Cleveland/Northeast Ohio : Innovation + Job News

Founded in the 1960s as a machine tool distributorship, Pressco Technology Inc. has come a long way.

"In the mid-80s we were contracted by Crown Cork & Seal to develop machine vision for one of their end-making plants. Today, we are a high-speed, online vision- and sensor-based company for high-speed manufacturers in the U.S. and abroad," says Fritz Awig; VP engineering and operations.

Pressco supplies turnkey high-speed vision inspection systems to the food and beverage industry, aluminum extrusion manufacturing, and the postal sorting sector. By continuously investing in new technologies, the Cleveland company is well positioned to provide vision-inspection equipment as well as intelligent process-control products.

"Pressco's main product is a modular platform of electronics and software to which we can attach a variety of sensors, whether they're vision-based, camera-based, with analog or digital sensors that read various information about the manufacture of a product," Awig says. "Our Intellispec [vision platform] system gathers that information, analyzes that information, makes 'accept' and 'reject' decisions, provides process-control information and feeds it into the high-speed plant network for collecting manufacturing and defect data."

To date, the company has shipped more than 5,000 turnkey systems to more than 60 countries. About 60 percent of its production is shipped overseas. The company employs between 140 and 150 people, with 10 jobs to be added this year.

Based on an adaptable, modular design, the platform's central processor can manage up to eight high-speed cameras spread across multiple lanes. Each inspection module is designed to withstand the rugged environment of a manufacturing facility. The lighting and optical components provide maximum performance for the desired inspection, and additional modules can be purchased as inspection needs grow and change.

Family-owned since 1966, Pressco has grown between 10 and 14 percent annually over the last six years. 

"As Don (Corcoran, the company's president) likes to say, 'No matter how good or bad the economy is, people are still going to eat and drink,'" says Awig.

Source: Fritz Awig, Pressco Technology Inc.
Writer: Patrick G. Mahoney

The enterprising use of social media by two of its students helped serve as a catalyst for Cleveland's Virginia Marti College of Art & Design to become a major player in the social media education scene in Northeast Ohio.

Valerie Mayen attended fashion design classes at the College in 2008. She subsequently created a line of clothing and accessories that she named Yellowcake and began promoting her work on the Internet and with social media. The buzz helped bring her to the attention of the producers of Lifetime TV's "Project Runway," and she was a contestant on the eighth season of the hit show in 2010.

Mike Kubinski received a graphic design degree from VMCAD in 2007. He also started his business -- C.L.E. Clothing Company, promoting positive messages about Cleveland -- online, and used social media to build it.

Both Mayen and Kubinski won Arts Entrepreneur and Innovation Awards from the Council of Smaller Enterprises in 2010.

In October, Michael DeAloia, Cleveland's unofficial "Tech Czar" and one of the founders of the city's Social Media Lab (SML), contacted Geof Pelaia, VMCAD's director of marketing. DeAloia was looking for a new home for the Lab, which had originally been hosted at Cuyahoga Community College.

"Michael wanted to collaborate with us to develop educational social media programming," recalls Pelaia. Aware of the positive results that two of VMCAD's students had achieved through social media, Pelaia felt that partnering with the Lab would be a good fit for the College.

VMCAD began offering weekday evening classes and Saturday seminars as part of its continuing education curriculum. They're taught by DeAloia and an array of social media and marketing professionals in the region.

"We adjust course content to respond to emerging trends, so we're staying on the cutting edge of social media," Pelaia explains. "We're accommodating our students, working professionals and budding entrepreneurs by equipping them with social media knowledge. We feel that the social media education we're doing is actually economic development."

Source: Geof Pelaia, Virginia Marti College of Art & Design and Valerie Mayen, Yellowcake
Writer: Lynne Meyer

Lorain County Community College is on a roll.

Earlier this month, the Elyria institution was picked as one of 10 community colleges to participate in a national business incubation model. And this week, the White House endorsed Innovation Fund America, which LCCC will develop as part of its involvement in the incubation initiative.

The virtual incubator, a pilot funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, was announced as part of President Obama's Startup America Partnership. Startup America is designed to increase the success of entrepreneurs through collaborative initiatives among businesses, institutions of higher learning, private foundations and others.

According to an LCCC news release, the virtual incubator initiative "will be implemented in collaboration with the American Association of Community Colleges and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship. Eventually it will include other partnerships through a national network of small business incubation centers, like the Great lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE) on the LCCC campus."

GLIDE is a business incubation organization serving a 21-county area of northeast Ohio.

