Student-run companies showcase their plans beyond TechArb

April 16, 2010
Contact:
  • umichnews@umich.edu

DATE: 4:30-6 p.m., April 15 2010.

EVENT: Innovative, student-run and student-involved companies that have called the university’s business accelerator TechArb home for the past semester will discuss their plans for the future as they graduate from TechArb. Many of the eight graduating ventures are proving that they can be successful businesses. Other companies among them will dissolve, but not without having imparted valuable lessons.

Fourteen new student-run companies will move into TechArb on May 5. TechArb, a unique university-run incubator, is supported by the College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship and RPM Ventures.

At this event, graduating companies will give brief overviews of their statuses.

“These companies represent the innovative energy and talent at the University of Michigan. They are part of the entrepreneurial future of the state and provide a key link between the university and business communities that will help spark economic growth across the state,” said Amy Klinke, assistant director for small business initiatives at the Center for Entrepreneurship.

These are the graduating companies and their missions:

  • Mobil33t developed the iPhone app DoGood, which suggests a good deed of the day and lets users post how they did it. Mobil33t has already graduated, but company and TechArb co-founder Jason Bornhorst will make an announcement about it at the TechArb graduation. Bornhorst, who graduated in December, is now working for Mobiata, which was located in TechArb this semester.
  • Shepherd Intelligent Systems provides real-time vehicle locations, predicted arrival times and route management analyses. The company is involved in a pilot project with Ann Arbor city buses and has just secured a contract to monitor the city’s snow plows next winter.
  • Crowd Clarity uses the wisdom of crowds–often called crowdsourcing–to assist in product development.
  • Backyard Brains enables high school teachers to incorporate neurophysiology into their lessons with science kits that monitor the electrical activity in the nerves of cockroaches. The company has received more than 75 pre-orders.
  • Mobiata creates best-selling mobile travel applications.
  • MyBandStock, a website where music fans receive exclusive digital access to their favorite artists.
  • Roomations is an interactive web tool for home improvement that guides homeowners in to visualizing the space they’re remodeling.
  • Carrier Mobile aims to replace hand-written logs for truck drivers with cell phone software.
  • Phonagle focuses on team-based multiplayer games incorporating social networking.

PLACE: 500 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building, 1301 Beal Ave., in Ann Arbor on U-M’s North Campus. A map is at http://www.engin.umich.edu/facilities/maps/eecs.html.

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