GLITR Monday, June 15, 2009

Your report for Monday, June 15, 2009

Ann Arbor Institute, Wayne State collaborating on new depression drug
The Michigan Technology & Research Institute in Ann Arbor and Wayne State University have partnered to organize a drug development company based on several neurosciences research platforms from the university’s Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Included is a new treatment for depression. Dr. Aloke Dutta, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at WSU, is inventor of the new technology. More.

Nation's leaders gathering in Detroit to discuss tough economic issues
With timing and a location that underscore the urgent and historic nature of its mission, The National Summit will bring a broad spectrum of America’s leaders together June 15-17 in Detroit to discuss and advance a national economic agenda. "The National Summit is a bold new initiative to help re-imagine, rebuild and revitalize our economy in an increasingly difficult global market,” said Beth Chappell, President and CEO of the Detroit Economic Club. “It will bring together the country’s top business, government and academic leaders to create consensus recommendations for increasing America’s competitiveness in four critical disciplines -- technology, energy, environment and manufacturing.” More.

National Summit Web site background from Compuware Covisint
The collaborative Web site for the National Summit meetings getting under way today in Detroit are the product of backbone technology from Compuware's Covisint platform. David McGuffie, president and COO of Covisint, said his organization began talking to officials with the Detroit Economic Club soon after they announced the summit last year "and we were excited to have a chance to be involved in it. The conference intends to have a dialog on issues that are out there in the community among business leaders. Our Web 2.0 collaborative portal technologies fit perfectly with the conference objectives and what's going on in the town halls and meetings." More.

MSU prez: Work force faces serious challenges in knowledge economy
Beyond today’s economic issues, America needs to recapture its work force competitiveness in the face of technological change and competition from an increasingly educated world. That will be Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon’s message to business leaders at the National Summit in Detroit June 15-17. More.

MIS goes green with new suites, media center building
The new suite and media center at Michigan International Speedway will make the racetrack one of the largest producers of green energy in American sports, track officials announced Friday. The solar-powered, 31-suite building and track media center will be outfitted with approximately 8,000 square feet of solar panels across the rooftop that will produce 40 kilowatts of energy from sunlight. The solar panels are from Uni-Solar in Auburn Hills, The existing suite building will be torn down this fall and replaced by the new green building over the winter. The $17 million reconstruction of the pit terrace suites and media center in the track's infield is the first phase in a multi-phase plan that could eventually see the reconfiguration of the track's infield. More.

The Week Ahead: The National Summit is big, but there's more

Hundreds of business, labor, educational, community and nonprofit leaders are expected to gather in Detroit starting this very day for the first of what will hopefully be an annual event -- the National Summit.

And that's just one event, although a big one, on a jam-packed Michigan IT Calendar, the state's most comprehensive tech event calendar, at http://www.wwj.com/pages/1665369.php. Apparently nobody told you Michigan tech people there's supposed to be a summer lull.

Elsewhere, we've got the nation's electric regulators meeting right now in Traverse City to talk about tomorrow's green technologies. We've got a University of Michigan event Tuesday and Wednesday on the greener future of the trucking industry. There's an auto supplier diversification summit set for mid-Michigan Wednesday, along with an aimWest meeting on cool new startups in Grand Rapids.

Late in the week, check out Thursday's Central Michigan University Research Corp. business leadership summit, and the Ann Arbor New Enterprise Forum.

Heck, you can even get something worthwhile accomplished Saturday if you like, at the Michigan Council of Women in Technology's Career Summit in Troy.

See you out there!

Note: For information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Jeff Lasser at (248) 455-7319 or jeff.lasser@cbsradio.com

LG begins building Chevy Volt battery plant
AutoTech Daily reported Friday that LG Chem Ltd. has begun construction on a factory in Ochang, South Korea, that will produce lithium-ion battery cells for General Motors Corp.’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid vehicle. The facility is due to start production in the first half of next year, ahead of the Volt’s scheduled late 2010 launch. The new plant will have the capacity to make 50 million cells per year by 2015. LG Chem’s U.S. subsidiary Compact Power Inc. will assemble the cells into battery packs for the Volt at a new plant in Michigan. More.