According to the news release, "the virtual incubator network will work to increase the capacity of community colleges to service their startup business community." They will do that by studying and implementing best practice and will "demonstrate ways for established business leaders and emerging small business entrepreneurs to work together to help grow local businesses."

On Tuesday, the White House gave its thumbs up to the launch of Innovation Fund America, which LCCC says is modeled after its own innovation fund. The national innovation fund will be part of the incubator pilot and will help high-tech entrepreneurs across the country access "funding and talent when they need it most," LCCC says.

The Lorain County Community College Innovation Fund is supported by both private and public sources, including the Ohio Third Frontier.

Attempts to reach LCCC officials for additional information were unsuccessful.

Source: Lorain County Community College

Winners of a new entrepreneurial contest will have the opportunity to develop a novel idea or product that embodies the innovative spirit described in President Obama's State of the Union address. Cleveland's recently launched Manufacturing Mart has announced a competition called "The Export Experiment," a new-product competition designed to grow business for American component manufacturers.

To be eligible, a product must be manufacturable in the United States and designed for a niche market in a foreign country. In addition, it must solve a scalable problem and be patent-pending or patented.

The cost to enter the competition is $25, and the deadline is April 30, 2011. See additional details here.

A commercialization grant worth $5,000 will be awarded to the top three winners. The grant can be used for a number of development services outlined by the Manufacturing Mart. One free year of exhibition space at the Manufacturing Mart, a landing page on the mart's website and two press releases are also part of the awards package.

The Manufacturing Mart opened its doors at The Galleria on December 1 of last year. Currently, the mart occupies 3,500 square feet of exhibiting space for manufacturing resources; another 6,000 square feet are scheduled to open later this year. The mart caters to engineers, inventors and business professionals who want to locate innovative manufacturing options in Greater Cleveland.


Source: The Manufacturing Mart
Writer: Diane DiPiero

--

This story originally appeared in Fresh Water Cleveland

A newly-launched initiative to create a more robust entrepreneurial American economy has tapped the expertise -- and name -- of Cleveland-based JumpStart.

JumpStart America, a new nonprofit organization also based in Cleveland, is one of 21 national partners announced last week with the launch of Startup America, a private sector answer to President Barak Obama's National Innovation Strategy.

JumpStart America is the only Ohio-based national partner and will draw on entrepreneurial approaches developed by JumpStart, a venture development organization that provides counsel and funding resources to promising new businesses in northeastern Ohio, says Cathy Belk, JumpStart's chief relationship officer. While the two organizations are separate entities, JumpStart America is expected to do nationally what JumpStart has done on a smaller scale, Belk says.

As northeast Ohio's coordinating body for the Ohio Third Frontier's Entrepreneurial Signature Program, JumpStart has invested $20 million in 52 companies, which in turn have raised more than $140 million in follow-on capital and created more than 800 jobs, JumpStart says. As part of that, JumpStart has brought together at least a dozen philanthropic and private industry funding partners, says Belk.

More recently, JumpStart has been sharing some its expertise and experience with organizations throughout the Midwest as part of its JumpStart Community Advisors initiative.

"That is kind of the model of what the JumpStart America work will be," says Belk.

Belk says JumpStart CEO Ray Leach is leading the team that will develop a governance structure for JumpStart America. The process is expected to take three to four months.

Formation of the group will not only benefit the nation but Ohio, Belk says, noting that "it puts (Ohio and northeast Ohio) on the national stage. One of the other great benefits is that national philanthropy will be aggregated in Ohio, and by virtue of Ohio being recognized as offering best practices in this particular area, I think this can be great for the sustainability of the Ohio (entrepreneurial) ecosystem we've been building."

Cincinnati-based accelerator The Brandery was named last week as a new partner in the TechStars Network -- another national partner in the Startup America initiative that operates accelerator programs in New York City, Boston, Seattle and Boulder, Colo.

Source: Cathy Belk, JumpStart
Writer: Gene Monteith

David Schiraldi, a polymer industry veteran and chair of Case Western University's Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, calls it the "best product concept I've run into in my career."

Now, Schiraldi's company, Solon-based Aeroclay, is working to commercialize its advanced material made of clay, milk and water -- what he and his students refer to as "a dirty milkshake."

The technology was born at Case Western and licensed to Aeroclay, for which Schiraldi is chief science officer. Discovered by accident, the product with the same name as the company is lighter, greener and more versatile than petroleum-based polymers, he says.

The process sounds deceptively simple: Mix clay, milk and water in a blender, freeze dry it in a mold, and voila -- a material that, depending on the formula used, feels like Styrofoam, cork, balsa wood or other materials commonly used in industry. Aeroclay's polymer content -- some 40 different polymers are possible at present -- is derived from casein, the protein found in the milk.

