On Monday, April 6, Bill Miller, National Director for the FIRST Robotics Competition will speak about this unique varsity sport of the mind designed to help high-school-aged young people discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and researchers can be.  FIRST redefines winning for these students because they are rewarded for excellence in design, demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism and maturity, and the ability to overcome obstacles.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)  inspires young people’s interest and participation in science and technology by designing accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.

Mahoning Valley high school teams from Girard, Liberty, Warren G. Harding, Youngstown Chaney, Maplewood and Champion have participated and achieved notable success in the FIRST Robotics Competition.  Trumbull County Educational Service Center Superintendent Vicki Giovangnoli will share how this program has positively impacted Mahoning Valley students.

The program will be held at Youngstown State University, Moser Hall, Room 2400 and is scheduled for 11:45 am to 1:30 pm.  The program is free but reservations are required and can be made by contacting Julie Michael Smith, Chief Development Officer, Youngstown Business Incubator at jmsmith@ybi.org or 330-259-7644.

Special support for this program is being provided the Ohio Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.  Charles Coleman, Colonel (Ret.), U.S. Army and Employer Outreach Coordinator of the Ohio Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve will speak on eCybermission.

Innovation Series is a networking and educational forum that brings together innovative, progressive people with a vision – to catalyze a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment in the Mahoning Valley.  The Series is for companies to showcase new technologies, for technology organizations to share resources, for entrepreneurs to build relationships, for educators to highlight their initiatives – it is a place for innovative talk, robust debates, inquiring minds. Sponsored by the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative (a program of YSU’s College of STEM) and the Youngstown Business Incubator, it is an opportunity to learn about the “cool things” going on – right here in the Mahoning Valley! The Innovation Series is underwritten, in part, by the Dominion Foundation.

Creative Solutions in Sensors and Electronic Miniaturization Technologies that Reduce Weight, Size and Cost

Come hear from one of OAI’s members that has successfully developed technological advances in collaboration with Boeing, NIST, DARPA, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Veterans Association among others.

Presented by Mr. Donald Styblo, Vice President, Valtronic Technologies (USA) Inc.

Valtronic Technologies is a leading international manufacturer and designer of miniaturized electronics for sensor systems and other applications and is located in suburban Cleveland. They will be presenting an overview of their applications and capabilities, with round table discussions following. The lunchtime speaker will be the regional economic development director of the Ohio Department of Development.

5 Things You Will Gain from this Seminar

1. Learn why companies use miniaturization to improve their products
2. Hear about real case studies where miniaturization was used and how the project benefited
3. Learn about the harsh conditions that Valtronic’s miniaturized products must withstand and how we ensure that quality is maintained
4. Learn about the different miniaturization technologies and how they are designed
5. An opportunity to talk with colleagues and meet people who may have similar challenges as you and learn what they are doing to solve them

Valtronic provides:

• Contract manufacturing and design services for advanced electronic applications
• Specialization in miniaturization and sensors
• Design, packaging and manufacturing knowledge and experience for high tech industries
• World class quality from an ISO 13485 registered facility

Tentative Agenda:
9:30 a.m. Registration
9:45 a.m. Welcome & Introductions – Don Majcher, Vice President Technology & Innovation Partnerships, OAI
Bill VerDuin, Executive Director, The Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering (WCSSE)
10:00 a.m. Creative Solutions in Electronic Miniaturization Technologies
Donald Styblo, Vice President of Technology, Valtronic Technologies (USA), Inc.
Jim Ohneck, Director of Sales and Marketing, Valtronic Technologies (USA), Inc.
10:45 a.m. Round Table Discussions and Networking
11:45 a.m. Summary and Wrap-up
12:00 p.m.        Luncheon Speaker -
Introduction, Dr. Michael Heil, President and CEO, OAI
Jennifer Ruggles, Regional Economic Development Director, Ohio Department of Development
1:00 p.m.        End of Program

Registration Information:
Date: Thursday, April 2, 2009
Cost: Complimentary.  Registration is required.
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Location: OAI, 22800 Cedar Point Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44142
Web:  http://www.oai.org – click on events
By e-mail: MonicaDumitriu@oai.org and RoxanneSummers@oai.org
By phone: Monica Dumitriu, 440-962-3141 and Roxanne Summers, 440-962-3113

For more information, please visit www.oai.org

The Youngstown Business Incubator and the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative, a program of Youngstown State University’s College of STEM are pleased to announce their collaboration to offer the Innovation Series to promote innovation and technology to catalyze both emerging entrepreneurs and established industries in the Mahoning Valley.

