By PAM GEORGE
Special to Delaware Business Times

A lodging tax is very much on the minds of area hotel operators and legislators involved in House Bill 377.

Passed by House of Representatives and headed to the Senate, the bill allows a county government with a population or more than 500,000 residents to impose and collect a lodging tax of up to 3 percent — on top of the state’s 8 percent lodging tax.

New Castle County isn’t the only jurisdiction wanting a piece of the pie.

HB 395 permits a municipal government to impose and collect a lodging tax of no more than 3 percent on hotel and motel rooms in the incorporated areas of the municipality.

Delawareans might shrug. After all, hotel guests are affected by the increase, and many are not from Delaware.

But Delawareans are affected by tourism, which in 2016 contributed $3.3 billion to Delaware’s gross domestic product, according to the Delaware Tourism Office. Those who oppose the bill maintain that it could affect that revenue.

A multipurpose tax

The state currently collects an 8 percent lodging tax on hotels, motels and tourist homes — accommodations with at least five permanent bedrooms for customers and no cooking facilities for guest use.

The revenue is divided four ways. The state’s general fund gets 5 percent. The state’s tourism office and beach preservation fund each get 1 percent. The rest is split between the convention and visitors bureaus in each county.

Last year, the state legislature’s Joint Finance Committee planned to cut funding to the tourism groups in the proposed 2018 budget.

However, the three CVBs depend on funding from the lodging tax to operate. After some hard lobbying on the part of the tourism industry and CVBs, the plan was nixed.

HB 377, meanwhile, addresses what New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer calls “an inequality in our county tax system.”

More than 10 years ago, the state legislature allowed the city of Wilmington the ability to add a hotel tax of up to 3 percent. The city raised it 2 percent to support its infrastructure, including EMS services.

“We fully expected that to be temporary and disappear,” said Bill Sullivan, managing director of Courtyard by Marriott-Newark at the University of Delaware and a professor with the University of Delaware Hospitality Business Management Program in the Lerner College of Business and Economics.

With the General Assembly’s approval, however, the increase remained.

HB 377 would allow the county to have the same authority. “It’s the right thing to do, and legislators on both sides of the aisle recognize that,” Meyer said.

Why? Hotel visitors use county services. According to statistics supplied by New Castle County, there are more than 1,900 emergency calls to hotels and motels each year.

“If homeowners aren’t using the service, they shouldn’t bear the brunt of the cost,” Meyer said.

Visitors also use county parks, although the county does not keep records on how many park users are in state or out of state.

What’s more, the county is too dependent on real estate — 84 percent of the revenue is from property and realty transfer taxes, which are unstable.

Without the additional income from a hotel tax, county residents might experience a bump in county taxes.

A matter of perspective

The average businessperson or pleasure traveler is rarely concerned with a hotel tax, Sullivan acknowledged. Many, though, are surprised by it, added Brad Wenger, general manager of the Hilton Wilmington/Christiana.

“We’re hanging our hat on being a tax-free shopping state, but it’s a surprise to people who are traveling here,” he said. “They feel it’s a mixed message.”

These travelers equate tax-free with all aspects of the tourist experience. When the front desk explains the charge, most customers take the lodging tax in stride. That might change with an increase, Wenger said.
The primary pushback will come from groups, conventions, conferences and youth sports teams, Sullivan said.

When you’re booking up to 70 rooms, the lodging tax becomes a sizeable amount of money. “Planners recognize that as a market loss,” Wenger agreed.

New Castle County Executive Meyer said the hotel tax increase in Wilmington has not hurt that city’s properties.

“The hotel industry in Wilmington is booming,” he maintained. The Residence Inn on Market Street recently opened. The 114-room Hyatt Place Hotel is under construction on the Wilmington Riverfront, and two more properties are in the works.

Wenger disagrees with the idea that the hotels have not been affected by the boost. He knows of one property that has declared bankruptcy.

“It’s not a big rosy picture for all the hotels in downtown Wilmington,” he said.

Even with the 10 percent in total lodging and sales tax, Wilmington is still competitive with hotels in surrounding areas, Meyer said.

In Philadelphia, the total amount is a whopping 16.25 percent. It is 14.62 percent in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
“We’re way below nearly all of the neighboring jurisdictions, and the increase we’re proposing would not be a significant increase, Meyer said.

Wenger agreed that the current 8 percent tax in New Castle County is competitive. Nevertheless, more could start to level the playing field, he said.

Dipping into other revenue streams

The increase in Wilmington and, if passed, in New Castle County, has made municipalities sit up and take notice.

Giving incorporated areas the ability to institute a tax rate of up to 3 percent is the focus of HB 395.
That legislation is more affected by input from stakeholders in Sussex County, where municipalities already receive taxes from vacation rentals.

In these cities, Realtors and hotel operators are already concerned that the combination of fees is driving people to unincorporated areas.

Hotel operators wonder why towns, counties and the state interested in more revenue don’t direct their attention to short-term rentals including Airbnb, VRBO and traditional bed-and-breakfasts.

At least 20 states, Washington, D.C., and large metro areas including New York City have included short-term rentals under their lodging tax laws.

