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So far Doug Neal has created 208 blog entries.

MemryX Inc. Closes Series A Financing and Prepares to Transform AI and Edge Applications

Ann Arbor, Michigan May 12th, 2021 – MemryX Inc. announced it has raised Series A funding to further develop novel, in-memory chips to enable AI applications in edge devices. The company now plans to scale the commercialization of its patented Memory Processing Unit (MPU) architecture and sample product-level chips to leading OEMs across the automotive, edge-compute, [...]

By |2021-06-25T09:25:07-05:00June 25th, 2021|

Voxel51 & Google Collaborate to Make Downloading & Visualizing Open Images A Breeze

Ann Arbor, MI - Voxel51 today announced a collaboration with Google to support Google’s Open Images Dataset, one of the largest visual datasets in the world used by AI researchers and the machine learning community for common object detection and other computer vision tasks. Through the collaboration, Open Images users will gain access to Voxel51’s free, open source [...]

By |2021-06-25T09:23:52-05:00June 25th, 2021|

Strata Oncology Appoints Former Abbott Executive Mark Szewczyk as Chief Commercial Officer

ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 10, 2021 – Strata Oncology, Inc., a precision oncology company advancing molecular indications for cancer therapies, today announced that it has appointed healthcare and molecular diagnostics veteran and former Abbott executive Mark Szewczyk as Chief Commercial Officer. The addition of Szewczyk is the latest in a series of strategic appointments bolstering Strata [...]

By |2021-06-25T09:06:13-05:00June 25th, 2021|

Essex Furukawa Chooses Sight Machine for Digital Transformation of EV Component Plants in China, U.S. and Germany

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Essex Furukawa, the world's largest manufacturer of the magnet wire/winding wire that powers motors, including for electric vehicles (EVs), has selected Sight Machine Inc. as the manufacturing productivity platform for its plants in China, the United States and Germany, Sight Machine announced today. The agreement extends the digital transformation initiative begun at Essex Furukawa's [...]

By |2021-06-25T09:00:25-05:00June 25th, 2021|

Rachio Names Kim Sentovich as Chief Executive Officer

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 24, 2021-- Rachio, the industry leading efficient watering company, has today announced the recent appointment of Kim Sentovich as Chief Executive Officer. She joins the company amidst a record year of growth in 2020, which saw a major uptick in sales, and continued momentum into 2021 with the ongoing focus on the home. [...]

By |2021-06-25T08:53:18-05:00June 25th, 2021|

Cobalt Announces Launch of Partner Program On Heels of 75% YoY ARR Growth

Cobalt, the leading Pentest as a Service (PtaaS) company that’s modernizing the traditional, static penetration testing mode, today announced the launch of its Partner Program. The program comes amid massive customer demand as organizations realize the need for an optimized and streamlined pentesting experience. With the launch of the Cobalt Partner Program, the company’s goal [...]

By |2021-06-25T08:50:24-05:00June 25th, 2021|

Akadeum & NanoCellect Collaborating to Improve Rare-Cell Workflows and Results

ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Akadeum Life Sciences, Inc., creators of a next generation floatation-based isolation platform, and NanoCellect Biomedical, Inc., a leader in the development and manufacturing of innovative and simple solutions for cell sorting, today jointly announced a new collaboration to improve rare-cell workflows. From single cell genomics to antibody discovery, researchers increasingly [...]

By |2021-06-25T08:41:22-05:00June 25th, 2021|

Delivery startup Refraction AI raises $4.2M to expand service areas

Refraction AI, a company developing semi-autonomous delivery robots, today announced that it raised $4.2 million in seed funding led by Pillar VC. Refraction says that the proceeds will be used for customer acquisition, geographic expansion, and product development well into the next year. The worsening COVID-19 health crisis in much of the U.S. seems likely [...]

By |2021-03-08T20:20:07-05:00March 8th, 2021|

observIQ’s (formerly Blue Medora) Stanza Log Agent Now a Part of OpenTelemetry Project

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--observIQ, a provider of next-generation observability solutions for ITOps and DevOps teams, today announced that its open source log agent Stanza is now part of the OpenTelemetry Project as the key component for log collection. observIQ’s Stanza Log Agent Now a Part of OpenTelemetry Project #observIQ #OpenTelemetryTweet this Since its inception in 2020, observIQ’s [...]

