TGIF: A good Friday everyone, and welcome to new readers. Don’t forget to send tips, news, story ideas, calendar items, releases, promotions, job postings, criticisms and corrections to editor@innovateli.com.
ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM: Students from Molloy College, Stony Brook University and Farmingdale State College will face off today in the state finals of the NY business plan competition, which includes 75 schools from 10 regions and $500,000 in prizes.
Molloy College student Mike Russo earned top honors in the recent regional competition, winning Best Overall and topping the Products and Services category with Sticky Quotes, his brand of inspirational post-it notes that are already on sale at Long Island retail outlets and at www.mystickyquotes.com.
Other winners included Stony Brook students Brendan Cox, Luis Lituma and Plinio Guzman, who placed second with Juice +, which converts kinetic energy into battery power; Farmingdale’s Terriq Davidson and Mohit Khurana, for gourmet popcorn firm PopCasa; and Stony Brook’s Guarav Lalwani, for Millennial Materials and Devices, which is bringing nanomaterials to touch screens.
Fans may download an app and vote their support via the iOS version,available here, or Android, here.
THE $11 BILLION NICHE: Henry Schein CEO Stanley Bergman goes one-on-one with Innovate LI to talk about life in the S&P 500 and as one of America’s best employers. Otherwise, it’s a “pretty boring story of just doing what we’re doing,” he says.http://bit.ly/1GprJ4H
SEA ME, FEEL ME: The state is doling out $22M in federal grants to rebuild New York bridges, reinforce sea walls and strengthen anti-flooding measures. Surprising approximately no one, Long Island was excluded from the list. http://bit.ly/1bA3DHk
ROBERT MOSES, PLUGGED IN: The state plans to spend $1.7M on a solar system at Robert Moses State Park that would generate enough electricity to meet, and maybe exceed, the park’s annual electricity usage, saving the state roughly $130,000 a year in energy costs. Hey, maybe they can reduce the parking fees. http://bit.ly/1DXhYXI
ATTENTION FLOSS DENIERS: With rights to its novel periodontal drugs locked up, biotech startup Traverse Biosciences is looking for investors and strategic partners to head to market. Innovate LI checks in with CEO Joe Scaduto on the path to commercialization.http://bit.ly/1JhrclW
TAX HELP IN HAUPPAUGE: The Suffolk County IDA approved tax breaks for Festo Corp. and Voxx, allowing them to complete real estate deals that will keep 350 workers on the Island. Newsday’s Victor Ocasio: http://nwsdy.li/1bnyI0n
CORE VALUATIONS: London’s Pearson PLC has quietly grown into what might be the most powerful education firm in the United States, with $7.2 billion in sales and $357 million in 2014 profits. Thank you, Common Core. LIBN’s Claude Solnik:http://bit.ly/1GbEFpn
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WELCOME CORD CUTTERS: In a bid to attract young viewers who don’t pay for traditional cable, Cablevision launched two new products that include broadband service, Wi-Fi access and a digital antenna to capture over-the-air broadcast TV signals. Newsday’s Ken Schachter: http://nwsdy.li/1GoDBRx
WE CAN HEAR YOU NOW: Stony Brook University has selected Unify – formerly Siemens – to replace the school’s aging telephone system, in use daily by more than 60,000 students and staffers at four campuses, the university medical center, R&D park, incubators and satellite locations. http://bit.ly/1GmXxEu
LIKE THIS? Pass along a good thing to a friend or colleague. Forward this newsletter and encourage your crowd to sign up at: http://bit.ly/1CODdrM
NYC WATCH
UNMAKING MAKERBOT: The 3-D printing pioneer MakerBot, frequently touted as the poster child for a tech-driven revival of manufacturing in the City, is downsizing. The Brooklyn-based company recently laid off staff and closed its three retail stores, including a flagship in the Nolita neighborhood. Crain’s here:http://bit.ly/1Gkl0J8
WORKING TOGETHER: New York’s latest tech space startup, Cowork|rs, which already has locations in midtown south and Brooklyn, is taking 30K square feet at 55 Broadway, with another 40K feet in the works. “There’s a massive change that is happening downtown where people are being priced out of midtown south,” founder Shlomo Silber told CNY. http://bit.ly/1GlS8QC
Also: Co-working competitor WeWork has inked a deal for an entire 136,118-square-foot building at 315 West 36th Street.
