Tech Tour

The lobby of the New Enterprise Opportunity Center in Lansing, complete with its unusual method of making it down to the first floor in a hurry. Matt Roush photo.

Tech Tour Day Eight: Lansing A Tech Capital, Too

Yeah, I know, the FALL tech tour is the time I talk to Michigan’s outstanding research universities. But in the case of Lansing, East Lansing and Michigan State University, the local government’s tech-based economic development efforts are inextricably linked to the university’s.

WWJ Newsradio 950–2013/05/05

Consumers Energy's Croton Dam on the Muskegon River in Newaygo County. Wikimedia Commons photo.

Matt’s Favorites: Chinese Hackers Crack Dams, New Robot Hand, New Robot Bugs, And Much More

What’s new and wonderful from the world of high tech on this final day of the Tech Tour? Now that’s a question worth answering!

WWJ Newsradio 950–2013/05/02

The Southwest Michigan Innovation Center, run by Southwest Michigan First.

Tech Tour Day Seven: Tech Rules The Zoo, And Battle Creek Too

Everybody in Michigan talks about startups and entrepreneurship. But few Michigan cities live it better than this community of 100,000 or so in the southwest corner of the state.

WWJ Newsradio 950–2013/05/02

Annu Deol, founder of Worx Displays, at the back of one of her display systems

Tech Tour Day Six: Grand Rapids = Grand Tech Startups

Grand Rapids, capital of West Michigan, is big enough to have lots of big, longtime tech companies rivaling anything in metro Detroit. So hi, Trivalent! Howdy, Open Systems Technologies! You guys are great, but this time I wanted new faces. So I asked Tim Mroz at the economic development agency The Right Place Inc. to find me some startups. And he found me some great ones.

WWJ Newsradio 950–2013/05/01

This machine from Duperon in Bay City keeps debris out of water pipes. With the device is its inventory, Terry L. Duperon. Matt Roush photo.

Tech Tour Day Five: Tri-Cities Terrific

The Tri-Cities of Saginaw, Bay City and Midland is another corner of Michigan where there’s a proud tradition of, you know, actually building stuff, even when it comes to modern technology. And this tradition continues, even as the area remarkets itself as the Great Lakes Bay Region.

WWJ Newsradio 950–2013/04/30

Workers assembling a cellulosic ethanol plant in Alpena. Matt Roush photo.

Tech Tour Day Four: Amazing Alpena

Alpena, hotbed of technology. Who knew? No, seriously. This gritty industrial town — sometimes literally gritty, home to a huge Lafarge Corp. cement plant and a huge wood processing plant that turns wood chips into wood panels — has a ton of cool technology-based economic development going on.

WWJ Newsradio 950–2013/04/29

Peter Didyk, Pioneer's director of sales and marketing, with the company's new products for helping the rib cage of cardiac surgery patients fuse and heal more quickly.

Tech Tour Day One: Magnificent Marquette

I haven’t been to Marquette on the Tech Tour for four years now. And as I recall, the last time I was here it was snowing. In May. Well, this time, a cold rain gave way to springlike sunshine and temperatures in the 50s, surely an omen for the warm greeting I got Friday from my first interviews as the 10th annual Spring Tech Tour began.

WWJ Newsradio 950–2013/04/28