GLITR Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Your report for Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Dow Corning begins construction on 'Solar Day'
At an event the company called "Solar Day," Dow Corning Monday announced the start of construction in Saginaw County's Thomas Township of a manufacturing plant that will manufacture monosilane gas -- a key material used to manufacture thin-film solar cells. Dow Corning also unveiled plans for a solar panel installation and Solar Discovery Center at its corporate headquarters in Midland. More.

NanoBio offers good news for burn treatment
Ann Arbor-based NanoBio Corp. Monday announced compelling preclinical data for NB-201, a nanoemulsion-based topical lotion for the treatment of burn wounds. In preclinical studies, NB-201 dramatically reduced the severity of burn wound infections as well as inflammation following thermal injuries. The research was conducted at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor as a collaborative effort between the University and NanoBio. The study results are being presented at the 2009 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco, Calif. More.

Alma College gets federal grant for science, math training
Getting more students excited about science and technology is the goal of a major Alma College project that is being funded by the largest federal grant ever received by the college. The National Science Foundation has awarded $499,950 to fund the Alma College PRISM project, or Positive Routes Into Science and Mathematics. The program focuses on increasing research opportunities for new college students, not only in their first year of college but also prior to taking their first college course. More.

Ypsi's ISSYS awarded patent for new microfluidic device
Ypsilanti-based Integrated Sensing Systems Inc. announced Monday that it has been granted United States patent No. 7,568,399, titled "Microfluidic Device." According to Doug Sparks, executive vice president of ISSYS, this patent describes new designs for microfluidic devices using resonating micromachined tubes. These sensor chips are used by ISSYS to produce Coriolis mass flow meters, density and chemical concentration sensors, drug infusion systems, fuel cell concentration sensors, and other devices. It complements other patents owned by ISSYS in the area of flow sensors and MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) devices. It provides new tube shapes that enable smaller chips size and hence lower cost product. More.

ESD adds 1,300 members in just over a year
Despite the economic downturn and the so-called flight of engineering professionals from Michigan, The Engineering Society of Detroit, a non-profit multidisciplinary organization, has added 1,302 professional members since June 2008 bringing the total of individual and corporate members to 6,264. In a time where nonprofit organizations are struggling to attract new and retain existing members, ESD is boasting a 99 percent retention rate of professional members; an 86 percent retention rate of corporate members; a 93 percent retention of retired members; and a 98 percent retention of student members. More.

New software from solidThinking
Troy-based solidThinking Inc. Monday introduced version 8.0 of its software to the international design community. This release includes a number of user-centric design and productivity enhancements to the company's current 7.6 industrial design tool for advanced 3D modeling and rendering. SolidThinking is the first NURBS-based design/styling software program of its kind offered to both PC and Mac users. (NURBS, or non-uniform rational B-spline, is a mathematical model commonly used in computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces which offers great flexibility and precision for handling both analytic and freeform shapes.) More.

New PC video game from Ann Arbor company
Are you ready to join the battle for a free Mars? It’s time to join the struggle against tyranny in the new PC version of “Red Faction: Guerrilla.” Reactor Zero, a Michigan-based video game development studio, recently completed the PC version of this groundbreaking game for publisher THQ and its Volition studio. RFG was originally developed by Volition for Xbox 360 and PS3 and released in May to rave reviews. PC gamers have been eagerly anticipating the title’s September release. RFG is slated to be in stores on Sept. 15. More.

Prima Civitas has $340k to put displaced workers into health care
The Prima Civitas Foundation, an organization dedicated to economic prosperity and development in Michigan, today released a Request for Proposal making available $340,000 in training funds for dislocated workers who will pursue jobs in the health care sector. As a part of the M-PaTH initiative, the Mid-Michigan Partnership for Training in Healthcare, this funding opportunity will provide seed grant monies for local initiatives throughout the Mid-Michigan region that can train up to 150 dislocated workers for new jobs within the next 18 months. The RFP is available online at www.primacivitas.org. Responses to the proposal are due Oct. 30. More.

UM study says Cash for Clunkers boosted America's MPG

Cash for Clunkers may have run out of money, but certainly not gas.

Thanks to the federal program, the average fuel economy of all new vehicles purchased in the United States in July and August improved about 3 percent, according to a University of Michigan study.

Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of UM's Transportation Research Institute found that the program improved fuel economy of all purchased vehicles by 0.6 mpg in July, from an expected 21.5 mpg without the program to an actual fuel economy of 22.1 mpg.

August was even better -- an increase of 0.7 mpg, from an expected 21.7 mpg with no program to an actual 22.4 mpg under Cash for Clunkers.

The expected fuel economy, without the existence of the program, was calculated from a model that predicts fuel economy from the unemployment rate and the price of gasoline based on data from October 2007 through June 2009.

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THE WORLD IN TECH

Startup lets you play console game remotely
As any a video game aficionado knows, it's easy to pop a game into your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 and spend hours working your way from one level to the next. Without the hefty console, though, you're out of luck if you want to keep blasting those aliens while away from home. A startup called Spawn Labs thinks it has a solution to this problem. Starting Monday, the Austin, Texas-based company began selling a box that is much like a Slingbox -- a device that lets you watch your home TV remotely -- for video gaming. Spawn Labs' HD-720 costs $200, or about the same price as Microsoft's cheapest Xbox console. Unlike playing a video game on a Web site, when the box is connected to one of several different gaming systems you can remotely access any video game disc already inside, along with any games stored on the console's hard drive. More.

Chief of Intel's biggest division heads to EMC
Intel Corp., the world's biggest computer chip maker, said Monday that Pat Gelsinger, who ran Intel's main division, and Bruce Sewell, Intel's top lawyer, are leaving the company. The departures appeared to catch Intel off guard. Gelsinger was scheduled to give a keynote speech next week at Intel's developer forum in San Francisco but now is headed to data-storage company EMC Corp. Sewell has been Intel's public face in its fight against allegations of antitrust abuse. Intel revealed the resignations as it announced a big management restructuring in which three senior executives will assume more operational responsibilities, and CEO Paul Otellini will spend more time on corporate strategy. But spokesman Chuck Mulloy said the departures were "independent of the organizational changes." "We would have preferred that they both stay but understand their motivation for leaving," Mulloy said. Gelsinger's next move is clear; Sewell's isn't. More.

Fewer players in wireless could rein in price cuts
How many wireless carriers do we need? It's a question that's popping up again as T-Mobile USA is said to be looking at buying Sprint Nextel Corp. Now that most people have a cell phone and once-heady growth in the industry is slowing, analysts say carriers are going to be looking at buying each other to increase their scale and to avoid competing too much on price. Consumers have been benefiting from relentless price-cutting on cell phone service in the past few years. But consolidation doesn't come easy to the industry, and the government may not look kindly on the combinations that reduce competition. More.

Microsoft swaps text for pictures in some searches
Microsoft Corp. is testing a way to display some search results as galleries of moveable images instead of text links, part of its ongoing attempt to differentiate its Bing search engine from Google. Bing's new visual search page lets people flip through pictures to track down where and when a movie is playing, read up on baseball players or shop for items like digital cameras. You can go to bing.com/visualsearch to browse available categories. Microsoft used Silverlight, its technology for making sophisticated Web sites with lots of content and moving parts, to build the visual search program. But in its current form, it's something of a throwback to the days when organizing the Web was done by humans, not powerful computer algorithms. More.

Stocks: Utilities help pull shares higher after early pause
Stocks bounced back from early losses to post moderate gains as traders funneled money into utility and financial companies. Major market indexes ended at their highest levels in nearly a year. Stocks slid at the open following a drop in overseas markets on worries that a trade war would erupt between the U.S. and China. But the market recovered from the early dip that sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 69 points as investors seized on the opportunity to inject new money into shares. The Dow ended with a gain of 21 points. Utility AES Corp. helped pull the market higher after The Wall Street Journal reported that China's investment arm is interested in buying a stake in the company. More. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) rose 10.88 points or 0.5 percent to 2,091.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 21.39 points or less than 0.2 percent to 9,626.8. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 1.46 points or 0.5 percent to 322.7. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 1.02 points or 0.2 percent to 531.51. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) rose 1.26 points or 0.4 percent to 284.96. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) rose 22.56 points or 2.4 percent to 950.41. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) rose 6.61 points or 0.6 percent to 1,049.34.

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