In Delaware, a 2017 bill languished in the House Revenue and Finance Committee. Once again, there were those in Sussex County coastal towns who opposed it for fear it would deter visitors, said Mayor Paul Kuhns of Rehoboth Beach.

“It is a concern,” he said of the growth of Airbnbs. “I would think it would be something the county would look at.”

That may be the case as budgets deficits widen.

Indeed, the county plans to put any revenue from a hotel tax into a general fund. Hotel operators, however, would like to see a portion of it go toward marketing the area, as is the case with the state lodging tax.

In the end, Wenger said, the General Assembly needs to realize that the more it allows municipalities to tackle lodging taxes on their own, the more it will water down the positive effects of economic development.

Photo by Ron Dubick

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Last night at the University of Delaware’s STAR Campus, Delaware Business Times welcomed elected officials and industry reps for the launch party of Innovation Delaware magazine.

The event celebrated the release of the second annual edition with the latest edition of Delaware Business Times on June 12. The 144-page publication showcases Delaware’s most creative companies through a series of profiles, features and Q&As.

The book is organized by sectors, including advanced manufacturing, bioscience, chemistry, education/research, fintech, health care, hospitality/tourism and software/digital enterprises.

“It’s important not only to do the work but to tell the story,” said Dr. Dennis Assanis, president of the University of Delaware, speaking at the event. “That’s why we are so grateful for what the Delaware Business Times and Innovation Delaware are doing to tell this story. I think there is a big gap between where we’re going and what people perceive.”

Kurt Foreman, CEO of the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, also spoke about the value of spreading the word about economic development opportunities in Delaware. “People are hungry for stories, real stories of things that are going on,” he said.

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, Council President Hanifa Shabazz, Rep. Paul Baumbach, Rep. Mike Ramone, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall Long also attended the unveiling.

A digital edition of the publication will be available soon.

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By Roger Morris
Special to Delaware Business Times

Green Line Business Group’s first commercial product was Danio Diary, a mobile platform for friends and family members of patients to track medical updates in real time.

Now the Newark-based startup is experimenting with another tool for closing the distance between those in need and the people around them who can help.

The app is called Eye Need A Witness, and it allows students who feel threatened or harassed to notify other users, campus security or law enforcement using GPS technology. If widely adopted on campus, the app creates a geographic network of students who can give direct assistance or later provide testimony about an incident.

“The idea is to provide a community of care around people by leveraging the smartphone revolution, where we all have the internet in our pocket,” said Gabriel Humphreys, Green Line’s director of operations and technology.

While overall crimes on campus, including burglary and auto theft, have fallen in recent years, sex offenses and other assaults have shot up, according to the most recent data by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Locally, Delaware State University in Dover reported 199 “safety-related incidents involving students” during its most recent year. The University of Delaware in Newark reported a total of 39 crimes, including 12 on-campus rapes, nine cases of fondling, eight of aggravated assault, five of dating violence and five of stalking.

“We’ve only been working on Eye Need A Witness for about three months, but we’ve already received considerable interest from colleges,” said Anthony Wright, president and CEO of Green Line.

Wright expects the first institutions to sign up this summer before students return for the fall semester. He added that Green Line has filed patent applications for the technology and concept.

Many colleges have adopted tech solutions to campus safety. The University of Delaware uses a safety app called LiveSafe that connects students with campus police 24/7. The UD Police Department has also increased its presence on social media and is looking into drone technology for monitoring purposes.

Neither UD nor Green Line — located near campus at the Delaware Technology Park — would confirm if Delaware’s largest college was on the list of potential clients. But UD Police expressed an openness to trying out new methods and collaborations.

“Technology plays a big role in our strategy for keeping the University of Delaware as safe as possible, and because of this, all technology systems are in a constant state of evaluation, expansion and maintenance,” said Capt. Jason Pires, operations commander for UD Police.

Green Line is banking on attracting colleges through several features: the system requires no setup costs or capital outlay; institutions can establish a central monitoring station with an existing computer; it costs 99 cents per student a month; and students can quickly alert the campus community if there is a shooter present or warn of any sort other of dangerous situation without making noise.

Whenever people nearby respond, they can instantly click on the app to locate the caller and get additional details. The map also shows the location of the caller and any campus security or law enforcement personnel that may be on the way. If the perceived threat ends up a false alarm, the app allows the person involved to let people in the network know that the threat is over.

Outside student communities, parents may also join the network at their own cost.

A common question Wright said he gets when presenting Eye Need A Witness is why shouldn’t a student simply call 911?

“Calling 911 is the nuclear option,” he said, “and even 911 takes time to get information and respond. The app can make 911 calls, but it also provides an intermediate option of alerting.”

In addition, the app is not limited to campus. “Even if a student is travelling abroad and feels threatened, they can send out an alert to their network,” Humphreys said. That person’s location is noted, and local authorities can be contacted by network members or campus security.

The app creates a permanent record of all communications. “You can mark yourself ‘safe’ after using the app to alert nearby people,” Humphreys said, “but you can’t delete the initial call for assistance. Everything that takes place is time stamped and cryptographically stamped.”

If necessary, information recorded by the app can be used in court.

