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U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced this week that a total of $29 million would be awarded to 44 organizations as part of the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology (SPRINT) Challenge. This includes a $569,300 federal grant from the Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) for Lean Rocket Lab, a Jackson, Mich.-based business incubator and accelerator that supports and invests in high- growth, high-impact companies across Michigan.

The SPRINT Challenge was launched last year to harness America’s entrepreneurial potential to address the economic, health, and safety risks caused by the coronavirus pandemic through entrepreneurship and innovation, according to the EDA.

“Michigan startups and entrepreneurs have proven their innovation and ingenuity time and again over the past year, developing innovative ways to keep our communities safe through COVID- 19,” said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “We applaud Lean Rocket Lab and Lawrence Technological University for their work in earning these federal resources and look forward to seeing how their efforts continue to help us put this pandemic behind us together, once and for all.”

The funding will support Lean Rocket Lab’s Manu-Tech Virtual Incubator Covid Response Unit, which is being led in partnership with Lawrence Technological University’s Centrepolis Accelerator, both of which are part of the statewide SmartZone network supported by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The project will deliver virtual programming, mentorship, incubator facilities, access to statewide manufacturing partners and suppliers, and access to the state of Michigan’s startup community and investor network.

The goal of the program is to expand access to the resources available through Lean Rocket Lab’s programming and support the ongoing engagements with client companies. It is also anticipated to bring 20 new companies to Michigan, create 120 jobs, and generate $25 million in new client investment capital.

“The program was inspired by the incredible entrepreneurs we’ve seen from across the state and the globe, who have developed and deployed critical technology focused on solving the very real challenges presented by the pandemic,” said Lean Rocket Lab CEO Brandon Marken. “We’ve seen tremendous density of technology that supports operational resiliency in manufacturing. These types of technologies are critical to keeping factories open and people working. Connected worker platforms, computer vision and AI-based inspection, on-demand manufacturing, and much more. We want to continue to support these entrepreneurs with critical access to our manufacturing community, expertise, our investor network and virtual programming.”

Added Dan Radomski, executive director of Lawrence Technological University’s Centrepolis Accelerator: “The ManuTech Virtual Incubator programming has been a critical component of the Michigan entrepreneurial ecosystem and we have been thrilled to be Lean Rocket Lab’s regional partner for the last few years. This SPRINT project deepens our relationship and allows us to deploy our deep bench of technical talent and engineering resources to high-growth startups and entrepreneurs as they integrate commercialize and deploy their technology.”

According to Radomski, LTU Centrepolis Accelerator has specific expertise in helping startups in de-risk through Manufacturing, Technology and Commercial Readiness Level coaching.

“The SPRINT Challenge builds on EDA’s efforts to work with communities to build strong regional economies,” said Dennis Alvord, Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. “Our grantees’ projects are laser-focused on using innovation to help America overcome the economic, health, and safety challenges brought on by the pandemic.”

About Lean Rocket Lab

The Lean Rocket Lab removes common barriers to innovation by providing a collaborative workspace full of high energy entrepreneurs, advanced educational programming, and helpful resources so businesses and products can launch and thrive. Strategically located in one of the most diverse manufacturing economies and backed by access to experts, capital, prototyping, engineering, marketing, and technology resources, the Lean Rocket Lab is the place where entrepreneurs on the I-94 corridor come to get things built. For more information, visit leanrocketlab.info.

About Lawrence Technological University’s Centrepolis Accelerator

The Centrepolis Accelerator at Lawrence Technological University is accelerating the growth of Michigan’s advanced manufacturing, innovative hardware entrepreneurs and small manufacturers by providing access to funding, experts and key business and product development resources. Visit centrepolisaccelerator.com.

SOUTHFIELD—The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Michigan Chapter has become a sponsor of Lawrence Technological University’s team in a global competition for autonomous vehicles.

“In our efforts to both promote STEM (Science , Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and connect the defense industry with academia, we were pleased and honored to assist LTU in this global competition,” said Patty Lopez, NDIA Michigan Chapter STEM director.

LTU is developing two fully autonomous and fully collaborative self-driving vehicles. LTU now owns  two Polaris GEM e2 two-seat electric vehicles, and the LTU team is using a variety of sensors, systems, and software to turn them into fully autonomous and fully collaborative self-driving vehicles, according to C.J. Chung, LTU professor of mathematics and computer science and the faculty leader on the project.

The overall effort began in 2018 with a three-year, $150,000 subcontract from the U.S. Army’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC), subcontracted through Chesterfield Township-based Great Lakes Systems & Technology LLC, a ground vehicle technology and engineering firm.

Chung and a team of LTU faculty and students are now fitting the second GEM e2 vehicle with cameras, laser-based radar, GPS systems, and computers to make it autonomous. Chung said the biggest and most challenging task is developing software for self-driving vehicle functions, since that must be built from the ground up.

Chung said an invitation-only dedication of the second vehicle is planned for May on LTU’s campus. LTU’s cars will compete in the 2021 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, scheduled for June 4-7 at Oakland University (see www.igvc.org). (The 2020 competition was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.)

Other sponsors of the LTU IGVC team are: Dataspeed Inc., the Rochester Hills autonomous vehicle products and services provider; DENSO, the Japanese auto supplier; Soar Technology Inc., the Ann Arbor-based artificial intelligence firm; and RealTime Technologies, the Ann Arbor-based driving simulation developer.

Working with Chung are faculty co-sponsors Nick Paul, an LTU alumnus, adjunct faculty member, and Soar Technology employee, and Joe DeRose, an LTU adjunct faculty member and Ford Motor Co. employee. Another LTU graduate, Mitchell Pleune, now an employee of Veoneer, the Swedish automotive electronics developer with U.S. headquarters in Southfield.

