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SOUTHFIELD—Lawrence Technological University has been named the No. 3 automotive engineering university in the nation, according to College Gazette, a college ranking website.

LTU offers a Master of Science degree in automotive engineering, as well as a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering with a concentration in automotive engineering.

LTU students participate in international competitions, such as Formula SAE, Formula Electric, Baja SAE, and SAE Supermileage, and rank among the top performing teams. Graduates seek additional learning opportunities through applied research projects and doctoral programs. And LTU’s alumni are numerous among the Detroit Three, Michigan auto suppliers, and automakers and suppliers around the globe. Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis employ more LTU graduates than any other employers.

LTU also houses a state-of-the-art Johnson Controls Inc. Vehicle System Engineering Lab which supports applied research focused on creating new knowledge in the field of automotive engineering with a four-wheel independent chassis dynamometer, robot driver, and data acquisition system. Research capabilities include vehicle dynamics, fuel economy, driveline technology, safety, advanced materials, fasteners, emerging energy technologies, controls, and more.

PayScale sets the median salary for an automotive engineer at $79,126. The Bureau of Labor Statistics sets the median salary for all mechanical engineers at $90,160, and says job growth is expected at about 4 percent over the next 10 years.

Michigan had three universities on the top ten list. In addition to LTU, Kettering University and Ferris State University were also acknowledged.

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 100 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

SOUTHFIELD—The Centrepolis Accelerator at Lawrence Technological University is one of four organizations selected to receive more than $900,000 from the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions.

The other institutions in what’s being called the Midwest Regional Innovation Partnership are mHUB, a manufacturing business accelerator in Chicago, the Chicago-based green energy investors Clean Energy Trust, and Spark Innovation Center in Knoxville, Tenn., an initiative of the University of Tennessee Research Park.

The partnership will support new and existing programs for venture acceleration of energy hardware startups in the Midwest. The partners plan to support more than 360 startups and small businesses via the tailored programs, which include both virtual and in-person events, sector-specific curricula, mentorship, prototyping resources, and connections with industry. Beneficiaries of the program will be a diverse array of founders from across the region, including those from universities, low-income communities, and urban areas.

Two of the DOE’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Programs, Chain Reaction Innovations based at Argonne National Laboratory and Innovation Crossroads based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will serve as project affiliates, along with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

EPIC is a $10 million program created by the DoE’s Office of Technology Transitions to underscore the importance of regional clusters, which increase productivity of area companies, drive the direction and pace of innovation, and stimulate the formation of new businesses. For a full list of EPIC awardees, visit the Office of Technology Transitions’ website. The intent of the program is to increase the commercialization of energy hardware technologies to reduce energy consumption and emissions while increasing domestic manufacturing, creating U.S. intellectual property, and creating well-paying jobs in the Midwest.

“The Midwest Regional Innovation Partnership program enables a unique and more direct collaboration between accelerators, national labs, investors and other key stakeholders to advance cleantech hardware technology,” said Dan Radomski, executive director of the Southfield-based Centrepolis Accelerator. “This program allows Centrepolis to offer our services more broadly throughout the Midwest including utilizing our unique product development, prototyping and manufacturing readiness capabilities. This includes making our annual C3 Accelerator and its $1.65 million seed fund available to support cleantech, climatech and circular economy technology companies throughout the Midwest to drive the launch of more domestically manufactured cleantech hardware products and at the same time deploying these innovations to support our nation’s decarbonization goals.”

“At Clean Energy Trust, we see firsthand how hardware-based energy startups face unique challenges in scaling and attracting capital,” said Erik Birkerts, CEO at Clean Energy Trust. “This partnership will build upon the Midwest region’s long standing legacy of manufacturing and innovation to support climate technologies as they prepare to bring their innovations to market.”

“Energy Tech is a critical technology investment area for our country: one that can support advanced manufacturing domestically while addressing climate challenges globally,” said Haven Allen, co-founder and CEO of mHUB. “There is extraordinary demand from early-stage startups for hardtech specific investment and resources here in the United States. mHUB connects entrepreneurs to these tools, both locally and nationally, and helps them build paths to successful commercialization. Thank you to the DOE for the opportunity to bolster our regional connectedness for innovation in energy.”

“The Spark Innovation Center will work closely with TVA and the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council to develop and deliver a new Cleantech Accelerator in Tennessee in close collaboration with our MRIP partners,” said Tom Rogers, President and CEO of the UT Research Park.

About the Centrepolis Accelerator

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

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.

About Clean Energy Trust

Clean Energy Trust provides catalytic capital and support to early-stage startups in the Mid-Continent region of the United States working on solutions for clean energy, decarbonization and environmental sustainability. Based in Chicago, Clean Energy Trust invests in and provides hands-on support to help entrepreneurs scale and succeed. To date, Clean Energy Trust has helped its 36 portfolio companies raise $31 of additional investment for every $1 Clean Energy Trust has invested. Clean Energy Trust is proud that 60% of its portfolio companies have female or minority founders. Learn more at www.CleanEnergyTrust.org.