Merit Network using Juniper gear to boost speeds
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper Networks Inc. Friday announced that its technologies helped Merit Network Inc., the Ann Arbor non-profit provider of high-performance networking and services, more than double the capacity of its research and education network to support new services for its Members and manage growing application demands. By selecting Juniper switches and routers, Merit will be able to support next-generation, bandwidth-intensive applications such as high-definition classroom video conferencing and virtual field trips. Additionally, the increased capacity allows Merit to grant members full access to Internet2, the U.S. advanced networking consortium, without causing network congestion. More.

Biodiesel tugboat provides a fun -- and green -- ride to the air races
I almost hate to bring this up in these days when so many people's jobs stink, and there are millions of others whose life stinks because they have no job at all. But some days, I simply have the world's coolest job. Sunday was one of those days. I got to spend the day bobbing on the Detroit River watching the Red Bull air race in the biodiesel tugboat Titan -- a biodiesel demonstration vessel from Clean Emission Fluids, a biodiesel startup at Detroit's NextEnergy Center. More.

THE WORLD IN TECH

Celebrities tweet for dissident's release in Myanmar
Hollywood star Julia Roberts and detained Chinese activists are among celebrities and political prisoners tweeting and signing petitions for the release of Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she approaches her 64th birthday -- her 14th spent in detention -- organizers said Sunday. Suu Kyi will spend her 64th birthday Friday in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, facing charges of violating terms of her house arrest by harboring an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home. More.

AP review: weak security enables credit card hacks
Every time you swipe your credit card and wait for the transaction to be approved, sensitive data including your name and account number are ferried from store to bank through computer networks, each step a potential opening for hackers. And while you may take steps to protect yourself against identity theft, an Associated Press investigation has found the banks and other companies that handle your information are not being nearly as cautious as they could. More.

Minnesota woman who lost music sharing suit to get a replay
The Minnesota woman who became the nation's only music file-sharing defendant so far to go to trial is getting a replay two years after losing the case. Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four and self-described "huge music fan," will be armed with aggressive new lawyers when her retrial begins in federal court here Monday. The lawsuit is among the last vestiges of an anti-piracy campaign that the recording industry ultimately dropped amid widespread criticism. More.

Company alleges Chinese antiporn software has its stolen code
A California company claims that the Internet-filtering software China has mandated for all new personal computers sold there contains stolen programming code. Solid Oak Software of Santa Barbara said Friday that parts of its filtering software, which is designed for parents, are being used in the "Green Dam-Youth Escort" filtering software that must be packaged with all computers sold in China from July 1. Solid Oak's founder, Brian Milburn, said he plans to seek an injunction against the Chinese developer that built the software, but acknowledged that it's new legal terrain for his company. "I don't know how far you can try and reach into China and try to stop stuff like this," he said in an interview. "We're still trying to assess what they're doing." More.

Stocks: Tech shares stay in the red despite broader market's late jump
Technology stocks stayed mostly in the red by Friday's closing bell, despite a late-day upswing in the broader market. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) closed down 3.57 points or 0.2 percent to 1,858.8. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 28.34 points, or 0.3 percent, to 8,799.26. Chips had a nasty day, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) falling 4.95 points or 1.8 percent to 277.76. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) fell 2.76 points or 0.6 percent to 462.04. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) rose 3.71 points or 1.2 percent to 260.48. The Amex Biotech Index (BTK) fell 5.46 points or 0.8 percent to 683.44. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) rose 1.32 points or 0.1 percent to 946.21. The Dow's close was the highest since Jan. 6 and made the index positive for the year. "The big picture is that we have a recovery but we don't have a solid (financial) system," said Lorenzo Di Mattia, manager of hedge fund Sibilla Global Fund. "The recovery is in place because no (major) financial institutions have failed since September." Di Mattia said many banks are still relatively fragile and another financial shock could derail a recovery in its very early stages. Another threat to the recovery is rising interest rates. Stock investors were relieved to see Treasury yields tick down in the latter half of the week.

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