One of the big advantages of Aeroclay is that "when you're half dirt, you don't burn very well or barely burn at all," Schiraldi says. "If you insulate something with polystyrene foam and you get a short circuit, your house burns down. With this, we can take a propane torch to it for five minutes and nothing happens."

Because the material doesn't rely on petroleum, Aeroclay is environmentally friendly. Additionally, using milk as the source for polymer-producing protein could benefit the dairy industry, Schiraldi says.

While Schiraldi says petroleum-based products will be cheaper than Aeroclay for some time, he says the product is poised to find its way into niche markets attracted to its other properties. He says the company, formed last April, is negotiating with a number of Fortune 100 firms, has joint development agreements with a couple of large companies, and expects commercialization near the end of the year.

Most of the company's revenue is likely to come from licensing deals rather than on-site production, Schiraldi says. Aeroclay currently employs six, but will grow as the business expands, he predicts.

Source: David Schiraldi, Aeroclay
Writer: Gene Monteith

One-stop shopping.

That's what JumpStart is offering technology entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio with its revved up Entrepreneurial Network, launched three months ago.

"We want entrepreneurs to have to go through only one door for us to help them be successful," explains Dennis Cocco, operating manager of JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network and director of the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE).

Funded by The Ohio Third Frontier, the Network is intended to be a single entry point for a continuum of resources for entrepreneurs in 21 counties in Northeast Ohio. It encompasses five incubators, four pre-seed and seed funds, a number of experienced business advisors and an online community of mentors and investors.

The Entrepreneurial Network replaces JumpStart's TechLift Advisors program, which ran for three years. That program consisted of a group of experienced entrepreneurs who mentored and supported entrepreneurial companies in very specific technologies.
 
"We still have many entrepreneurs working with technology based companies, but, with the Network, we're building on that initiative with many more points of collaboration throughout the region," he notes.

According to Cocco, the Network is a much broader program in two important areas -- collaboration and funding.

"We're now working more collaboratively with the Edison Center; the Edison incubators in Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron, Mansfield and Lorain; and other economic development entities."

These include local economic development directors and port authorities, Team NEO and the Small Business Development Corporation, begun by the federal government and supported by the Ohio Department of Development.

In terms of funding for entrepreneurs, the TechLift program was very focused on funds available only from JumpStart, Cocco says.

"With the new Entrepreneurial Network, we make entrepreneurs aware of other financial resources throughout the region and beyond, like federal grants, Small Business Administration loans and private and angel investors," he explains. "We want to help them land the venture capital they need."

The ultimate goal for the JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network is simple, according to Cocco. "No entrepreneur left behind."

Source: Dennis Cocco, JumpStart and GLIDE
Writer: Lynne Meyer

In 2004, the newly created JumpStart -- which had begun accepting applications from entrepreneurs seeking assistance in getting their ideas to market -- found itself deluged with requests. The organization saw an urgent need to develop a kind of database of services critical to a startup's success, and a need to connect the various principals.

Enter Cleveland-based IdeaCrossing.

IdeaCrossing describes itself as "an online resource available to all individuals and organizations with an interest in supporting and promoting entrepreneurial activity." The site identifies the kinds of assistance (mentoring, investment capital, and various service providers) entrepreneurs need in order to succeed.

The service also serves the angel and venture capital communities by vetting new investment opportunities. Angel investors typically invest between $5,000 and $50,000, individually, according to Tiffan Clark, vice president of IdeaCrossing.

"There are no sites like ours�that try to be more of an online ecosystem for entrepreneurs nationwide," says Clark. "The whole idea behind IdeaCrossing is that the resources you need to help to develop your business idea may not necessarily exist in your backyard."

The resource offers increased exposure to disparate assets throughout the region such as universities, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, foundations, and various professional services. Users can tap into local, regional, and national resources.

Users create a "funding profile" that helps to identify the seed and venture capital they need. IdeaCrossing tracks the profile's performance and notifies the user (entrepreneur) when an investor has indicated an interest in their profile. Other profiles fill other needs. "If an entrepreneur is looking for a mentor they can go online and create a profile to find a mentor," says Clark. A kind of one-stop-shop for budding tycoons.

Best of all, the service is free.

Source: Tiffan Clark; Vice President, IdeaCrossing
Writer: Patrick G. Mahoney

TOA Technologies ended the year as the fastest growing company in northeast Ohio.

Tonight, it celebrates the opening of a larger headquarters building in Beachwood.

The company has developed a system it says can schedule mobile service personnel -- think of the cable guy or refrigerator repair technician -- in a one-hour slot with nearly 100 percent accuracy.

