Adaptive Materials cuts ribbon on new home; will mass produce fuel cells Ann Arbor-based Adaptive Materials Inc. hosted several local and state dignitaries in dedicating its new, 47,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing plant south of Ann Arbor Friday. Adaptive Materials says the new plant will allow it to become the first fuel cell company on the planet to mass-produce. Adaptive Materials fuel cells are fundamentally different from most fuel cells. They're a design called solid oxide, which doesn't rely on expensive, scarce platinum in their construction or expensive, scarce hyperpure hydrogen as fuel. Instead, the fuel cells are comprised of tubes, each about the size of a coffee stirrer, which are ceramic on the outside and a porous mixture of ceramic and small bits of nickel on the inside. When exposed to a variety of fuels -- including common propane, which you can buy at the supermarket -- the tube generates electricity. More, including a photo gallery.
Compuware celebrates 2.0 rollout with big party It was a big-time corporate celebration in Campus Martius Park Friday as Compuware Corp. rolled out its Compuware 2.0 initiative. Under a partly cloudy sky, thousands of employees packed the park, as the Detroit power-pop outfit The Go rocked out. Then chairman and CEO Peter Karmanos Jr. and president and COO Bob Paul took the stage, congratulating the company on a terrific quarter and a good fiscal year, and pledging more strong growth ahead under the 2.0 initiative. Under the Compuware 2.0 initiative, the company says it will put its emphasis on the products where it is clearly the best in the world -- the IT service management product known as Vantage, IT portfolio management software called Changepoint, and Compuware's traditional mainframe software. More, including a photo gallery.
Dow Corning opens new solar assembly center
Demonstrating its commitment to drive solar power innovations, Dow Corning Corp. has opened a Solar Solutions Application Center in Freeland to collaborate with customers to develop, evaluate and pilot material solutions used to manufacture solar panels. The 27,000-square foot center represents an investment of more than $3 million and includes a laboratory, pilot equipment and testing facilities. A team of engineers and scientists will staff the center, which is designed to be expanded as needed to meet the needs of the growing solar and photovoltaic industry. More.
Propane driving to be displayed in Lansing
Propane power will be on display at the state Capitol lawn in Lansing Tuesday. Roush Industries (sorry, no relation) will have its new propane-powered F-150 there, along with two propane-powered buses and two dual-fuel vehicles. More than 10,000 propane-powered vehicles are on the road in Michigan, and there are more than 500 propane vehicle filling stations statewide. More.
Appia to offer IT, telecom in Chicago through partner Traverse City-based Appia Communications today announced that Vicinitech has joined Appia's rapidly-growing nationwide network of partners. Vicinitech of Chicago is one of the newest partners to join Appia, a provider of managed IT and telecommunications services to small and mid-sized companies and organizations. More.
GLITR at LTU, ITEC at Rock, Plexus in GR, and more
It's yet another ridiculously busy week for Michigan tech events leading into the Memorial Day holiday on the GLITR IT Calendar, the state's most comprehensive events calendar, found here.
It kicks off bright and early Monday with Power Plex, the big user conference of those manufacturing software wizards Plexus Software, being held in Grand Rapids. That runs through Wednesday.
Tuesday, Telematics Detroit opens at Rock Showplace in Novi, offering a nifty peek at the intersection of modern automobiles and modern electronics and modern applications.
Wednesday, it's ITEC Detroit, also at Rock Financial, a major annual trade show of all things IT.
Meanwhile, in Ann Arbor, Wednesday features both BioArbor and an Ann Arbor Spark Hot Shots career event.
Then on Thursday, your humble narrator will do his monthly gig at Lawrence Technological University. (Yes, smartypants, we know it's called Last Thursdays Unwired at Lawrence Tech U. But this month it's on the next-to-last Thursday so as not to conflict with the Detroit Chamber's massive Mackinac conference next week.) The topic at Lawrence Tech this time is doing business with the government, and it's the usual deal -- 7:30 a.m. doors, coffee and bagels, 8 a.m. program, and I promise to have you out the door by 9. To register, click here.
Thursday also features a ton of other meetings, from the Lansing Area IT Council to ITroy to the State Bar IT Law Section.
See you out there!
Note: For information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Dan Keelan at (248) 455-7380 or dkeelan@cbs.com.
Angel group invests in sales software company
Great Lakes Angels Inc. last week announced a new, additional investment of $125,000 in one of its portfolio companies, Troy-based Saleztrack. The investment round totaled $500,000. GLA says it is working with other angel groups in the region to syndicate the deal for further financing. GLA said the company has reached "significant milestones" in the past few months. More.
Mackinac Center weighs in against renewable power mandate Now the libertarian Mackinac Center is weighing in against a proposal to mandate alternative energy use by Michigan utilities, while essentially remonopolizing the state's electricity markets for existing utilities. In a study released last week, today, Mackinac Center adjunct scholars Diane S. Katz and Theodore Bolema examine the drawbacks of proposals in the state legislature to limit competition among electricity suppliers and mandate greater use of renewable energy such as solar, wind or hydroelectric power. The study finds that such regulation would significantly raise electricity rates without improving energy reliability or environmental quality. More.
Dentist turns to CAD/CAM The precise measurements and realistic models CAD-CAM delivers for the automotive industry are now being used for dental implants by Dr. Timothy Kosinski at a dental practice called SmileCreator in Bingham Farms. A patient now can have a cat scan done in 10 minutes and that information is then entered into CAD-CAM software which presents a three-dimensional model that allows Kosinski to simulate the placement of an implant in the jaw without ever touching the patient. More.
