Mapping the universe | IoT & Supply Chain | Indiana startups | St. Louis research
“My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all." — Stephen Hawking
Today’s itinerary:
July 23, 2020
Anand Raichoor (EPFL), Ashley Ross (Ohio State University) and the SDSS Collaboration
Scientists have created a 3D map of the universe, offering hope of providing answers to some of the universe’s most perplexing and challenging questions. The map, which is the largest 3D map ever created, represents decades of data collection and analysis by more than 100 astrophysicists, as well as the publication of 23 academic papers supporting the work.
The map shows that until about seven billion years ago, the expansion of the universe was slowing. Then, for some unknown reason scientists attribute to dark energy, the expansion began to speed up. Understanding this acceleration and reconciling it with existing theories of dark energy are topics for further research. Another is whether new research is consistent with general relativity theory.
Scientists at The Ohio State University have been contributing to the effort for a couple of decades, including David Weinberg, of the astronomy department at OSU, and Ashley Ross, the eBOSS catalog scientist and a lead author on one of the papers. “One of the things we want to learn about is the time evolution of dark energy—this mysterious thing that is causing the universe to accelerate,” Ross said. “Cosmologists are fiercely debating whether this conflict is an error in the measurements or is telling us something new about fundamental physics.”
You can check out a video explaining the project here.
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INNOVATIVE HELP WANTED
Join Hive Networks’ mission-driven all-star team Why is it that healthcare is one of the only sectors in society that doesn’t use some sort of social network to help patients with chronic conditions share data, analytics, and ways of making small incremental improvements in their daily lives?
That was the question successful Cincinnati entrepreneur and CincyTech executive in residence John Bostick asked himself. And that’s how Hive Networks came to be. “Hive Networks is on a mission. To help people get better faster. Very simple,” Bostick said.
The platform leverages data from all sources about a patient and supports a continuous learning process where patients and their families, clinicians and their teams, researchers and their staffs all contribute to the best health outcome for the patient.
According to Scott Roth, CTO of Hive Networks, it “has the potential to rapidly and organically grow into one of the largest healthcare software platforms in the world.”
The company is carefully looking for some A players to add to its team. Bostick said, “We want ‘players’ who are used to working with other top performers with minimal direction. Players who are truly committed to our mission.”
If you are a Full-Stack Software Engineer with 3-5 years of experience, a DevOps expert who is used to making a difference, or have an interest as a Business Intelligence Engineer, you can find detailed requirements for the jobs here.
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C.H. Robinson, Microsoft team up for supply-chain advances C.H. Robinson, a Fortune 500 transportation and logistics company in Minnesota, is teaming up with Microsoft to transform “the supply chain of the future.” The companies are collaborating to enable “real-time visibility” for their logistics customers. That will allow IoT monitoring to measure supply-chain factors like temperature, shock, tilt, humidity, light, and pressure in shipments.
“The supply chain of the future is smarter, less volatile and can be navigated with a new level of visibility thanks to the power of this relationship,” said Jordan Kass, C.H. Robinson’s president of managed services.
FUELING THE FUTURE
Tech companies in the Hoosier state showed a solid rebound in the second quarter, with an overall performance doubling that of Q1. Among those companies sharing fundraising and merger info publicly, 19 companies raised capital, two more landed grants, and nine were involved in mergers and acquisitions. It all adds up to a strong showing of $32 million in funding. That’s $10 million shy of 2019’s Q2 but not bad for the era of coronavirus.
Other Hoosier companies making a splash in Q2 include revenue-analytics company Canopy, which raised $2 million; Pattern89, a data-science platform for marketers, which raised $2 million in seed funding; and New Albany-based EZ-Chow, which raised $1 million in seed capital.
Research funding on the rise for universities in the St. Louis region Research funding at universities in St. Louis and southern Illinois has increased for the past three years, according to a report by St. Louis Business Journal. Washington University topped the list with 65% of the overall $1.2 billion in funding for ten universities in 2019. That represents an 11.1% increase over the previous year.
The National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy were top funding agencies. Some of the research they support includes public health, life sciences, engineering, vaccine development, clinical trials, AI, advanced manufacturing, and traumatic brain injuries.
FUNDING BRIEFS
Minneapolis tech company closes $1.55M round
Minneapolis-based Joshin, which focuses on disability and special needs care, has closed a $1.55 million funding round. It was led by Anthemis, with additional investment from M25 and Sure Ventures.
“Wood to food” startup Arbiom has raised $10M
Three investors have provided Durham, NC, company Arbiom, which is “pioneering the future of food with technology that converts wood into an alternative protein source for animals and humans,” with a little over $10 million.
Cleveland production brewery reaches first crowdfunding milestone
Saucy Brew Works, a Cleveland-based brewpub, has raised over $250,000 on its road to accruing $1.07 million. The company says it reached that first milestone in three weeks on crowdfunding site StartEngine.
FINAL APPROACH
Innovators invent a walker that goes up stairs Sometimes breakthrough medical technologies don’t involve gene editing or artificial intelligence. Consider the walker, that revolutionary device that’s been helping people walk since the ‘50s.
Steven Davis, an entrepreneur and founder of LevelMed Technologies, has worked with the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs and Case Western Reserve University to create and market a self-leveling walker. This clever device includes a handy push-lever that allows the user to temporarily raise and lower the walker’s legs (the device’s legs, not the person walking) to make it easy to navigate stairs.
This 34-second video shows the genius of the product in action. In addition to long-term use, the self-leveling walker could eliminate the need for a surgery patient to build a temporary ramp during recovery. Researchers at Cleveland VA and Case Western developed the walker and hold the patents on it, and they turned to Davis to license and market the product. The agreement came through the efforts of tech transfer specialists at the university, the VA, and TechLink. LevelMed will begin selling the walker within the next year.
PA railroad wins innovation award The Colebrook Railroad has won an award from the National Association of Counties for its innovation in saving the historic Pennsylvania railroad. The line, once used to haul iron ore to feed the state’s steel industry, was abandoned by Conrail in 1976, and freight trains ran sporadically over its rails until 2008. In 2010, the Berks County Redevelopment Authority, along with the Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust, converted the old freight line into a tourist destination.
IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
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