About mHUB

mHUB is a leading independent hardtech and manufacturing innovation center that exists to convene the entrepreneurial ecosystem around physical product innovation to ensure that the manufacturing industry continues to accelerate, grow and thrive. The mHUB community includes over 428 active and alumni startups and small businesses supported by a deep talent pool of product designers and developers, entrepreneurs, engineers and manufacturers, corporate leaders, industry experts, mentors and investors. mHUB provides a hyper-resourced environment to entrepreneurs with the goal of commercializing new hardtech innovation that will lead to new businesses, intellectual property, investment, revenue and job creation. Since launching in 2017, the mHUB community has generated more than $430M in revenue, launched more than 1,256 products, hired more than 2,153 employees, and raised nearly $702M in capital. For more information visit mhubchicago.com.

About Spark Innovation Center

The Spark Innovation Center is an initiative of the University of Tennessee Research Park, and builds on the facilities and expertise at the University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Spark focuses on helping promising energy technology companies grow, offering access to top quality lab space, expert mentoring, and coordinating support services from nine partner organizations in the region.

SOUTHFIELD—Lawrence Technological University celebrated the gift of a second Gem e2 electric vehicle in an outdoor ceremony Tuesday at the university’s Southfield campus.

The university’s computer science program has turned the two-seat car into a second autonomous vehicle research platform for students to learn to develop software for the self-driving cars of the future.

Sponsors recognized included the United States Army’s DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center in Warren, the National Defense Industrial Association Michigan Chapter, the military business consultant Great Lakes Systems and Technology, the auto supplier DENSO, the Ann Arbor artificial intelligence technology developer SoarTech, the Ann Arbor simulation software developer Realtime Technologies, and the Rochester Hills drive-by-wire systems developer Dataspeed Inc.

LTU Provost Tarek Sobh, a robotics engineer by background, noted that Lawrence Tech is one of only 13 comprehensive, doctoral, private technological universities out of more than 6,000 institutions of higher learning in the country, “and that there is no project that embodies that unique nature like these vehicles.” LTU also offers one of the nation’s few fully accredited undergraduate robotics engineering programs, he added.

Lawrence Tech is also adding a new graduate program, a Master of Science in artificial intelligence, that has a concentration related to autonomous vehicle development. 

C.J. Chung, professor of computer science at LTU, has long spearheaded the university’s push into developing autonomous vehicles. He said the next step for the program is to develop high school summer camps where talented younger students can learn to program autonomous vehicles using the computer language Python with ROS (Robot Operating System). 

Lawrence Tech will be competing June 4-7 in the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, where it is three-time defending champion in developing autonomous driving capabilities. The competition is held at Oakland University in Rochester. It was cancelled last year due to the pandemic, but is being held this year with protective protocols in place.

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 LTU Expo (LTUX), a celebration of anime, gaming, and Esports events, returns to Lawrence Technological University after the coronavirus pandemic canceled the 2020 event.

The virtual event will be held from Monday, April 19 to Saturday, April 24.

The event will present the advanced project work of LTU game design and computer science students, along with the products and services of local game developers and business partners, plus Esports tournaments, keynotes, panels, and more.

For more information and a complete schedule, visit https://ltux.games/. The website, says LTUX shows “everything LTU has to offer: great work, a friendly and welcoming studio culture, and amazing potential.”

Faculty advisers for the event are Mars Ashton, assistant professor of game design, and Jose Gonzalez-Belmonte, game software development lecturer.

Said Ashton: “LTUX has always been something our students have looked forward to at the end of the school year. We are excited to be able to bring so much of what LTU offers to this virtual event and look forward to the time we’ll be able to host it on-campus again!”

LTU offers both a Bachelor of Fine Arts in game design and a Bachelor of Science in computer science with a game software development concentration. More about the BFA in game design at this link. More about the Bachelor of Science in computer science game software development degree at this link.

The initial LTU Expo, held on campus in 2018, drew a crowd of more than 1,200 to LTU’s Southfield campus. A similar-sized crowd attended in pre-pandemic 2019.

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.

Job seekers have a safe way to interact with potential employers at a virtual job fair on January 26, 2021 from 1-4 p.m.

The virtual job fair, hosted by Oakland County Michigan Works!, in partnership with the City of Southfield and the City of Oak Park, is a chance for individuals who are seeking a variety of types of jobs to connect with employers across many industries in a safe, socially distant way, online.