Internet advertising on the rise
New data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP show that Internet advertising in the U.S. is still growing at an astounding rate. The IAB/PWC Internet Advertising Revenue Report for 2007 shows that in 2007, Internet ad revenues reached a record $21.2 billion, up 26 percent from 2006. That means, the IAB says, that Internet advertising revenues surpassed radio advertising and cable television advertising in total U.S. ad spending. David Doty, senior vice president of thought leadership and marketing for the IAB, said that growth continues, in part, because more companies that might have been reluctant to advertise on the Web in the past are jumping in. More from WWJ's Daily Dash business publication.
Microsoft: New talks for alternative Yahoo deal Microsoft Corp. said Sunday it is talking to Yahoo Inc. about a transaction that doesn't involve a full buyout like the software maker's $47.5 billion offer that fell apart earlier this month. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft walked away May 3 from its offer to buy the Web pioneer. Since then, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has launched an effort to oust Yahoo's board. In a statement Sunday, Microsoft says it is considering a different kind of deal with Yahoo as it pursues ways to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. More.
Researchers teach 'Second Life' avatar to think Edd Hifeng barely merits a second glance in "Second Life." A steel-gray robot with lanky limbs and linebacker shoulders, he looks like a typical avatar in the popular virtual world. But Edd is different. His actions are animated not by a person at a keyboard but by a computer. Edd is a creation of artificial intelligence, or AI, by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who endowed him with a limited ability to converse and reason. It turns out "Second Life" is more than a place where pixelated avatars chat, interact and fly about. It's also a frontier in AI research because it's a controllable environment where testing intelligent creations is easier. More.
China allows bloggers, others to spread quake news
Almost nonstop, the uncensored opinions of Chinese citizens are popping up online, sent by text and instant message across a country shaken by its worst earthquake in three decades. "Why were most of those killed in the earthquake children?" one post asked Thursday on FanFou, a microblogging site. "How many donations will really reach the disaster area? This is doubtful," read another. China is now home to the world's largest number of Internet and mobile phone users, and their hunger for quake news is forcing the government to let information flow in ways it hasn't before. A fast-moving network of text messages, instant messages and blogs has been a powerful source of firsthand accounts of the disaster, as well as pleas for help and even passionate criticism of rescue efforts. More.
Stocks: Techs mixed among broader market slide The major technology indexes posted mixed results Friday with the Nasdaq Composite Index dipping slightly as the broader market also declined. Despite the session slip, Nasdaq finished the week 3.4 percent higher. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) dipped 4.88 points or 0.2 percent to close at 2,528.85, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) added 1.95 points or 0.5 percent to 421.67, and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) added 1.61 points or 0.3 percent to 614.8. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index ($DRG) fell 0.36 points or 0.1 percent to 301.89, while the Amex Biotech Index (BTK) fell 0.5 points or 0.1 percent to 753.09. With financial stocks leading the declines, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) declined 5.86 points to end at 12,986.8, giving it a 1.9 percent weekly gain. Fueled by the energy and materials sector, the S&P 500 ($SPX) gained 1.78 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,425.35, giving the index a 2.7 percent advance from a week earlier,
All contents copyright 2008 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS Radio & Eye logo trademarked and copyright 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. Written and edited by Matt Roush, Technology Editor, WWJ Newsradio 950, Detroit. GLITR contains material from the Associated Press, Reuters and MarketWatch.com, used by permission. For coverage comments or news tips, e-mail Matt Roush at mnroush@cbs.com or call (248) 455-7380. For marketing and advertising queries, contact Dan Keelan at dkeelan@cbs.com or (248) 455-7252. To subscribe, e-mail Nancy Ho at nancy.ho@cbsradio.com. For questions or concerns, please email Pete Kowalski, WWJ's Station Manager.
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Ann Arbor-based Adaptive Materials Inc. hosted several local and state dignitaries in dedicating its new, 47,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing plant south of Ann Arbor Friday. Adaptive Materials says the new plant will allow it to become the first fuel cell company on the planet to mass-produce. Adaptive Materials fuel cells are fundamentally different from most fuel cells. They're a design called solid oxide, which doesn't rely on expensive, scarce platinum in their construction or expensive, scarce hyperpure hydrogen as fuel. Instead, the fuel cells are comprised of tubes, each about the size of a coffee stirrer, which are ceramic on the outside and a porous mixture of ceramic and small bits of nickel on the inside. When exposed to a variety of fuels -- including common propane, which you can buy at the supermarket -- the tube generates electricity. 
It was a big-time corporate celebration in Campus Martius Park Friday as Compuware Corp. rolled out its Compuware 2.0 initiative. Under a partly cloudy sky, thousands of employees packed the park, as the Detroit power-pop outfit The Go rocked out. Then chairman and CEO Peter Karmanos Jr. and president and COO Bob Paul took the stage, congratulating the company on a terrific quarter and a good fiscal year, and pledging more strong growth ahead under the 2.0 initiative. Under the Compuware 2.0 initiative, the company says it will put its emphasis on the products where it is clearly the best in the world -- the IT service management product known as Vantage, IT portfolio management software called Changepoint, and Compuware's traditional mainframe software. 
The precise measurements and realistic models CAD-CAM delivers for the automotive industry are now being used for dental implants by Dr. Timothy Kosinski at a dental practice called SmileCreator in Bingham Farms. A patient now can have a cat scan done in 10 minutes and that information is then entered into CAD-CAM software which presents a three-dimensional model that allows Kosinski to simulate the placement of an implant in the jaw without ever touching the patient. 
Microsoft Corp. said Sunday it is talking to Yahoo Inc. about a transaction that doesn't involve a full buyout like the software maker's $47.5 billion offer that fell apart earlier this month. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft walked away May 3 from its offer to buy the Web pioneer. Since then, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has launched an effort to oust Yahoo's board. In a statement Sunday, Microsoft says it is considering a different kind of deal with Yahoo as it pursues ways to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. 