By |2021-01-28T09:27:45-05:00January 28th, 2021|

The future is bright for autonomous delivery, says Refraction AI CEO

Despite the precariousness of 2020, one thing is certain as we look to the future: Autonomous delivery will become an integral part of our world. This massive potential is evident on both a global and national scale — there have been 195 deployments of social robots worldwide in response to the pandemic. The U.S. has seen a 20% [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:49-05:00January 27th, 2021|

Traxen AI-based iQ-Cruise delivers average of 10% fuel savings for heavy trucks

Traxen, a metro Detroit-based technology, launched its intelligent adaptive cruise control system, iQ-Cruise, for traditional and electric commercial vehicles. The system will be available to both commercial vehicle aftermarket and OE customers. Through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), advanced algorithms and sensors, iQ-Cruise can reduce fuel consumption by an average of 10% while improving safety, drivability [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:50-05:00January 27th, 2021|

Strata Oncology Announces Personalized Recurrence Monitoring Trial

Study to Evaluate Strata's Ability to Detect Tumor Recurrence using Liquid Biopsy and Monitor Treatment Effectiveness for Patients with Early-Stage Solid Tumors ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Strata Oncology, Inc., a precision oncology company advancing molecular indications for cancer therapies, today announced plans to begin enrolling the Sentinel Trial in the first half of 2021. [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:50-05:00January 27th, 2021|

Aperia Technologies Wins Prestigious Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Excellence Award

BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded its 2020 Clean Air Excellence Award for Transportation Efficiency Innovations to Aperia Technologies, a leading supplier of efficiency and safety-enhancing tire management technologies to the commercial trucking industry, for the Halo Tire Inflator. This is the EPA’s highest national award to honor a project for [...]

By |2021-01-12T17:03:55-05:00January 12th, 2021|

Strata Oncology Announces Medicare Coverage of StrataNGS Comprehensive Genomic Profiling Test for Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors

Ann Arbor, Mich. October 27, 2020 — Strata Oncology, Inc., a precision oncology company advancing molecular indications for cancer therapies, today announced that Palmetto GBA, a Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC), has established coverage of the StrataNGSTM test for patients with advanced stages (III or IV), recurrent, relapsed, refractory, and/ or metastatic solid tumors. StrataNGSTM is a comprehensive [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:50-05:00October 31st, 2020|

The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Become a Catalyst for Cyberattacks

Caroline Wong (@CarolineWMWong), CIO of Cobalt, said that if key security projects were delayed or canceled to make room for critical projects that would enable a distributed workforce to work more securely (for example, VPN implementation or training on how to set up a secure home WiFi network), “then it could be a positive change, [...]

By |2020-10-31T16:21:01-05:00October 31st, 2020|

New CEO of Ann Arbor’s Clinc looks to scale, ‘write the next chapter’ for company

ANN ARBOR – Tech veteran Jon Newhard joined conversational AI startup Clinc in July, five months after the company’s co-founder and former CEO Jason Mars stepped down over allegations of sexual harassment, verbal abuse and inappropriate conduct. After Mars' exit gained national attention and the University of Michigan suspended its recruiting relationship with the company, many were [...]

By |2020-10-31T16:15:56-05:00October 31st, 2020|

observIQ (formerly Blue Medora) Launches Powerful New Full Stack Log Management Platform

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Sept. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- observIQ, a global leader of open source observability solutions for DevOps and ITOps, announces that it has launched a beta program for its new SaaS-based log management platform called observIQ Cloud. observIQ Cloud allows customers to seamlessly monitor multi and hybrid cloud environments at enterprise scale. [...]

By |2020-10-31T16:14:25-05:00October 31st, 2020|

Akadeum is a semi-finalist in the XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing competition

Akadeum is pleased to announce that we are a semi-finalist in the XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing competition. We have recently expanded our microbubble platform by functionalizing our revolutionary buoyancy-activated separation technology for RNA isolation in saliva samples. Our goal is to create a workflow that allows for quick and easy RNA extraction in larger volume [...]

By |2020-10-29T15:00:04-05:00October 29th, 2020|

Voxel51 Computer Vision tells us how the presidential candidates really feel

The presidential and vice-presidential debates over the last few weeks have been…. interesting. I think we can all agree that they have been some of the most heated debates yet. The presidential debate quickly turned into emotional arguments that you could clearly see in the faces of the candidates. Image by Author: Using FiftyOne to visualize distributions [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:50-05:00October 27th, 2020|

Mobility veteran joins Ann Arbor’s Refraction AI as new CEO

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Mobility industry veteran Luke Schneider has been named as the new chief executive officer of Ann Arbor-based Refraction AI. The tech startup is known for its small REV-1 , delivery robots that scuttle around Tree Town taking food and groceries to community members. Schneider has had over 25 years of experience in [...]