On Tuesday, March 17, Allen Jones, Program Director, will discuss FirstLink, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) National Center of Excellence for First Responder Technology Transfer.  FirstLink focuses on the acceleration of developing technologies which primarily benefit civilian and military first responders.   The program will be held at the Youngstown Business Incubator, 241 W. Federal Street, Youngstown, and is scheduled for 8:00 am to 9:30 am.

Opportunities may exist for businesses in information technology, robotics, manufacturing, workforce development and electronics.  Businesses are encouraged to attend even if they are not currently serving the first responder industry.

FirstLink creates connections between businesses and DoD by assisting with technology validation, transfer, licensing and commercialization, identifying research in progress for collaborative and joint opportunities.  It can help finding industry experts, locate testing, research and development resources and identify federal funding and grant opportunities. FirstLink’s services are provided at NO charge to the program participants.

The program is free but reservations are required and can be made by contacting Julie Michael Smith, Chief Development Officer, Youngstown Business Incubator at jmsmith@ybi.org or 330-259-7644.

Innovation Series is a networking and educational forum that brings together innovative, progressive people with a vision – to catalyze a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment in the Mahoning Valley.  The Series is for companies to showcase new technologies, for technology organizations to share resources, for entrepreneurs to build relationships, for educators to highlight their initiatives – it is a place for innovative talk, robust debates, inquiring minds. Sponsored by the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative (a program of YSU’s College of STEM) and the Youngstown Business Incubator, it is an opportunity to learn about the “cool things” going on – right here in the Mahoning Valley!

Just in case you live down the hole with Phil and didn’t hear about this one, here’s Jim Cossler to fill you in:

So…I  heard yesterday from some childhood friends I had lost touch with who are now living in Chicago, Houston and Phoenix.

And we probably heard, based on an eyeball estimate of my email in-box, from another 500 people from places like New York City, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose and Denver. All thanks to National Public Radio nationally broadcasting a story yesterday morning to its 13 million listeners on the amazing software technology cluster being built by our organization in Youngstown, Ohio.

But, here’s what we’re most excited about.

We received countless numbers of emails from people who grew up in Western Pennsylvania or Northeastern Ohio, but who are now living in places across the country. They told us how thrilled they were to hear the story. They told us they wanted to learn more about what was going on. They told us that they wanted to visit with us the next time they came “home”.

That’s great, but we’re going to go one step further.

We’re going to be working very hard to get them all to move “home”.

You can listen to the story here:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100762987

Our special thanks to Ideastream/WCPN and the Center for Working Class Studies at Youngstown State University for helping to make this a national story.

Jim Cossler
CEO and Chief Evangelist
Youngstown Business Incubator
www.ybi.org

Why?

State Representatives Mike Foley and Matt Patten will visit the Ohio Aerospace Institute to discuss briefly the advantages of the region
emphasizing Aerospace as an important sector of the economy and growth area.

Evening Reception
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
March 12, 2009

Ohio Aerospace Institute
22800 Cedar Point Road
Cleveland, OH 44142

More details will be forthcoming, however if interested in attending, please RSVP Roxanne Summers at roxannesummers@oai.org or 440-962-3113.

If you’ve been on the NEOinc site lately, you probably noticed our new addition: a Regional Entrepreneurial Calendar.

Any page you are on, whether it’s the home page or a blog post, will have the next five upcoming events listed in an “Upcoming Events” window on the left-hand side.  The full calendar can be viewed on it’s own page, accessible from the top menu.  The calendar is fully interactive and offers a number of ways to interact with both the calendar and individual events.  We think you’ll find two aspects of the calendar particularly useful:

1. The calendar has it’s own RSS feed.  Subscribe to the feed and you’ll automatically get updates in your feed reader whenever we add events to the calendar.
2. You can easily add events of interest to your own personal calendar.  When viewing the calendar, simply check the box next to the event you are interested in, then click the “Add to my Calendar” button at the top of the calendar.   Multiple calendar formats are supported, including Outlook, Yahoo and Google.

NEOinc would like to thank MAGNET for hosting the calendar.  It is actually a subset of MAGNET’s comprehensive Regional Datebook, listing events of interest from around the region.

While NEOinc member incubators regularly host events of interest to entrepreneurs, we know our events are just the tip of the iceberg.  If you have an event of interest to entrepeneurs, and would like it included in the NEOinc Regional Entrepreneurial Calendar, send details of your event to:

Lynne Brakeman (MAGNET)
lynne.brakeman@magnetwork.org

Please include as much detail as possible about your event, making sure to include the event’s contact person, website and registration link (if available).

NEOinc is pleased to provide this calendar of events to our region’s entrepreneurs, partners and support organizations.  We hope you find it valuable and take the time to contribute your events.

Widespread use of solar power technologies has been impeded by high costs and low efficiencies. Nonetheless, with recent breakthroughs in the development of novel materials and manufacturing processes, enabled in many cases by nanotechnology, solar power is predicted to be a competitive alternative energy source within a few years.

