Quantum Science is Specialty for CT Medal of Science Recipient

Professor Robert Schoelkopf, Sterling Professor of Applied Physics and Physics and Director of the Yale Quantum Institute, has been selected as the 2017 recipient of the Connecticut Medal of Science for his seminal contributions to the entire field of quantum science and to the new field of circuit quantum electrodynamics. Schoelkopf is a leading experimental physicist, whose research has helped establish the field of quantum computation with solid-state devices.  The Connecticut Medal of Science is the state’s highest honor for scientific achievement in fields crucial to Connecticut’s economic competiveness and social well-being.

Connecticut’s most talented young scientists and engineers were also honored by the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering at its 42nd Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner, held this spring.  Winners of this year’s Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair, Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, and Connecticut Invention Convention were recognized during program ceremonies.

Together with his faculty collaborators at Yale, Michel Devoret and Steven Girvin, Schoelkopf has pioneered the approach of integrating superconducting qubits with microwave cavities, known as Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics. Some of Schoelkopf’s other inventions include the Radio Frequency Single-Electron Transistor and the Shot Noise Thermometer.

He is regularly called on to advise industry and federal agencies on the development and commercialization of quantum technologies, and he is a co-founder of Quantum Circuits, Inc., a Connecticut-based company working to deliver the first quantum computers.

Modeled after the National Medal of Science, the award is bestowed by the State of Connecticut, with the assistance of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, in alternate years with the Connecticut Medal of Technology.

Student work was also honored by CASE.  The H. Joseph Gerber Medal of Excellence, established by CASE and presented in partnership with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, was awarded to the top winners of the Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair. The medal was created to recognize and honor H. Joseph Gerber’s (1924-1996) technical leadership in inventing, developing and commercializing manufacturing automation systems for a wide variety of industries, making those industries more efficient and cost-effective in a worldwide competitive environment.

The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering was chartered by the General Assembly in 1976 to provide expert guidance on science and technology to the people and to the state of Connecticut, and to promote the application of science and technology to human welfare and economic well-being.

Student Awards:

The 2017 H. Joseph Gerber Medal of Excellence:

• Shobhita Sundaram, Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT

2017 Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair – 1st Place, Life Sciences-Senior Division

Project: Detection of Premalignant Pancreatic Cancer via Computational Analysis of Serum Proteomic Profiles

• Ethan Novek, Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT

2017 Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair – 1st Place, Physical Sciences-Senior Division

Project: Novel Low-Temperature Carbon Capture Using Aqueous Ammonia and Organic Solvents

• Maya Geradi, Wilbur Cross High School, New Haven, CT

2017 Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair – Urban School Challenge High School Winner

Project: A Study of Circadian Genetics and Abiotic Stress Towards Sustainable Agriculture

2017 Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair –

Middle School Winner, Urban School Challenge

• Madison Lee, Sport and Medical Sciences Academy, Hartford, CT Project: Natural Plastic: Milk Plastic Biodegradation Versus Commercial Plastic Degradation

2017 Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium

• 1st Place: Shobhita Sundaram, Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT

Project: Detection of Premalignant Pancreatic Cancer via Computational Analysis of Serum Proteomic Profiles

• 2nd Place: William Yin, Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT

Project: Portable, Low-Cost Tattoo-Based Biosensor for the Non-Invasive Self-Diagnosis and Quantification of Atherosclerosis

• 3rd Place: Haya Jarad, Amity Regional High School, Woodbridge, CT Project: Identification of Novel Small Project: Identifying Quasi Periodic Patterns in fMRI Versus CBF Data
• 4th Place: Gabrielle Stonoha, Manchester High School, Manchester, CT

Project: Growth and Sustainability of Metarhizium on Low-nutrient Substrates

• 5th Place: Lauren Low, Engineering & Science University Magnet School, West Haven, CT Project: A Novel Rapid Diagnostic Test for Zika Virus NS1 Protein Using Nanoribbon Microfluidics

New Initiative Aims to Provide Vision Impaired Patients Access to Print News

The Connecticut Radio Information System (CRIS) continues to innovate and expand in Connecticut.  Connecticut’s only radio-reading service, which provides audio access to news and information for people who are blind or unable to read due to a print disability or medical condition, has announced a ground-breaking new service in partnership with Hartford’s Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center that will bring patients audio of the latest news, in English and Spanish. Saint Francis will be the first acute care hospital in the nation to provide an alternative to printed Spanish-language magazines and newspapers through an in-house system streamed to each patient TV with audio recordings for patients unable to read or turn pages of a magazine due to their medical condition or treatment.

