The Utah Entrepreneur Challenge (UEC) is a statewide, student business-model competition. Teams from universities across the state compete for the best business plan and a chance to win more than $100,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. Participating teams receive mentorship from community experts, and are judged by industry professionals. The grand prize is $40,000 in cash, and additional prizes are granted for best business plan, presentation, technology, and more. Many past winners have developed into successful enterprises. The competition is open to all university students across the state.

Download 2017 UEC Competition Packet

The DoD SBIR 17.1 & STTR 17.A Broad Agency Announcements are Now Open for Proposal Submission on January 10, 2017

You may now submit your Phase I and Direct to Phase II proposals for the open SBIR 17.1 and STTR 17.A Broad Agency Announcements (BAA) through the DOD SBIR/STTR proposal submission website at https://sbir.defensebusiness.org. All proposals for this Announcement must be received by 6:00 am. ET on Wednesday, February 8, 2017.

Improve quality of life in an underserved region, and you create a blue ocean.

Some leaders are vague when discussing their corporate mission, but Hubert Sagnières (MBA ‘86J), chairman and CEO of Essilor International, puts it in terms as ambitious as they are specific: “To provide solutions for better vision for each of the seven billion people on this planet, including the 2.5 billion who currently suffer from uncorrected poor vision.”

It's a great time to upgrade your gear before the big game

Football fans and spectacle-seekers alike should circle Sunday, Feb. 5 on their calendar — that’s the date of Super Bowl LI. Party planners, take note: you have less than a month to gear up for the game (and the halftime show, starring Lady Gaga).

But before you go stocking up on chips, dips, and drinks, you may want to add a new television to your shopping list. After all, it won’t feel like the biggest game of the year if you’re watching it on a dinky old screen.

Organizations depend increasingly on independent, temporary workers, even for mission-critical work. We call this subset of freelancers who do strategic work in companies or nonprofit organizations agile talent. They contribute technical expertise that an organization does not already have to a critical project or initiative. By providing temporary support, they make it possible for organizations to resource their critical activities more cost efficiently.

Massachusetts stole a second straight victory in Bloomberg’s ranking of the most innovative U.S. states, a testament to how much the economy’s wheels are greased by investment in higher education and research.

California again scored just behind Massachusetts, which gained ground by churning out more science and engineering graduates and producing jobs in those industries even though it had less technology company density than in 2015, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg.

Antarctica may look like a forbidding white expanse, but life below the sea ice is full of colour.

Scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division sent a robot down to take a look, capturing a small forest of underwater organisms in bright purples, yellows and pinks. The Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) was submerged at O'Brien Bay in east Antarctica.

According to biologist Glenn Johnstone, the organisms survive in water that is -1.5 degrees Celsius (29.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and covered in thick sea ice for most of the year.

Image: http://mashable.com

LAS VEGAS — At CES 2017, we previewed some of the coolest health tech set to hit the market.

From a brand new take on the electric breast pump to a discreet way to check sobriety during a night on the town, trust us, there's a lot of neat stuff on the horizon.

Program will award grants of $35,000 each to seven junior faculty members

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Dec. 6, 2016) - The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced today that the nomination period is now open for the Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research (KJFF). The Kauffman Foundation will award up to seven Junior Faculty Fellowship grants to junior faculty members in the United States whose research has the potential to make significant contributions to the body of literature in entrepreneurship. Each Fellow’s university will receive a grant of $35,000 over two years to support the research activities of the Fellow.

It is a rare entrepreneur who can raise money beyond the seed round without a well prepared, thoroughly research business plan. It maps out the road to success. The business plan must convince investors that you know the best route to get there and that if there are twists and turns in the road, as there inevitably will be, you can navigate them. Typically, venture capitalists (VCs) and angels focus primarily on the management team, the idea, market opportunity, and the financials, but other factors play into the final decision of an investor to fund a business. Here are ten tips that will magnetize your business plan making it more attractive to investors.

As automation technologies such as machine learning and robotics play an increasingly great role in everyday life, their potential effect on the workplace has, unsurprisingly, become a major focus of research and public concern. The discussion tends toward a Manichean guessing game: which jobs will or won’t be replaced by machines?

There’s greater potential in big data. What’s ahead as the field matures?

Since the concept took hold, big data has made big waves. The field of analytics has developed rapidly since the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) released its landmark 2011 report, Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. But much value remains on the table as organizations wrestle with issues of strategy and implementation. In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast, MGI partner Michael Chui and McKinsey senior partner Nicolaus Henke speak with McKinsey Publishing’s Simon London about the changing landscape for data and analytics, opportunities in industries from retail to healthcare, and implications for workers.

Saddled with $40,000 in college loans, Catherine Berendsohn, 29, struggled to get a web design business off the ground after graduating from Florida State University in 2010. Ms. Berendsohn, an artist-entrepreneur, wanted to rent a storefront and start a roving studio in Monterey, Calif. Her student loans, however, prevented her from getting the money she needed.

I’ve been feeling like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. In the movie, Murray, a television weatherman, is sent to watch Punxsutawney Phil emerge from his burrow and predict how much more winter remains. Murray relives the day over and over and over again, each time with hilarious results.

In my movie however, the results are not hilarious.

It’s awesome when everyone agrees, isn’t it? Yes—and no. Most of us have, at some point, fallen into the trap of groupthink to avoid conflict and promote harmony in a group, whether at school, work, or on a committee. Groupthink has its perks: everyone feels comfortable, and there’s no risk of tension among members. It’s safe. Easy. Unfortunately, it can also kills creativity and innovation. Creativity is a key component of business growth, no matter what industry you’re part of. Nobody likes conflict—but nobody likes a stale, stagnating business, either. So how can you prevent groupthink, and make your office a safe environment for innovation and creative thought? Here are 9 tips to get you started.

This time of year is full of meetings with leadership and teams in order to help them prepare for the year ahead. People discuss financial goals, sustainability goals, profitability targets, customer success metrics, and more, but there are also numerous research & development teams out there who are coordinating their annual innovation strategy who struggle in their process to create a cohesive innovation strategy. There are a few key activities that help in the innovation planning process:

Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege of working with people doing extraordinary things: inventors, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, and even a Buddhist master. They are pioneers who shatter norms, change paradigms, and delight us in new ways. Despite vast differences in their styles, personalities, and fields of endeavor, they have striking parallels in what made them successful. Namely, they combine their talent with an important balance between self-confidence and collaboration.

In a world where we’re bombarded with email, it’s disproportionately effective to connect with people face to face. Conferences, if you choose them wisely, can be one of the best ways to accelerate this process, since you can meet large numbers of people in just a few days. In fact, author Tim Ferriss describes attending the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in 2007 as being the “tipping point” for his best-selling book The 4-Hour Workweek because he was able to meet so many bloggers who later promoted it. Here are five strategies you can use to identify the best conferences for you to attend this year and to make time for them on your schedule.

2016 was a big year for crowdsourcing. In our final edition of What’s New for the year, we clearly see how crowdsourcing is being used to create transparency and provide citizens with an active voice in our local governments. Crowdsourcing continues to play an important part in new product development for large and small companies, and our new capacities to collect scientific and locational data is proving to be game-changing. Check out the latest news stories from around the world.

The late Steve Jobs is famous for many things, large and small, including this statement: “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

My guest for episode eight of the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, Bernie Swain, exemplifies this as well as anyone I’ve ever met. Bernie is the Founder and Chairman of Washington Speakers Bureau and few, if any, are more influential in the lecture industry than he is.