- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock moves toward innovative presentations as future of student expo

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 15:00:18 +0000

The Student Research and Creative Works Expo at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is headed in a new direction. This year’s event featured the Digital Hub, which showcased innovative presentation styles that are becoming more popular as research presentations move away from traditional poster presentations, said Dr. Jeremy Ecke, chair of the expo committee. Live radio broadcasts, documentaries, podcasts, virtual presentations, installations, and artist demonstrations are all a part of the new presentations styles in the Digital Hub in the Innovation category. About 100 ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students submitted 80 entries for the April 3 expo. The winners were announced during an awards ceremony April 18 in the Student Services Center. Chancellor Andrew Rogerson praised the student research and creative work, adding that students who collaborate with a professor are more likely to complete their program of study and are more prepared for graduate school. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock is about setting students on a path to successful careers and presenting them with opportunities to make rich lives,” Rogerson said. “Central to this is our belief in the teacher-scholar model. The expo has encouraged collaboration and innovation between students and faculty.” The winners of the new Innovation category include Jasmine Blunt and Kendrick Dunn, who presented a live radio show broadcast of the Expo. Blunt and Dunn also showcased a documentary they created featuring three local artists. The students are hoping to launch a business called “The Influence,” which provides individuals with a platform to express their creative works in Little Rock. The other winners of the innovation category included civil and construction engineering students Blake Johnston and Sam Kincannon, who were part of a team of students who constructed a working canoe out of concrete materials. They raced the concrete canoe as part of the American Society of Civil Engineers competition. A list of expo winners and their projects include: Undergraduate Winners Art: Zachary Tallent, “The Broken Chain” Humanities: Kalan Horton, “Identifying the Key Social Infrastructural Factors in School Buildings That Affect 12th Grade Students’ Standardized Test Scores in 3 school districts” Engineering/Technology First Place: David Stinnett, Matthew Mitchell, Patrick Phillips, Jeff Choate, Jessica Vinson, Daniel Blaire, Dylan Singleton, Abdulaziz Alanazi, Norbert Rungano, Julian Castillo, Drew Potter, and Fidele Kabera; “Multi-Purpose Tornado Shelter” Second Place: Deepali Lai, Michelle Poroshine, and Logan Vickery; “Data Analysis of Consumer Complaints” Life Science/Human Science First Place: Marina Avram, Sakr Elsaidi, Tyler Maxwell, and Bonn Belingon; “Algal Oculata Biotemplated Water-Splitting Nanocatalysts Nickel/Iron Oxides” Second Place: Lelia Rosenkrans; “Physiological Relationships Between Salivary Expressed Metabolites and Dancer Fitness” Physical Sciences First Place: Tyler Maxwell, Marina Avram, Sakr Elsaidi, and Bonn Belingon; “Nannochloropsis Oculata Biotemplated Water-Splitting MoS2 Nanocatalysts for Hydrogen Production” Second Place: Autumn Jones; “Petrographic examination of the El Hammami H5 meteorite from the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Meteorite Collection” Social Sciences/Professional Studies First Place: Wesley Bland; “Determining a Champion: Economic Analysis of NFL Teams” Second Place: Suzanne Abou-Diab; “Evaluation of the Readability, Validity, and User-Friendliness of Aphasia Written Web-Based Patient Education Materials” Second Place: Kiana Manning; “An Investigation to Document Interjudge Reliability of Two Standardized Measures of Social Skills” Innovation Winner: Blake Johnston and Sam Kincannon; “Concrete Canoe” Winner: Jasmine Blunt and Kendrick Dunn; “Media Platform”

Dr. Jeremy Ecke (right) awards a prize to winners of the Student Research and Creative Works Expo. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

Graduate Winners Engineering/Technology First Place: Wei Dai; “Measuring Data Quality of Global Earthquakes” Second Place: Trigun Maroo; “Novel Mechanism for Object Manipulation and Grasping for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” Third Place: William Parsley and Wei Dai; “Improving Data Quality Through Machine Learning” Health Sciences First Place: Yan Wang, Jing Jin, Susan Thapa, Leanna Delhey, and Qing Zhang; “SNP Imputation and Cardiovascular Health Study” Second Place: Asween Marco; “Oral Health Access in Arkansas” Third Place: Qudes AL-Anbaky, Zeiyad Al-karakooly, Ilham Kadhim, Mohd Zubair, and Richard Connor; “Dictyostelium discoideum Senses Inositol Polyphosphate-Mediated Programmed Cell Death Mechanism Following Exposure to Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs)” Humanities/Social Sciences/Education First Place: Amy Cole; “Dorothea Lange and Ben Shahn: Separate Paths Lead to Similar Mother Figures in Farm Security Administration Photography” Second Place: Brenda Prochaska and Erin Pavioni; “Disproportionate Sanctions: A Comparison of Judicial Handling of Male and Female Southern Minority Youth” Life Science/Physical Science First Place: Matthew Carey; “Temporal and Spatial Changes in the Water Quality of the Arkansas River Through the Little Rock Metropolitan Area” Second Place: Amita Nakarmi and Rebecca Parker; “Removal and Recovery of Phosphate from Wastewater Using Novel Reusable Renewable Resource-based Nanocomposites” Second Place: Kamal Pandey; “Regulation of productivity of Ornamental crops by Carbon-based Nanotechnological Approach” Third Place: Ghusoon Al-Bazzar and Muatez Mohammed; “Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) for TiO2 nanorods with SWCNTs/Polyaniline” In the upper right photo, Dr. Jeremy Ecke (right), chair of the expo committee, recognizes winners of the Student Research and Creative Works Expo during the April 18 awards ceremony in the Student Services Center. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

