Time flies when you’re working hard. Although summer is nearly over, Michigan’s startup clusters keep humming along. In fact, so much is happening, we’ve divided this roundup into two parts. Part two will run Sept. 4. Read on for recent innovation news from around the state.
—Detroiters age 18 and older have until Friday to apply for Grand Circus’s Tech Hire Bootcamp, a free 12-week tech training program that prepares students to immediately enter the workforce as entry-level developers. All bootcamp graduates will also receive career assistance, including guaranteed first-round interviews, at companies such as Accenture, Perficient, SolvIT, Labor Edge, and Meridian. Participants must commit to full-time classwork (9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday). The class runs October 8 to December 14. To apply, click here.
—Leading2Lean, a Nevada-based maker of manufacturing software, is awarding two scholarships to Michigan students in an effort to enhance the talent pool of skilled workers.
“There is a large disconnect between the perception and reality of manufacturing, especially in regard to technology,” Leading2Lean CEO Keith Barr said in a statement. “While robotics and A.I. are integral in manufacturing, it’s technically skilled humans that are in high demand for over 400,000 vacant high-paying manufacturing jobs, right now.”
Leading2Lean’s Manufacturing Scholarship Fund will award a $1,250 scholarship to two students enrolled in technical programs anywhere in Michigan who are working towards employment in the manufacturing industry. Students who apply must be able to present proof of school enrollment; the deadline is September 26.
—Ann Arbor’s Genomenon, a startup building a genomics-specific search engine designed to help clinicians find faster diagnoses, has been awarded a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The grant was awarded to develop and apply machine learning and A.I. algorithms to gene variant interpretation, “the biggest hurdle in scaling the adoption of genomic sequencing in both clinical and precision medicine applications,” the company said in a press release.
“The NIH has been a key partner in helping us tackle the single biggest barrier at the center of genomic medicine—automating variant interpretation based on the scientific evidence from the medical literature,” said Mike Klein, CEO of Genomenon. “We are excited about the results that we are able to produce based on the work funded by this grant.”
—Cengage Learning, the Boston-based educational tech company with a hub in Farmington Hills, conducted a survey earlier this year that found the cost of textbooks and other course materials are a top stressor for college students.
In response, the company has created Cengage Unlimited, a subscription service offering unlimited access to more than 20,000 digital course materials across 70 subjects for one price: $119.99 per semester, or $179.99 for the year.
“The best way to think of this is like a Netflix or Hulu for textbooks: for a flat fee, students get every educational product created by the largest academic publisher in the United States,” said Will Austin, president of New Jersey’s Warren County Community College, in a Cengage statement.
