Wilmington University earned the top spot in a ranking by OnlineColleges.com of college online programs. The ranking uses data from the National Center of Education Statistics to determine a 10-point scale drawing from 14 different metrics.

The top three schools in the statewide study include:

1. Wilmington University
2. University of Delaware
3. Delaware State University

According to the ranking, 85 percent of students at Wilmington University are enrolled in programs outside of the physical location of the school. That compares with seven percent at the University of Delaware and 12 percent at Delaware State University.

The full methodology is available here: https://www.onlinecolleges.com/top-colleges-tool/delaware.html

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(AP) — The University of Delaware has paid out more than $6 million to top administrators who voluntarily left their jobs or were forced out since 2007.

The News Journal of Wilmington reports nearly a third of the funds went to David Roselle, a former university president who continued to get paid four years after he left his leadership role at the public college. He was making $875,000 a year before stepping down in 2007.

The analysis was done examining federal tax records.

The newspaper says university officials declined comment.

During the same period the payments of $6 million were issued, the university consolidated departments while increasing tuition and fees. The newspaper says the school is ranked as among the top 50 most expensive public colleges.

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By Joyce L. Carroll
Special to Delaware Business Times

As Father Time can attest, death and taxes aren’t life’s only certainties. Yes, the passage of time is inevitable, but thoughtful management and planning will optimize its use. To this end, two University of Delaware alums, Michelle Trincia and Kaylyn Minix, have struck gold with the success of their business, Bloom Daily Planners.

Their retail business is online; 300 campus bookstores and specialty shops around the country provide wholesale opportunities.

The bookstore at Brigham Young University’s Idaho campus was one of the first vendors to sell Bloom planners. Herman Erickson, the supplies buyer for the campus bookstore, learned of their product at a CAMEX trade show, an annual conference and buying expo for educational retailers.

“Anytime we find a student’s or graduate’s product that is applicable to our college industry we’re tickled to help,” he said, adding that the first semester’s allotment sold out instantly. He doubled the order for the following semester and pre-ordered for the next calendar year. Purchases, he said, have increased each year since.

“Bloom has such a positive outlook on life, it’s become contagious. It’s represented in their brilliant designs
and inspiring monthly quotes, which have our students always asking when the next planners are coming after we run out,” he said.

Although their venture is just seven years old, Bloom co-founders Trincia and Minix had embraced the benefits found through task and event documentation long before they met. “Kaylyn and I both have our planners dating back to middle school,” Trincia said.

The women tout the therapeutic aspect of to-do lists and the sense of accomplishment that comes from crossing out completed tasks. But more than that, Trincia said, planners serve as an abridged journal. Events are captured with just enough words to conjure the memories years later.

The pair discovered their mutual passion in college. An internship at Student Media Group paved the way to the now-thriving business. The internship sponsors already had a line of planners for college students. But Trincia and Minix saw beyond the day-to-day. While planner entries are individualized, Trincia and Minix believe the entry process is universally empowering. “We wanted to make a more inspirational and attractive product. We want to help women be the best version of themselves,” Trincia said.

Student Media Group encouraged their product enhancements. And Trincia and Minix continue to share a working relationship with Student Media Group through their mutual parent company, Springboard Inc., based in Newark. “We were lucky that we already had the support and guidance through Springboard,” Trincia said.

As Bloom’s office is near the university, interns are readily available to augment staff that has now grown to 10 full-time employees, including a recently hired social media director to assist with marketing. While sales have grown exponentially since inception, Trincia and Minix are always looking for new avenues to promote their line. They recently introduced an affiliate program, one that gives customers who are willing to spread the word the ability to earn a ten-percent commission.

Aside from calendars and to-do list style planners for everyday use, Bloom carries specialty and occasion-driven planners. Formats range from educational planners that help teachers structure the academic year, to those that guide life-changing events like weddings or pregnancies. Inspirational quotes and bright floral covers add to the detailed planner or calendar pages within. Office accessories from clipboards to mouse pads are also available.

While much goes into the design aspect of their product, Trincia and Minix take the time to research the topics and categories that go into each specialty planner. They drew on personal wedding planning experiences for Bloom’s wedding planner, and now have peers who have been through childbirth to inform details that go into their pregnancy planners.

“We pour our hearts into every product,” Minix said. The rewards of their efforts, along with personal stories from customers, are shared at staff meetings held twice each week. As an example, Trincia pointed to a calendar that may detail the comings and goings of family members or caregivers tending to the needs of a sick family member.

The Bloom line of planners is available through Amazon.com and Staples.com, and Trincia and Minix are testing the waters with other big-league players as well.

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University of Delaware Star Campus facility will house 330 researchers and technicians

By Roger Morris

Chemours Company’s CEO Mark Vergnano was joined this morning  by Gov. John Carney and University of Delaware President Dennis Assanis in turning the first shovel of earth for the construction of the company’s new $150 million research and innovation center located at the university’s STAR Campus in Newark. Representing the first major investment in Delaware by the two-year-old DuPont spinoff, it will house 330 researchers and technicians when it is completed in 2020.