By |2020-10-16T09:24:58-05:00October 16th, 2020|

Traxen offers Smarter Adaptive Cruise for Truck Fleets

Like many automotive engineers, Ali Maleki has had to temper his expectations for autonomous vehicles in recent years. He once thought the technology would be available by this time. Now Maleki doesn’t expect widescale deployment until about 2030. But he still recognizes the potential convenience, safety and environmental benefits. And he’s doing something about it. [...]

By |2020-10-21T09:37:36-05:00October 14th, 2020|

Traxen Strengthens Board of Directors with Appointment of Petrovich to Chairman, Gryzenia as Advisor

PLYMOUTH, Michigan, Sept. 17, 2020 – Seasoned automotive business leader Mary Petrovich has joined the Traxen Board of Directors as chairman to support the start-up company in its mission to lead the trucking technology market rapidly into the future. In addition to Petrovich’s appointment to the board, Bill Gryzenia, an accomplished automotive industry veteran, has [...]

By |2020-09-23T12:29:55-05:00September 23rd, 2020|

Voxel51 Releases Computer Vision Industry’s First Open-Source Rapid Data Experimentation Tool

Ann Arbor startup and TechDisrupt 2019 AI top pick Voxel51 just announced that it has just launched a new tool called FiftyOne, the computer vision industry’s first open-source tool for experimenting with and cleaning image and video data for machine learning. Engineers working with machine learning for image and video data sets have a new way of [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:50-05:00September 21st, 2020|

Cobalt raises $29 million to bring its ‘pentest as a service’ platform to more software teams

Cobalt.io, a “pentest-as-a-service” platform that lets any business access ethical hackers to stress-test their software, has raised $29 million in a series B round of funding led by Highland Europe. Penetration testing, or “pentesting,” is a process that strives to identify vulnerabilities and exploit them as a real-world hacker might. The pentesting market is currently [...]

By |2020-08-21T12:31:05-05:00August 21st, 2020|

Voxel51 technology helps retailers and shoppers maintain social distancing

The restart is underway, and as stores reopen, retailers must ensure customers and employees maintain adequate social distancing. To help track and manage those efforts, startup Voxel51’s platform can monitor in-store traffic and identify when locations are busy. The company’s metric, referred to as the physical distancing index, uses video feeds and computer vision modeling to [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:50-05:00July 29th, 2020|

Refraction Sees Demand For Autonomous Delivery Robots Rises As Pandemic Continues

From Michigan to Tokyo, the coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in demand for contactless delivery robots. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, lunch orders for Refraction AI’s last-mile REV-1 autonomous delivery robot have jumped by up to four-fold since the health crisis began. The company, which started operations in July 2019, created the robot for [...]

By |2020-07-29T11:57:40-05:00July 29th, 2020|

Strata Oncology Announces Partnership with BioMed Valley Discoveries to Accelerate Enrollment in ERK Inhibitor Study

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Strata Oncology, Inc. , a precision oncology company advancing molecular indications for cancer therapies, today announced it has signed an agreement with BioMed Valley Discoveries Inc.. to accelerate patient identification and enrollment for BioMed Valley's Phase 2 study of BVD-523 (ulixertinib) for patients with advanced malignancies harboring MEK or atypical BRAF alterations [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:51-05:00July 29th, 2020|

Cobalt helps Organizations Conduct App Penetration Tests More Frequently – and Broadly

In an encouraging sign for application security, enterprise organizations are conducting penetration tests more frequently and more broadly than before, data from a new Cobalt.io study suggests. Unlike in the past where regulatory and other compliance mandates used to be the primary driver for these tests, organizations are now conducting them more to proactively detect [...]

By |2020-07-29T11:49:03-05:00July 29th, 2020|

Clinc, Visa Partner Over Virtual Assistant, Conversational AI Banking Experience

Ann Arbor, Michigan based Clinc, a provider of conversational artificial intelligence technologies, formally announced a partnership with Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), extending its AI banking experience to financial institutions and banking customers around the world. “Our goal has always remained the same - to create technology that makes people’s lives easier,” said Lingjia Tang, Clinc co-founder and interim [...]