This panel discussion will include presentations that give an overview of the solar industry and its potential, specific research activities enabling developments, and various perspectives on how companies are commercializing viable solar technologies enhanced by nanotechnology. Panelists will be from Plextronics, CWRU Great Lakes Institute for Energy Innovation, University of Toledo and The Cleveland Foundation.

Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Location: Case Western Reserve University, Nord Hall, Room 310 (Free parking is available in Lot 1A behind Nord Hall on Martin Luther King Drive between Euclid and Carnegie Aves. Alternate (paid) parking is available in the Veale parking garage.)

Schedule:
5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.   Registration and networking

6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.   Panel presentations and Q&A

Register to Attend

Tentative Agenda:

8:00 a.m. Registration & Coffee

8:30 a.m. Welcome and Introductions
Don Majcher, Vice President, Technology & Innovation Partnerships, OAI

8:45 a.m. Overview of NASA SBIR Program, Process & Overview – Gynelle Steele, NASA GRC

9:15 a.m. Overview of NASA Glenn Specific Mission Directorates Focus

9:45 a.m. Break

10:00 a.m. AFRL SBIR Transition Support Program Overview, Richard Flake, AFRL with Invited Industry Panel Members – Discussion of AFRL broad needs and how industry can supply AFRL

11:00 a.m. One-on-ones, networking and discussion

12 p.m. Lunch – Panel of TechLift sponsored companies that attended National SBIR Conference and General Networking

1 p.m. Summary and Wrap-Up

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Location: OAI, 22800 Cedar Point Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44142
Registration:

The event cost is $30 and includes breakfast and lunch. Please regiser at:

https://web1.oai.org/Feb5Tech.nsf/Registration (available after January 12th, 2009)

https://web1.oai.org/ (Networking and Events – more info coming soon)

By e-mail: patriciagrospiron@oai.org and monicadumitriu@oai.org
By phone: Patricia Grospiron, 440-962-3216 and Monica Dumitriu, 440-962-3141
For more information, please visit www.oai.org.

Launched in 2003, the Civic Innovation Lab, a project funded by The Cleveland Foundation, offers mentorship, training, and funding for ideas that have can have an impact on the Greater Cleveland economy.  The Lab allows any individual to take a risk, innovate, and present a new idea that can make change. The Lab has already funded 34 great ideas led by passionate and knowledgeable individuals we call champions.

The Lab connects present community leaders (mentors) and future community leaders (champions).  Please join the Lab in a breakfast introducing their latest two champions.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Trinity Commons 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

The New Lab Champions Are: 

Brother Charles McElroy, College Interns for Energy Efficiency awarded $30,000 

Trevor Clatterbuck & Bob Gavlak, FreshFork Market awarded $30,000

This breakfast is FREE, but you MUST REGISTER.

Send an email with “Register for Breakfast” in the subject line to info@civicinnovationlab.org  and include your name and company.

Trinity Commons
2230 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland
Free Parking! Enter on Prospect near East 22^nd

College Interns for Energy Efficiency (CIEE) is a program that assists local manufacturers in applying for energy efficiency grants from the state of Ohio Department of Development. College interns will help write grants to the state, which has approximately $1MM available for smaller manufacturers. CIEE estimates that grants will average $50,000 and hopes to assist five manufacturers in the first year. 

FreshFork Market is a “virtual farmer’s market” that allows local restaurants to purchase fresh food from local farmers. This supply chain solution uses an innovative web-interface to streamline and promote a sustainable local food model in which local products are delivered directly from the farm to the restaurant.

The MAGNET Incubation Roundtable is a regular feature, offering entrepreneurs access to a variety of regional experts on topics of interest.

The next roundtable will take place on Tuesday, December 9 and the topic will be “Starting a Business 101″.  This roundtable will have a heavy focus on the financial, legal, and planning aspects of planning and starting a business.   

The speaker, Greg Hostelley, of Inner Circle Advisors, will cover a variety of topics including financial management, securing funding, legal issues, and business plan development and execution.  Some of those items might be new to you while some might be reminders for important concepts.  However, given the open discussion format of the sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to delve into topics important to you in greater depth.  Regardless of the stage of your business, you should find this program valuable and informative. 

This free program is scheduled from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. including time for networking from 3:30 to 4:00 pm with refreshments. Attendance is limited so get your reservation in soon! 

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Seminar Room
MAGNET Innovation Center
1768 East 25th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44114 

For more information or to confirm your attendance, please contact Barbara Paul at 216-432-5322, Barbara.paul@magnetwork.org.  

Feel free to contact me if you have further questions at 216-432-4197, wayne.zeman@magnetwork.org.