Education : Innovation + Job News

Six startups founded by students and recent graduates of Ohio University and West Virginia University have emerged from Ohio University’s Innovation Engine digital media accelerator, which is a summer entrepreneurship program aimed at keeping business and technology talent within the state.
 
The fledgling companies received up to $20,000 in seed funding and underwent a 12-week boot camp featuring mentorship opportunities with established executives and venture capitalists. Lynn Gellermann, Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, taught in the program, offering his expertise in digital media IT.
 
“These six teams were selected out of 17 applications,” says Gellermann. “They were screened, interviewed and selected based on their team, their idea and application.”
 
Viable ideas with viable markets won out.
 
“We look at the prospect of [the company] being able to put together an idea or beta product in a short time that they can demo.”
 
The program is made possible through public-private partnerships that offer expert insight and financial backing. These include the Center for Entrepreneurship, the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, the Scripps College of Communication, the Voinovich School and TechGROWTH Ohio. “We also have private support from WesBanco,” notes Gellermann.
 
Participants, says Gellermann, felt as if they received a “mini-MBA” in the 2013 program, noting a majority came from engineering or communications backgrounds. And whether they continue with their startup or not, Gellermann says the accelerator “impacted the way they think.”
 
“We hope that some of them will start up, make it to the marketplace, raise capital, employ some people, and become viable startup companies in the region,” says Gellermann, adding the program is also about building a culture of entrepreneurship in southeast Ohio.
 
The 2013 companies include MyCampus, which created a mobile app that allows college students to quickly sell and purchase items. Razor Dynamics offers a product that improves mobile phone location services. AccessAble developed a website to provide travel information and booking services for people with limited mobility. Atlas Language Innovations created an educational online video game that can teach users Arabic and other languages. Foleeo developed an online portfolio tool for job seekers in the business, engineering and technical fields. Lastly, Anyvent offers software for inexperienced event planners.
 
“Students will go back home and talk to their friends,” says Gellermann. “It’s really helping to promote a culture of innovation at OU.”
 

Source: Lynn Gellermann
Writer: Joe Baur

First Student, a Cincinnati-based corporation focused on transportation services for school districts, is partnering with Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) to roll out the ZPass for the 2013–2014 school year. ZPass is a new technology that allows schools, parents and caregivers the ability to “take the guesswork out of the bus stop, and give parents comfort in knowing their child got on or off the bus as scheduled," according to First Student.
 
With ZPass, each student is issued a unique ID card, which is scanned when they enter and exit the school bus. Each time this happens, the time, date and location is logged and transmitted to a secure database. School administrators, as well as parents, can access the same system to see when and where a child has entered and exited the bus. Parents can also register to have the information sent instantly by text messages or push notifications.
 
“Cincinnati is one of the first locations to have this technology,” says First Student spokesperson Jen Biddinger. “After a successful pilot program last school year, we are in the process of rolling it out on a wider scale.”
 
“By the beginning of October we will have grown it to 12 schools,” adds John Davis, Director of Transportation for CPS, “and our outlook is that we will initiate other schools and go district-wide by January of 2014.
 
“We were looking for something that could better track student ridership and provide information for parents,” continues Davis. “The ZPass allows a parent to estimate when a bus will arrive at a particular bus stop even in adverse weather conditions.”
 
“As a district, we understand that technology is changing our lives rapidly, and we want to harness the power of that technology across the board, be it in operations, such as in this case, or in the classroom,” explains Janet Walsh, Director of Public Affairs for CPS.
 
“We’re moving forward rapidly with using various kinds of blended learning models, which use technology in different, more sophisticated ways,” Walsh notes. “It’s an exciting time, and we are embracing it as a district.”

Michael Sarason

In the 2013 edition of its annual National Universities Rankings, Washington Monthly awarded the number four spot to Case Western Reserve University. In fact, with an overall school of 93, Case shares the number three spot with Texas A&M. The Ohio State University earned a respectable ranking of number 28 with an overall score of 70.