By |2020-07-29T11:46:25-05:00July 29th, 2020|

Akadeum Is Joining the Fight Against COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted a need for fast and accurate methods for identifying RNA viruses through nucleic acid capture and detection. Akadeum Life Sciences is up to the challenge. In a relatively short time, the coronavirus pandemic has spread across the globe. This novel virus was first noted in Wuhan, China in December 2019 [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:51-05:00July 29th, 2020|

Blue Medora Launches observIQ

New Strategy Provides Disruptive Open Source Observability Solutions for DevOps and ITOps GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., July 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- observIQ, a global leader of open source observability solutions for DevOps and ITOps, is being unveiled today. Blue Medora is launching this new brand after VMware’s acquisition of its True Visibility Suite team and [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:51-05:00July 22nd, 2020|

Sight Machine Named to the 2020 Global Cleantech 100

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 17, 2020—Sight Machine Inc., which revolutionizes manufacturing operations to achieve continuous breakthroughs in productivity, profitability and sustainability, was named a 2020 Global Cleantech 100 company by Cleantech Group. The 2020 Global Cleantech 100 is the 11th edition of the annual guide to the leading companies and themes in sustainable innovation. It features the private, independent and [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:51-05:00April 30th, 2020|

Rachio Wants You To Ditch The Fertilizer To Build A Better Lawn

First, Rachio set out to help your lawn, and the planet, by creating a sprinkler controller that uses weather data to keep you from watering when you don't need to. Now they're back to apply that same "think globally, act locally" attitude towards keeping your lawn greener with Lawn Champion, the first product in the [...]

By |2020-04-30T11:14:37-05:00April 30th, 2020|

Cobalt Delivers Fast Application Security Pentesting as a Service for Actionable Results in Real Time

Security pentesting can be a slow, often expensive process for software companies. And the results often show where a product stands at a moment in time, not as a dynamic entity. Companies traditionally approach pentesting in two ways. The first is to hire in-house pentesters, an option large banks often choose. But that can be [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:51-05:00April 30th, 2020|

Aperia Help Fleets Move Toward Predictive Maintenance to Prevent Breakdowns, Reduce Expenses

...Predictive maintenance is even starting to appear for tires. Aperia’s wheel-mounted Halo tire inflation system automatically adds air when a tire drops below the recommended pressure. About six years ago, Aperia added sensors to demonstrate the product was working, which led to its telematics product, Halo Connect. Judith Monte, Aperia’s vice president of marketing and [...]

By |2020-04-30T11:09:42-05:00April 30th, 2020|

Voxel51 Releases COVID-19 Physical Distancing Impact Trend Analysis Tool

Ann Arbor’s Voxel51, which offers advanced machine learning tools to analyze video, has just released a tool that looks at the social impact of physical distancing from the COVID-19 epidemic. They’re calling it PDI, or Physical Distancing Index. The data can be used in a number of ways to look at the results of social distancing orders [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:52-05:00April 15th, 2020|

Robot Deliveries Might End Up Being Common, Post-Coronavirus Pandemic

While the Wuhan district in China was under quarantine, news surfaced of robots delivering food and, later, medical supplies. Meanwhile, in the United States, the French company NAVYA configured its autonomous passenger shuttles in Florida to transport COVID-19 tests to the Mayo Clinic from off-site test locations. As the weeks of stay-at-home orders and recommendations slip into months, the [...]

By |2020-04-15T12:11:45-05:00April 15th, 2020|

Cobalt.io pentesting service brings wizard-like setup to platform

Cobalt.io wants to change the way companies purchase and pay for pentesting services, which test an application for vulnerabilities before it goes live. Today, the company announced a number of enhancements to the platform. Jacob Hansen, CEO and co-founder at Cobalt, says the pentesting business typically involves an expensive and time-consuming exercise, which culminates with the [...]

By |2020-03-12T08:14:43-05:00March 12th, 2020|

Inside Voxel51: AI video analytics startup founded by U-M professor, student

Voxel51 CEO Jason Corso teaches computer vision at the University of Michigan. CTO Brian Moore was his student when he was doing his Ph.D. in machine learning, and after some brainstorming, the two decided to combine their skills and build an AI video analytics platform. "We're focused on the next frontier, which is video where [...]

By |2019-12-27T13:26:39-05:00December 27th, 2019|

The 2019 State of Pentesting: Cobalt.io Shares Critical Lessons from 1400+ Pentests

SAN FRANCISCO, July 11, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Security thought leaders Caroline Wong and Joe Sechman released a new report this week, The State of Pentesting. Data for this report was gathered from over 150 survey respondents as well as 1400+ pentests performed over the past three years on Cobalt.io's Pentest as a Service platform. From this research, Wong and Sechman noticed [...]

