Innovation at USC - October 2011

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Innovation at USC - October 2011

Newsletter at a Glance

Apply for the 2011 USC Student Innovator Showcase - DEADLINE October 16, 2011
USC Innovation was Featured on the Cover of Los Angeles Business Journal
USC Joins Universities in Southern California to Produce Cleantech Businesses
TEDxUSC 2011 Participant Selected as TEDxTalks Editor's Pick
Two More TEDxUSC Talks Available Online Now: MAKE Magazine's Dale Dougherty and USC Grad and Tiziano Project Founder Andrew McGregor

Newsbites

USC Innovation was Featured on the Cover of Los Angeles Business Journal
The LA Business Journal published a special report on Innovation and Technology Transfer, featuring USC, Caltech, and UCLA. The article highlighted the history of USC Stevens Institute for Innovation and featured three USC startups: Guide Vest, Cred.fm and Ninja Metrics.

USC Joins Universities in Southern California to Produce Cleantech Businesses
USC, Caltech and UCLA partnered to receive a $360,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a national business plan competition for young cleantech entrepreneurs. The winning proposal is one of six awarded regionally as part of a three-year, $2 million program. First Look West (FLoW) will also include Chapman University, the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego, energy company OnGreen, Inc. and student leaders from campus groups to introduce research and innovation to investors. FLoW will engage student groups in all aspects of the business plan competition, from creating, managing and participating in the competition to potentially screening and assessing future opportunities.

USC Represented at LA Cleantech Incubator Launch
Six professors from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering represented USC at the LA Cleantech Incubator Launch early this month. The Cleantech Incubator Launch was created to accelerate the development of cleantech start-ups and to help build a stronger green economy in Los Angeles. Find out more about the LA CleanTech Incubator Launch here.

USC Student Wins Biggest Scholarship in Science and Engineering
Simca Bouma, a USC senior majoring in mathematics and physics, won the Astronaut Scholarship, the biggest monetary award given in the United States to science and engineering undergraduates merely on merit. Simca was presented with the award by USC alumus and US Astronaut Hall of Fame inductee, Jerry Carr.

USC Dornsife Professor Nominated as Candidate for the Nobel Prize
Richard Easterlin of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Scienes is a candidate for the Nobel Prize based on his economics of happiness. Easterlin is a pioneer in this new type of economics, having discovered what is known as the "Easterlin paradox," that when examined over a period of time an increase in income does not bring an increase in happiness.

Obama Administration Announced Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge Winners
The Obama administration announced the winners of the $37 million Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, a multi-agency competition launched in May to support the advancement of 20 high-growth regional industry clusters. These partnerships are expected to create more than 4,800 jobs and 300 new businesses. Learn more here.

Research at USC Studies the Competitve Natures of Groups
Giorgio Coricelli of the USC Dornsife College featured his research which monitored brain activitiy as test subjects won and lost lotteries. The research showed more activity when a subject beat a peer than when they won on their own, showing that social reasoning causes people to take more risks when in groups and fewer when alone.

Keep Up With TEDxUSC

TWO MORE TEDxUSC TALKS AVAILABLE NOW!

Dale Dougherty - Do-it-Yourself
Make is one of the simplest verbs. Dale Dougherty, the editor and publisher of MAKE magazine, demonstrates just how basic creations can be and encourages the viewers to "do-it-yourself" by walking them through basic innovations. Watch Dales' talk from TEDxUSC here.

Andrew McGregor - Citizen Journalism
Andrew McGregor talks about his not-for-profit The Tiziano Project, which brings teachers into developing countries to teach citizens basic journalism skills. The Tiziano Project has encouraged these people to become reporters for news sources such as Reuters and share their stories from a grassroots level. The Tiziano Project was recently awarded the 2011 Online Journalism Award for Community Collaboration. Watch the video here.

USC Alum's Tiziano Project Chosen Over CNN and NPR For Excellence Community Collaboration
The Tiziano Project, started by USC Alum Andrew McGregor, won the 2011 Online Journalism Award for "Community Collaboration," over CNN Digital and NPR's Andy Carvin. The Tiziano Project is an all-volunteer organization that strives to develop and encourage collaborative journalism on a global scale. Learn more about the Tiziano Project here.

TEDxUSC 2011 Speaker Selected as TEDxTalks Editor's Pick
Jose Antonio Rosa, who presented in TEDxUSC 2011, was selected as one of the TEDxTalks Editor's Pick for a week. Rosa explains his experiences living with communities that live on less than $2 a day and the innovative practices these communities use to survive. Watch the video here.

TEDxManhattan Beach "Transforming Learning" October 22
TEDxMB will host a conference on "Transforming Learning" to explore the future, explain the need for installing updated laboratories in middle schools, and present the case for a hybrid high school that is open 7 days a week. There will also be sixteen breakout activities focused on innovative ideas in education. Buy your tickets here.