The ratings are unique in that they rank schools not on various academic statistics but rather on their contribution to the public good. Specifically, they look at three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).

The third annual Ohio Unmanned Aircraft Systems Conference (UAS) is set to return to the Dayton region next year, from August 26th to the 28th, with events playing out in the Dayton Convention Center and Sinclair Community College. The Dayton Development Coalition (DDC) and the Wright Brothers Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International will host the three-day conference.
 
The 2014 conference will continue the tradition of connecting industry experts with key government officials to discuss the rapidly evolving unmanned aircraft industry. An aircraft without a human pilot is colloquially known as a drone.
 
“We provide the venue to examine issues surrounding development and provide opportunities for further collaboration between all attendees,” explains Maurice McDonald, DDC’s Executive Vice President of Aerospace & Defense. The DDC has hosted the event since 2012 in partnership with various regional organizations and academia.
 
Why Dayton? McDonald says it’s simple. “Aviation as we know it really began in the Dayton region,” he says, noting Charles Kettering’s development of the first unmanned aerial vehicle, the Kettering Bug, in 1918 alongside the area’s favorite aviation heroes, the Wright Brothers. The latter, of course, is now the namesake of the local United States Air Force Base, “which is responsible for the research, development, testing, and acquisition of UAS technologies and the acquisition of new systems for the Air Force.”
 
The event will feature network opportunities and presentations given by senior leaders in the UAS community. “In addition, conference participants will have access to numerous UAS companies attending the conference and those exhibiting their company’s capabilities,” McDonald explains. “The conference also provides the opportunity to choose various break-out sessions where panels of experts discuss various capabilities, issues, technologies, and applications of UAS.”
 
For those looking for continuing education credit, training sessions will be conducted on the last day of the event.

“This conference gives attendees the opportunity to have valuable discussions around an industry that is still being developed,” says McDonald. “The Dayton region and Ohio will be able to showcase its strong assets, such as our world class research and development centers, our manufacturing capability, our significant aerospace supply chain and our public and private university structure.”
 
Source: Maurice McDonald
Writer: Joe Baur

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are gaining traction at major universities across the country. These free, online courses open higher education to the masses. Students are limited only by their desire to learn.

MOOCs gained major attention in the United States after prestigious universities like Stanford and MIT began offering them. The courses are open to any student, regardless of educational background, and can last from four to 17 weeks. Course structure varies by institution, and each potentially can have thousands of students. MOOCs generally are about the process of learning, and students aren't awarded college credit for completing them.

But this fall, the University of Cincinnati of Cincinnati will push the boundaries of MOOCs by offering a program for which participants can earn free college credit if they complete it.

UC professors Drew Boyd and Jim Tappel will teach Innovation and Design Thinking. The course will teach students the tools that organizations use to innovate everything from new products to new employee training methods. Students who complete the MOOC and enroll in a UC Business or Engineering degree program can apply the credits. It will be a two credit hour course.

"This is one of the first, if not the first, option available to turn a MOOC into course credit," explains Tappel, an Engineering and Applied Science professor. Tappel and Boyd, a marketing and innovation professor, will begin their seven-week course in October. During those seven weeks, students will apply innovation tools, using them to create new product or service ideas.

Innovation can be taught, Tappel says. This course can help individuals or groups learn, step by step, the innovation process.

"All companies today realize that innovation is important (for growth)," says Tappel, "and it's different than creativity. Innovation takes creative thoughts and turns them into a practical, pragmatic result."


By Feoshia H. Davis

What has been a lifelong love of comics and video games for Tamar Medina has turned into an interesting business. Medina and his co-founders developed J-Lynn Entertainment in 2011. The Cleveland-based company makes video game comics -- interactive comics in which the reader controls the outcome.
 
In July, Medina began test marketing the video game comics at conventions. “The feedback we got at the comic conventions was great,” says Medina.
 
But at the conventions, Medina also got an unexpected reaction. Parents and teachers approached him to say his video game comics would be a helpful tool for children with autism. After some research into autism, Medina and his team discovered their games were perfect for cognitive training, collecting performance data, and research in autism spectrum disorders.
 
