Posts filed under 'Technology'
Johnson & Johnson purchases ‘U’ start-up company
By Chris Herring, written on Oct. 28, 2008
HealthMedia Inc., a University of Michigan start-up company, has been purchased by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, the University announced in a press release.
The company, which provides Web-based health advice by joining advanced technology with behavioral science, has about 140 employees. They all will stay in Ann Arbor despite the transaction.
Though details of the transaction were not disclosed, the release said the sale should net the University about $1.7 million of money that will later be reinvested into research initiatives at the University.
“This success is a good example of how the University of Michigan can be an engine for economic change and growth in the state,” said Stephen Forrest, the University’s vice president for research, in the release.
HealthMedia, founded in 1998, is a product of the University’s Tech Transfer Office. Prior to purchasing the company, Johnson & Johnson served as its customer.
University President Mary Sue Coleman has served on Johnson & Johnson’s board of directors since 2003.
Regents approve medical campus expansions
By thesara, written on Jul. 21, 2008
The University Board of Regents at the July 17 meeting approved almost $52 million in plans to expand facilities for the University’s medical campus.
A new Information Technology facility will replace the existing IT location in the Taubman library. “I guess they need a bigger one,” laughed Bruce Spiher from public relations at the University Hospital.
But seriously, the “massive” project–which proposed last December–will be the first devoted solely to IT and should contribute to a rapidly evolving medical campus.
“The use of information technology is expanding beyond the space we have to support it,” Spiher said.
The 47,000-square-foot, tornado-resistant building will host 11,000 square feet of data center, 7,500 square feet of support space and 28,500 square feet of infrastructure.
Groundbreaking is set for August 2008, and occupancy will begin in December 2009.
Scraping up the smaller portion of the $52 million are two properties on Wall Street off of Fuller Street that were recommended for purchase to fulfill “conceptual” plans from June 2005 for medical campus parking, classroom, research or adminastrative purposes, said the Ann Arbor News.
One property, 8100-square-foot vacant lot on 1059 Wall Street, was recommended for purchase at $162,000. Developers negotiated pricing for the second, a small apartment building on 953 Wall Street, at $790,000.
University representatives could not be reached for comment about the development, but you can view these and other long-term development plans on the University Health System’s Master Plan website.
Solar car team overcomes penalties to keep large lead
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 19, 2008
The University’s solar car team is enjoying Winnipeg, Canada right now, more than an hour ahead of its closest competition, the team from Principia College. Continuum arrived at Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba at 11:32 this morning and the team is now enjoying themselves at a barbecue thrown by the college.
College of Engineering senior Jeff Ferman said the team was happy with the progress Continuum had made since leaving Sioux Falls, South Dakota Friday.
“The drive today was wonderful,” Ferman said. “We’ve been going right at the speed limit.”
But things haven’t been going as well as they might for the team. Continuum would be even further ahead of the pack if not for some costly penalties they picked up on the drive into Sioux Falls.
The team was set back twenty minutes for four counts of speeding. But the big penalty the team picked up was for an hour and ten minutes when Continuum’s emergency braking system began to wear out.
Continuum uses “regenerative braking” most of the time, Ferman said, because it regains some of the power that would otherwise be lost by braking. But they use mechanical brakes, like those found on any other car, when they need to stop quickly.
When they used the mechanical brakes to slow Continuum’s descent down a hill towards a stoplight, they had some trouble stopping, but just thought the driver hadn’t begun braking soon enough, Ferman said. About five miles later — after successfully stopping at a number of lights and stop signs using the regenerative braking system, Ferman emphasized — they tested the brakes and realized that their brake pads had worn through. Though they were only five miles from the site they’d chosen to stop for the night, but two miles later they pulled off the road, he said.
The team won’t file an objection to the penalty, Ferman said, but he also maintained that it hadn’t made any errors.
“While (our brakes) were reduced in one form, we have redundant systems for a reason,” he said. “We were operating safely.”
But he added, “Given that the penalty was for running with an un-ordinary brake system, we did do that, so we’re not going to appeal that.”
The team will submit a brief to race officials explaining why they decided not to stop immediately. But for the most part, the penalties seem to be in the past, and the team is pleased with their position. They even got to partake in a parade today, Ferman said.
“Morris (Manitoba) has an annual stampede,” he explained. “It just happened that this weekend was the parade.”
When Continuum arrived at the little town the parade was just getting organized. At first team members were worried they’d have to stop and wait for it to finish, but that didn’t happen.
“Rahter than wait for it, they let us join the parade,” Ferman said.
Parading through the town with the horses did slow Continuum by about ten minutes, but Ferman seemed philosophical about the loss.