“The idea started as a way to stop social injustices,” he said, “by providing a network for blacks, women, the LGBT community where they could call on people to witness what may be happening to them, and it still has that potential. But the educational community quickly became interested.”

Wright said Green Line is currently looking for additional investors to rapidly scale the business.

“The system fulfills a natural human instinct — to have sympathetic people around you when you feel threatened or harassed,” he said.

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Dr. Norman Wagner is Unidel Robert L. Pigford Chair in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware and is co-founder of STF Technologies LLC.

Dr. Wagner is also very involved with organizations and discussions that address startup companies and entrepreneurial activities in Delaware. We asked him some questions about both his work and his observations.

Q: In addition to your day job as a professor at the university, you also are co-founder of STF Technologies, which provides advanced materials and personal protective equipment. How is business?

Norman Wagner: We spun off about five years ago and are now located at the university’s STAR Campus. Since we are not a software company that just needs to write code, we welcomed the laboratory space. Right now, we are working on a Phase 2 contract with NASA for suits for interplanetary travel, with ILC Dover as a partner.

Q: Have you received the type of assistance you needed in Delaware?

NW: Yes. Although we never were located at the Delaware Technology Park, Mike Bowman has been a tremendous resource with his experience and advice. And we may shortly need some space there.

Q: What are some other resources that you think are valuable to startups?

NW: We’ve seen a huge, positive cultural shift here in the last five to 10 years. For example, the work that STRIDE [The Science, Technology and Research Institute of Delaware] is doing at the Experimental Station is a great resource for high-quality consulting. Plus, we have a huge talent pool at the University of Delaware that could be leveraged.

Q: You see first-hand the work being done by graduate students at the university and the kinds of product and business ideas they have. What needs to be done to see that they stay in Delaware to develop these projects?

NW: The biggest missing component is the bridge needed to retain the talent to keep the people here so that they can spin out these ideas. Graduating students get job offers and are tempted to go elsewhere, and, as they need income, who can blame them? Some other states have funding to give them a “bridge year” where they can take their idea and spin it off and have time to look for federal funding or private investor funding.

Q: We’ve talked about many of the startup activities and startup support. What still needs to be done there?

NW: There are lots of people working on this idea, but what we need is one-stop shopping for entrepreneurs who have this great idea for a product or process, but still have to figure out the business or service side of things — what do you need for insurance, accounting, how to do payroll, protection of intellectual properties, those sorts of services.

Q: What excites you most about the local environment?

NW: Simply that Delaware is becoming very competitive in attracting ideas and people.

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In early February, when the stock market hit a

brick wall, University of Delaware graduate students Anthony Rossi and Duanyi Wei watched to see how their model would respond. Built on robotics engineering principles — a new field, when applied to financial markets — the model worked: the output shifted from bull to bear, accurately mirroring real-world events.

“It kicked in, fully autonomously, and it was able to capture some of the downside,” Rossi says. “It was a great opportunity to show where our value comes in, essentially hitting the brakes when your strategy is going in the wrong direction.”

Rossi and Wei met doing research at the University of Delaware robotics lab, and have refined their business concept through the school’s Horn Entrepreneurship program. “We’re a financial technology firm focused on risk management and innovation in data analytics,” Rossi says. “We serve large, institutional investment firms that deal with the perpetual problem of risk in the secondary market.”

During a recent interview, the partners were fresh off a trip to SXSW in Austin, Texas, where they made it to the final round in a highly competitive pitch competition. They were also finalists in UD’s 2018 Hen Hatch competition. Their burgeoning firm is called Lyapunov Technologies — named after mathematician Aleksandr Lyapunov, who authored the founding theorem in Control Theory. “He was way ahead of his time,” Rossi says.

Control Theory underlies much of robotics engineering and is typically used to mitigate risk in complex mechanical systems for things like cruise control, autopilot and nuclear power plants. “Control Theory is built for systems to handle uncertainty, but they don’t know when and where that uncertainty will happen,” Wei explains.

“We don’t know when the market will have a downturn or upturn, but we built our system to respond in real time and in a robust way to any disruptions.”

The partners dreamt up the idea; Horn Entrepreneurship, they say, helped them develop it. “They’re open to anyone on campus who has a venture or concept they want to work on,” Rossi says, noting that the real-world feedback they’ve received from business leaders in the program has been invaluable. “I don’t think we’d be even close to doing what we are without that.”

Rossi and Wei are nearing graduation. The next step for Lyapunov Technologies is to take on customers. “We started from complete scratch,” Rossi says, “and now it’s something that is very real.”

The post Lyapunov Technologies to Provide Automated Risk Management appeared first on Delaware Business Times.

(AP) — The University of Delaware has removed its cap on the number of credit hours covered by a full semester’s tuition.

The News Journal of Wilmington reported Monday that the school removed the cap in an attempt to improve four-year graduation rates. Full-time students used to be limited to a maximum of 17 credit hours per semester and pay extra for anything over that. University officials announced last week that students now can take 18 credits or more without a surcharge.

The school’s deputy provost for academic affairs, Lynn Okagaki, says the new allowance will help students with minors or multiple majors. It also is meant to help students who want to graduate early or make up for taking fewer credits in a previous semester.