“Kids with autism have trouble reading and comprehending certain words,” Medina explains. “But reading a comic and seeing what’s going on with pictures, the kids really adhere to technology.” Because the comics are interactive, they also help autistic children develop their social and decision-making skills.
 
Medina went to top experts for help in developing a line of games specific to kids with autism. “At the end of the game, we put statistics on the social choices they made,” says Medina of one feature he’s incorporated. “We wanted to have it be fun and be interactive.”
 
J-Lynn Entertainment is still developing its regular line of video game comics and is talking to investors. The company has five employees. Medina says they are hoping to bring on a full-time programmer, and envisions J-Lynn will employ 25 to 50 people within the next five years.
 
“The passion is awesome and we think our product will be great, not only in improving the autism condition, but also identifying it,” says Medina. “I believe we have the ability and skills for growth. J-Lynn is currently polishing its prototype and hopes to release it this fall for android.

 
Source: Tamar Medina
Writer: Karin Connelly

Members of the regional business community on both sides of the Ohio River convened at the METS Center in Erlanger, KY, last week to discuss the intricacies of conducting business overseas at the summit known as Merx 2013.

Derived from the Latin word for trade or commerce, “Merx” is hosted by the Northern Kentucky International Trade Association (NKITA). Its purpose is to encourage growth in local businesses’ ability to maintain their affairs outside of the United States. Ohio- and Kentucky-based businesses and entities supported the event.

With Cincinnati’s startup community gaining momentum in the business world, events such as Merx 2013 help to ensure that businesses old and new have the chance to not only conduct business around the globe, but also promote Cincinnati in the process. 

The event catered to two lines of thought for entrepreneurs: marketing and operations. With dual panel discussions split between two conference rooms, this approach helped professionals across the board to maximize their chances of successfully implementing their businesses in countries other than the United States.

Topics of conversation included marketing to locals, how to set up an entity abroad, getting the most from trade shows, partnerships and acquisitions, online marketing, and general security precautions to take when working in another country. Business leaders from the area’s most successful companies moderated the panels, which were open to attendees for discussion.

Youngstown-based Turning Technologies, a software development company, has acquired their largest competitor, eInstruction, a leader in global education technology.
 
The acquisition is the largest of Turning's to date and positions the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) portfolio company to further their international dominance in Europe, South America and Asia.
 
Jim Cossler, CEO at YBI, believes this latest acquisition is a good example of the incubator's potential. “It answers a lot of questions that people had about our model,” he says. “We announced to the world in 2001 that we were going to launch a world-class market in downtown Youngstown. There weren’t many people in our community or northeast Ohio who believed us, but we’ve done that.”
 
Since its inception, YBI has seen numerous acquisitions take place and eInstruction will hardly be the last. Cossler hints, “We think there will be more in the relatively near future.”
 
Cossler continues, noting the eInstruction acquisition will bring growth to the region. “There will definitely be new job creation in Youngstown as a result,” he says. One area ripe for growth is warehouse space, which Cossler describes as currently inadequate to accommodate the merger. “They’re in the process now of looking for new warehouse facilities in the greater Youngstown area.”
 
 
Source: Jim Cossler
Writer: Joe Baur

The Akron-based Software Craftsman Guild (SWC) has opened the first regional software development boot camp featuring intensive training for seven apprentices over 12 weeks.
 
“There is a severe shortage of qualified software development talent nationally,” says Eric Wise, President at SWC. “Our hiring network partners struggle with finding enough talent for their staffing goals and are reaching out to organizations like ours to identify intelligent and motivated people to fast track into the skill sets that are in demand.”
 
Wise walks through what participants will experience in the boot camp, saying the program is broken down into various technical aspects. “This program is very intense and besides the full-time work in the lab with the mentors, apprentices typically put in another 20 to 30 hours per week doing project work.”
 
