Singularity University, the technology think tank and incubator, on Wednesday announced a new accelerator program that aims to push technologies out of research facilities and into the real world.

SU Labs Accelerator’s portfolio boasts companies whose ambitious goals range from restoring vision to the blind to deploying lithium-ion power to schools in the developing world. Such lofty aspirations are normally the purview of storied academic institutions, but Singularity, which is not an accredited University, is uniquely positioned to achieve this as a cross between a think tank and a teaching institute.

Image: http://techcrunch.com

September 30, 2015, marks the 26th year we close our books at T3 and end another fiscal year. As entrepreneurs, we can relate to the significance of making it through the trials and tribulations of more than a quarter of a century. However, each year we stop and bow to traditions that include big pats on the back, career development training and a good bit of celebrating. For T3, it means bringing all of our teams together from our four offices. We remind everyone of our achievements, and this year, the 747 projects completed for our wonderful clients. I stand back in awe of a very young team of amazingly talented marketing professionals that allow me the honor of being their CEO.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gaygaddis/2015/09/30/marines-remind-us-of-how-important-it-is-to-commemorate-greatness/

Image: http://www.forbes.com

These days, colleges and universities are designing programs specifically for undergrads eager to learn how to launch companies—in fact, classes teaching startup skills are in demand and becoming a must-have for any school worth its salt.

According to Scott Petersen, managing director for Brigham Young University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, students today are thinking about life after graduation, and feel entrepreneurship skills will assist them in whatever careers they pursue.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/09/30/what-college-kids-need-to-know-about-entrepreneurship-now/

Image: Ryan Tyler Smith on Flickr

Of course, becoming an entrepreneur isn’t that simple. It takes a perfect combination of drive, innovation and opportunity to start a business. If you feel you have those three, it may be something else that’s holding you back. You haven’t found your ‘passion’

Not only is ‘follow your passion’ really bad career advice, it’s also a potential stopping point on your journey to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are supposed to be driven individuals who won’t be swayed from one true passion. If that’s true, how do you explain Richard Branson or Elon Musk? Two very successful entrepreneurs who have had success in a variety of industries.

BEFORE WAZE, THE popular GPS-based traffic and navigation app, drivers simply hoped for the best when they got into their car. Travelers had no easy way to know if they were about to hit a traffic jam on their way to a doctor’s appointment or find their normal route home closed for construction. Born out of a community-based project in Israel, Waze fundamentally changed how people get from Point A to Point B by allowing users to share real-time information about everything from traffic patterns to potholes to road construction, helping other users navigate these hazards. Never before have people been able to share and access real-time traffic and map information all in one place, with just a few clicks.

An experimental new dashboard computer can not only keep track of your behavior behind the wheel, but even predict what you’re about to do next.

With the vast majority of road accidents resulting from driver error, and distraction a growing problem thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones, carmakers are increasingly exploring ways to track driver behavior behind the wheel. Volvo, GM, and others are already testing systems that will monitor head and eye positions to pick up on signs of distraction.

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com

Most of my life as a philosopher has been really good. I had an excellent time as a graduate student. And my first five years teaching at a liberal-arts college in a Midwestern city were amazing. I had good students, I developed my skills as a teacher, and I explored all that the city had to offer with some very good friends.

It is a generational rite: complaining about “kids these days” and their habits and proclivities, grousing about the world they’re growing up in, and romanticizing generations past who were “perfect in every way.” Parents in the 1960s were horrified by their children’s risqué Elvis Presley-style dance moves and loud rock n’ roll (as portrayed in the musical, Bye Bye Birdie). When the baby boomers grew up, they derided Generation X as the MTV Generation, a bunch of lazy disaffected slackers. As Gen Xers settle into middle age, they moan about the millennials (or Generation Y): entitled products of helicopter parenting and an ‘everybody-gets-a-trophy’ ethos.

Peidong Yang, a chemist who is building nanowires into commercial applications—such as devices that generate fuel from solar energy, or convert waste heat into electricity—is one of nine US scientists and social scientists to win a so-called ‘genius grant’ this year from the philanthropic MacArthur Foundation, based in Chicago, Illinois.

