Tag: tech

The ITEN Board of Directors has appointed Mary Louise Helbig the new Executive Director of the not-for-profit organization, effective immediately.

After an extensive search, the Board determined the strongest candidate was among ITEN’s group of experienced Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs).  Mary Louise has been deeply involved with ITEN since 2014 as an EIR, working hands-on with many entrepreneurs and in ITEN’s Corporate Innovation Program (CIP).   Many startups have benefitted from her guidance and intervention and Mary Louise also works closely with one of ITEN’s CIP partners.

Mary Louise Helbig, Olin MBA’94

“I am honored to take on this role at a very exciting time for ITEN,” stated Mary Louise.  “The needs of entrepreneurs have evolved, and we are developing more rigorous programs that support them through the commercialization process – from concept to market entry.  Additionally, building upon the success of CIP, we are committed to increasing opportunities for collaboration between our entrepreneur community and corporate partners to facilitate innovation.”

Mary Louise has over 25 years experience working in executive marketing, product development, and business development roles for start-ups and companies with high growth initiatives in the technology, financial health, and education sectors. She is the former President of Virtual Nerd, an EdTech startup that received national and industry awards for product design, and was CEO of HealthyMe, a Health Tech company.  She has also held executive management positions in major corporations, including strategic planning for American Express Incentive Services and redesigning the high speed internet installation program at Charter Communications.

“Our search turned up many excellent candidates, but at the end of the day we realized we had the strongest candidate already in our organization and someone very engaged with the St. Louis ecosystem,” said Jim Brasunas, ITEN Board member and Interim Executive Director.  “Mary Louise’s experience spans entrepreneurial and corporate executive leadership, and combined with her exceptional people skills, she is the ideal leader for ITEN.   We are excited to have her at the helm as we take the organization to the next level.”

The ITEN Board commends the staff, mentors and EIRs who have stepped up during the three-month interim period to keep the organization’s programs and venture development services operating effectively.   In particular the Board thanks Director, Entrepreneur Development Melissa Grizzle and Senior EIR Chuck Vallurupalli for outstanding service and unwavering commitment during this time.

About ITEN

As a major catalyst driving the St. Louis region’s startup ecosystem, ITEN (www.itenstl.org) accelerates innovation across the region through targeted programs for both corporations and scalable startups that employ technology as a core driver of business.  ITEN’s programs focus on rapid market analysis, product development, connections to talent, essential networking, and for startups, access to funding and customers.  The core of the organization’s value proposition is for entrepreneurs to work together to build a vibrant innovation ecosystem across the region.   ITEN’s sponsors include the Missouri Technology Corporation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Gateway to Innovation Conference (G2i), Bank of America, BDO, CEdge, Polsinelli, Greensfelder, and Wells Fargo Advisors.

Source:  ITEN News Release, ST. LOUIS, July 31, 2017

Technology is changing the landscape of supply chain at a breakneck pace, and organizations that are able to stay ahead of the curve often enjoy a significant advantage over their industry competitors. Digitization, cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence are all major factors in shaping operational strategy. These manufacturing innovations have given rise to a trend dubbed Industry 4.0.

John Stroup, President and CEO of Belden Inc., paid a visit to The Boeing Center to share his wealth of knowledge, and to give a brief history of Industry 4.0, aka the Smart Factory. He explained that Industry 4.0, a term coined in Germany, is the fourth major iteration in manufacturing processes. “‘Smart Manufacturing,’ ‘Intelligent Factory,’ and ‘Factory of the Future’ all describe an intelligent, flexible, and dynamic production facility, where machinery and equipment will have the ability to improve processes through self-optimization and autonomous decision-making,” said Stroup. The major improvements from 3.0 to 4.0 are the ability to automate complex tasks (even remotely) and the access to data across the whole supply chain that allows for greater flexibility and connectivity.

Stroup went on to discuss the key characteristics of the Smart Factory and how innovations in digital technology have improved existing business models and enabled new ones. Such innovative technology allows for improved productivity, flexibility, and decision making, all of which benefit manufacturers and consumers alike.

