Innovation


ISS National Lab and Boeing Partner for 6th Consecutive Year to Award $500,000 for Microgravity Research Through MassChallenge

International Space Station U.S National Laboratory – The International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory and Boeing [NYSE: BA] have partnered for the sixth consecutive year to provide up to $500,000 in grants to innovative startups through the MassChallenge (Boston) startup accelerator program.

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Faculty Creativity in Action

To spur creativity during the closing session, conference participants were given minimal resources such as old magazines and cardboard boxes, with which they created "toy theatres" at the Ballard Puppetry Museum. (Devin Basdekian/UConn School of Business)
To spur creativity during the closing session, conference participants were given minimal resources such as old magazines and cardboard boxes, with which they created “toy theatres” at the Ballard Puppetry Museum. (Devin Basdekian/UConn School of Business)

Cooking, Puppetry, Research All Part of Management’s Creativity Conference

How do you celebrate and inspire creativity when you have three dozen top creative scholars coming to campus? Continue Reading


UConn Grad Experiences Entrepreneurial Evolution

Innovation Destination Hartford – University of Connecticut graduate Ali Oshinskie is a driven entrepreneur. The self-taught podcaster launched Podstories in May 2017 and is making a name for herself here in Greater Hartford.

Ali and Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price met at Café Fifty-Five for coffee and conversation about Ali’s experience with UConn’s Innovation Quest and what it means to be an entrepreneur.


Report Highlights Risks, Rewards of Starting a Business

NewsTimes.com – They may be young and small, but collectively they are a force to be reckoned with in the overall economy.

They are startups, and they account for one-third of all small businesses and a large portion of innovation and productivity, according to the Report on Startup Firms, the second in a series of reports based on the 2016 Small Business Credit Survey. Conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and released last week, the report defines startups as small businesses that were five years or younger in 2016 and had full- or part-time employees.


Mansfield Man Eyes New Ways To Take Macro Photos

Hartford Courant – In high school science classes in Pennsylvania, Mark Smith used just a standard, tabletop microscope to magnify the samples of minerals and rocks that would inspire him to become a geologist.

But in his free time, the teenager was helping to build a much more powerful device — a macro photography system that could compete with the best on the market to produce ultra-high resolution, full-color images of the tiniest things on Earth.


UConn Business School Makes Its Mark in Stamford

University of Connecticut, Stamford (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
University of Connecticut, Stamford (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

The University of Connecticut’s downtown hub stands about 100 miles from its main campus. But it is no distant outpost.

UConn’s business school exemplifies the increasing prominence of the university in Stamford. Enrollment is growing and a major conference held last week reflects university officials’ view of the Stamford campus as an equal to the one in Storrs. Continue Reading


Hartford and East Hartford Selected as an Innovation Place

MetroHartford Alliance – The communities of Hartford and East Hartford, led by The Hartford/East Hartford Innovation Places Planning Team, have been selected as an Innovation Place, announced yesterday afternoon by the CTNext Board of Directors. The Hartford/East Hartford Initiative will receive up to $2 million in Implementation Grant funds in fiscal year 2018 to begin implementing the team’s vision for making Hartford and East Hartford a hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, and business growth.



Unique, Creative Startups Win $30,000

2017 Innovation Quest Awards

Innovation Quest Tops Participation Record; Winners Present Vastly Different, Creative Startup Ideas

The winners of this year’s Innovation Quest (iQ) competition had a unique set of people to credit for inspiring their success, including:

  • A friend with a teddy bear tattoo, emblazoned with his ex-girlfriend’s name;
  • A waitress who was trying to handle a mad-house of customers during a blizzard, when the rest of the wait staff didn’t show up;
  • A little brother who leaves his EpiPen home because it is too bulky to carry;
  • Americans who have very polarized beliefs about political events, depending on which news source they follow.

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