Image: Peidong Yang is an inorganic chemist transforming the field of semiconductor nanowires and nanowire photonics and enabling wide-ranging practical applications. Credit: John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, CC- BY

Earlier this year, Wisconsin's job creation rate fell to a rank of 38th nationally. Wisconsin has consistently fallen behind the national rate of job creation since July 2011, making it a critical issue for our economy and the well-being of our community.

Congress is currently debating the Innovators Job Creation Act, which would permanently allow qualified small businesses tax credits for incurring research and development costs. Making the tax credits a permanent part of the national tax system would allow businesses to put a greater emphasis on research and development, becoming a driving force for American innovation without the uncertainty that comes with tax credits that change and expire every few years.

The U.S. health care system is one in which price gouging is completely legal and cost inflation is out of control. According to a recent study from the Institute of Medicine, 30% of U.S. health care bills are waste, and if food-price inflation since 1945 matched that of health care, today we would be paying $55 for a dozen eggs. New doctors enter systems where financial incentives are in treating people as needed rather than keeping them healthy, and where legacy programs have no good reason to change.

Harrisvaccines, housed in the ISU Research Park, is helping fight avian influenza and its work has recently been recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Harrisvaccines has been granted a conditional license from the USDA for the company’s avian influenza vaccine. This is the first conditional license for the avian influenza that has killed more than 48 million birds since the spring of 2015.

If building a company were like planning a wedding, customer service is frequently the second cousin who’s invited when slots open up on the attendee list. Many believe that it's not as critical to success as sales and product development. The reality is that customer care is your most direct line to customers and has the power to define your brand. Users equate its voice with your company’s voice. At peak times, it represents your organization up to 60 times an hour — literally every minute. Christa Collins, ShopKeep's VP of Customer Care understands this value; if her experience stands for anything, it’s that customer care is a vital early priority.

“We are Commerce.”

You’re going to see those three simple words from us a lot in the coming weeks. We are Commerce.

We are marking our transition to the Department of Commerce from the Department of Business and Economic Development today, but this isn’t just about some fresh letterhead and a new logo. (Check it out, it’s really sharp.) This is a cause for some excitement. Our move to Commerce is rooted in a sentiment that has long been pervasive through Maryland’s business community — we can be better. We should be better. We’d better be better if we’re going to compete in the 21st Century.

Image: Mike Gill is the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Commerce.

Crowdfunding exploded in 2014, with $16Bin funds raised across hundreds of platforms. But according to Richard Swart,one of the top thought leaders in crowdfunding and alternative finance, 2014 was merely the tip of a massive crowdfunding iceberg that’s forecasted to swell to $300B in funds raised by 2020. While crowdfunding picks up momentum in general, equity crowdfunding, which allows private companies to raise funds online in exchange for equity, is the fastest growing category in particular. Until recently, only public companies with extensive operating histories and millions of dollars in revenue could raise capital from the public. Private investing was an opaque, exclusive club that included only institutional investors or ultra-high net-worth individuals.

“We have to disrupt ourselves before the market does.” It’s not an uncommon mandate today. Established enterprises need to innovate to keep pace with the more nimble, smaller startups. Perhaps no approach has captured the imagination of big companies yearning to get more nimble than the lean startup method: quickly building and launching minimum viable products — MVPs — and then iterating and pivoting based on market feedback.

When we try to define what a “digital organization” is, what first comes to mind are technological devices: employees toting laptops, permanently connected to a shared, real-time flow of information on virtual platforms, constantly communicating with customers or suppliers – people working from anywhere, with others they have never met in person.

We’ve all said things that people interpreted much differently than we thought they would. These seemingly benign comments lead to the awful feeling that only comes when you’ve planted your foot firmly into your mouth.

Verbal slip-ups often occur because we say things without knowledge of the subtle implications they carry. Understanding these implications requires social awareness—the ability to pick up on the emotions and experiences of other people.

Entrepreneurship has recently become a sexy and trendy topic. The media glorifies the startup unicorns that hit big and TV shows like Shark Tank have introduced the entire world to entrepreneurs, leaving many people asking themselves, “Can I be one?”

A Pew Center report tied to the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which literally changed the face of immigrants to the United States, projects that if immigration trends continue as they are, by 2065, the U.S. will have 78 million immigrants.

Image: Small businesses line Bagley Avenue in the Mexicantown neighborhood of Southwest Detroit, Michigan. Photographer: Bryan Mitchell/Bloomberg