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(AP) — Tuition rates are going up at the University of Delaware.

The school announced Thursday that undergraduate tuition and fees for in-state students will increase by 4 percent for the upcoming year, to $13,680. Tuition and fees for out-of-state students will rise by 3.5 percent, to $34,310.

The total cost for most undergraduates, including room and board, will exceed $26,500 for in-state students and $47,000 for out-of-state students.

The tuition increases at the Newark-based school are in addition to fees announced earlier this year that will be imposed on certain majors. Beginning in the fall, students in the nursing, engineering and business schools will pay a $1,000 yearly tuition surcharge.

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The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi), a trusted source for objective investor research, has selected the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware as its successor organization.

The Weinberg Center will receive a $1 million grant from IRRCi towards the expansion of its research capabilities in environmental, social and corporate data.

“The IRRCi has become the preeminent source of objective and relevant research examining the intersection of investments with environmental, social and governance issues,” said Linda E. Scott, the IRRCi board chairwoman. “From day one, our plan was to fund innovative research with our seed money, and then transition the remaining assets to another well-respected organization aligned with our mission.”

IRRCi selected the Weinberg Center based on its reputation as a thought leader in corporate governance.

“The Center looks forward to continuing the outstanding work and legacy of the IRRCi,” said Charles M. Elson, professor of finance and director of the Weinberg Center.

The transition is the culmination of a multi-year planning process involving upwards of 25. The succession will be complete by the end of 2018.

“The University of Delaware and the Weinberg Center share the IRRCi’s mission to provide the highest quality research that informs and empowers decision-makers in the complex arena of corporate governance,” said Dennis Assanis, president of the University of Delaware. “This announcement is a testimony to the thought leadership and recognized excellence of the Weinberg Center in the field of corporate governance and social responsibility.  We are proud that the Weinberg Center will carry on IRRCi’s important work.”

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By Jon Hurdle
Special to Delaware Business Times

Colleges and business groups in Delaware offer a range of degrees, certificates and courses at graduate level to professionals seeking to build their knowledge of business-related skills. These range from finance and accounting to health-care management and the latest information technology. Here is a selection:

UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economic

At UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, professionals can choose from MBA and masters courses as well as dual graduate degrees and doctoral programs, all in a range of business-related disciplines.

MBA candidates can choose from majors including entrepreneurial studies, finance and health-care management, and elect from a range of specialist areas such as accounting, business analytics and information technology.

Masters programs include accounting, economics and international business. The master’s degree in finance covers financial forecasting, cost of capital and other tools designed to maximize shareholder value. The full-time master’s degree in finance usually takes 18 months to complete, while an accelerated program for students who already have a bachelor’s in finance takes about a year.

The college also offers a master’s degree in information systems and technology management, which is designed to help early- and mid-career IT professionals to use technology to achieve business goals.
Students already in a graduate degree program at UD can also take a part-time course leading to a certificate in entrepreneurship and technology innovation.

In addition, the college offers dual graduate degrees that combine MBAs with master’s degrees in subjects such as electrical and computer engineering, and information systems and technology management.
Ph.D. programs include economics, economic education and financial services analytics.

UD undergraduates considering a graduate degree in a business discipline can apply in their junior year for the school’s accelerated degree program which allows them, if provisionally accepted, to take graduate courses in their senior year, waiving some undergraduate requirements.

Lerner Women’s Leadership Forum

For women seeking career advancement with their current organizations, or who want to take their own businesses to the next level, the forum offers courses to build professional skills, clarify leadership vision and develop a network of contacts.

The program, which will next be held over three days in October, covers issues including practicing good workplace politics, communicating more effectively and building a network with other professional women.’

Wilmington University

WilmU offers master’s and doctoral degrees in business administration as well as master’s degrees in accounting and management.

The MBA degrees cover disciplines including business technology, accounting and environmental sustainability, and can be taken in a traditional classroom setting, online or in combination. WilmU’s classroom courses include semester courses over 15 weeks, block courses over seven weeks and modular courses on weekends.

In online courses, students use the university’s Blackboard online tool to complete readings and assignments, and communicate with faculty and other students via email, chat rooms, and discussion boards. Online course duration can be seven or 14 weeks.

The doctoral program is available 100 percent online, or combining online and classroom sessions, and is designed to be completed in 2½ years.

WilmU also offers certificate programs that provide skills in specific areas such as finance, information technology or human resources while awarding degree credits.

The finance certificate, for example, requires entrants to choose four out of six available courses including investments, portfolio theory, and corporate taxation. Another certificate in health-care administration includes courses on health policy and economics, and marketing in the sector.

Goldey-Beacom College 

In Wilmington, Goldey-Beacom offers part-time MBAs in two years, with courses starting every eight weeks. The school offers MBA majors in finance and taxation with concentrations in areas including marketing, IT and international business management.

Graduate students can take master’s degrees in finance, taxation and management. Goldey-Beacom is also inviting the first applicants for its new doctorate in business administration for working professionals who already have an MBA or other business degree and want to acquire higher-level skills.