Team members are LTU students Thomas Brefeld, Justin Dombecki, James Golding, and Joseph Schulte. Dombecki and Golding are working toward master’s degrees in computer science, while Brefeld and Schulte are working toward a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers nearly 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, and Engineering. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for the salaries of its graduates, and U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best Midwestern universities. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

The NDIA Michigan Chapter Connects to Protect Our Nation. It supports our nations’ warfighters by being the premier connector within Michigan’s defense community. The NDIA Michigan Chapter is an organization with a passion for bridging the gap between those who provide and those who use the best and latest in equipment and technology to keep our nation and its defenders safe.

The life sciences expertise of Lawrence Technological University students will again be on full display as the university conducts its fourth Science and Technology Showcase on Wednesday, April 28.

The event will be streamed live online from 2 to 4 p.m. This year’s theme is “Bench to Bedside: Moving Medical Devices and Technology from Concept to Clinical Application.”

The event will feature a panel discussion moderated by Jaideep Rajput, director of commercialization at Beaumont Health. Panelists include M. Therese Jamison, director of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at LTU; Brianna Riley, manager at Henry Ford Innovations, the technology commercialization arm of Henry Ford Health; and Fred Molnar, vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

They’ll discuss what hospitals and health networks are doing to engage with companies, how a startup can get the most out of conducting pilot studies with a health care system partner, how early stage companies can work with health care systems to generate user experience for new technologies, and how and why health care organizations should share their technical expertise.

Also at the Showcase, dozens of LTU students will show off their senior capstone projects and other research in a virtual poster session. The presenting students are majoring in biomedical engineering, nursing, molecular and cell biology, and other life science disciplines.

LTU’s curriculum combines scholarship, research, and real-world applications. Many employers over the years have found valuable talent at the Showcase.

The event is free and open to the public. To register, visit https://ltu.joinhandshake.com/events/716765/share_preview.

LTU began holding the event in the spring of 2017. The 2020 event was canceled due to the pandemic.

Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers nearly 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, and Engineering. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for the salaries of its graduates, and U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best Midwestern universities. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

New to the Southfield City Centre, but with a well-established name, Starters Bar & Grille opened quietly in mid-December for carryout and delivery of its steakhouse fare and is poised to welcome diners in-house as soon as state COVID restrictions allow.

By setting up in Southfield, Starters Bar & Grille co-owner Ali Saad says he has made a smart business move and fulfilled a dream at the same time.

In the 23 years Saad has been a restauranteur, he has worked hard to get to know his customers and welcome them as friends at the Starters Bar & Grille locations he runs with his father, Bahaa Saad, and uncle, Mike Saad, in Harper Woods, in midtown Detroit on Woodward, and the original Detroit location on Plymouth Road. (Their Dearborn location closed permanently during the pandemic economic shutdown in March 2020.)

It didn’t take long for Saad to realize that many of his best customers were from Southfield, and for them, he wanted to bring Starters closer to home. “It’s been my dream for 10-plus years to open in Southfield,” Saad says.

The newest Starters Bar & Grille is now open at 25242 Evergreen Rd., in the City Center Plaza near Ten Mile.

The welcome to Southfield couldn’t have been warmer. “I wanted to bring my dad’s vision and our brand to Southfield and we’ve been welcomed immediately. Customers are dancing around and thanking me when I should be the one dancing around and thanking my customers,” he says with pride and humility. “I wake up smiling and happy with the feeling I’m being welcomed into the community with open arms.”

Southfield is the perfect choice

For the first Starters location outside of Wayne County, Saad says he couldn’t have made a better choice than Southfield. As a much-needed entertainment and dining location in the Southfield City Centre, Starters will bring steakhouse fare to its target market of “2 years old to 90 years old,” Saad says, adding that with the business community, upscale hotels and surrounding residential communities, Southfield has “the trifecta” for Starters.

“I reach out for culturally diverse areas, and Southfield offers that. We know that if five people go out for dinner together, each person will find something they love on our menu,” he says. From wings, burgers, steak, lobster, crab, shrimp, fish and fettuccine, “we target the masses.”

In addition to its family-pleasing menu, Starters has a calming ambiance with custom-built booths, black granite surfaces flecked with gold and touches of hand-crafted woodworking. “The bar is our focal point, and our restaurant space is welcoming to families, children and grandparents. We want people to be able to come here, have a cocktail and enjoy themselves after a long day at work,” Saad says.

Fourteen large-screen TVs will cater to sports-loving customers and the high-end sound system will provide crisp, clear background music for diners. Lawrence Tech students will appreciate the phone chargers cleverly installed under the bar and at the meeting table, too.

“We executed it properly with the design of the space,” Saad says. Right now, Starters spans space formerly used by two restaurants, and will soon expand into a third contiguous space to provide even more dining space, eventually covering about 5,200 square feet.

A community anchor

Family owned and operated since 1977, Starters becomes a staple in its communities because it is a good employer, Saad says. “When we first opened, we hired our very first chef and he still works for us today. He’s still a part of the family,” Saad says. “We are not burn-and-churn with regard to hiring and firing. People who work with us stick around for 15 or 20 years and that’s something we hold high on our priority list. Consistency is the key to success, and with consistency of service, product and attitude, we are there.”

As a small business that brings food, drink and entertainment to a thriving Southfield City Centre, Starters Bar & Grille is excited to get to know new customers — from residents to business people to faculty and students at Lawrence Tech.

“I recognize that we are the missing puzzle piece in the grand scheme of things here, but I will humbly say that I needed the city of Southfield more than they needed me,” Saad says.

Visit Starters Bar & Grille at 25242 Evergreen Rd. in the Southfield City Centre. startersdetroit.com