Ultimately, Wise believes participants will benefit most by being surrounded by fellow apprentices who are in the same situation. “The best thing for the apprentices is that they are with up to a dozen other people who are going through the same learning curve that they are,” he explains. “They have a relatively consequence-free environment to experiment and really dive down into the material that they can't get from other sources.”
 
Various experts in the field are involved in the program, including Eric Ward who has a strong Java background. “He will be launching a parallel cohort this fall in the Java and open source stacks,” Wise says. Rounding out the team are Sarah Dutkiewicz and David Basarab who have both found success in consulting. If others would like to drop by, Wise says they are welcome. “We have an open door policy for IT professionals in our region to come in, visit and do presentations for the apprentices so that they can hear other voices besides ours and learn as much as they can about the field they are getting into.”
 
Wise and his team are excited to be part of the growing entrepreneurial scene throughout the state, especially in Akron. “Our region has been doing a great job through incubators and other initiatives to move the economy more towards knowledge work,” he says, noting their special place in meeting the technical talent gap. “We are proud to be retooling existing talent to place where needed as we bring brains into the region from other states.”
 
 
Source: Eric Wise
Writer: Joe Baur

Entrepreneurship might be in the blood, but success takes more than passion. It also takes a head for business, and there are tried steps that every business should take to go from concept to reality.

An entrepreneurship course at Xavier University pairs the region's startups with MBA students for a partnership of theory and real-world application. The course, ENTR 668, is an extension of the University's X-LAB (Xavier Launch-a-Business) competition. X-LAB was founded by Xavier's Williams College of Business.

"We've learned through X-LAB that 90 percent of our businesses understand their idea, and are passionate about it, but they don't how to take it to market," says professor Joe Carter, X-LAB's Director. "That's a gap we can fill at Xavier."

As part of X-LAB, finalists meet with potential investors and receive training and consulting services during an 18-week process. Once that ends, ENTR 668 students choose a handful of businesses from the finalists for more intense consultation.

"The MBA students, along with a business advisory board, interview the X-LAB finalists and decide which businesses they are going to help," Carter says.

Each business can have a number of students assigned to it, depending on its needs. Some have had up to eight advisors. The businesses that have benefited from XLAB include the 3D printing company 3DLT and Ahalogy (formerly Pingage), a results-oriented content marketing system.

Students work with the business for a semester, but there are plans to expand it to two semesters in the near future, Carter says. There is no cost for these services for the business.

Student consulting work runs the gamut, from developing marketing plans to business model development and verification to market expansion.

"We'll have students working late, on the weekends or after midnight because they are so invested in these businesses," Carter says.

The business owners aren't the only beneficiaries. Students—most whom are older professionals—win too.

"Businesses bring their knowledge and have practical work experience," Carter says. "We see this as a huge way to differentiate our program. Our students have all these business tools, but in this course, they have to know which tool to pull out of the toolbox."


By Feoshia H. Davis

After a combined 120 weeks of courses geared toward nonprofit leadership and development, Talbert House and Executive Service Corps of Cincinnati have decided to join forces and combine their programs into one. 

Beginning in September, the two nonprofits will begin the Executive Curriculum for Emerging Leaders through the newly created Nonprofit Leadership Institute of Greater Cincinnati. 

“I think the fact that we were two organizations in similar spaces in the marketplace trying to do similar things as it relates to leadership education and development—it got to a point of is there a way for us to really work together on this?” says Andy McCreanor, executive director and CEO of ESCC. 

The goal is to offer services to other nonprofits—large or small—so they can gain the skills and education necessary to position their organizations for community-wide success. 

“The true value of The Nonprofit Leadership Institute of Greater Cincinnati will be shown by how well nonprofits perform in the community, whether you’re a nonprofit, someone receiving services from a nonprofit, a community investor or a corporate partner looking for a socially responsible way to impact the lives of people,” McCreanor says. “The Institute offers great potential for participants and partners to receive a solid return on their time and investment.” 

McCreanor says the most enjoyable part for him is graduation. It's a day when he gets the chance to hear class participants talk about their growth and increased expertise when it comes to successfully operating their nonprofit. And come May 2014, he says he hopes to hear of many more success stories.