Technology Forum Of Delaware

Outside the academic world, the Technology Forum of Delaware, a nonprofit, provides networking opportunities and seminars on current issues to enable business leaders to keep up with current trends. The group’s annual Technologies to Watch Showcase, for example, attracted exhibitors including Geoswap and Drone Workforce to its latest session in June, and highlighted technologies including wearable therapeutic technology. In February, the group hosted a seminar on augmented reality.

Emerging Enterprise Center

For startups, the Emerging Enterprise Center at the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce offers workshops and seminars on essential business skills, advice from a network of experienced business people, and an incubator that provides mentoring and affordable amenities for entrepreneurs.

The center’s business skills courses focus on four key areas: sales and marketing; products and customers; business organization and business operations. Upcoming classes include effective branding; successful speaking and using IT to improve efficiency.

The chamber’s business resources unit offers networking opportunities for startups seeking advice on areas like writing a business model, landing government contracts and securing loans.

Startups can also use the chamber’s business incubator, which provides 5,300 square feet of space on the Wilmington riverfront where early-stage companies can use co-working space, access WiFi and benefit from
mentoring by experienced business leaders.

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The Buccini/Pollin Group, Inc. Thursday announced the launch of WilminGO, an app-based golf cart taxi service founded by fellows of the BPG-Horn program.

The service is now available across a 39-block area in Wilmington for a flat-fee of $3 for one or two people and $5 for more than three passengers. The app is available through iTunes and Google Play.

Through the end of 2018, the service area will span from 2nd and Market to 12th Street. The WilminGO team plans to expand the service with additional carts and wider footprint in 2019.

Chris Buccin, co-founder of BPG, learned about the idea during a trip Nashville, Tennessee.  He later worked with the University of Delaware to develop the BPG-Horn Summer Fellows Program to serve as a link between the college’s Horn Entrepreneurship program and Wilmington.

Andrew Carcena and Matthew Lombardi, who launched WilminGO, were the first students to go through the program.

“Horn Entrepreneurship is always excited to partner with like-minded, innovative and entrepreneurial
organizations like BPG to pursue new possibilities for the benefit of students, the University and members of
the broader community” said Dan Freeman, founding director of Horn Entrepreneurship. “We have great
respect and appreciation for Chris Buccini’s vision and leadership in quickly translating the idea for the BPG-Horn.”

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The University of Delaware is now offering scholarship funding and support for students with autism who want to study computer and information science or electrical and computer engineering.

The program, called Spectrum Scholars, is supported by a 10-year grant from JPMorgan Chase.

“The Spectrum Scholars program is an exciting opportunity for students with autism and the entire University of Delaware, where we are committed to the core values of diversity and inclusion,” said UD President
Dennis Assanis. “Our whole community will be enriched by these talented students with autism, and we want to build a program that will empower them to develop their skills and enjoy rewarding careers.”

UD’s Center for Disabilities Studies — the state’s federally-designated university center for excellence in developmental disabilities — will administer the program.

“The supports and opportunities we will provide should help level the playing field,” said Brian Freedman, Spectrum Scholars’ director and the Center’s associate director. “For all their impressive abilities, students on the autism spectrum often struggle in college and in making the transition to work. The university’s Spectrum Scholars will learn how to enhance their communication skills, manage daily stressors and become effective self-advocates.”

The program will also train and educate university staff, faculty and area companies on how they can better
support people with autism.

“The more people on campus and in business embrace students with autism, the more the community will gain from their contributions,” said Freedman.

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By MICHAEL BRADLEY
Special to Delaware Business Times

Frank Mayer, 39, has a wife, two young children and a goal to practice emergency medicine in Delaware. Now in his third year at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM), the Newark native is set to make that dream a reality.

“It’s something I have wanted to do for a long time,” he said. “I didn’t think I would have the opportunity.”
After graduating from the University of Delaware more than 15 years ago, Mayer became co-owner of a business. He sold the company a few years ago for a sum large enough to allow him to consider medicine. He then took the required science courses at UD and started looking into options for med school.

Since Delaware is one of five states nationwide, including Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, without a medical school, Mayer had to look outside the state for options. But he wasn’t alone: The Delaware Institute of Medical Education and Research (DIMER) helped Mayer enroll in PCOM’s 2016 incoming class through assistance in the application process.

The program is the result of a decades-long effort by state officials to help Delawareans train as doctors and hopefully return to work in the state.

In the mid-1960s, the University of Delaware conducted a study about whether it should start a medical school. Due to what the study considered onerous operating costs ($50 million/year), the idea was scrapped. In 1969, DIMER was created by the state legislature to provide opportunities for state residents to have preferred access to medical school.

“A lot of physicians in the area at the time were alums of Thomas Jefferson [University Medical College] in Philadelphia, so an agreement was worked out to set up DIMER,” said Sherman Townsend, who has been the program’s chairman since 1995.

The first class of Jefferson students began in 1970, and in the middle of last decade, a similar relationship was forged with PCOM. The first class had just five students. This year, the program assisted 19 students, although Delaware still only pays for the original five ( $12,500/per student/year). Students must handle their own tuition and room and board costs, but DIMER does provide small grants to help. Most important is the “up leg” the students receive in the application process, according to Townsend.

“That’s the real advantage,” he said. “If you are from Delaware and apply to Jeff, you don’t go into the pool with 11,000 applicants for 270 spots. You go into a pool with 75 Delaware residents per year for 20 positions.”
After two years of classroom work, the students head to hospitals to complete their clinical rotations. Because Christiana Care Health System has established itself as a branch campus for both medical schools, students can take part in a “Delaware” medical school experience that provides state residents with the opportunity to complete all of their rotations at Christiana, thanks to DIMER.

Townsend estimates that Jefferson’s annual budget is $300 million, of which $1 million, or .033 percent, comes from Delaware through DIMER. Meanwhile, 7.4 percent of the SKMC student body is from Delaware.
Each year about 9,000 students apply to PCOM for 590 spots, give or take. Having 19 positions available for Delaware residents – with a small applicant pool that is similar to that at SKMC – is quite a coup, given the applicant pool is worldwide.

“It’s really incredible,” Mayer said. “You get onto a special list of students and get more attention from the schools and more professional treatment than other applicants get.”

Wilmington native Arjun Patel is a fourth-year student at SKMC who graduated from UD in 2015 and plans to specialize in internal medicine. He has enjoyed the opportunity to study in Philadelphia and apply what he has learned at Christiana.

“DIMER is a huge resource,” Patel said. “Growing up in Delaware and not really having a medical school in the state can turn off some students. But knowing there is funding and other resources available to Delaware students gave me confidence to pursue a medical career.

“Looking back, in effect there actually is a medical school in Delaware,” he added. “DIMER and Christiana Care have created health-care opportunities.”

Dr. Lisa Maxwell, associate chief learning officer at Christiana Care, reports that while many students do an eight-week rotation or two at the hospital, about 40 students – 20 from each class – complete their entire two-year clinical stints at the Christiana branch campus. She sees the relationship as mutually beneficial, because Christiana physicians enjoy teaching, and the hospital gets to “introduce” itself to future doctors from two top-notch medical schools. They may enjoy their experience enough to work for Christiana or set up practices in state.

“For a lot of medical students, when they do one eight-week rotation, they do it at a hospital they have never been to before,” Maxwell said. “Eight weeks later, they have to go to another hospital and have to start all over again, learning the culture, the electronic medical records system and where the cafeteria is. They’re dealing with that while trying to learn how to become a physician.”

As other hospitals grow, Townsend thinks they will want to become part of the DIMER branch campus system. With more hospitals in the program, more medical students could choose to stay in state after they graduate.

“Looking back as a fourth-year student, I see the systems DIMER has put in place to help students from Delaware succeed and learn from Delawareans who have established their careers in the state,” Patel said.

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By Ken Mammarella
Special to Delaware Business Times

A sensor-enabled chest model and a throwable robot were among the array of products featured at the first Tech Innovation Showcase put on by the University of Delaware Horn Entrepreneurship program

The showcase on Thursday also included a keynote and panel discussion on bringing ideas from the lab to the marketplace and advice sessions for local innovators by investors and strategic partners.

“It’s an exciting and perilous time for entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware,” said Dan Freeman, Horn’s founding director.

Freeman compared the “a desert of scarcity” in entrepreneurship in the past to “a forest of abundance” today, nurtured by 80 or so research centers or institutes at UD.

But it’s not a bed of roses. Ideas can take a long time to reach the marketplace, as long as 18 years for therapeutics, according to Tracy Shickel, UD’s new director of economic development.

Also, startups outside the hotbeds of Silicon Valley, Boston and New York tend to have lower profiles, and hence lower valuations, said keynote speaker Lydia McClure, vice president of scientific partnerships at the Translational Research Institute, which is working to boost startup capital for innovation and research at universities outside California, Massachusetts and New York.

Startups have many reasons to fail (No. 1 is no market need, she quoted CB Insights) and many reasons they fail to form (based on her 500 interviews, No. 1 is a lack of high-impact business talent).

Or as Brian Pryor, founder of LiteCure, a Newark maker of laser therapy medical devices, put it: Success needs a technologist, an entrepreneur and a mentor.

The event ended with a showcase of 17 startups associated with UD and Delaware State University. Two stood out for their market traction and underlying concepts.

Amy Cowperthwait and Amy Bucha co-founded Avkin in 2015 to create lifelike models of body parts to train nurses, with sensors giving immediate feedback to students using the devices to learn proper techniques and the humanity to see patients “not simply as a diagnosis, but as people.”

Its first three wearable products are the Avtrach (more than 100 sold to teach the respiratory system and related issues), the Avcath (more than 50 sold for catheters and related issues) and the Avstick (more than 30 sold for IV starts and related issues).

“We’re as close to the truth as possible,” Bucha said in explaining the firm’s name, which combines “akin” for similar and “vera” for truth. “Mannequins [used elsewhere] are not very realistic.

Since early 2017, Adam Stager, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at UD, has been through five iterations of his sturdy robotic carts, going from 3-D printing to off-the-shelf parts made from carbon fiber and aluminum, in a modular design that can easily be customized.

So far, his TRIC Robotics sold just one, to an European educator. But they’ve been through a lot of testing and evaluation, and there’s a lot of interest from SWAT teams. He’s attached bungee cords so the robots can deliver small items, like a bottle of water, and he’s removed any lighting, so they can be secretly deployed, with their cameras “giving you eyes in unsafe conditions.”

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The Delaware Sustainable Chemistry Alliance (DESCA) last week joined forces with the University of Delaware’s Colburn Club to present Innovation Night. This TedX-style event sought to bring the world of corporate innovation into the university campus.

Innovation Night brought together over 130 graduate students from throughout the University of Delaware with innovators and business developers from companies such as Air Liquide, Ashland, Chemours, Croda, DuPont, Gore, FMC, Incyte, Merck and Solenis.

Topics of discussion included innovation in large companies, macro trends, and new technologies in their respective industries and market places. Early in the evening, Chemours announced that its seeking to hire 150 scientists.

“I personally am thrilled at the level of interest and enthusiasm graduate students displayed both during and after the event,” said Colburn Club member and co-organizer Eleanor Oates. “In my book, this event was a home run and delivered exactly what the graduate students in our department were looking for.”

Business representatives had similarly positive feedback.

“This was an incredible illustration of the chemical, advanced material, agriscience, industrial biotech and life science companies of Delaware showing that another 100 years of high-tech legacy will be invented and executed in our small wonder state!” said Dr. Bryan Tracy, DESCA Chair and CEO of White Dog Labs.

“Through effective collaboration, DESCA and the Colburn Club are inspiring and recruiting the next generation of graduate level technical talent, particularly by connecting them to the immediate and medium term commercial interests of these modernizing industries.”

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The University of Delaware broke its enrollment record for the second consecutive year. The college surpassed 24,000 students for the first time.

Out of that total, UD enrolled 7,534 Delawareans, the most in over a decade; 3,729 underrepresented minority students, up from 3,587 last fall; and a record 2,246 international students, further evidence of UD’s global reputation for research.

These undergraduates include 3,972 domestic students of color, 21.8 percent of the enrollment, up from 3,907 last fall. Among Delaware residents, the progress is more pronounced, increasing 25 percent over the last five years, from 1,709 students of color in fall 2014 to 2,143 students in fall 2018.

More information on diversity at the school is available here:  https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2018/october/enrollment-record-diversity/

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The four transit systems operating in the City of Newark – DART First State, City of Newark, Cecil Transit, and the University of Delaware –  have partnered with the Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO) to form the Newark Transit Improvement Partnership (TrIP)  to consolidate and coordinate the systems.

A public workshop will be held on Tuesday, November 13 at the City of Newark Municipal Building (200 South Main Street) where attendees can learn about the study and provide input on how bus service could be improved in the Newark area. Attendees may stop by any time from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The project includes technical analysis and community outreach, including a Newark Resident Survey and a Newark Business/Organizations Survey. Planners have been obtaining input from transit riders, business and community groups, and transit drivers to better understand existing services, unmet needs, and opportunities for integration of services. The planning team is also conducting a technical analysis of existing and potential transit use to identify ways that transit can better serve the needs of the greater Newark community.

Representatives from WILMAPCO, the TrIP partnership, and the consulting team will be available to answer questions, listen to input, and address concerns. To learn more about the Newark-Area Transit Study or to complete the surveys, visit www.wilmapco.org/newarktransit.

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By Roger Morris
Special to Delaware Business Times

After Andrew Zolty, 38, graduated from the University of Delaware in 2002 with a BFA degree in visual communication, he spent the next eight years working for 15 different agencies before he and two colleagues formed their own – simply called “Breakfast” – based on an unusual business plan:

• “We decided we would not take any money [from investors],” he says, “and we wouldn’t chase clients;”
• “We would not pay ourselves well for at least three years, remaining very small,” and
• “We would always do side projects between whatever client work we would get.”

Things have worked out better than planned, Zolty reported at a recent breakfast meeting about Breakfast held by the Tech Forum of Delaware at the Marriott Courtyard in Newark. This was Zolty’s first visit back to his old stomping grounds.

Zolty boasts that he’s a product of his University of Delaware education, which he said created an “epic relationship’ among the 17 students who worked with their professors on creative projects. “It helped us evolve a mentality of how to work,” he said. “We weren’t allowed just to drag our feet through something. We were taught that the quality of presentation was always important.”

In its 10th year, Breakfast operates with only seven employees. Luster, its subsidiary, which acts as a cash generator by producing hashtag mosaics, flip-disc displays and hashtag printers, has serviced dozens of companies from Instagram to IBM, McDonald’s to Mercedes, Cadillac to Coca-Cola. Last year, it achieved 1.5 billion impressions for these clients.

Zolty and his colleagues can now concentrate on one or two big projects a year, which the Brooklyn-based firm describes as “bespoke functional art” created by “a studio of multidisciplinary designers and engineers that conceive, design, and fabricate high-tech contemporary art installations and sculptures.”

These one-of-a-kind pieces are customized for each client and installed in lobbies, airports and other large spaces.

The origin of the Breakfast name, Zolty said, has nothing to do with the morning meal but instead a mashup of the founders original mantra, “Break things quickly” or “break fast. He said the firm began shifting its direction  toward permanent architectural and museum art two years ago.

In 2015, Zolty got the idea for an installation involving color-changing, spinning spools of thread. The finished project, paid for by the Forever 21 fashion company, involves 6,400 mechanical spools of thread that rapidly rotate through 36 colors to display posted Instagram photos from around the world. It weighs 2,000 pounds and stands 13 feet tall.

Breakfast’s current project, introduced in late October, is Brixel and is awaiting a sponsor, most likely an architectural firm, as it combines art and construction. Brixel is essentially a wall-sized façade of individual, brick-shaped pieces – mirrors, wood panels – that rotate at high speeds in either direction with interactive pixels that mimic movements of anyone who approaches it. Zolty got the idea from watching late afternoon shadows of commuters projected on a fence railing at a commuter train station.

“When someone sees our works, we want them to say the word ‘mesmerizing,’” Zolty said. “We want our work to be smart, playful for people of all ages, and we don’t want to make them jump through hoops” to enjoy the experience.

The post UD grad briefs Tech Forum on launching successful art firm appeared first on Delaware Business Times.

By Joyce L. Carroll
Special to Delaware Business Times

Dave Raymond has built a career marketing fun. His 16-year run as the original Phillie Phanatic changed the world of sports mascots. Now, as the founder of Raymond Entertainment, Raymond is helping other professional and college sports teams nationwide create iconic mascots through character development, audience engagement and brand development. Among his latest achievements: Gritty, the frizzy and wild-eyed mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Raymond’s foray into the world of furry avatars was not a straight shot. As an undergrad at the University of Delaware, he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. But Harold “Tubby” Raymond — one of UD’s most beloved football coaches — wanted his son to pursue business.

Sports and business merged when the senior Raymond helped arrange an internship for his son: The Philadelphia Phillies were looking for someone to create a mascot.

“I was smart enough to realize it was a bad idea, but I agreed,” Raymond said, reflecting on the position that would require him to don an oversized, furry green costume. But valuable marketing lessons were gained from the experience. His Phanatic antics provided entertainment to the masses without the participants realizing they were being sold a product.

Raymond learned that fun was a powerful tool. You can’t measure its effectiveness with surveys or annual reports, but by gauging the immediate reaction of your audience.

Raymond would come to learn the full value of his career choice during some of the greatest challenges of his life, including his mother’s cancer diagnosis and death, a divorce, and, last year, his father’s death.

“My job was what saved me,” he said. “We’re not conditioned to have fun when we’re working through a struggle.”

While Raymond is no longer the man inside the Phanatic suit, the mascot lives on. And so do the numerous other characters Raymond has helped bring to life. Later this year, the fruits of his labor will reach new heights as the first Mascot Hall of Fame opens in Whiting, Indiana. The $20 million project will introduce visitors to Reggie, the resident mascot of the facility.

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(AP) — The University of Delaware is closing two large dorms several years ahead of schedule.

News outlets report the university announced recently that it is closing both Christiana Towers dorms at the end of this school year.

The nearly 50-years-old towers house about 1,300 students. The university had initially planned to close them at the end of the 2023-2014 school year and eventually plans on demolishing them.

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W7Energy has been named the winner of the first University of Delaware FastPass Award. This award grants W7Energy an equity free start-up package, including operational and financial support valued at $50,000, and is provided by the Delaware Innovation Space.

W7Energy, a start-up company founded by University of Delaware Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering professor Yushan Yan, focuses on the development of next-generation hydroxide exchange membranes and polymeric materials that enable zero-emission fuel cell powered vehicles at significantly lower total cost. The team of seven plans to begin operations at the Delaware Innovation Space on January 1 st, 2019.

“Delaware Innovation Space is the perfect location for W7Energy to start its polymer synthesis and scale-up because of its extensive wet chemistry-friendly facilities and support system,” said Yushan Yan of W7Energy. “As a strong early advocate for the establishment of Delaware Innovation Space in the Experimental Station, I feel particularly excited that the W7Energy journey will begin there.”

The FastPass Award was designed and developed by the Delaware Innovation Space in partnership with the University of Delaware to facilitate the formation of new start-ups and accelerate existing small companies affiliated with the University. The FastPass competition is a highly competitive award judged by members of the university and local business community and recognizes both growth and impact potential of awardees’ underlying science. This is the first in a series of UD FastPass Award competitions to be held annually to support and cultivate diverse, technically focused economic development in the state. The next competition is scheduled to launch in mid-2019.

“Congratulations to Yushan and his team for winning the first FastPass competition,” said UD President Dennis Assanis. “Fostering a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship is one of the University’s top priorities, so we are proud to support start-ups like W7Energy that are developing a more environmentally friendly and sustainable future for the world. We look forward to seeing W7Energy and all the companies at Delaware Innovation Space succeed.”

“We are very pleased to further strengthen our partnership with the University of Delaware with this UD FastPass Award and welcome W7Energy into our innovation community,” said Bill Provine, President and CEO of the Delaware Innovation Space. “Our mission at the Delaware Innovation Space is to enable and accelerate science entrepreneurs at every stage of building and growing their startups.”

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