“Today is more than a photo op,” Vergnano said. “This moment represents something else – it represents scientific discovery.” He also announced the official name of the new building – the Chemours Discovery Hub. It will contain 312,000 square feet of labs and offices fronting on the S. College Ave. entrance to the 272-acre campus, formerly the site of the Chrysler automotive plant, and is located midway between the university’s main campus and I-95.

Assanis pointed out that the Chemours project was the fourth groundbreaking ceremony at the rapidly growing science campus since June. “This is a wonderful day for the university,” he said. “We feel like Christmas came to the University of Delaware one week early.”

Gov. Carney called former governor Jack Markell to join him on the podium “for all the things he did that I’m now getting credit for.” Carney said Chemours represents for the state a “bridge between the past and the future.” Senators Tom Carper and Cris Coons, U.S. Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester and many state government officials were also in attendance.

Architect for the project is L2Partridge, and IMC Construction is the general contractor.

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Higher education in Delaware spans two-year art schools, such as the Delaware College of Art and Design, to nationally respected universities, such as the University of Delaware. All colleges in the state are seeing changes coming from within and without, in the form of new student populations, emerging partnerships with outside industries, and the uncertain role of the federal government. We spoke with representatives from a mix of Delaware-based schools to get a sense of what’s ahead.

New student populations

One clear trend among Delaware colleges is the growth of older students seeking secondary education for the sake of employment.

“In 2018, higher education institutions will continue to see the presence of ‘nontraditional’ student populations — those attending college who would be 25 years of age or older — who seek to obtain a degree or certification,” said Katy Ro, academic dean at Delaware College of Art and Design.

Ro said the growth of older students is due to an “ever-evolving career market,” in which education and training are increasingly important to obtaining even an entry-level job.

“Technology has allowed faculty to develop courses that are interactive and offer students extraordinary learning experiences,” said Dr. Peter Bailey, vice president of external and international affairs at Wilmington University. “Adult students, as well as traditional students, who are balancing work, family and college, can attend classes anytime and anywhere to fit their busy schedules thanks to advanced technology.”

The growth of pre-college prep and dual-enrollment opportunities among college-bound high school students has also raised the stakes, according to Ro. More students graduate high school with high expectations for college, both in terms of academic attainment and cultural fulfillment.

Business collaborations

The pressure to better prepare students for a tough economy has also led to more partnerships with businesses. Often those partnerships center around expanding industries where there may be a skills gap.

“Programs such as cybersecurity continue to be in demand. New programs such as data analytics have been introduced at many universities including Wilmington University, to meet the needs of local businesses,” Bailey said.

The University of Delaware has continued to invest in its Horn Program in Entrepreneurship, which this year moved outside of the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and became a schoolwide program.

The move comes as the school pushes to provide some entrepreneurship training to all students,
regardless of their interest in business.

“They’ve always been an umbrella organization that deals with all of the colleges, but now it will be explicit in the way that it’s structured,” said Dustyn Roberts, director of the College of Engineering Summer Founders program, which teaches entrepreneurship to engineering students, earlier this year.

Uncertain federal role

Charles Riordan, vice president for research, scholarship and innovation at University of Delaware, said 2017 saw a number of potentially damaging federal changes.

“There were a number of federal budget proposals in 2017 that would have had negative impacts to university research and the affordability of higher education,” Riordan said. “Among the proposed cuts were R&D budgets, caps on reimbursements for facilities and administrative costs and taxing graduate student tuition waivers.”

So far, none of these proposals has passed. But Riordan said they remain concerned going into 2018.

Bailey said the uncertainty has led to a drop in enrollment, which decreased 1 percent in the fall of 2017, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research. “These declines have been attributed by various sources to the change in the U.S. Government administration,” he said.

The post 2018 Economic Forecast: Education appeared first on Delaware Business Times.

The Delaware Biotechnology Institute — a partnership of government, academia and industry to promote the biosciences — awarded twelve research grants worth $800,000 to researchers in 2017.

The Applied Research Collaborations or Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept grants support partnerships between research institutions and Delaware companies, with the goal of encouraging new business ventures and economic development in the state.

“Support from Governor John Carney and the Delaware General Assembly has enabled the Delaware Bioscience CAT grants to expand and build a strong pipeline for innovative, collaborative and entrepreneurial projects in the state of Delaware,” said John Koh, interim director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. “These projects foster a bidirectional exchange of ideas between business and academic researchers that together synthesize products or innovations that result in job creation and economic growth for our state.”

The University of Delaware, where the institute is based, drew the lion’s share of funding.

“We would love to see more activity outside of the University,” said Alok Patel, associate director of external relations for the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. “The issue is that, in reality, a large percentage of the research happening in Delaware does happen out of the University of Delaware.”

The following projects received grants:

• Erin Bernberg, Associate Scientist at the University of Delaware, will collaborate with Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology (CMB) to develop and test plant-made Avian Influenza vaccine for chickens.

• Wei-Jun Cai, Professor of Marine Science and Policy at the University of Delaware, will work with Apollo SciTech, LLC to improve the precision, cost, and analysis time of Apollo’s newly developed analytical instrument used by marine researchers around the world and agencies like the EPA and NOAA.