By |2019-12-27T13:23:31-05:00December 27th, 2019|

BlueMedora Partnership with New Relic Logs Expands Observability with BindPlane

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. – Oct 14, 2019 – IT monitoring integration innovator, Blue Medora, today announced early access availability of over 50 log source integrations, dramatically simplified deployment options, fully-managed log agent, and 24/7 customer support for New Relic customers through BindPlane, its Monitoring Integration as a Service (MIaaS) solution. Helping New Relic customers properly configure and [...]

By |2019-12-27T13:18:33-05:00December 27th, 2019|

Aperia Announces Enhancement to Halo Product

ATLANTA — The expansion of Halo Connect, an analytics platform focusing on predictive tire maintenance, was announced by Aperia Technologies Inc. at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show. The platform features precise vehicle location and service insights, along with tire tread depth and replacement tracking. “Following a successful limited-quantity release with some of the industry’s [...]

By |2019-12-27T13:15:30-05:00December 27th, 2019|

Akadeum Announces First Closing of Series A Financing Round

Akadeum Life Sciences, Inc. announced an initial close of its Series A financing. The company is pursuing additional investment before final close during Q1 2020. These funds will enable Akadeum to focus its commercial adoption on how to solve longstanding problems in sample preparation. The investment includes several Michigan-based angel groups in addition to venture [...]

By |2019-12-27T13:06:53-05:00December 27th, 2019|

Last Mile Robot Launches Snowy Pilot In Quest To Own Food Delivery Market

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. The postal creed dates back to Ancient Greece and perhaps foretells the next chapter of ecommerce as Refraction AI robots take to the snowy streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan to pilot their online food delivery service.  [...]

By |2019-12-18T10:56:47-05:00December 18th, 2019|

Refraction AI tests new Delivery Robots in Ann Arbor

Refraction AI tests new Delivery Robots in Ann ArborOne of the autonomous delivery robots created and currently being tested by Refraction AI sits downtown Ann Arbor, Wednesday Oct. 30, 2019. Refraction AI tests new Delivery Robots in Ann ArborMatthew Johnson-Roberson cofounder and CEO at Refraction AI sits next to one of the autonomous delivery robots [...]

By |2019-11-04T12:47:28-05:00November 4th, 2019|

Akadeum and Agilent Team Up to Explore New Testing Workflow

Akadeum Life Sciences, Inc., an Ann Arbor-based biotechnology company, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration with Agilent Technologies, Inc. to work toward a new method of isolating target molecules for detection. Akadeum aims to disrupt the status quo in isolation technology with their buoyant microbubbles. Notably, Akadeum is the first company to [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:52-05:00October 31st, 2019|

Alexa, You’re Fired: Why Conversational AI Startup Clinc Is Bulldozing The Competition

Just a few months ago, industry-disrupting conversational AI startup Clinc, which is rolling out an automotive application of their voice-interface software in 2021, was filling the top floor of tech and startup co-working space Cahoots and filling an office in Kerrytown. Now the conversational AI research startup is expanding into a third location in Ann [...]

By |2019-10-07T11:40:28-05:00October 7th, 2019|

MemryX develops first programmable memristor computer which aims to bring AI processing down from the cloud

ANN ARBOR—The first programmable memristor computer—not just a memristor array operated through an external computer—has been developed at the University of Michigan. It could lead to the processing of artificial intelligence directly on small, energy-constrained devices such as smartphones and sensors. A smartphone AI processor would mean that voice commands would no longer have to [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:52-05:00August 9th, 2019|

Voxel51 raises $2 million for its video-native identification of people, cars and more

Many companies and municipalities are saddled with hundreds or thousands of hours of video and limited ways to turn it into usable data. Voxel51 offers a machine learning-based option that chews through video and labels it, not just with simple image recognition but with an understanding of motions and objects over time. Annotating video is an important [...]

By |2021-02-06T14:48:52-05:00August 9th, 2019|

Aperia Helps Fleets Choose Tire Inflation, Monitoring Systems That Work Best for Their Operations, Industry Representatives Say

Blown-out, flat or damaged tires are considered by fleets to be at least a leading cause of roadside maintenance calls for commercial trucks, while underinflated tires are the single-biggest source of tire issues in general. To help prevent these tire-related maintenance and safety problems, technology suppliers have introduced a variety of automatic tire inflation systems, [...]

By |2019-08-02T10:12:23-05:00August 2nd, 2019|
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