“The idea is that nonprofits would essentially see what we call a no-wrong-door approach to leadership education and development—that whether you’re a large or small nonprofit, that coming to the nonprofit leadership institute, you’d be able to find the subject matter, the program, the course that suits your needs,” McCreanor says. “Not all nonprofits are created equally, so the idea is that the institute would allow a nonprofit to find the program or development that is important to them.”

Tech talent in Cincinnati is in high demand but in short supply in some areas. And as the local tech startup economy grows, so does the need for cutting-edge developer talent.

One local mobile and web app development company is leading an effort to develop talent in its corner of the tech world. Blue Ash-based Gaslight is teaming up with Cincinnati-area industry and entrepreneurial leaders to start a training program for app developers using the Ruby on Rails platform.

Gaslight specializes in developing apps through Ruby on Rails. The growing company, which has more than a dozen developers, creates apps and other software applications for growing startups and established brands.

Gaslight co-founder and Ruby developer Bill Barnett says the idea is a practical one. Ruby has become a popular app development platform, and it's become harder for Ruby developers, including Gaslight, to keep up with client demand.

"There is a need for Ruby on Rails support that the market is not meeting at the moment," he says.

The training program is aimed at bringing new developers into the field, and would last about six months. This type of web development school is emerging in several cities across the United States—gSchool in Denver is one of the best known. GSchool is a model for Cincinnati to follow, Barnett says.

"We want to create an avenue for people who want to get into software development, and maybe come from other disciplines," Barnett says. "They might be a recent college graduate who has a degree in medicine or law but has an entrepreneurial inkling. They could be returning from overseas, transitioning from a military career."

Gaslight is still in the planning stages, but it has a record of leadership in the Cincinnati web community, and has hosted several developer Meetups and is the lead organizer of the Queen City Merge conference. Gaslight is working with a number of interested groups to get it off the ground, including Neo, Girl Develop It and The Brandery.

No firm date has been set for the training program's launch, but a goal is to start a group of 20-25 students by late this year or early next.

Find out more about Gaslight and what it has to offer at Web School Cincinnati.


By Feoshia H. Davis

Last month, the northeast Ohio-based Burton D. Morgan Foundation announced grants totaling $982,500 that will support a wide array of youth, collegiate and adult entrepreneurship endeavors.
 
“The Board meets three times each year to consider grants to support strategically positioned entrepreneurship initiatives in the northeast Ohio region,” explains Deborah Hoover, President and CEO of the Foundation. “These grants reflect our best thinking on how we can foster entrepreneurship in our region and help to create a pipeline of entrepreneurially-minded individuals who will help reinvent the economy through new ventures and fresh approaches to solving problems.”
 
Recipients include the Fund for Our Economic Future, BioEnterprise and Akron Public Schools. A complete list of awardees is available at the fund’s official website, bdmorganfdn.org.
 
Regarding how the funds will be used, Hoover says all recipients will be subject to the detailed agreements that govern each grant. “The grant purposes reflect a variety of strategies aimed at advancing entrepreneurship in the region.” These strategies will ultimately help grow and support Northeast Ohio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
 
The response from the entrepreneurial community throughout the state, Hoover says, has been overwhelmingly positive and upbeat, with notable excitement about the future. “As I have traveled to other regions of the nation in recent months sharing our story, people are fascinated to hear about the entrepreneurial spirit that is growing in our region and excited to learn how Northeast Ohio has come together to rekindle its entrepreneurial base,” notes Hoover. “The Burton D. Morgan Foundation is proud to be part of this unfolding and vibrant story of determination and resurgence.”
 
 
Source: Deborah Hoover
Writer: Joe Baur

Most high school students count down the days until summer vacation, but for those participating in the Economics Center’s summer program—Today’s Learners, Tomorrow’s Leaders—the countdown continues.  

TL2 students spent the first month of their summers back in the classroom as they took a microeconomics course and visited local businesses to earn both high school and college credit. 