• Joseph Fox, Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Delaware, will work with Affinity Research Chemicals and LiteCure LLC to develop medicine which can help repair joints in the body.

• Nancy Getchell, Professor of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology at the University of Delaware, will collaborate with mTrigger, LLC to measure the effectiveness of a biofeedback device used to help rehabilitate stroke patients.

• Bertrand Hankoua, Professor of Human Ecology at Delaware State University, will work with William Chain, Associate Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Delaware, and Fraunhofer USA CMB to produce a low cost and accessible plant-based treatment for Malaria.

• Xinqiao Jia, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware, will collaborate with Prelude Therapeutics Incorporated to engineer 3D prostate cancer models to reliably test new anticancer medicines.

• Megan Killian, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware, will work with LiteCure LLC to research effects of laser therapy on young athletes recovering from tendon injuries.

• Eric Kmiec, Director of the Gene Editing Institute at Christiana Care Health Services, will work with Analytical Biological Services, Inc. to create genetically engineered cells lines to develop new pharmaceutical drugs.

• Yuriy Markushin, Assistant Professor of Physics and Engineering at Delaware State University, is planning to use EPoC funds to develop a low-cost and technically simple test to diagnose diseases in dogs.

• Dennis McIntosh, Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Extension Specialist- Aquaculture at Delaware State University, will work with Sea Watch International, Ltd. to research if byproducts from food processing plants can be used in commercial aquafeed diets.

• Babatunde Ogunnaike, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware, will work with Air Liquide to develop a systems-engineering model to test diagnosis and treatments of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

• John Slater, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware, is planning to use EPoC funds to develop a new therapeutic approach to stopping cancer metastasis.

Another round of grants will be available in 2018. Proposals are due by April 2. More information is available at www.cat.dbi.udel.edu.

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New Research from University of Delaware’s John D’Arcy suggests that negative emotions can lead employees to engage in unsafe computer behavior.

This could include using weak passwords, not using two-factor authentication, or accessing unapproved software, among other actions outside of company protocols.

The main insight of the survey was that “moods and emotions influence people’s security-related behavior,” D’Arcy said. “And these things vary from day to day, which can make people’s behavior vary from day to day.”

If an employee has a rough day, for instance, they may choose to bypass security measures such as carefully thinking over a new password or avoiding potentially dangerous websites.

D’Arcy worked with City University of Hong Kong’s Paul Benjamin Lowry to survey professionals across the U.S. The research will be available in a forthcoming edition of Information Systems Journal.

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(AP) — The University of Delaware has announced plans to implement a tuition surcharge for students at its nursing, engineering and business schools.

The university announced the plans Monday as part of a broader plan to increase enrollment and hire more than 500 faculty over the next five to seven years.

School officials say the plan for differentiated tuition is driven by the fact that it costs more to educate students in nursing, engineering and business than it does for other majors.

Beginning in the fall, all three schools will implement a $1,000 yearly tuition surcharge. By the fall of 2020, the surcharge will increase to 1,500 for nursing, $2,500 for business and $4,000 for engineering.

Current students will receive a credit that partially offsets the increase.

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By Roger Morris
Special to Delaware Business Times

Throughout the years, Sussex County has lured tourists to its beaches and rental properties bordering the Atlantic Ocean on the county’s eastern side. Now, it’s wagering that it can have the same success in luring new businesses to set up their operations on the county’s west side.

That’s the challenge that William Pfaff, Sussex County’s new economic development director, said the county is determined to undertake — but he already believes that the effort will prove successful.

“In the past, we spent a lot of money investing in the tourist trade,” said Pfaff, who assumed his post last March after years of working for the University of Delaware’s Small Business Development Center. “Now, we want to tell people, ‘You already know it’s a great place to come for vacation. But it’s also a great place
to bring your businesses.’ ”

One initiative is the new ExciteSussex Loan Program, totaling $4 million, that went into effect Feb. 1 and which is earmarked for new business loans. The fund works in tandem with the state-run Downtown Development District program and a county Business Acceleration Team geared to help firms avoid relocation roadblocks.

“The county gave me the opportunity to be creative,” Pfaff said. “So I first met with leaders in all the area towns to get their thoughts and recommendations.” The result of those conversations, Pfaff said, was a drive to tap into “untouched resources” in the Nanticoke Development Zone along U.S. 13 from Greenwood to Delmar.

Pfaff compares his mission of luring businesses into the region to the business strategies employed by the luxury fragrances industry. “Most of the cost of a perfume is not in the perfume itself but in the packaging, branding and marketing,” he said, “and the same is true with economic development.” To that end, the new ExciteSussex fund will heavily target businesses in states within the mid-Atlantic region — New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The county is contributing $750,000 to the fund, and the remaining $3.25 million is being underwritten by Discover Bank, with the actual operations to be managed by the National Development Council, a nonprofit organization founded in 1969 to foster job creation and business development nationwide. Loans will also be federally guaranteed, and interest rates will be as low as 3.94 percent based on current rates.