For more supply chain digital content and cutting-edge research, check us out on the socials [@theboeingcenter] and our website [olin.wustl.edu/bcsci]

• • •

A Boeing Center digital production

Supply Chain // Operational Excellence // Risk Management

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This fall, Washington University students will have yet another way to get off campus and engage with local innovators: the InSITE Fellowship.

The INSITE Fellowship is a nationally renowned leadership program designed for full-time graduate students interested in entrepreneurship and venture capital. As a partner school, WashU joins a cohort of other top institutions: Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, UPenn, Georgetown and UC Berkeley.

In this three-semester program, students will have the opportunity to perform high-impact projects for local startups and venture capital firms. The fellowship also connects students with a nationwide network of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, through annual sponsored events, such as:

• Free passes to South by Southwest (AirBnB even dontates housing for the INSITE Fellows in Austin, TX!)
• A fireside chat with Fred Wilson, author of the popular AVC blog, and co-founder of Union Square Ventures, a NYC venture capital firm known for its investments in tech companies like Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Zynga, and Kickstarter
• INSITE Connect, a biannual conference where fellows present their projects

All full-time Business, Law and Engineering graduate students are welcome to apply. The deadline is THIS WEDNESDAY, 9/23 at 11:59 pm. APPLY NOW  

Please reach out to Jessica Stanko (stanko@wustl.edu) with any questions!

Seven current and former Washington University in St. Louis students, collectively known as “The Force,” took home the top prize of $50,000 during the GlobalHack event held Jan. 31-Feb. 2 at Union Station in St. Louis.

Eric Elias (BSBA ‘07), senior Arts & Sciences student Kristy Okada, junior fine arts student Leslie Ding, freshman engineering student Du Zhang, junior engineering student SeungJu SJ Lee, sophomore architecture student Daniel Borstelmann and junior engineering student Fangzhou Xiao made up the team.

“I still cannot believe my team and I won,” Okada said. “We were up against professionals with years of experience and other amazingly smart teams with great ideas. What made the win more gratifying was the fact that every individual was from the university. Most of us had never previously met before that day, but we came together, collaborated and created something we are all proud of. Even if we didn’t win, I’m glad to have participated because I made so many new friends and connections.”

GlobalHack’s quarterly hackathon competitions bring together developers, designers and entrepreneurs for 48-hour computer programming events focused on solving a technology-related problem for a St. Louis-based company. Teams compete for a $50,000 cash prize, among other prizes.

Teams were asked to develop a new software solution tool to help sales organizations manage their sales leads within the Salesforce.com platform.

The event drew more than 200 participants from St. Louis and beyond. Each team of up to 10 members had 48 hours to build an application on top of the Salesforce1 platform. The title sponsor, TopOpps for this event, makes a $50,000 acquisition offer to the winning team for the prototype that they develop during the weekend-long event.

“The WUSTL team stood apart from the others through the predictive analytics features and built-in recommendation engines that they developed in their solution,” said Clifford Holekamp, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Olin Business School and one of the judges for the competition.

“It was impressive that this young team was so savvy to the business analytics that sales managers would need in order to make better management decisions,” he said.

The hackathon was sponsored by TopOpps, Bank of America and the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership. Partners were Arch Grants, Cultivation Capital, Lockerdome, Strangeloop, T-Rex, Think Big Partners, Techli and WUSTL’s School of Engineering & Applied Science and the Entrepreneurship Platform at Olin Business School.

“The Force’s success at GlobalHack is indicative of the active and talented computer science community at Washington University,” said junior Shane Carr, president of the university’s Association for Computing Machinery. “Through our weekly Thursday Tech Talks and Code & Cookies programming sessions, we are proud to provide a meaningful lineup of events for the enrichment of students in the computer science program.”

GlobalHack is a nonprofit organization that hosts quarterly hackathon competitions and an annual product competition, with plans to award more than $1 million in prize money annually. The second GlobalHack event will be held in May. Learn more at globalhack.org.

GlobalHack was co-sponsored by the WUSTL School of Engineering and the Entrepreneurship Platform at Olin Business School.

Post by Neil Schoenherr, WUSTL News

Photo credit: Techli.com, The Force team with TopOpps founder Jim Eberlin.