iMedia

09 ideaFestival

Watch iMedia Kentucky for breaking news on the 2009 ideaFestival September 23-26, in Louisville.

"Idea State U" Business plan winners

The winners of the Idea State U business plan winners:

• 1st Place Grad Plan: PackStream: UofL team developing proprietary software + package imprinting machine for shippers.
• 2nd Place Grad Plan: Mantra Indian Grill (UK)
• 1st Place Undergrad Plan: Renewable Horizons: is an NKU team developing and building solar thermal collector systems.
• 2nd Place Undergrad Plan: King Fish Farms: EKU team using aquaculture to grow baitfish
• 1st Place Graduate Concept: UofL team Fenix is licensing software from a UofL scientist to improve lung scan accuracy.
• 2nd Place Grad Concept: Kentuckyopoly (special edition of Monopoly board game) (KSU team)
• 1st Place Undergrad Concept: 2nd Generation is a UK team producing energy from high-altitude wind-generated power.
• 2nd Place Undergrad Concept: . Green Energy Louisville. Is a UofL team creating proprietary database, but not the database software, to link builders to existing green energy products.
• Governor's award went to Audio Eyez, which is developing RFID-based navigation for the blind. (Second year that a WKU student won this award).
• 1st Place Faculty Awardd was split by 2 people from WKU, 2nd place split by 2 from EKU, and 3rd went to the undergrad advisor from UK.

Matt McGarveyVice President, Commercialization and Venture Finance, Kentucky Enterprise FundKentucky Science and Technology Corporation

Energy source: Kites?

Who knows whether this idea has an energy future, but it certainly is an innovative idea.

"Idea State U"

This evening, the mistress of ceremonies for the annual Idea State U, Lynn Allen, said that the time is past for the country to continue to be a sub-prime nation. We need to re-enforce in all our universities the critical importance of entrepreneurship.

Idea State U is run and sponsored by the Department of Commercialization and Innovation of the Kentucky Department of Economic Development, Deborah Clayton, Commissioner. This year's events are being held at the Lexington Convention Center.  Awards of $100,000 are being made to top student business plans from the state's universities.  

Also tonight:

• Dr. Margaret van Gilse in her keynote address: the critical business plan value differentiators are market need, price model, people, partners, strategy for building the company. Business plans are dynamic documents. Keep pushing to get it right.
• The 60 second Elevator Pitch prizes were given to Green Energy from University of Louisville for undergraduate plans and to Mantra from University of Kentucky for graduate plans. Each company will receive $1000. Green Energy has software to help analyze how to retrofit a home to be more environmentally friendly. Mantra will be develiping Indian fast food restaurants.  
• Dr. Van Gilse states that these are her ciritical success factors or must haves to do very very well to attract talent, markets, and investors: Be flexible, Listen to your market, Focus on your strengths, Simplify your story and
  Communicate effectively. 

Matt McGarvey

Vice President, Commercialization and Venture Finance, Kentucky Enterprise Fund

Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation

  

Toxigenomics

Armed with the knowledge the genes respond to environmental factors, researchers are beginning to study those interactions. Sharon Begley describes the emerging field of toxigenomics at Newsweek:

If you’re one of those people who read about the toxic effects of environmental pollutants or diet and say, bulls***: I know lots of people who breathed or drank or ate that so-called pollutant and are just fine, then toxicogenomics is for you. This young field examines interactions between genes and environment, identifying DNA variants that make one person develop asthma from air pollutants while another breathes free, for instance, or that make one person develop cancer from cigarettes while another smokes three packs a day for 70 years with nary a shadow on his lung x-ray.

Robofish hunts pollution prey

This robotic fish could someday contribute to cleaner oceans.

Wikipedia: bionics

"March Madness for the Mind"

At a recent meeting in Washington, D.C, 14 student teams took part in March Madness for the Mind, competing for innovation bragging rights and some funding for a what might be a market-conquering result.

Every year, more than 100 groups compete to become funded e-teams. The NCIIA, underwritten by the Lemelson Foundation of Portland, Ore., and the National Academy of Sciences, sorts through them to select 25 and 30 for grants of $12,000 to $20,000 to support the development of a prototype. The e-teams and the so-called advanced e-teams (that have received multiple grants from the organization) are later invited to apply for a spot at March Madness. The finalists are chosen by, among other criteria, the technical feasibility, commercial potential, and social impact of their projects....  

In 2007, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, two graduating students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, got a $16,000 NCIIA grant that funded a few critical months of development. Ecovative Design—their company makes building insulation from mushrooms, a material they call Greensulate—went on to win awards from the state of New York, from Europe's PICNIC Green Challenge, and others.

Check out NCIIA: Promoting Student Inventors if you get the chance.

Irrational markets elude staid market theories

Market experts should give more thought to irrational thinking, according to Mahrt-Smith, an associate professor of finance at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management who spoke last week at the University of Toronto. Behavioral finance offers a fresh way to view the market ups and downs.

One of the roles of behavioural finance, which is the study of non-rational decision-making and the ways such decisions impact financial markets, is to fill in the gaps of rational finance theories, Mahrt-Smith explained. For instance, behavioural finance acknowledges that investors have different expectations about investments, and that changes in investor confidence levels can impact the markets. In addition, the theory shows that emotions can play a role in investing.

Adventures of Nanoman

Via Material World, a Discovery Blog, the American Chemical Society has announced a video contest to encourage the best explanations of nanotechnology, the control of matter at an atomic scale. The Adventures of Nanoman is one of the entries.

Wikipedia: nanotechnology

In Colorado, "innovation schools" gain freedom from Bureaucracy

A couple of Colorado schools have gained the freedom to do things their own way. Follow-up data, due one year, will determine whether the schools have in fact outperformed their counterparts.