“This is an opportunity for job seekers to meet with a variety of employers virtually,” says Jeffrey Granat, program operation coordinator with Oakland County Michigan Works! Southfield, which is located on Civic Center Drive in the Southfield City Centre. “Job seekers can move from booth to booth, read about the employers and learn about their job openings.”

Participants can chat with potential employers and have a brief interview. “Employers do a nice job of putting together booths to entice jobseekers to learn more about their company and to chat with their representatives,” Granat says.

Across the multi-industry fair, employers are seeking a diverse group of employees from cleaners, environmental attendants, call center workers, logistics specialists, human services workers, transportation employees, cooks, certified nursing assistants and more. The virtual platform can accommodate as many as 30 employers, so there will be a variety of industries represented.

“There are a variety of different employers here and we try to offer something for everyone. There will be small companies and big companies from different industries. We want people to know there is something for you here,” Granat says. “Oakland County Michigan Works! will also have a booth to provide tips on resume writing and interviewing, and other tips for people seeking employment.”

Job seekers can use a computer, laptop or tablet to participate and will connect through a user-friendly job fair tool. Job seekers should register and build a profile and they can upload a resume. “The more information a job seeker can provide, the better,” Granat says.

Even during the pandemic, Oakland County Michigan Works! and the City of Southfield are working to ease unemployment and provide safe ways for individuals to return to work.

“It’s great that we have been able to put this virtual job fair together to help job seekers throughout southeast Michigan get back to work,” Granat says.

Learn more about the virtual job fair at Oakland County Michigan Works! Southfield: OaklandCountyMIWorks.com. Or contact Jeffrey Granat at jgranat@cityofsouthfield.com.

Job seekers can register for the virtual job fair at: app.brazenconnect.com/a/Michigan/e/l5Pmw

As some businesses understandably struggle in pandemic conditions, others thrive. Toad Opener is one that is perfectly positioned for success with a simple solution for hands-free door opening.

When Nick Moritz, a Michigan ex-pat living in Shanghai, was forced to return to metro Detroit at the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, he noticed a product installed at the foot of a commercial door that allowed the user to open the door with a foot instead of a hand. Recognizing the inherent ingenuity, he contacted the company with the hope of becoming an installer of the product he knew would be needed during and beyond the pandemic.

When Moritz learned the product had no installer program, his entrepreneurial mind recognized an opportunity to create a similar — but better — product. In April, Moritz and business partner Clif Wells — a fellow Michigan State Spartan Moritz met in China — launched Toad Opener, a hands-free door opening product with enhanced design features not found in competitive products.

Installed with zero door damage

“The key differentiator is we are able to apply the units without having to drill permanent, damaging holes into valuable commercial doors.” Instead, the Toad Opener is affixed to the door using a patent-pending design and commercial-grade 3M adhesives, saving damage and allowing for removal and replacement if necessary. This also makes the units appropriate for glass and refrigerator doors.

In addition to servicing many other customers such as restaurants, bars and hotels, Toad Opener has provided “bright, beautiful, customized units” for the City of Royal Oak throughout their new city hall and ice arena. Using 3D printing, they embed logos and branding into the units. The product comes with a sticker affixed to the door at eye level to alert individuals to use their foot to open the door, hands-free.

Expanding product offering with support from Centrepolis Accelerator

Early on, Moritz and Wells sought the support of a business accelerator and contacted Dan Radomski, director of the Centrepolis Accelerator at Lawrence Technological University in the Southfield City Centre. Through the Centrepolis Accelerator, which is uniquely designed to support businesses that manufacture physical products, Toad Opener qualified for a $1,500 business accelerator fund grant for services, which the company is using to innovate new product offerings.

Moritz says he and Wells are now working with a new 3D filament material embedded with copper nanoparticles that are antiviral and antibacterial. “The new material kills not only COVID-19, but also the flu and MSRA,” says Moritz. “This makes Toad Openers appropriate for hospital and physician office settings.” They are also designing protective overlays for high-touch surfaces.

“From toilet stall latches to drinking fountains, we’re creating products that are healthier and safer and basically self-cleaning. We give people a high level of confidence, though we don’t want anyone to abandon the best practices of disinfecting,” Moritz says.

A target market for Toad Opener is government and commercial buildings in the Southfield City Centre. “A major selling point is not just that companies should add Toad Openers to their doors for the sake of it, but that it’s a competitive advantage for them to be able to say when people start coming back to offices, that they have invested in these products to make the return as safe as possible,” Moritz says. For now, Toad Opener positions itself in the business-to-business and business-to-government sectors, rather than selling directly to individual consumers. The product is also suitable for public buildings like libraries and schools.

“We are focused on protecting the community and making everyone safer,” Moritz says.

Learn more about Toad Opener at www.toadopener.com. Discover the Centrepolis Accelerator at Lawrence Technological University at www.centrepolisaccelerator.com.