Growth in both employment -- 220 today, compared with two in 2004 -- and revenues have spurred outside recognition and the need for larger quarters.

In December, TOA was recognized by the Weatherhead 100 as the fastest-growing company in northeast Ohio. The annual listing, named after the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and compiled and managed by the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), measures sales revenues over a five-year period.

TOA's growth was cited at 1,144.12 percent in the most recent rankings.

Tonight, TOA is celebrating the grand opening of its new headquarters, an 11,000-sq.-foot building with four times the former space. The larger headquarters will allow the company to double its Cleveland-area staff to 50 this year, according to company officials.

President and CEO Yuval Brisker said in October that the company expected revenues to grow 75 percent to 80 percent in 2010 from 2009 figures. TOA now reports it did even better, with contracted annual revenue growing by more than 120 percent in 2010.

Sources: Jennifer Friedman, VP of Marketing, TOA; and Megan E. Kim, director, education & programs, COSE
Writer: Gene Monteith

When Holly Harlan first started talking to people about Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S) ten years ago, "people looked at me like I had three eyes. But I said, 'I think they're going to get this and they're going to love it.'"

Today, Harlan notes that the E4S network has been growing by more than 20 percent every year since it was founded. "We've attracted nearly 10,000 people from all sectors," Harlan says. "We've helped over 50 companies create a strategic plan for sustainability."

The organization has also created a foundation on which Greater Cleveland can build a successful approach to sustainability.

"We've gotten much better known since Mayor Frank Jackson has stepped in and held sustainability summits the last two years," Harlan says.

E4S is a networking organization that unites professionals interested in sustainability for their businesses and their community, but its scope goes beyond that. "We're an economic development group that sees sustainability as way to create value in the world," Harlan says.

Harlan steps down from the post of president and founder of E4S this month to take on new projects. Mike Dungan, president and CEO of Bee Dance, a Cleveland business that repurposes materials classified as waste, will take over as interim president of E4S.

Harlan looks forward to visiting other cities and gauging their take on Cleveland's sustainability efforts. "We were one of the first business networks in the country focused on sustainability," she says. "The buzz is that Cleveland is known for innovative sustainability ideas, particularly in the area of local foods."

Source: Holly Harlan
Writer: Diane DiPiero

This story originally appeared in Fresh Water Cleveland.

Ohio's new economy needs workers skilled in science, technology, engineering and math -- STEM -- as well as those who can think critically and make good decisions.

The Cuyahoga Valley Career Center in Brecksville is hoping to pave the way for northeast Ohio businesses by offering a STEM Career Expo on Feb. 5.

A partnership with the Cleveland Engineering Society, the Great Lakes Science Center and STEMout, an organization promoting STEM in the region, the expo is expected to attract about 400 students and parents and 40 businesses and other organizations, says Marie Elias, the career center's community liaison.

The STEM expo is an outgrowth of a similar engineering expo held for the last two years, she says.

"That was very successful, and we thought we would expand it this year to STEM because we know that all of STEM is important," Elias says.

The expo is free and is targeted to students in 9th through 12th grades and their parents. Held at the CCVC facilities, participants will be able to talk to various STEM-related companies staffing booths as well as watch hands-on demonstrations and listen to panel presentations.

"Parents and students can visit as many or as few booths as they want and talk to STEM professionals one on one," Elias says.

The idea is to help students and parents understand some of the career opportunities available in STEM disciplines -- a goal that ultimately ends with students remaining in the region and taking jobs with local companies.

"I don't think a lot of students understand how we use STEM in our everyday lives," Elias says. "We know is that certainly STEM is crticial and that is where the jobs will be."

The event runs from 9:30 a.m. to noon. You can register here.

Source: Maria Elias, Cuyahoga Valley Career Center
Writer: Gene Monteith

Prfessor.com officially launched this year, beckoning anybody who knows something about a subject to create an online course for the benefit of others.

According to Jim Kukral, one of three owners of the Rocky River-based e-learning curriculum designer, "hundreds of thousands of visitors and students have experienced Prfessor." Topics currently on the site range from marketing to green living.

Now Prfessor is promoting the use of its online resource for businesses that want to educate staff without the expense and time-consuming nature of classroom-style training. Prfessor offers corporations, small businesses and nonprofits a variety of advanced interactive tools designed to encourage self-paced learning.

This style of training benefits both employer and employee, according to Kukral. 

"Prfessor.com helps you control your costs as you improve the quality of your staff and they, in turn, improve profits by doing their jobs better selling more products, providing better customer service and leading their teams effectively," he says. "Prfessor allows anyone, without tech skills, to go out and teach what they know."