It will also be the first acute care hospital in Connecticut to offer an alternative to more than 50 English-language magazines and newspapers streamed to each patient room.

Patients will be able to listen to human-narrated audio versions of newspaper and magazine articles featuring human narration – in both English and Spanish – through the hospital’s in-house television system.

CRIS is a 39-year-old nonprofit providing audio access to news and information for people who are blind or unable to read due to a print disability or medical condition / treatment, including those with physical, learning, intellectual or emotional disabilities.

 “The Connecticut Hospital Association applauds Saint Francis Hospital and CRIS Radio for its innovative collaboration, serving as another example of hospitals partnering with key service providers to enhance patient satisfaction and improve the quality of a patient’s experience while being treated at the hospital,” said Carl Schiessl, director of regulatory advocacy for the Connecticut Hospital Association.

CRIS operates with 300 volunteers at its main broadcast center in Windsor and satellite studios located in Danbury, Norwich, Trumbull and West Haven.  CRIS radio recently announced it will open its fifth regional studio in Norwalk next month, to be located inside the gatehouse at the Lockwood-Mathew’s Mansion Museum.  CRIS will share the gatehouse with the Fairfield County Cultural Alliance, which has been in that location for nearly four years.

“Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center is extremely grateful for the generosity of those who made this service possible for our patients,” said Dr. John F. Rodis, president of Saint Francis Hospital. “At Saint Francis we believe in caring for our patients in ways that help them on their journey to wellness. Whether it’s through surgical innovations or enhancements to their healing environment like the CRIS service, we are committed to providing the best patient experience possible.

Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center has been an anchor institution in north central Connecticut since 1897. In 2015, Saint Francis became part of Trinity Health of New England, an integrated health care delivery system that is a member of Trinity Health, Livonia, MI, one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health care delivery systems in the nation.

“Streaming audio versions of newspapers and magazines to each patient room at Saint Francis Hospital is an important milestone for CRIS Radio,” said Paul A. Young, chairman of the CRIS Radio Board of Directors. “It enables our nonprofit to expand access to print information for people unable to read due to their medical treatment or other print disabilities.”

Young also said he is very thankful for the generous funding that brought this project to life. Key funders of CRIS Radio’s hospital streaming project include the John G. Martin Foundation and Maximilian E. & Marion O. Hoffman Foundation. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving supports the nonprofit radio station’s Spanish-language programming, CRIS en Español.

In addition to broadcasting newspaper and magazine articles, CRIS also records classroom materials for teachers, and the CRISKids Audio Library offers more than 800 classroom titles, including 17 children’s magazines, also recorded by CRIS volunteers.  CRIS also streams audio versions of children’s magazines to patient rooms at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

Other CRIS programs include CRIS en Español and CRISAccess, featuring Spanish-language newspapers and magazines and audible tours for museums, respectively. An initiative with the Mystic Aquarium, providing audio information about museum exhibits, was launched two years ago. Earlier this year, CRIS Radio's Voice's of World War I project was announced, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into the war.

CRIS Radio broadcasts can be heard with a special CRIS radio distributed free of charge, toll-free through the CRIS Telephone Reader, online streaming live or on-demand at the CRIS Radio website, www.crisradio.org, or with a free mobile app on any mobile device, including tablets or smartphones.

Financial Woes Aside, Dunkin' Donuts Park is Nation's Best Double-A Ballpark

With almost 49,000 voters weighing in on the top Double-A facilities, Dunkin’ Donuts Park, home of the Hartford Yard Goats, was the winner in the third-annual Best of the Ballparks fan vote from Ballpark Digest. It is the first time a new facility has won a Best of the Ballparks vote. Fans selected Dunkin’ Donuts Park over Peoples Natural Gas Field, home of the Altoona Curve, in a bracketed online competition at ballparkdigest.com that saw over 178,000 fans vote on their favorite minor league ballparks.

