com
Mark Harris, president and CEO of the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition, discusses the Illinois Corporate/Start-Up Challenge, the Innovation Network Web site, tomorrow’s innovators, clean tech and the Shedd Aquarium’s energy initiatives.
Federal investment in research has ROI far beyond revenue
Posted February 27, 2014 | Source: www.chicagobusiness.com
How do you put a dollar value on scientific research? In these times of tight budgets and tighter legislative scrutiny, that’s a pressing question — especially here in Illinois, where our universities and national laboratories bring in $2.26 billion in federal research dollars every year.
The complex dance of connecting corporations and startups: Allstate
Posted February 14, 2014 | Source: www.chicagotribune.com
When Cheryl Harris sought to bring fresh ideas in analytics, data crunching and cyber security to top brass at Allstate Corp., she tapped a startup pipeline engineered to save Illinois companies time and money. Harris and others at Allstate, who were accustomed to an eight-step procurement process that resulted in months of waiting, were skeptical they could learn most of what they needed in a 10-minute pitch from people they’d never met in the Illinois Corporate/Startup Challenge.
How connectors maker Molex drives innovation
Posted Feb 25, 2014 | Source: www.chicagotribune.com
We’re involved certainly with 1871, and with the ISTC (Illinois Science and Technology Coalition) Corporate Startup Challenge. Through the Corporate Startup Challenge, we brought in 10 Illinois startup companies last December. We gave them 15 minutes to make their pitch, and then we had breakout sessions in the afternoon. Molex employees, technology engineers cycled through and reviewed what each specific innovative technologies was — and what could be used by our clients. We’re still in touch with roughly six, where we’re doing site visits and have signed non-disclosure agreements.
Patent output surges at Illinois universities
Posted January 13, 2014 | Source: www.chicagobusiness.com
The state’s universities, led by Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, have seen a surge in patent activity in recent years. The number of patents issued to the state’s universities between 2008 and 2012 increased 47 percent from the previous five-year period. That’s almost three times the increase in patents issued to all U.S. universities, according to a report by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition.
Playing matchmaker between startups and large companies
Posted January 6, 2014 | Source: www.chicagobusiness.com
This corporate speed-dating event is part of the Illinois Corporate/Startup Challenge, the brainchild of Gov. Pat Quinn’s Illinois Innovation Council. The first round of pitches was at Lisle-based electronics maker Molex Inc. Others will follow this month with Allstate Corp., Walgreen Co. and Deere & Co.