These loans, which Pfaff said may range from $250,000 to $1 million, will be targeted for firms either relocating to Sussex County or opening new facilities there and which are planning to hire between 10 and 500 employees. “Real estate investments will not be eligible for the loans,” Pfaff said, “because we are looking for creation of jobs with household wages, not to build new housing developments.”

Additionally, the fund is not seen as a way to lure small startup companies but rather those already producing revenue, and two years of tax returns are part of the application. Depending on the circumstances, loans will have a life of between 10 to 25 years. “We’re looking for firms with sound business plans and the ability to pay,” Pfaff said. Part of the applicant’s business plan must address job creation.

Additionally, about the same time Pfaff was hired last March, the county announced the purchase for $2.2 million of a 74-acre farm adjacent to the existing Sussex County Industrial Park for the creation of an enlarged business park. Thirty acres are immediately available for lease to commercial and industrial tenants with varying lot sizes.

“Everything will be ‘shovel-ready’” to begin construction, Pfaff said, and one tenant has already located there. “All the infrastructure is already in place,” he said, “which includes central water, power and rail.” In addition to the rail connections, the park is local on U.S. 9, which connects to major business traffic arteries U.S. 13 and 113 that run from Virginia to the south to Interstate 95 to the north.

And Pfaff is serious about making tourists who are also business executives, many of whom own or annually rent beach properties, aware of the opportunities in western Sussex County. “This year’s county-sponsored vacation guide has already been printed,” he said, “but next year I would hope for a center section that asks,
‘You vacation here. Why not bring your business here as well?’”

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By Michael J Mika
Special to Delaware Business Times

Jim Jannuzzio chose a racoon to serve as the animal mascot for his two-year-old BookBandit app.
He didn’t spend money in traditional market research efforts to determine what animal would best represent his unique idea of getting better deals for textbook. Instead, he decided to research the market and see what animals had not yet been taken.

“I said there’s got to be an animal that hasn’t been used by somebody. I saw the racoon, the little mask that made him look like a bandit,” he said.

And BookBandit was born. The concept allows students to download the app and buy and sell books directly with each other or from a variety of online bookstores like Barnes and Noble, Chegg or textbooks.com.

How about a traditional written marketing plan?

“No, not in writing,” Jannuzzio, president and founder of BookBandit, said. “We typically go through the game plans a week at a time. This week its boots on the ground, handing out fliers at Wilmington University and West Chester.”

Jannuzzio, finishing his senior year at UD, and many new entrepreneurs are using next-gen marketing ideas that are generically defined as aligning marketing and advertising efforts to the needs of today’s consumer in a digital world. He uses techniques like social media, crowd-funding, product ambassadors and constant interaction with his customers on digital platforms. He’s even donned the BookBandit racoon costume to hand out fliers in student areas on campus.

A check with two Delaware marketing professionals confirm that any marketing plan is a good one, as long as there is a strategy connected with measurable goals.

“There definitely is a need for year-long marketing plan,” Dana Dobson, a public relations consultant and founder of Dana Dobson Public Relations, said. “Editorial calendars make it crystal clear who they are and what key messaging will be. But the plan also needs to be flexible.”

Donna Duffy, CEO and founder of 3E Marketing Solutions, advises clients to make sure to test the market as they go through a marketing plan. “The ‘build it and they will come’ model is just not realistic. A new tool, algorithm can change the whole thing. If your finger is not on that pulse point then you’re not able to shift.”

DBT asked the two women, who’ve both presented TEDx talks in the past year, to share some other tips about ways to thrive in today’s changing consumer-centric world.

Dana Dobson, CEO, Dana Dobson public relations

• “Make websites journalist-friendly. They ought to have a place where reporters and PR media can go to get key personnel, company background, high-res images of the product. I notice that a lot of people don’t have a one-click website to a page that gives relevant information about the company, instead they
offer too many sales messages.”

• “I would encourage people who may still be comfortable with the mode of “push-push brag, brag,” school of marketing and sales to focus more on the information that their customer would want. Use the social media to be informative.

• “Know your audience well. Know how they consume information. Do research to find out who they are, because in today’s digital age it all has to be focused on them. The riches are in the niches, no such thing as a general audience anymore.”
Donna Duffy, CEO and Founder, 3E Marketing Solutions

• “Relationships trump everything. We’re going to have all these digital ways that will help do things in a more automated fashion. Nobody’s clicking a button and dropping 20 grand. That comes from building the relationship.”

• “Do you know who you’re talking to? If they tell me everybody, I’m going to know they don’t know their market well. What is the value proposition? Do you know how your solutions will deal with your client’s pain points and how will you craft that messaging and where will that messaging go?”

• Don’t confuse marketing with sales. “Marketing is a conversation, and sales is the close and the beginning of another conversation. Nurturing potential clients with continual messages will continue to build the trust — the bridge — so that by the time they get to the close, they’re ready. I’ve proven my trust. They can see that I’ve got something that will help them.”

So far, Jannuzzio is happy with the results of his strategy. Book Bandit is now selling books in 27 states and last month the team launched a new more intuitive website, which Jannuzzio said makes the order process faster.

He also launched a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign to raise more capital to fund operations for the next year. Top priorities include adding 20 more book vendors to the inventory and providing a years’ worth of marketing through Google Ad Words.