WILL WORK FOR VOTES: Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton – we think we’re the first to say that – is looking for tech talent. Her Brooklyn-based campaign HQ needs a deputy CTO, a frontend director and engineers, product managers, a database architect and Python, UX, iOS and Android help.http://bit.ly/1byzN6e
And: Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, the first Pentagon chief to visit Silicon Valley in 20 years, said the military needs to shed its “dreary” image and attract young, tech-savvy people. Did we mention this was the defense department’s first visit to the west coast in two decades? Just checking.http://on.ft.com/1HxRTAG
THE FEDS SHOULDA HIRED THEM: How online health insurer Oscar went from startup to a $1.5B valuation in 21 months. The secret was making Obamacare easy for the masses.http://bit.ly/1d59vJc
ELSEWHERE
WHAT TO LOVE ABOUT SYRACUSE: “You can show up at Hancock airport 15 minutes before a flight and still have time to get a cocktail before you board.” http://bit.ly/1ySL6QJ
FRACKING UPDATE: A report on the state’s reasons for banning fracking – running several thousand pages – will be printed soon. And then, perhaps, buried in shale. http://pojonews.co/1OhwNfB
ON THE ROAD: Albany-based fuel cellmaker Plug Power is launching a talking tour, including stops in NYC, Chicago and Washington: http://bit.ly/1DmV6OT
DIGITAL NOSTALGIA: Can’t think of anything fresh for your social media pages? There’s an app for that. Timehop will plunder your personal “digital archives” to tell you what you were doing in the past, giving you fresh memories to share. More from the Business Insider: http://read.bi/1QnDOdo
WALLKILLER WEED: The Orange County town of Wallkill has greenlighted a proposal by Valley Agriceuticals to grow marijuana on a 110-acre parcel in a partnership with Seach, one of the largest medical cannabis farms in Israel. Construction is set to begin on a 60,000 square-foot greenhouse. The Time-Herald Record:http://bit.ly/1DTeHZm
GOODBYE LASIK: Italian biotech startup MHOX thinks it can use bioprinting to create replacement parts for the human eye, maybe even the entire eye one day. The project is called – what else? – EYE, for Enhance Your Eye.http://bit.ly/1QofjMZ
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Innovate LI checked in with Hofstra CFI chief Kevin Craig, who also honchoes the school’s Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory.http://bit.ly/1PgmyW3
Clean-gen startup Brimes Energy heads to open water this summer to test a newfangled wave machine it hopes will turn ocean currents into electrical current. http://bit.ly/1zG5xeT
A New York judge has granted two Stony Brook University research chimps a court date to challenge their detention: http://bit.ly/1Oc7gnS
More than 6,000 Southold residents were left in the dark when a substation failed on Tuesday. Luckily it was at 11 p.m. http://bit.ly/1GkoZWd
Famed DNA researcher James Watson made a $1M donation to Cold Spring Harbor Lab, part of the more than $4M he netted selling his Nobel Prize at a Christie’s auction. Innovate LI: http://bit.ly/1DemtKK
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research inked a partnership deal to battle brain cancers with drugs, avoiding surgery and chemotherapy.http://bit.ly/1E7Vu7v
The state said its Jobs Express online employment platform hit a record 115,000 available positions, signaling a pickup in economic activity.http://bit.ly/1Oc4v63
Start-Up NY chief Leslie Whatley told a gathering of entrepreneurs that the tax-free program just needs a little time to take root. Newsday’s James T. Madore was there: http://nwsdy.li/1yTH3ne
BELOW THE FOLD
HOW’D THAT HAPPEN? Bronx-based City Island Beer Co. has gone kegs-up after two years in an otherwise amber-hot craft brewing market. Could it be because their beers were actually made in Red Sox nation? CNY: http://bit.ly/1HxekWH
EAT QUICK: British filmmaker Gus Filgate has launched a series of shorts on famous final meals. Called Last Suppers, the series so far includes Napoleon (steak and eggs), Caesar (shrimp, mussels and mutton chops) and Jimi Hendrix (tuna sandwich). Pretty incredible photography: http://bit.ly/1Gmn2bJ
KEEP IT DOWN: The most complaints about loud sex last year came from Brooklyn, with 42 of 133 total calls to the city’s 311 system. Six were about the same Bay Ridge couple. Queens was second with 37. No complaints at all from Staten Island. DNAinfo: http://dnain.fo/1HwpOty
LIVE FREE OR GEORGE: Every four years we have the Olympics, the World Cup and George Pataki running around New Hampshire. Is he serious this time? Bloomberg tries to answer the question: http://bloom.bg/1IMEHGZ
LUMBERJACKING LOOKING PRETTY GOOD: Newspaper reporting was voted America’s worst job last year, nudging out lumberjack, which had won 2013 honors. Reporters take home an average annual salary of $37K and the field has job growth prospects of minus 13 percent, according to Career Cast. http://bit.ly/1zQ4ybU
BUT WAS IT UMAMI? Australian scientists have for the first time captured live images of the process of taste sensation on the tongue. Well, a mouse tongue. But snapping shots of a human’s 2,000 taste buds can’t be far behind. Science Daily:http://bit.ly/1DSNrdj
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Compiled by john.kominicki@innovateli.com
