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A Look Back At GLITR's Year 10, September 2010 - August 2011

September 2010: A Flint company, Freedom Solar, says it's experiencing explosive growth selling solar roofing... Purchasing managers report a Michigan economic surge in July... NextEnergy adds an electric vehicle charging station in Detroit... A Michigan Tech researcher predicts the demise of Great Lakes fishing due to invasive quagga mussels... Massachusetts-based A123 opens its lithium ion battery plant in Livonia with a staff of 300... The Invest Michigan Growth Capital Fund shows off its $100 million in successful investments at a program at Detroit's remodeled Book Cadillac... The University of Michigan stages an event touting the economic benefits and hundreds of jobs created at the university and spinoffs by the federal stimulus... A UM spinout, battery maker Sakti3, gets $4.2 million in investment... Macomb Community College hosts an event on using Michigan's water resources as an economic attraction... Altair buys a 136,000-square-foot building for its Ilumisys LED lighting subsidiary...

October 2010: The University of Michigan creates the state's first new embryonic stem cell line...The World Stem Cell Summit convenes in Detroit for the first time, with 500 stem cell experts in town... The GLITR Fall Tech Tour visits the latest in cool university technology that will be making the jobs of tomorrow at Michigan Technological University, Saginaw Valley State University, Central Michigan University, Ferris State University, Grand Valley State University, Western Michigan University and Michigan State University... Minnesota-based Ciber says it's at 150 employees in a Southfield development center, enroute to 700 new jobs by 2015... The Engineering Society of Detroit's forecast for 2011 finds hope for the area's economy... The Convergence auto show finds more and more work for Michigan at the intersection of Auto and Tech... In a big month for shows in Detroit, the International District Export Council show also convenes in Detroit, boosting exports as the key to economic regrowth... And TiECon Midwest brings a major entrepreneurial event to Dearborn...  Kalamazoo medical device maker Stryker buys the neurovascular division of Boston Scientific in an all cash transaction for $1.5 billion...

November 2010: University of Michigan researchers take a major step in turning the brain's electrical activity into commands to machines... Ann Arbor's Advanced Photonix gets $1.8 million in capital from In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital fund... The Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index rises for the eighth straight month... Well over 100 gather at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for the Michigan Solid State Lighting Association's second annual symposium... Ann Arbor-based Internet2 begins deployment of a new, nationwide 100 Gigabit Ethernet network, the fastest ever... Steve Wozniak speaks to more than 800 people at Macomb Community College, and GLITR's Matt Roush moderates... DTE breaks ground on a 500-kilowatt solar installation at Monroe County Community College... Two major automotive magazines name the Chevrolet Volt the Car of the Year... More than 500 people attend Michigan Emerging, a daylong series of keynotes and panels on emerging technologies, entrepreneurship and business formation... A GLITR business breakfast predicts huge changes in how the state pays for its operations and gives economic development incentives under new Gov. Rick Snyder... Lansing's Arialink expands its fiber optic network to Chicago and Washington, D.C.

December 2010: General Motors says it will add 1,000 jobs in Michigan over the next two years in electric vehicles... GLITR tests Verizon Wireless' 4G data network and finds the speeds ridiculous -- upwards of 10 megabits download... Manpower says Detroit's and Michigan's job markets are expanding faster than the nation's... A $1 million business plan contest called "Accelerate Michigan" aims to speed up economic development...Ford's Wayne plant will be the first in the world to build gasoline, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars, all under one roof... Eastern Michigan University shows off a $30 million upgrade to its science complex... The University of Michigan hits 500 employees in its North Campus Research Complex, the former Pfizer research center on Ann Arbor's norteast side... Ann Arbor's Merit Network begins work on the $102.9 million, 2,287-mile REACH-3MC fiber-optic project in rural Michigan...

January 2011: After a couple years off, GLITR returns to the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, concentrating on the 30 or so Michigan-based exhibitors...  like General Motors, which introduced OnStar FMV, an aftermarket rear-view mirror that has complete OnStar service built in, intended for sale to those who don't drive GM... and Ford, which rolls out the Ford Focus Electric... Grand Rapids' Fulton Innovation shows off a fascinating variety of wireless power options... Advanced Photonix raises $4 million in a stock sale... Lansing's IDV Solutions provides a graphical look at the threat of Asian carp in the Great Lakes through a new Web tool called Carp Watch... Azure Dynamics of Oak Park gets a record-size order for 600 of its hybrid buses... the University of Michigan opens a new business accelerator in its North Campus Research Complex... Chrysler announces plans to offer hydraulic hybrid vehicles... Federal stimulus awards to University of Michigan researchers top $100 million... A Michigan Technological University student designed satellite has been chosen to fly in space... CareTech opens a $5  million new network operations center in Troy... Compuware profits and sales jump...

February 2011: Walloon Lake based Gas Technologies LLC reports a big success in its field test of its methane-to-methanol technology... New Jersey-based Becton Dickinson buys Accuri Cytometers, an Ann Arbor company that develops smaller, affordable cell analysis equipment for life sciences researchers... Compuware holds its first recruiting open house in five years... New tax credits are available for Michigan startup investors... Wayne State University will be the first in the country to offer graduate and undergraduate certificate programs in advanced energy storage systems... GLITR rolls out its fourth redesign... A snowstorm-limited crowd of more than 200 attends Henry Ford Community College's Fourth Annual Alternative Energy Summit, with a theme on technology entrepreneurship...

March 2011: DTE Energy picks SPX to manage its home electric vehicle charger station installation program... A Wayne State University professor's technology tricks cancer cells into committing suicide... Doctors at Beaumont Hospital Troy have performed Michigan's first minimally invasive robotic procedure to correct atrial fibrillation...Ann Arbor-based Internet2 and Linthicum, Md.-based Ciena Corp. partner on a new national network with an astounding 8.8 terabits per second data capacity... A $100 million cash gift, the largest ever made to a Michigan college or university, will be used to give birth to a private medical school at a public institution, Western Michigan University...