His marketing advice to others? “Get after it. If you want to get your brand out there, you’ve got to be hands-on in the market.”

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The University of Delaware’s startup funding competition, Hen Hatch, yesterday announced 12 semifinalists from its student track and 10 from its alumni, faculty and staff track.

This mix of new apps, tools and storefronts beat out more than 70 applications from all seven of UD’s colleges.The semifinalists are competing for $100,00 in cash and in-kind services.

“These 22 Hen Hatch semifinal teams encompass UD’s engaged and accomplished undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff,” said Vince DiFelice, assistant professor and venture support lead with UD’s Horn Entrepreneurship. “They represent a diverse background of like-minded and impressive individuals and come from across the state of Delaware. Horn Entrepreneurship is more than happy to guide and advise these motivated entrepreneurs.”

The student teams will pitch their ideas at the Venture Development Center on Friday, March 16. The faculty, staff, alumni team will pitch on Friday, March 23. A panel of judges will decide which teams will move onto the final round on April 25.

Here are the profiles of the student teams, via UDaily:

AndAgain: AndAgain is an apparel company with a sustainable focus developing exclusive merchandise through collaborations with artists and other small brands. This team includes Morgan Young, College of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2018, and Greg Harder, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, Class of 2018.

Bookbandit: BookBandit is a web based and mobile application offering textbooks from over 20 vendors, in one checkout, creating savings as high as 74% per year. James Jannuzzio, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, Class of 2017, developed this concept.

D150 Fueling: D150 Fueling sends a custom-built fleet fueling truck with a trained fleet fueling professional to the customers’ vehicle lot, at the time and frequency of their choosing. The company can then fuel the customer’s vehicles directly to their tank, eliminating employee downtime associated with refueling, and provide customers with complete and accurate records of their fuel usage. This team includes Bailey O’Brien, College of Engineering, Class of 2018; Samuel Bacharach, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2019; and Amedeo DeLuca, College of Engineering, Class of 2018, developed this concept.

Homeo: HOMEO brings together the folks loved and trusted by older people, people with disabilities, dementia and depression. They offer a smartphone app which provides the simplest and clearest way to get communication and support from the people you love and trust. This team includes Qiuyu Gao, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2019, and two unaffiliated partners, Yousong Zhang and Qingbo Yang.

Lifealarm: Putting a stop to infant vehicular heatstroke, the product is a micro-controller which uses multiple sensors to detect if a child is trapped in a car under harsh conditions. This team, all from the College of Engineering and all Class of 2018, includes Jake Jesi, Nolan Conway and Jefferson Kappers.

IntraText: IntraText is an application that combines interaction and text to revolutionize the book industry. Content is transformed to engage, incentivize and interact with users to keep them interested in today’s digital age. This team includes Jamie Levy, College of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2018, Kerry Shwartz, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2019, Kristen Brokaw, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2018, and Gina Gesualdi, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2018.

Lyapunov Technologies: Lyapunov Technologies merges the field of control systems engineering with the world of finance to provide technology driven financial services that innovate risk management. This team includes Anthony Rossi, College of Business and Economics as well as College of Engineering, Class of 2018, and Duanyi Wei, College of Engineering, Class of 2018.

On Track LLC.: It is the goal of On Track to provide personalized plans to high school students that will save them thousands of dollars by providing information on summer classes, AP tests and dual credit courses that will allow the student to receive inexpensive college credits prior to enrollment. This team from Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics includes Nicholas Makos, Brian Tso, and Bryan Leach, Class of 2019.

Patient Sortal: Patient Sortal provides safe, efficient access to health information to both patients and health professionals. This team includes Kyle Delfini, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2019, and Kenny Eck, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2018.

Seeterra: Farmers make more informed crop management decisions using their cloud-based AI to analyze sub-canopy conditions collected by the seeterra community – improving crop yields by monitoring crop health, suggesting optimal fertilizer/irrigation inputs and actively controlling pests, diseases and weeds. Adam Stager, College of Engineering, Class of 2019, developed this concept.

The SEWcial Café: The SEWcial Café, pronounced The Social Café, is a community sewing space for women to create, collaborate and develop handmade products in a relaxed and inspiring environment that encourages innovation. ChaCha Hudson, College of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2019, developed this concept.

Wilminvest: Wilminvest provides supported housing environments for third party community-based organizations, by renovating vacant properties in the city of Wilmington, Delaware and leases them as permanent supportive housing. This team includes Joel Amin and Bryce Fender, both from the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and Class of 2019.

Alumni, Faculty, Staff team profiles:

BioHealthonomics, Inc: Biohealthonomics is a clinical stage biotechnology and healthcare company dedicated to developing and commercializing high-impact, effective therapeutics that address critical unmet needs in the treatment of migraine headaches and other Central Nervous System conditions. This team includes Randy Jones, College of Engineering, Class of 1979, and Cris Arnou, unaffiliated.

Nemo, LLC: Nemo is the first universal gesture recognition wearable device, aiming to revolutionize human computer interaction as an all-in-one wearable device. Adam Engelson, College of Engineering, Class of 2016, developed this concept.