“It would have been worse… if we had come later. They did stop teams,” he said, and added, “We did get some good press from it.”
Solar car team leads North American Solar Challenge Race
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 17, 2008
For many students, summer is a time to work, take an internship, and see their families. For others, summer is a chance to travel — to leave Ann Arbor, to leave their home town, and see a little more of the world. For 18 undergraduates, it’s an opportunity to usher a solar-powered car across the continent from Dallas, Texas to Calgary, Alberta.
Right now, the University’s Solar Car Team and their car Continuum are parked in Sioux Falls, South Dakota waiting for their competition to catch up. They arrived in Sioux Falls yesterday at 12:35 p.m., an hour and 40 minutes ahead of their closest competition, the team from Principia College. The next team to arrive, from Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany, pulled in an hour and 35 minutes after that, around 3:15 p.m.
The University’s team was also the first to qualify for the race, and won the right to start first by outlasting the other cars on a racing track. Engineering senior Steve Hechtman, Continuum’s project manager, said the early start allowed them to escape bad weather and was part of the reason the team was able to take a big lead.
“The front-running teams were able to use their battery packs to get out in front of the storms, but the slower teams got caught up in the storms and that really slowed them down,” he said.
Another reason for its success is the car’s ability to stay on the road. Hechtman, who is also one of Continuum’s drivers, said they haven’t had any mechanical errors or even a flat tire. Some “electrical bugs” kept them off the road for about 20 minutes in the first day of driving, he said, but there haven’t been any other problems in the 22 hours they’ve spent on the road.
In fact, he said the biggest constraint so far has been the speed limit, which has been about 55 mph on most of the highway they’ve driven. But they’ve done a good job staying at a legal pace, and haven’t picked up any penatlies, which are assessed for traffic violations.
We’ll see if they can keep it up. At about 2400 miles, the NASC is the world’s longest solar car race.
I’ll keep you up to date on the team’s progress here on The Wire, but you can also check the team’s blog for reports from the road.
Competing proton therapy plan approved
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 1, 2008
The University Health System may have seen another setback in its plans to lead a consortium of health systems to build a proton therapy center in the state. The Michigan Department of Community Health today approved Beaumont Hospitals’ plan to build a facility, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The University Health System has been leading an effort by six of the state’s largest non-profit health systems to build a single center for proton therapy in the state. The Department of Community Health initially favored the collaborative approach, but Governor Jennifer Granholm vetoed its decision to approve the single facility June 19, citing antitrust laws. She also said she was concerned that the collaborative might be slow to bring the technology to the state.
Beaumont’s plan would see the completion of the center in 2010. The University hasn’t filed an formal proposal with the Department of Community Health, though it did sent a letter of intent to file such a plan. Other members of the consortium have filed formal proposals with the department.
Nicole Fawcett, a University Health System spokeswoman, said in a phone interview today that the collaborative’s plans have not changed in light of the Department of Community Health’s ruling. A paragraph suggesting that Michiganders contact Granholm and state legislators in support of the collaborative approach was recently appended to its website.
Proton beam therapy is a form of cancer therapy that bombards tumors with protons, molecules much larger than the photons used in traditional radiation therapy. Because of the molecules are so large and the technology is new, a proton therapy center costs about $160 million to build, eight times the cost of a photon therapy facility. Proton therpay can also cost twice as much to administer as traditional radiation therapy.
Scientists say that theoretically the technology is more effective at treating cancerous tumors in sensitive tissue, such as near the spinal cord, and in children. But its efficacy hasn’t been proven.
Plans for single proton therapy center in state vetoed
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jun. 28, 2008
For several months the University Health System has been leading a group of health systems in an effort to build a facility for proton beam cancer therapy in southeast Michigan. But Governor Jennifer Granholm, citing antitrust laws, has vetoed the Department of Community Health’s decision to authorize a single proton therapy facility.
The Department of Community Health originally approved a single collaborative to bring the new therapy to the state, in order to eliminate competition and keep prices low. A single facility could cost about $160 million dollars to build.
Besides the University Health System-led collaborative, the William Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak has also expressed interest in a proton therapy facility. It would partner with ProCure Treatment Centers a for-profit health technology company based in Indiana.
All the members of the collaborative are non-profit health systems.
Though the collaborative’s proton beam center may not be the only one in the state, it intends to proceed with its plans to construct the center, said UHS Spokeswoman Nicole Fawcett.
The members of the collaborative “still believe in and support the value of working together, despite their disappointment in Governor Granholm’s recent veto,” Fawcett said in an e-mail interview.
