presented before the National Science Foundation and the White House Office of Science and Technology on Tuesday, the Capital Times reported. The two men who made the trip were Suman Banerjee, a professor in the computer sciences department at UW-Madison, and Anton Kapela, a vice president at Madison-based Internet service provider 5Nines. In September, 5Nines launched a free wireless network for businesses in the city’s downtown.
—The race to bridge the gap from connected devices to the connected home is underway, though experts say it’s probably too early to crown a winner. Some manufacturers of “Internet of Things” devices are teaming up to link their products together—a smart doorbell and a smart lock, for example. Time will tell whether this direct approach to integration prevails, or whether these machines will communicate via a hub-and-spoke model.
—The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation announced that Carl Gulbrandsen, who has served as the organization’s managing director since 2000, has been named the recipient of In Business magazine’s lifetime achievement award. Under his leadership, WARF’s endowment has doubled to more than $2.6 billion, the foundation said in a press release. Last month, Xconomy reported that Gulbrandsen had postponed his retirement until June, as WARF continues its search for a new leader.
—BluDiagnostics, a Madison-based startup that’s developing a saliva-based fertility test, raised $600,000 from nine investors, co-founder Katie Brenner said. She declined to name specific funds or investors who participated in the seed round, but said some of them were Wisconsin-based, while others hailed from California and the East Coast. Brenner said the company is likely to close a larger Series A round about a year from now.
