3/5/2012
Students and faculty of the University and members of the Champaign-Urbana community came together Thursday night to celebrate and award creative ideas and implementation. The...
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By: Lyndsey Taylor
Students and faculty of the University and members of the Champaign-Urbana community came together Thursday night to celebrate and award creative ideas and implementation.
The seventh annual Innovation Celebration (IC) was held at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
Guest speakers included University of Illinois Vice President and Chancellor Phyllis Wise, previous Entrepreneurial Excellence in Management award winner Lori Gold Patterson, and Director of the University of Illinois Research Park, Laura Frerichs, was master of ceremonies for the evening.
Ten awards were given to individuals or groups who have made an impact in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Wise presented the Innovation Discovery Award and said she is very “impressed with this year’s nominees.”
“I think the awards are important not only to the people who get them, but to the others who were finalists and who realize that they’re amongst great people and might win next year,” Wise said.
“I have to say that this whole concept of entrepreneurship as a regular college education is a new discovery for me,” she said.
As the University has an abundance of entrepreneurs and innovators, Wise said “we can teach” discovery to students and make it a part of their education.
Scott Daigle (Founder and CEO) and Marissa Siebel (Co-founder) of IntelliWheels, Inc. garnered this year’s social entrepreneurship award. Daigle and Josh George, Vice President of Public Relations for IntelliWheels accepted the award, as well as a virtual Siebel via Skype on Daigle’s iPad.
“It’s a huge honor to see this kind of recognition from the entrepreneurial community,” Daigle said. “We’re new at this whole entrepreneurial game and it’s really neat to see that people value what we do.”
IntelliWheels created an automatic gear-shifting wheelchair in order to help eliminate shoulder pain for users. Daigle and the IntelliWheels team have also created several other products, including a tool kit for on-the-road wheelchair maintenance.
“There’s a lot of knowledge and a lot of wisdom out there in this community and it’s really neat to be here on a day when everybody’s honoring each other and honoring each other’s achievements over the past year,” Daigle said.
“I have participated as a sponsor and planning committee member for the event for several years now and it’s always so inspiring to see the work that our community and University are a part of. We live and work amongst some of the most innovative individuals in the world,” said Stephanie Larson, Program and Marketing Coordinator for the Technology Entrepreneur Center and the Innovation Living-Learning Community (LLC).
Director of the Technology Entrepreneur Center Andrew Singer said, “Celebrating students who are successful is always a good thing.”
“It celebrates the things we (TEC) think about all the time.”
Sarah Zehr of CUVolunteer.org and finalist for the Social Entrepreneurship Award said she feels Innovation Celebration brings knowledge about local success. “I think it’s good to highlight all of the amazing things that are happening in the community.”
President of Pixo Lori Gold Patterson said IC is a good opportunity for students to be introduced to other entrepreneurs and innovation.
Gold Patterson said days after last year’s event, she was contacted by a few student startups, whom she has been mentoring since. She said it’s also a good opportunity for students to meet people that they can “have some synergy with,” in the entrepreneurship community.
In her speech to attendees, she recognized innovators as not those who invent, but those who invent and “champion” for their ideas to be implemented and used.
The event was sponsored by Research Park, Office of Technology Management, Office of Corporate Relations, Technology Entrepreneur Center, Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Office of the Vice President for Research, Parkland College, Fox/Atkins Development, LLC, Singleton Law Firm, P.C., Illinois Ventures, Serra Ventures, Hanson Financial, and Champaign County Economic Development Corporation.
For a complete list of award winners, please visit the Innovation Celebration web site.