“We are extremely proud to hear that fans voted Dunkin’ Donuts Park as the best Double-A ballpark in the country,” Yard Goats General Manager Tim Restall said. “We want to thank all the fans for taking time to vote over the past few weeks and for Ballpark Digest for having this contest to help showcase Dunkin’ Donuts Park on a national level. This is such a wonderful honor and we have been completely overjoyed by the outstanding fan support at our games in Hartford this season.”

The Yard Goats have played in front of capacity crowds 15 times. This past weekend, 19,956 fans watched the Yard Goats in Hartford. Dunkin’ Donuts Park has been sold out completely in each of the last three weekends (Friday through Sunday) and filled to capacity in 11 of the past 17 home games.

Voters were asked to choose among Eastern, Southern and Texas League ballparks in five rounds of voting. Last year’s top vote-getter among Double A stadiums was Pensacola Bayfront Stadium, home of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.  In this year’s voting, Dunkin’ Donuts Park was seeded sixth when the voting began.

Dunkin’ Donuts Park is the first brand new venue to open in the Eastern League since Northeast Delta Dental Stadium—home of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats—opened its doors in 2005, and it is seen as the biggest change to the league’s facility landscape since the extensive multi-phase renovation to the Harrisburg Senators’ FNB Field was completed prior to the 2010 season.

“Dunkin’ Donuts Park is one of the great stories in Minor League Baseball in 2017,” said Ballpark Digest publisher Kevin Reichard. “The Yard Goats front office persevered during a rough 2016 season and never wavered from a commitment to creating the best possible fan experience. That commitment to fans helped Dunkin’ Donuts Park snare a great honor in a highly competitive field.”

The stadium includes 18 luxury suites and two other suites adjacent to the dugouts, a kids “fun zone” just beyond the center field fence with an inflatable slide and bounce house and a glassed-in batting cage, which will allow fans with premium tickets to watch the players practice.

The Yard Goats are in their second year after moving 15 miles north from New Britain, where the team played through the 2015 season as the Rock Cats.  The club was forced to play its games on the road last year when construction delays caused the opening of Dunkin’ Donuts Park to be pushed back numerous times, ultimately to this season.

The team, an affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, is the first professional baseball club to call Hartford home since the Hartford Chiefs in 1952.  The team’s home opener earlier this year was played on the 20th anniversary of the home finale for the NHL’s Hartford Whalers.

Subway Looks to Technology to Spur Growth, Reinvigorate Brand

If it seems like Subway restaurants have stepped up the use of technology to combat the company’s first dip in growth in memory, you’re right.  Low-tech is out and high-tech is increasingly in at the Connecticut-based sandwich franchise mega-chain. Subway is aggresively introducing touch-screen ordering kiosks and a new mobile app – an effort to close the gap with competitors that have credited technology with helping boost sales. Subway is also testing dedicated pickup areas for mobile orders, a first for the company.

“It’s really a vision and strategy in how we want to evolve,” Carman Wenkoff, Subway’s chief information and digital officer, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “Customers are demanding a more complete experience.”

Subway launched a “bot” for Facebook Messenger in April that allows guests to order sandwiches and salads. The first-of-its-kind sandwich ordering bot was announced at the F8 Facebook Developer Conference with Agilitee, one of Subway’s digital partners, and is an innovation driven by the company's year-old Subway Digital division.

Customers can use the bot to order a sandwich or salad, customize it with their favorite bread; cheese; vegetables; and sauce, and pay on any device that supports Messenger. The bot for Messenger is described by the company as the latest addition to the brand’s mobile order systems that includes web ordering and app ordering. The new mobile app is available in about 26,500 of the chain’s 27,000 U.S. stores, which the company says is the largest deployments of a Messenger bot in the restaurant industry.

Subway has a presence in 112 countries, with more than 44,600 franchised locations. The company reports 7.5 million sandwiches a day served around the world.  Subway has more locations than any other restaurant chain U.S., but sales fell 1.7 percent last year to $11.3 billion, marking the third straight annual decline, according to research firm Technomic. Industry analysts point out that traditional fast-food chains are upgrading their equipment and embracing more natural ingredients, cutting into Subway’s decades-long edge in the healthy-eating arena.