OPS, LLC: OPS, LLC supports drinking water infrastructure systems, recording reliable, secure, field-data for analysis and helping to reduce violations enabling water operators to invest in their infrastructure instead of paying violation restitution costs. This team includes Lee Beauchamp, College of Engineering, Class of 2005, Matthew Beard, unaffiliated, Tai Nguyen, unaffiliated, and Timothy Gantzhorn, unaffiliated.

Power Pedal: The Power Pedal is a new rehabilitation device that gives clinicians a better way to evaluate and treat asymmetrical movement commonly seen after injury to the lower extremity. This team includes Ryan Zarzycki, College of Health Sciences, Jeannie Stephens, College of Engineering, and Ashutosh Khandha, College of Engineering.

RFID IoT unit tracking and monitoring: The RFID IoT system is for ski resorts, amusement parks and sporting events. It tracks and monitors customer use of the ski lift, the amusement park rides, sporting event customers access to concessions and related revenue generating equipment/services. This team includes Yong Peng, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2012, and Tonghua Li, College of Engineering, Class of 2011.

RiKarbon INC: RiKarbon INC provides a cost-competitive environmentally acceptable biolubricant with better specifications for high-performance applications. This team includes Saikat Dutta and Basudeb Saha, both from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Robossis: Robossis, an orthopedic surgical robot, assists surgeons in treating patients with broken femurs and other bones in a manner that will enable them to heal faster with fewer complications by helping with pre-operative planning and actual surgery. This team includes Shahin Afsharbakeshloo, College of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2017, Mohammad Hossein, unaffiliated, and Abedin Nasab, unaffiliated.

Smartbooks: Smartbooks is an evolutionary company utilizing smart technology in order to provide adults the opportunity to personalize children’s books through an avatar creation app. This team includes Courtney Hewitt, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2011, Rossiny Beaucejour, College of Engineering, Class of 2014, Garry Johnson, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2018, Taji Hardwick, College of Business and Economics, Class of 2018.

StreetReply: StreetReply is a web-based platform providing prospective leads and relevant property details for use by realtors, rental agents, private real estate sellers, private real estate renters and property managers. Andres Holland, UD Office of Communications and Marketing, developed this concept.

Veramorph LLC: Veramorph is a drug delivery company developing multi-functional materials for more convenient and effective oral delivery of poorly absorbed drugs in order to form partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Paul Godfrin, College of Engineering, Class of 2015, developed this concept.

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Delaware Business Times has partnered with the Small Business Development Center of the University of Delaware, an affiliate of the SBA, to produce workshops assisting small and family-owned businesses.

The next workshop in the series will take place Thursday, March 22 at the Soda House in the Hagley Museum and will focus on management and leadership development in the family owned or closely held business.

Amanda Bulloguh, Phd., assistant professor of management at the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, is the keynote speaker. Her research spans entrepreneurship, leadership, organizational behavior, cross-cultural management and international development.

Bill Doherty III, owner of Doherty Funeral Homes, will talk about how his family business has prepared the next generation for management and leadership roles. The New Castle County-based funeral home has stayed in the Doherty family for three generations.

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2018
Time: 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Venue: Hagley Museum – Soda House
298 Buck Road
Wilmington, DE 19807

More information is available on the SBDC event page: http://www.delawarebusinesstimes.com/sbdc/

Another SBDC event is planned for September. Check in for updates following the event on Thursday.

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University of Delaware graduate student Samantha Speck is studying geography to better understand the risks facing the U.S. mushroom industry.

In the process, she surveyed mushroom farmers in Chester County, Pennsylvania and found a regional industry worried about its future.

“Their concern is our mushroom market is going to become entirely imports because these businesses won’t be able to survive,” Speck told UDaily. “Food safety then becomes a risk, because similar to some other industries foreign producers like Mexico and China may not be held to the same standards found in the United States.”

Speck focused on labor in the Chester County mushroom industry. She found that Chester County’s mushroom industry, which has existed for over century, originally employed Italian immigrants to work the fields. Today Mexicans fill that role.

“In her research, Sam is working with mushroom farmers, who are reliant on an immigrant labor population,” said Lindsay Naylor, an assistant professor of geography at UD. “One of the major contributions of Sam’s research is understanding how the labor is performed in the mushroom industry, and how what previously may not have been viewed as a risk prior to the new presidential administration is now viewed as a top risk, and that is the loss of their labor force because of stricter immigration control.”

The largest 50 growers in Chester County produced about 405 million pounds of mushrooms between 2015-2016, according to a 2017 report from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.The report valued the output at approximately $391 million.

Speck identified other industry concerns, including raw material shortages, pests and diseases.

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By MICHAEL J. MIKA
Special to Delaware Business Times

Amid the global frenzy to research and invest in driverless cars, state governments are stepping up to embrace the technology. In February, California approved the testing of connected automated vehicles (CAVs) on public streets. More than 41 states are exploring legislation to do the same.

Since November, Secretary Jennifer Cohan of the Department of Transportation has led a 19-member task force to help position Delaware at the leading edge of autonomous vehicle technology. For Cohan, that means bringing other stakeholders interested in the future of transportation to the table.

