Dan Davis and Gary Hammond's "iCanStand" adult standing wheelchair was featured recently in the news when ABC 12 visited Kettering's Innovation Center to see the advanced prototype in action.  Christina McKinney, a young college student  paralyzed from a viral attack on her spinal cord, demonstrated the wheelchair's ease-of-use, stability and comfort.  

For the video and full story, please click here.

Discover what you need to consider when starting, operating, funding, or growing a technology or life sciences-based business.

The TechWorks start-up workshop helps you to determine market opportunities, business strategies, business concepts, and how to pursue them successfully. This course provides excellent preparation on marketing, financing, legal, and recruitment planning.  Program graduates will have written a brief business plan and learned how to effectively ‘pitch’ their technology business concept.   This is a nationally proven program that has helped thousands of new entrepreneurs succeed.

Normally, this program is $700 per participant.  However, due to support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Centers (MI – SBTDC), and Kettering University, we are able to offer the training at no cost to qualified participants.  This includes a free workbook, a free textbook, and the chance to network with our guest speakers, facilitators, and other participants.

Each class period will be held from 6:30PM to 9:30PM.  The training sessions will be held in Room A on the Fourth Floor of Campus Center.  Our planned schedule is for 6 consecutive Wednesday evenings beginning April 4th, including a graduation and networking event on the last night.

Please note that in order to attend graduation you, or your team, must have been represented at each session.  If you must miss one of the sessions, you can make it up in the following series, usually at the beginning of each calendar quarter.

Also, please feel free to forward this article to any prospective participants that you may know.  The workbook and textbook will be made available to all registered participants by the first training session night.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the program, please feel free to contact us by either This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by phone at 810-762-9728.

We look forward to working with you as you learn how a successful technology growth company can be created.

The city of Flint has hopeful news when it comes to job growth, and Flint Mayor Dayne Walling chose The Innovation Center at Kettering University as the backdrop to announce those encouraging numbers in a news conference Feb. 4.

Walling announced that the city’s unemployment rate dropped from 16 percent in 2009 to 11.8 percent in December 2010. He also stated that more than 1,000 jobs had been created in Flint during that time.

Walling and Tim Herman, CEO of the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce, praised investments like The Innovation Center as catalysts for job creation in the area.

“With innovation, businesses and institutions leading the way for economic development and job creation, our vision for 2011 is to create more than 1,000 new jobs and build on the momentum year after year,” Walling said.

“Innovation is a catalyst for diversifying our economy, improving our competitiveness and ultimately creating jobs,” Herman said. “As we work toward reinventing Flint and Genesee County, innovation must be in the forefront.”

The Innovation Center, home of Swedish Biogas International, was specifically mentioned as one of the key developments in Flint in 2010. Diplomat Pharmacy, Hurley Medical Center’s emergency room expansion and several other business, medical and higher education ventures were praised by Walling and Herman for their leadership in job creation in Flint.

“The Innovation Center lets Kettering directly support the creation of new jobs and companies for our home region,” said Neil Sheridan, director of Kettering University TechWorks. “By encouraging and training knowledge workers such as engineers and scientists to apply their abilities to entrepreneurial high tech start-ups, we’re both helping put them back to work as well as create growth to employ others. Of course, we’re also actively working with Kettering students, professors and alumni who are learning to create their own ventures or want to do research with our other clients.”

The Innovation Center, which opened in August 2010, is a major investment in Michigan and in Flint’s future. Gov. Rick Snyder, as well as Walling, have spoke frequently about the need for high-tech jobs to spur the economic recovery, and Kettering University’s campus has positioned itself as a major hub for creators of those jobs.

“At the Incubator in the Mott Building and at the Innovation Center, Kettering provides first-class but low-cost collaboration space for these teams,” Sheridan said. “We want the Genesee region’s tech ventures to move out of the garage and onto Kettering's campus.”

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Flint Mayor Dayne Walling and Genesee County Chair Jamie Curtis along with 80 other business, government, education, and healthcare leaders recently presented incoming Governor Rick Snyder a comprehensive economic development "playbook" for the region.  Intended as an invitation to begin a mutually productive working relationship, the book serves several informational purposes.

First, it highlights the many successes the region has achieved despite the economy and industrial dislocation.  In fact, the book has a select group of 40 current and pending economic development projects that will create jobs, improve employment prospects, attract companies, and lead to other vital improvements.  A full set of the 100+ projects collected by the coordinating committee will be available shortly at www.regionalplaybook.com.

Next, a key feature of the playbook is the use of the "prosperity model" consistent with the one used by the neighboring Southeast Michigan region and originally developed by the Land Policy Institute at MSU.  The model holds that for sustainable prosperity, an area must build its talent, communities, and businesses by addressing people, place and policy needs.  The playbook identifies the 9 most pressing challenges, identifies the corresponding actions required, and then sorts the 40 representative projects into the people, place and policy focus areas. 

All local universities, hospitals, and governmental bodies were involved in the project, which was led by the Flint Area Reinvestment Office and produced by Kettering University TechWorks and the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The playbook will be a living document, edited and expanded with new additions as additional projects launch. 

A copy of the version presented to the Governor-elect can be downloaded here.