��Vlog��ýLR-based small business center receives $200,000 to assist innovative entrepreneurs

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 18:31:47 +0000

The (ASBTDC) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is one of five small business and technology development centers in the nation selected to receive a $200,000 grant to support programs for innovative, technology-driven small businesses. The U.S. Small Business Administration awarded the competitive funding as part of the, which also gave 16 state and local economic development agencies, business development centers, colleges and universities grants of up to $125,000. The grant will allow the center to provide consulting services to more entrepreneurs seeking funding through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, said Laura Fine, interim state director of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center. Those services include market research, business planning advice, business modeling coaching, proposal writing assistance, and the identification of funding sources. In addition to consulting services, the center will create new training and educational programs that will focus on the commercialization of life sciences technology, the patenting of new technology, and the Food and Drug Administration approval process. “The special funding we have received through FAST every year since 2010 enables ASBTDC to offer unique programming and events for Arkansas researchers and tech entrepreneurs,” Fine said. “Our FAST track record, coupled with our relationship with the Small Business Administration, helped us bring the national to ��Vlog��ýLR earlier this year, and we’re excited about the new opportunities we can offer tech-based small businesses.” The new award doubles the federal funding the center received previously from the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program, Fine said. The program is designed to stimulate economic development with outreach and technical assistance to science and technology-driven small businesses, with a particular emphasis on socially and economically disadvantaged firms. “The main goal of FAST is to provide more boots on the ground in local communities through our partner organizations to increase awareness about SBIR/STTR’s early-stage funding and level the playing field for entrepreneurs, especially those in underrepresented communities,” said John Williams, Small Business Administration director of innovation. From 2011 to 2016, the center assisted innovation clients in obtaining 56 financial awards from federal and state sources totaling more than $10 million to further commercialization. Of these, 17 were Small Business Innovation Research awards totaling $5.6 million with 31 percent of awards going to women, 22 percent of awards to minorities, and 100 percent to small firms. The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the Small Business Administration through a partnership with the ��Vlog��ýLR College of Business and other institutions of higher education. The center assists startups, existing businesses, expanding businesses, and innovation-based businesses statewide.

Entrepreneurs invited to ‘Ask the Tech Experts’

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 20:02:38 +0000

The (ASBTDC) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a half-day event featuring one-on-one meetings between entrepreneurs and technology entrepreneurship experts in “” from 8 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, March 8. “This is a rare opportunity to engage reputable individuals who possess strong expertise in areas key to successful technology business development,” said Rebecca Norman, an innovation consultant at the center. “Several of these tech experts generally charge a fee for their consulting services but will be providing feedback for attendees free of charge at this event.” The Small Business and Technology Development Center is a university-based economic development program that assists entrepreneurs with business creation, management, and operation. The March 8 event is geared toward entrepreneurs and university researchers who have technology-based products and services at various stages of development and would benefit from business development assistance. “Many innovative businesses want to learn how they can secure funding to support development of their new research and development ideas,” Norman said. “I also receive regular requests for assistance helping entrepreneurs locate potential project partners and customers. Additionally, a large number of my clients seek market research information that quantifies the need for their product or service on a national and global scale.” Market research is one of the center’s most widely used services, especially in the growing area of technology commercialization. The research provides technology entrepreneurs with details regarding the competitive landscape and trends within the customer market. This information is essential in developing a business plan or an application for the, which provides federal funds for innovation and technology research to small businesses. Participants are encouraged to come to the workshop with a list of prepared questions to better maximize their one-on-one meetings with the experts. The technology entrepreneur experts include:

Ron Foster, business development manager at. Primary areas of expertise include business development and research and development commercialization.
Dr. Steve Stanley, senior manager of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission . Primary areas of expertise include state funding programs for research-based companies and business development.
Sharon Ballard, chief operating officer and president of Primary areas of expertise include small business innovation research, small business technology transfer, and entrepreneurship.
Brian Rogers, deputy director of the Office of Skills Development at the Arkansas Department of Career Education. Primary areas of expertise include intellectual property, technology transfer, and commercialization.
John Riggins, founder and president of and entrepreneur in residence at Arkansas Tech University. Primary areas of expertise include marketing strategies and entrepreneurship.
Jeff and Brent Amerine, leaders of . Primary areas of expertise include entrepreneurship, business development, and project management.
Dr. Lenka Fedorkova, chief operating officer of bioPRIME, LLC. Primary areas of expertise include the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer program and life science technology commercialization.

To watch interviews with the experts and to register online, visit. For more information, contact Norman at rxnorman@ualr.edu or 501.683.7700.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock moves toward innovative presentations as future of student expo

����Vlog��ýLR-based small business center receives $200,000 to assist innovative entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs invited to ‘Ask the Tech Experts’

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock moves toward innovative presentations as future of student expo

��Vlog��ýLR-based small business center receives $200,000 to assist innovative entrepreneurs