“We need to make sure we are also including land use experts who are working on plans for the future,” Cohan said. “We’ve got to consider how the two interact.”

The advisory group is expected to make recommendations in four areas: economic development, technology, transportation infrastructure and impact on public and highway safety. The group will present its findings to the legislature in September.

“We’re told by auto and tech industries that we don’t need any more testing beds,” Cohan said. Instead, she added, companies are looking for places to deploy their vehicles on actual streets.

DelDOT is currently working on a driverless shuttle pilot program at the University of Delaware STAR Campus. The state will buy two autonomous shuttles for limited use on campus and study the human interaction and reaction. She said the idea is already generating buzz in the business community
with “lots of companies knocking on our doors wanting to participate.”

Cohan believes Delaware’s two-pronged approach – testing driverless car scenarios and researching the other infrastructure and safety concerns — will make the state attractive for future economic development.

“We must remain forward-looking to ensure that Delawareans can capitalize on the economic benefits of new technology, and to position our state as a leader in the 21st century economy,” Delaware Gov. John Carney, said last year when he created the taskforce. “Delaware can and should be a proving ground for this new technology. This council will help us identify economic opportunities related to connected and autonomous vehicles and address potential issues as manufacturers continue to develop this new technology.”

Other states are also interested in developing usable strategies. Since 2012 at least 41 states and the District of Columbia are considering legislation related to driverless cars. Delaware’s legislative discussion will begin in September when the task force findings are revealed.

Berni Koch, CEO of AAA Mid-Atlantic and a member of the task force, said, “As the advocate for motorists, AAA’s goal is to support autonomous vehicle innovation with an eye toward safety and ease of consumer use and understanding.”

Last year, the group hosted a special TEDx Salon featuring 13 speakers on the subject. In January, several AAA staffers attended the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which highlighted the latest
in autonomous vehicle technology.

“A hundred years ago, society changed with horseless buggies,” said Ken Grant, AAA Mid-Atlantic government relations spokesman. “I would dare say we are looking at the same type of societal change taking place with autonomous cars. It will change the auto buying and insurance buying process as well as driver attitudes.”

Grant said he anticipates a transition period over the next few years, as drivers face new dynamics both on the road and behind the wheel. “It’s just a technology that we should all be familiar with. The more people are exposed to it, the more accepting they are.”

Grant foresees some other changes as well:

• A society that will think differently about car ownership and insurance impact traditional businesses.

• New opportunities that will attract entrepreneurs who want to enhance the experience.

• Privacy concerns about the new amount of data CAVs will provide about its passengers.

According to a recent AAA nationwide survey, U.S. drivers are becoming more accepting of letting their car drive for them, but a majority still have some doubts about sharing the road with automated cars.

Respondents most willing to trust driverless car technology are millennials and male drivers. So will this new paradigm create safer roads?

Grant noted that so far there have been some accidents involving driverless cars, but most have been caused by humans. “The driverless car has been programmed to follow the rules and does what it’s supposed to like following posted speed limits and keeping a safe distance between cars. Something we don’t always do.”

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The Delaware Hotel and Lodging Association (DHLA) is working with faculty from the University of Delaware to conduct an awareness campaign on the problem of human trafficking in the hotel industry.

The basic issue is that human traffickers often use hotels to exploit their victims. Trafficker set up meetings in hotel and motel rooms between victims and those seeking to purchase sex.

In early April, Bill Silva, chairman of DHLA, hosted a learning session with instructors Dr. Sheryl Kline of the University of Delaware and Bill Sullivan, hotel manager and faculty member of the UD Hospitality Business Management program.

The session tackled how to define human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, identify victims, and explain the role of hotel workers in responding to the issue.

DHLA will hold additional sessions across Delaware over the next four weeks.

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The devil is in the proverbial details, but, at first glance, the “privatization” of the Port of Wilmington with its redevelopment by UAE-based Gulftainer seems like a good deal for Delawareans.

More questions have come to me about this deal in the last two weeks than almost anything in recent memory.

And the declines in breadth, depth and institutional memory of the local daily papers leaves Delawareans without a sense of perspective for this deal.

Frankly, it seems to me that in terms of job creation and contributing robustness to the Delaware economy, the Gulftainer deal has the potential to be one of the three most impactful developments in the last decade.

First among those in my view is Delaware’s catch-up game with its flagship university, the University of Delaware, finally playing a much more significant role as a catalyst for science- and technology-based company formation and job creation.

While the University of Delaware prospered under David Roselle as its president for 18 years, it’s really been the convergence of a variety of forces in more recent years that have made the university a major player by making it a major resource, from its STAR campus and the forces arrayed around that to its entrepreneurship programs at its College of Business and Economics.

Second among those — and many of us are holding our collective breath on this one — is the creation of the 3P partnership, the semi-privatization of the Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO) and its economic development function under Gov. John Carney into the public-private Delaware Prosperity Partnership.

Given Delaware’s huge need for blue-collar job creation at good wages, the Gulftainer deal has great promise.

As well as its professional managers have run the Port of Wilmington, the port always has underperformed because government is not a good capitalist and generally government is not a good innovator.