TEDxLAMiracleMile "Fabric As a Medium For Beauty" October 22
TEDxLAMiracleMile will take place in Venice, CA on October 22. It will examine the way we express beauty in different ways, through different fabrics. Click here for tickets

TEDxSummit to Take Place in Qatar in April
TEDxWWW is now TEDxSummit, a week-long event exclusively for TEDx Organizers, and will take place April 16-20, 2012 in Doha, Qatar. TEDxSummit will consist of workshops, TEDTalks, brainstorming, special events, collaborative projects and more! Learn more here.

Innovator Opportunities

Innovation Events

Below is a selection of grants and other opportunities for USC innovators. To find more programs, check out: http://stevens.usc.edu/be_opportunities.php

2011 USC Student Innovator Showcase - Call for Applications Open Deadline to Apply - October 16 at 11:59PM
Experience cutting-edge innovation at the 2011 USC Student Innovator Showcase and Competition! Hosted each year on the opening day of Trojan Family Weekend, this celebration of creativity gives parents and students alike a highly interactive glimpse into the imaginations of USC student innovators and a sneak peak at tomorrow's world. Apply today!

Kauffman Foundation Expands Global Scholars Program Deadline Oct 17
Do you have an innovative business idea in a science, technology or engineering field? The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is expanding its Global Scholars Program to include up to 10 recent graduates from US colleges and universities. Apply here!

For more innovation events, check out the USC Stevens' event calendar: http://stevens.usc.edu/calendar.php

CRUNCH Workshop October 13
CRUNCH workshops, hosted by the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, are collaborative, interactive, and fun events designed to inspire you! This month's CRUNCH workshop is "Buring the Midnight Oil." Learn how to develop in iOS for iPhone and iPad apps. Find out more about CRUNCH here.

Los Angeles Premeire of Short Film Written and Directed By USC Alumnus October 16
USC alumnus Andrew McGregor is premiering the short film "Playing with Dolls," that he wrote and directed, at the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood. Join the cast and crew, including Daniel Franzese of "Mean Girls, for a BBQ and film festivity! "Mean Girls" and "Bully" will also be screened.

LES 2011 Annual Meeting October 16-19
The Licensing Executive Society will host their annual event at the Grand Hyatt in San Diego to exchange best practices and hands-on experience with thought leaders and professionals. Over 1,000 intellectual property, licensing, strategy, technology transfer and business development professionals will attend from all industries to discuss LES's 2011 theme of creating opportunities in turbulent business and legal environments.

The Atlantic Meets the Pacific: At the Horizon of Technology, Energy and Health October 17-19
This three-day forum in La Jolla at the Scripps Seaside Forum focuses on cutting-edge ideas shaping our future with a special emphasis on three topic terrains: technology in the globalizing world, energy, and health. The event features interaction between business and thought leaders, exclusive visits to groundbreaking research labs and interactive laboratories at the Salk Institute, the Scripps Research Institute, the Sanford-Burnham Institute, UC San Diego's Moores Cancer Center, and new media and science centers at CalIT2 and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. To register, click here.

Mindshare Los Angeles Movie Screening October 26
Join Mindshare LA for a screening of Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place by Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood. The film will reveal real life footage of Ken Kesey's legendary cross-country trip on the Magic Bus in 1964, which inspired the novel The Eclectic Kool-Aid Acid Trip by Tom Wolfe.

USC Student Innovator Showcase October 28
The annual USC Student Innovator Showcase, hosted by the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, demonstrates the creative thinking and pragmatic solutions to everyday issues that students are creating at USC. The showcase has featured students from 16 different schools at USC, from cinematic arts to engineering. Find out more about the USC Student Innovator Showcase here.

Sustainability & the Global Clean-Tech November 3
Join the Los Angeles World Affairs Council Young Professionals in a riveting panel discussion with many of clean tech industry's leaders. Sarah Backhouse, the TV host of Future 360, will moderate the event. Find out more and purchase tickets here.

Apply Now for Trojan Hack – The First 24 Hour Hackathon At USC February 4
Students from any university in the Los Angeles area can team up and compete to see which school really has the best programmers and entrepreneurs at the first ever Trojan Hackathon! The event is hosted by the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation. Find out more here.

Featured Innovators

USC Stevens Ideas Empowered Member Selected by Innovator Corps
Ellis Meng of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering was selected as one of 21 teams by the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps to receive $50,000 to assess the commercial readiness of their technology concepts. Meng's research focuses on "Establishing an innovation ecosystem for technology transition of MEMS-based drug infusion pumps." Meng was a member of the Class of 2010 of the Ideas Empowered program by the USC Stevens Institute of Innovation. Learn more about Ellis Meng here.

USC Alumnus Launches MyCourthouse
USC Gould alumnus, Mitch Spierer, is launching MyCourthouse, a professional network for law schools & students. MyCourthouse provides a number of tools specifically for the legal profession – document sharing, event scheduling, and secure messaging – so that law students can leverage the benefits of social networking in a professional environment with tools made specifically for them. Learn more about MyCourthouse here.