Two members, the Henry Ford Health System and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center, have filed for approval to build independent proton beam centers. The University Health System has formally expressed its intent to file such an application.
Proton beam therapy is an alternative to traditional cancer radiation, which uses photons. Proton therapy is thought to be more effective at treating cancerous tumors in sensitive parts of the body and in children, though it hasn’t been proven to be. Equipment for proton therapy can cost about eight times as much as photon therapy equipment.
For Facebook addicts, going clean isn’t so easy
By Emily Barton, written on Feb. 11, 2008
While it might be fun to post party pictures and write on friends’ walls now, it’s practically impossible to delete your entire Facebook.com profile, the New York Times reported.
The popular networking site offers no one-step solution to getting rid of profile content. Short of deleting an account line by line, there is no easy way to remove information. There is an option to deactivate, allowing users to hide their profiles until they’re inclined to return. If they do, it’ll be as if they never left.
But Facebook keeps an archived copy of their accounts.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has been scrutinized for privacy policies. The addition of the News Feed and the Mini Feed sparked outrage among users last year before becoming an accepted part of the Facebook routine.
The most recent outrcy was in response to the Facebook Beacon feature, which automatically informed your Facebook friends whenever you made purchases online. Facebook finally allowed it to be optional in response to a MoveOn.org petition.
Outsourcing e-mail much cheaper for some schools
By Chris Herring, written on Jan. 8, 2008
When Northwestern University officials decided to scrap the school’s e-mail system in 2005, they were among the first to do so.
Now, officials at schools around the country have made the same decision, with some saying that outsourced e-mail services like Google Apps and Windows Live@edu are saving the schools money.
This report in the Chronicle of Higher Education details the shift.
According to the story, Arizona State University saved $500,000 by dropping its own e-mail system and making the switch.
Many college officials also have said that other e-mail clients store more space than college-run ones do.
Amy Brooks, who is interim executive director of the University’s IT central services and is quoted in the article, said students normally don’t run out of space with their college e-mail accounts here.
In November, Brooks told The Michigan Daily that the University officials considered changing over to another mail client, but ultimately decided not to.
“We’ve evaluated Gmail, but there is no compelling reason for us to switch,” she said at the time.
RIAA sends 20 pre-litigation letters to University
By Katherine Mitchell, written on Oct. 19, 2007
The Recording Industry Association of America sent 20 pre-litigation settlement letters to the University yesterday.
The letters identify IP addresses that are accused of illegally file-sharing music over the network. The letters give alleged peer-to-peer file sharers the opportunity to settle with the RIAA’s companies. If users do not respond within 20 days, the trade group threatens to file formal lawsuits against them.
The trade group asks the University to pass the letters along to the IP addresses’ corresponding users.
The RIAA sent 411 pre-litigation letters yesterday to 19 campuses including the University of South Florida (43), the University of Southern California (37) and Vanderbilt University (32).
The pre-litigation settlement letters are part of a an RIAA crackdown on peer-to-peer file sharing on college campuses. The initiative was launched last February, the Michigan Daily reported. The trade group aims to send at least 400 letters per month.
In April, the University received 23 pre-litigation settlement letters. In May, the RIAA issued a subpoena to the University requesting contact information for 12 IP addesses that the trade group’s companies had sued, the Daily reported.
Pre-litigation settlement terms are undisclosed, but federal copyright infringement penalities range from $750 to $150,000 per item.
Ann Arbor, Raleigh both claim to be first LED city
By Gabe Nelson, written on Oct. 18, 2007
Within two years, every streetlight in downtown Ann Arbor will use LED bulbs, an eco-friendly switch that officials say will reduce the city’s energy costs by about $100,000 per year, The Ann Arbor News reported yesterday.
Mayor John Hieftje boasted in a Tuesday press conference that the city is the first in the country to pledge to use the light emitting diode bulbs in all of its streetlights.
Officials in Raleigh, N.C. might disagree.
In February, Raleigh launched a plan, called the “LED City” initiative, to replace many of the city’s incandescent bulbs with LEDs. The city said at the time that it would make a complete switch to LEDs if it would cut the city’s energy bill.
Both companies are working to implement the change with Cree, a Durham, N.C.-based LED company. It seems that Cree told both cities they were the first one to make the switch — Raleigh being the first to start the process, and Ann Arbor the first to pledge to complete it.
Raleigh, located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, already has a reputation as a high-tech haven — not unlike Ann Arbor, the hub of the state’s newly created University Research Corridor. Both cities are also known for being eco-friendly: Raleigh’s nickname is “the City of Oaks,” while Ann Arbor’s is “Tree Town.”
Something tells me it’s about time for a showdown.