In today’s world, government-owned assets like the port — which had been owned by the City of Wilmington before it was taken over by the state at Wilmington’s request — must always compete for capital with a variety of other priorities, ranging from populist infrastructure needs to social entitlement transfers.

In addition, effectiveness in managing government and effectiveness in managing capital, employees, technology and business opportunities in a private sector situation are entirely different skill sets. Even a good government can fail miserably in private-sector activities.

It’s my hope — and certainly the hope of those doing this deal — that Gulftainer will serve Delaware’s best interests by serving its own economic interests. Without detailed knowledge of the deal, my only concern — given that the state’s revenues are based on royalties — is whether Delaware’s deal-makers have been astute about scrutiny of unfavorable transfer pricing that could artificially lower Delaware’s “take” from the cash flows.

Beyond that, if Gulftainer does what it should do in its own interests, Delaware will prosper, from the union employees to the satellite businesses that grow up around the port to the other activities that will flow from this economic engine.

Press coverage has not included details about the history and evolution of this deal, so it’s difficult to know how and where it started, and to whom to give credit.

But, for those who are seeking some benchmark or metric for how to view this deal, in my opinion it’s a
major landmark deal for the state and the community with the potential to transform the local economy in
really significant ways.

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Chemours and IMC Construction will gather on Friday, May 11 at the Discovery Hub construction site to recognize best practices and the importance of safety.

“’People first’ is the cornerstone of our company values, reflected in our strong record of accident-free construction,” said Rob Cottone, president of IMC Construction. “IMC is built on a foundation of safety preparedness and ongoing training, and we are pleased to partner with Chemours in celebrating our shared culture of safety.”

The Chemours Discovery Hub is a 333,000-square-foot research facility under construction at the University of Delaware’s Science Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus in Newark.

The Hub will bring together laboratories and offices for 330 scientists, engineers and researchers under one roof.

Chemours President and CEO Mark Vergnano and University of Delaware President Dr. Dennis Assanis will also attend.

The post Chemours and IMC Construction to celebrate safety at Discovery Hub site appeared first on Delaware Business Times.

By Joyce L. Carroll
Special to Delaware Business Times

A childhood love of the outdoors was the catalyst for what is now a rewarding livelihood for Chris Bason. As director of the Delaware Center for Inlands Bays, he oversees projects and programs that seek to improve Sussex County’s waterways, while creating a deeper connection between individuals — both residents and entrepreneurs — and these vital natural resources. Included within the center’s advocacy are the Rehoboth Bay, Indian River Bay, Little Assawoman Bay and eight tributaries that feed these bays.

Bason received his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware, and his master’s degree from East Carolina University. An internship with the Army Corps of Engineers and positions with Nature Conservancies in Delaware and Florida provided a foundation for his present work.

He credits Dr. Mark Brinson, whom he called one of the most accomplished ecological scientists in the field, as an influential mentor. Climate change, pollution, and industrial growth — particularly within the poultry industry, impact the aquaculture of the waters within the center’s domain and provide challenges. Educational programs and regulation coupled with legislative initiatives enable positive change.

“That’s why policy work is so important … It can allow folks to do wonderful things,” he said. Bason added that he is proud of legislation he encouraged early in his directorship.

“One of the first things I did as director was to [seek] legislation to farm shellfish in inland bays,” he said.

House Bill 160 received Gov. Jack Markell’s signature in 2013, enabling exploration of shellfish aquaculture following a lengthy review led by the center and partner stakeholders. Aside from financial benefits, oyster-bed rejuvenation also provides a natural means of filtering the waters. Partnerships with area restaurants have led to oyster-shell recycling, as the shells are the preferred substrate for oyster larvae growth.

Bason said he’s grateful for the center’s business partners, including restaurants and event sponsors, as well as the growing number of volunteers — some 400 each year — who support the work the center does.

“I’m extremely fortunate every day to have the opportunity to make a difference in the place that has been my home and my family’s home for a longtime. It’s an honor,” he said. With regard to the people he serves: “There’s a beautiful connection between community and water. [It recalls] a simpler time.”

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(AP) — The University of Delaware has named its first female provost.

News outlets report the university announced Monday that Robin Morgan would formally assume the role July 1, becoming the 11th provost in school history. Morgan has been serving as interim provost since October, after Domenico Grasso stepped down.

University President Dennis Assanis praised Morgan’s record in leadership over the past seven months.

“Over the last seven months, Robin has assembled an impressive record as interim provost,” Assanis said. “Before working closely with her, I knew Robin as a highly respected educator and scholar, but after watching her in action, I am equally impressed with her abilities to lead, to inspire and to effect change. Her energy, integrity, analytical mind and innate knack for bringing people together, combined with her dedication and loyalty to UD, are great assets.”

She joined the public university in 1985, and chaired the Department of Biological Sciences prior to being named interim provost.

A search committee consisting of representatives from the seven UD colleges narrowed the field of candidates to two finalists, with Assanis making the final decision.

Morgan said in a statement that she looks forward to enhancing educational and research programs, faculty, infrastructure, community partnerships and the campus climate.

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