April 2011: WWJ's Social Media And Your Business draws an overflow crowd of more than 500 to Schoolcraft College... The Ann Arbor pharma firm Adeona raises $3.5 million in a stock sale... Venture capital investments in Michigan's clean tech and life sciences industries are booming, according to a new report from the Michigan Venture Capital Association... Robotics offers a major opportunity to rebuild Michigan's manufacturing infrastructure, according to speakers at the Michigan Robotics Day celebration in Ann Arbor ... A blunt assessment of America's energy problems from Congress' just-retired "Mr. Science," Vern Ehlers, kicked off Day Two of the Michigan Energy Conference at Ferris State University... A Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher has developed a potential first-ever vaccine for Chlamydia, the world's most prevalent sexually transmitted disease and the leading cause of new cases of blindness... The Future Midwest conference packs a chilly Eastern Market with the latest in high tech...

May 2011: In its second incarnation as a startup, Esperion Therapeutics, now based in Plymouth, reports promising results of a drug to cut levels of bad cholesterol... Midwest Technology Leaders 2011 draws over 100 to Rochester's Royal Park Hotel... Ann Arbor's Enlighten launches WhatWasThere.com, a historic photo site... More than 40 early-stage companies seeking venture capital and hundreds of representatives of VC firms played the business Dating Game at the 30th annual Michigan Growth Capital Symposium at the Marriott Eagle Crest Resort...  GLITR's Eighth Annual Spring Tech Tour visits Traverse City, Saginaw, Midland, Bay City, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lansing, and features a Chevrolet Volt... Compuware announces an upgrade and rebranding of its application performance management technology as Compuware Gomez... A. Alfred Taubman is committing $11 million to Lawrence Technological University for a new Taubman Engineering, Architecture and Life Sciences Complex...

June 2011: Gov. Rick Snyder gave an upbeat assessment of his performance so far and his plans for the months ahead, and a panel of CEOs offered an optimistic view of Michigan's future as the Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference got under way... Snyder announces the $3 billion Pure Michigan Business Connect, an alliance of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., state agencies and major Michigan companies and organizations.. Peter Karmanos Jr. announces his retirement as Compuware CEO, staying on as chairman... Oak Park's Azure Dynamics gets a federal order for its hybrid electric trucks that could be worth more than $110 million... Hewlett-Packard Co. is providing further evidence that southeast Michigan is one of the nation's hottest markets for tech jobs, with HP joining the hiring wave by bringing 250 new jobs to Pontiac... The mobile industry in Michgian forms a trade association, called the Mobile Technology Association of Michigan, and a state study finds a surprising 47,000 Michiganders working in mobile technologies... Goodbye Comcast, hello Xfinity -- Comcast Corp. is changing the brand name under which it provides cable TV, data and phone services in Michigan, and promising up to 100 megabits per second home connections... More than 2,500 attendees gather at the Mason County Fairgrounds in Ludington for the annual Michigan Energy Fair, sponsored by the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association... Electric vehicles won't be taking over the world any time soon, but even at a small fraction of the overall auto market, EVs are a multibillion-dollar opportunity for Michigan, according to a panel at the Detroit Economic Club...

July 2011: The Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index drops to 61.0 in June... Logicalis, an English IT firm, pays $34 million for Auburn Hills-based Netarx, an IT services provider with $60 million a year in revenue, 229 employees and customers in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Arizona... Compuware pays $256 million for dynaTrace, a Massachusetts-based software developer... And we don't know what privately held ePrize LLC of Pleasant Ridge paid for Apollo Data Technologies, a Chicago-based predictive analytics firm... Ferndale-based Livio Radio announced the inclusion of its Internet radio products in the Federal Communications Commission Technology Experience Center... Executive pay falls across the board at Compuware as the company didn't hit performance targets... Intervention Insights, a Grand Rapids health care IT company, raises $7.2 million from Michigan's Beringea and Louisville, Ky.-based Chrysalis Ventures, who were joined by Hopen Life Sciences, Michigan Accelerator Fund I and other existing investors... Earvin "Magic" Johnson -- Lansing native, Michigan State University and NBA Hall of Fame basketball star, philanthropist and entrepreneur -- joins Detroit Venture Partners as a general partner... A public-private partnership involving state and federal government and Dow Chemical Co. is pumping up to $130 million in new business financing over five years into the state of Michigan... General Motors Ventures LLC invests $7.5 million in solar developer Sunlogics PLC, which will create 200 jobs in the Detroit area...

August 2011: The Grand Rapids-based IT consultant C/D/H buys the Web development and SharePoint consulting team of the Southfield accounting and business advisory firm Plante & Moran PLLC... Three new companies have moved into the University of Michigan Venture Accelerator at the North Campus Research Complex... Novi-based Red Level Networks buys the technical services division of Preferred Solutions of Northville... Though the visit was partially overshadowed by partisan gridlock, President Barack Obama talks up the advanced battery industry in Holland, his second visit to the West Michigan city in 13 months... University of Michigan lab researchers create MABEL -- with a peak pace of 6.8 miles per hour, is believed to be the world's fastest bipedal robot with knees... State officials unveil the new economic and urban revitalization tax breaks that will replace tax credit programs dating back to the Granholm and Engler administrations... DTE Energy is more than halfway to its renewable energy goal with a contract to purchase 120 megawatts from a wind farm in Tuscola, Bay and Saginaw counties... HiredMYway.com, a Detroit-based Web site that uses a recruiter-style model online to solve job board overcrowding, announced that more than $3 million has been invested in the company within the past six months...

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