Businesses and organizations can take advantage of Prfessor by signing up online to create unlimited courses, develop quizzes to gauge students' understanding of topics and make use of A/V, PowerPoint and graphics to stimulate the learning process.

Kukral foresees strong growth in Prfessor's future, thanks to ever-expanding use of the Internet for educational purposes. "The market for education online is growing by leaps and bounds," Kukral says. Prfessor is designed to encourage users to "empty your head onto the Web," he adds.

Source: Jim Kukral, Prfessor.com
Writer: Diane DiPiero

This story originally appeared in Fresh Water Cleveland.

Can man mimic nature to improve health?

Maybe. That's what a University of Akron polymer engineering expert is researching at the Ohio Supercomputer Center in Columbus.

Hendrik Heinz is using advanced modeling and simulation techniques to more precisely understand biomineralization, nature's ability to form complex structures, such as bones, teeth and mollusk shells, from peptides; and organic photovoltaics. The work could advance knowledge of how organic materials bond to inorganic materials. Ultimately, the results of Heinz's efforts could affect the making of materials used for things like bone replacement and sensing systems -- and even disease treatment and energy generation.

Heinz has noted previously that advances in materials science such as in biomedical and energy conversion devices increasingly rely on computational techniques and modeling. In particular, work at the nanoscale level -- such as charge transport mechanisms in solar cells, the formation of biominerals, and self-assembly of polymers in multi-component materials -- is difficult to observe. Model building and simulation are critical, he says.

The Air Force Research Laboratory/Office of Scientific Research in Dayton; Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, the National Science Foundation; and ETH Zurich  and Sika Technology AG , both of Switzerland join UA and the Supercomputer Center in supporting Heinz's activities.

Heinz is "just one of scores of researchers" who are doing "amazing work" on the computational and storage systems of the Supercomputer Center, says spokesman Jamie Abel.

The Ohio Board of Regents established the center in 1987 as a statewide resource. The state's universities, businesses and others use it for an array of educational and business purposes.

Sources: Jamie Abel and Kathryn Kelley, Ohio Supercomputer Center
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

SOURCE: Fresh Water Cleveland

In a laboratory at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine, Zhenghe John Wang and a team of researchers developed a panel of new human isogenic cell models, which look much like mutated cancer cells. Through these cell models, researchers can get a handle on how cancer takes shape in the human body.

"We actually created a technology where we can add tags into cancer cells so we can track them," says Wang, assistant professor of genetics at Case's School of Medicine. Not only can this technology help researchers to better understand how cancer cells evolve, it can also provide assistance with cancer treatment programs, Wang says.

Now this process has an even greater chance of affecting cancer treatments, as medical research company Horizon Discovery has obtained exclusive rights to the panel of new human isogenic cell models. This means that the British medical research company will be able to add this technology to its existing models, which are used to predict patient response to current and future drug treatments.

Horizon Discovery has licensed the new cell models for ten years and will pay Case an initial fee, with rights to royalties from future product sales.

"We really wanted to work with someone interested in this technology," Wang says, adding that the agreement with Horizon Discovery will allow for research on a grander scale. Meanwhile, Wang and his team will continue to advance use of human isogenic cell models at Case. "Hopefully, we can make a big impact on cancer research," he says.

Source: Case Western Reserve University
Writer: Diane DiPiero

A booster shot of venture capital will help OnShift Software flex its marketing muscle in 2011.

The Cleveland company announced this month it recently had secured $2.3 million, both from its Ohio investors -- Early Stage Partners, JumpStart Inc., North Coast Angel Fund, and Glengary LLC, -- and Draper Triangle Ventures, of Pittsburgh. Early Stage and Draper receive some of their investment dollars from the Ohio Capital Fund.

The money will be used for hiring across the board, but mostly for sales and marketing positions, CEO Mark Woodka says.

Response to OnShift's innovative staff management system has been so positive the company is convinced it needs to quickly increase the number of its representatives. OnShift had 26 customers in 2009. It will end 2010 with more than 200.

Likewise, the company began with three employees; this year it has 24 and next year, Woodka says, it will double that amount.

OnShift's system, whose key benefit is prevention of overtime costs, has been deployed mostly at long-term care facilities, such as skilled/assisted living nursing homes and retirement centers. Hospitals are a large potential source of expansion.

It's a "very green field" of a market, Woodka says, and "the need for what we do is going up over time."

Woodka credits early support from Ohio groups such as JumpStart for OnShift's fast rise.

Source: Mark Woodka, OnShift
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs