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Tech Tour Day Five: Biotech, Entrepreneurship At CMU
MT. PLEASANT — One of the favorite things about my university Tech Tours is hearing people’s reactions, usually along the lines of “They’re doing WHAT?!” I got example after example of that Monday at...
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Tech Tour Day Six: Ferris Tech Fantastic
BIG RAPIDS — We’re a long way from the log cabins in which Ferris State University founder Woodbridge N. Ferris was born, way back in 1853. But the university he and his wife Helen founded as the Big...
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Tech Tour Day Seven: Grand Tech At Grand Valley
GRAND RAPIDS — And the 2012 Great Lakes Innovation and Technology Report Tech Tour winner for packing the most information into a 3 1/2-hour visit is… Well, the Tech Tour still has two more stops, but...
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Tech Tour Day Eight: Western’s Got Wings!
KALAMAZOO — Okay, let’s start with full disclosure: My son, brother and two nephews went to Western Michigan University. So it’s hard for me to be entirely objective about the home of the Broncos. But...
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The Tech Tour Mobile: Understated High Tech Class
SOUTHFIELD — “That’s what a Taurus looks like now?” my daughter exclaimed when I visited her Friday at Michigan State University, driving the Fall 2012 Tech Tour Mobile, a 2013 Taurus Limited. The...
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MSU: Spartans Shine To Wrap Up Tech Tour ’12
EAST LANSING — It’s a world-class research university, America’s pioneering land grant college, the first place on the planet to study agriculture scientifically, and just passed a little-known school...
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Lawrence Tech Tour Shows Local Talent For Tech Transfer
SOUTHFIELD — The Great Lakes Innovation and Technology Report’s Fall Tech Tour gets me the heck outta town to see the latest and greatest research at Michigan’s fabulous universities — research that...
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Kettering Tech Tour Finds Tons Of Startup Possibilities
FLINT — Like several of the science- and tech-based schools in Michigan that I cover, I have a soft spot for Kettering University, where my fall Tech Tour visited Friday. Maybe it’s the location, in...
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UM Startups Amaze As Tech Tour Continues
ANN ARBOR — It’s like drinking from the proverbial fire hose. When I’m on my Fall Tech Tour around Michigan and I ask university tech transfer officials to see their four or five coolest “science...
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Lansing Sets STEM Week Celebration
LANSING — The new three R’s are spelled S-T-E-M. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, and the Information Technology Empowerment Center (ITEC) is partnering with more than a dozen...
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Matt’s Favorites: Alpena Tech, Climate Change Hurts Wine, GM
So what’s up in the constantly renewing and ever-growing world of high technology? Well, try these gems out for size… * Target Alpena Development Corp. has received conditional approval by the Michigan...
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Tech Tour Time Is Here Again
Matt poses with the Spring Tech Tour Mobile, the 2013 Ram 1500 (WWJ Photo) SOUTHFIELD — Well, it’s finally arrived. The WWJ Technology Report will be taking its 10th annual Tech Tour on the Michigan...
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Tech Tour Day Three: In Which I Heap Praise On A Ram
ALPENA (WWJ) — I seem to have fallen in love with a truck. The 2013 Spring Tech Tour Mobile happens to be the current reigning North American Truck Of The Year, the Ram 1500 from Chrysler LLC. And it’s...
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Tech Tour Day Two: Greener Carbon
MARQUETTE (WWJ) – If you ever get a chance to visit Michigan Renewable Carbon, the odor will make you want to go camping. The company is producing activated carbon in a far more Earth-friendly fashion...
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Tech Tour Day One: Magnificent Marquette
MARQUETTE (WWJ) — I haven’t been to Marquette on the Tech Tour for four years now. And as I recall, the last time I was here it was snowing. In May. Well, this time, a cold rain gave way to springlike...
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Tech Tour Day Four: Amazing Alpena
(For complete coverage of my 2013 Spring Tech Tour, click here.) ALPENA (WWJ) – Alpena, hotbed of technology. Who knew? No, seriously. This gritty industrial town — sometimes literally gritty, home to...
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Tech Tour Day Five: Tri-Cities Terrific
BAY CITY (WWJ) — The Tri-Cities of Saginaw, Bay City and Midland is another corner of Michigan where there’s a proud tradition of, you know, actually building stuff, even when it comes to modern...
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Tech Tour Day Six: Grand Rapids = Grand Tech Startups
(Note: For full coverage of the 2013 Spring Tech Tour, visit this link.) GRAND RAPIDS (WWJ) — Grand Rapids, capital of West Michigan, is big enough to have lots of big, longtime tech companies rivaling...
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Tech Tour Day Seven: Tech Rules The Zoo, And Battle Creek Too
(Note: For full coverage of the 2013 Spring Tech Tour, visit this link.) (Another Note: Somehow or other, the up to this point excellent Samsung Galaxy camera from Verizon I’ve been using all week ate...
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Matt’s Favorites: Chinese Hackers Crack Dams, New Robot Hand, New Robot Bugs,...
What’s new and wonderful from the world of high tech on this final day of the Tech Tour? Now that’s a question worth answering! * Here’s more fun from our great and good friends the Chinese: Chinese...
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Tech Tour Day Eight: Lansing A Tech Capital, Too
LANSING (WWJ) — Yeah, I know, the FALL tech tour is the time I talk to Michigan’s outstanding research universities. But in the case of Lansing, East Lansing and Michigan State University, the local...
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‘Tech Tour’ Style Visit To UM Shows World Of Wolverine Wonders
ANN ARBOR (WWJ) – I take two Tech Tours every year. I need to. As I’ve said a thousand times, your Technology Report claims to be a statewide publication, but as a practical matter, my home is in...
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Tech Tour Day Two: A Great Ride
ST. IGNACE (WWJ) – Greetings from this lakeshore town at the north end of the Mackinac Bridge, where I pulled in for the night to write up Friday’s Technology Report before starting my 2013 Fall Tech...
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Tech Tour Day Four: Just Another Incredible Saturday Of MTU Research
HOUGHTON (WWJ) – Most Michigan universities only get one day on the Fall Tech Tour. But I always give Michigan Technological University two. Maybe it’s the fact that it takes 11 hours to get up here,...
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Tech Tour Day Three: An Opening Bit Of Michigan Tech
HOUGHTON (WWJ) – One of the many things I love about the Tech Tour is that it gives me an excuse to visit Michigan’s magnificent Upper Peninsula in October. Trees ablaze with color, a crisp nip to the...
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Matt’s Favorites: The Ride On Tech Tour Day Five And Much More
So what’s the latest and greatest on this beginning of the long Tech Tour week? Glad you asked… * It took me nine hours Sunday to drive from Houghton to the Tri-Cities, where I’ll be talking to Saginaw...
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Tech Tour Day Six: Saginaw Valley Helps Build The Mid-Michigan, Thumb Tech...
UNIVERSITY CENTER (WWJ) – The phrase “hidden gem” is overused, and sometimes misused to describe things that are pretty much cubic zirconia. But on Day Six of the 2013 Fall Tech Tour Monday, I found a...
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Tech Tour Day Seven: World Class Science In Mid-Michigan At CMU
MT. PLEASANT (WWJ) – Like most of Michigan’s directional schools — you know, the ones with a direction as their first word — Central Michigan University started out over a century ago as a teacher’s...
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Tech Tour Day Eight: Ferris State Biotech Booming At The Edge Of The North Woods
BIG RAPIDS (WWJ) – Here at the southern edge of the Manistee National Forest is about as far south as you can be and still be Up North. When you look west from the top floor of the Holiday Inn, on the...
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Tech Tour Day Nine: Top Notch Energy, Environment, Medical Tech At GVSU
GRAND RAPIDS (WWJ) – If there’s any one of the state universities Michigan created in the early 1960s that has grown beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings, it would have to be Grand Valley State...
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Matt’s Favorites: Flexing Michigan Mussels, Twitter IPO, And More
So what’s the latest and greatest as a chilly, wet Tech Tour Week comes to a close? Here comes the sun… and some great science and technology tales… *First of all, here are links to the Tech Report...
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Ten Days In A Hybrid — Ford’s Fusion Energi Is A Winner
DEARBORN (WWJ) – It’s long, it’s low-slung, it stole its front end from James Bond. Its only drawbacks? The price tag and the tiny little trunk. That’s the Ford Fusion Energi I drove for 10 days on the...
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Tech Tour Day 10: WMU Broncos’ Tech Transfer, Research At Full Gallop
KALAMAZOO (WWJ) – I’ll admit that by the end of most Tech Tours I’m usually pretty fried. Nine or 10 days of sleeping in a different unfamiliar bed every night, eating road food, and driving darn near...
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MSU Tech Tour: Super Spartan Innovations
EAST LANSING (WWJ) – Michigan State University’s mascot-based motto these days is “Spartans Will.” Well, I can tell you, on a Tech Tour-style visit to the MSU campus Friday, Spartans will… knock your...
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Tech Tour Day Three: Finnish French Toast, Medical Miracles, Green Racing And...
HOUGHTON — You gotta love the Suomi. It’s a family restaurant in historic downtown Houghton, famous for its Finnish pancakes and its French toast made out of sweet Finnish bread. It’s the perfect way...
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GLITR Tech Tour Day Seven: Great Grand Rapids
GRAND RAPIDS — Downtown Grand Rapids is an amazing place these days, and I got just a tiny little peek at a few of the companies helping make it amazing Wednesday, Day Seven of the Great Lakes...
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This Tech Tour Mobile Was A Blast
DEARBORN — Just tell the rest of the family it’s a mere commutermobile. Because if they ever figure out how much fun a 2012 Ford Focus SEL is to drive, you may never get the wheel back. The Ford Focus...
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GLITR Tech Tour Day Nine: Lansing’s A Wonderful End To The Trip
LANSING — For a minute there, I was arguing with my Ford Focus. Lansing’s Center for New Enterprise Opportunity couldn’t possibly be down this residential street! Stupid machine! But as usual, MyFord...
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GLITR Hits The Road For Fall Tech Tour ’12
SOUTHFIELD — I love a road trip. I always have. Maybe it’s because we didn’t have a car when I was a kid. And we never went anywhere on vacations except the same family cottage on a lake less than 100...
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Tech Tour Day Two: Solar Power, Star Trek Replicators, New Drugs At Michigan...
HOUGHTON — Solar power, Star Trek replicators, new antiviral drugs, more green energy, and a research showplace for the Great Lakes. Yep, just another day at Michigan Technological University Friday as...
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