Economics can be an abstract concept, says Daniel Barkley, University of Cincinnati adjunct professor and Economics on the Move founder. 

“When I was in undergrad, some of my professors would take us to buildings that were being worked on so you could see how they were being constructed, and I learned a lot that way, so I figured why not do it with economics?” he says.  

Rather than simply reading about economics in a textbook, Barkley says it’s important for his TL2 students to see the business side of things as opposed to the consumer side, which everyone is already familiar with. 

“A lot of companies will open their doors and show you—it doesn’t matter if it’s baseball or you’re making rubber seals—but it’s similar philosophies," he says. "And they’re at the age when it’ll sink in and do well."

Students had the opportunity to experience the inner workings of a variety of places, including Great American Ball Park, Meridian Bioscience, CVG Airport and Sur-Seal—all of which offer different services but operate under similar principles. 

“I realized that a lot of these businesses are alike in so many different ways," says Mozika Maloba, who attends Walnut Hills High School and was a participant in this year’s TL2. "They have so many different things that connect them. At first, I think I neglected to see that, but it’s funny how you can connect CVG to the Reds' stadium or Meridian BioScience, and I think that’s one of the main things I learned. Economics is such a broad field that can connect to every business.” 

And like most cooperative learning opportunities, students have the chance to not only expand their knowledge, but also their social networks. 

“Along with the whole business prospect of it, you are actually getting a group of friends you can stay in contact with for a while, and they all have the same goals and ideas in their heads,” Maloba says. “And after three weeks, there’s so many correlations between you and the 26 others in the same room as you, so it’s really cool how you can befriend people and then later on, after this year, you can talk to them once again.” 


Writer: Brittany York

Six digital media startups have been accepted into the Athens-based Innovation Engine Accelerator for a 12-week intensive summer program designed to advance entrepreneurship in Ohio.
 
Selected startups are eligible to receive up to $20,000 in funding from the program, in which participants refine their business models and products with the assistance of expert entrepreneurial advice. Participants will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors at the end of the summer.
 
The six participants include a diverse range of digital media startups profiled below:
 
AccessAble Travel aspires to develop services and online tools that provide information, user-based reviews and ratings of hotels, airlines, tourist destinations, public attractions and car rental companies for people with physical disabilities.

Foleeo is an online portfolio management service for business professionals, companies and organizations seeking to upload collateral work experience, talents and skills onto a single site.

Razor Dynamics seeks to improve everyday experiences and navigation for mobile devices through an augmented reality interface.

Atlas Language Innovations is developing an educational video game to teach languages, including Arabic.

MyCampus is a social mobile marketplace that gives college students the ability to buy and sell items such as tickets, textbooks and furniture to other students via mobile phones.

Lydria aims to create the next information delivery system for applications ranging from education to business and events.
 
Jennifer Simon, Director of Ohio University’s Innovation Center where the accelerator is housed, says the program was designed to respond to the surge of digital media entrepreneurs emerging from the university and throughout Ohio.
 
“The Accelerator’s goal is to rapidly prepare five startup businesses to pursue follow-on funding for their concept by facilitating development of market-tested new digital media products,” says Simon. While five of the six companies will receive up to $20,000 in seed capital, the final sixth company receives services only. If a company is not able to complete the program, the sixth company may receive part of its funding.
 
In addition to access with entrepreneurial experts, the Innovation Engine offers startups the opportunity to make use of 1,000 square feet of shared creative space, conference rooms, and cutting-edge equipment and software like Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Pro X, and other business essentials for launching a successful digital media enterprise.
 
Ultimately, participants will endure a more intensive schedule in this year’s accelerator with Venture Facilitators' Lynn Gellermann and Tom Parkinson providing a nine-step training program that includes everything from the basics of entrepreneurship to building a financial model.
 
Simon concludes, “This year’s program provides a more structured approach to entrepreneurial training by mixing qualified mentors and venture facilitators with exceptional results.”
 
 
Source: Jennifer Simon
Writer: Joe Baur