The company, based in Milford, Connecticut, was founded almost 52 years ago by Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck. It remains a family-owned business. The company now operates about 26,744 stores in the U.S., a decline of 359 locations in 2016, the first annual decline the company has experienced.

A year ago, Subway announced the launch of Subway Digital, a new division centered on tech initiatives. The division’s focus was to be on evaluating all of the chain’s technology, ranging from its app to its loyalty program, with the ultimate aim of enhancing guest engagement, according to published reports in June 2016.

“With the creation of Subway Digital, we are committed to making the guest experience as meaningful, convenient and contemporary as possible, across all channels,” Suzanne Greco, Subway president and CEO, said in a statement at the time.

Subway is currently testing about 50 of the new self-ordering kiosks, Bloomberg reported. The technology allows customers to walk in and tailor their meals with more accuracy. Digital menus, meanwhile, are available in hundreds of stores. They can be changed instantly without having to print new signs and replace them. The chain also is testing out remodeled restaurants in eight areas in the U.S., Canada and England, according to published reports.

The upgrades require buy-in from franchisees, which own all of Subway’s locations. Though the company is helping pay for the changes, independent owners will bear much of the cost.

“We are investing heavily,” Wenkoff said in the Bloomberg interview. “Our franchisees are with us 100 percent.  Mobile devices are attached at the hip to pretty much all our customers these days.  It’s all about convenience.” The company also noted that Subway Digital, established last year, is in the midst of hiring more than 150 people for jobs supporting the brand’s “omnichannel approach.”

UConn Researcher: E-Cigarettes as Harmful as Tobacco

Researchers at the University of Connecticut have revealed evidence that electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, may be as harmful as tobacco cigarettes. Since e-cigarettes came on the market in 2004, there has been considerable debate on their safety, as well as the potential adverse health effects on users. E-cigarettes have risen in popularity in recent years as many consider them a "safer" alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes.

Now, a just-published study by chemists at the University of Connecticut offers new evidence that electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are potentially as harmful as tobacco cigarettes.  The contents of e-cigarettes -- known as e-liquid or e-juice -- contain propylene glycol, glycerine, nicotine and flavorings.

Using a low-cost, 3-D printed testing device, UConn researchers found that e-cigarettes loaded with a nicotine-based liquid are potentially as harmful as unfiltered cigarettes when it comes to causing DNA damage.

“Some people use e-cigarettes heavily because they think there is no harm,” said Karteek Kadimisetty, a postdoctoral researcher in UConn’s chemistry department and the study’s lead author. “We wanted to see exactly what might be happening to DNA, and we had the resources in our lab to do that.”

The researchers found that vapor from non-nicotine e-cigarettes caused as much DNA damage as filtered cigarettes, possibly due to the many chemical additives present in e-cigarette vapors. Cellular mutations caused by DNA damage can lead to cancer.

The findings appear in the journal ACS Sensors, a publication of the American Chemical Society.  ACS Sensors is a peer-reviewed research journal that is devoted to the dissemination of new and original knowledge on all aspects of sensor science that selectively sense chemical or biological species or processes.  Since publication, the research has been widely featured in the news media across the country.

How much DNA damage e-cigarettes cause depends on the amount of vapor the user inhales, the other additives present, whether nicotine or non-nicotine liquid is used, and other factors, according to Kadimisetty.

“From the results of our study, we can conclude that e-cigarettes have as much potential to cause DNA damage as unfiltered regular cigarettes,” Kadimisetty told UConn Today.

How much e-cigarettes contribute to serious health problems and whether they serve as a gateway for future tobacco smokers remains the subject of debate among scientists, legislators and the public. A year ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tightened some regulations on e-cigarettes due to concerns that were raised.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat up liquid and turn it into an aerosol vapor that can be inhaled. Using e-cigarettes is also called ‘vaping.’ The contents of e-cigarettes, called e-liquid or e-juice, are usually made up of propylene glycol, glycerine, nicotine, and flavorings such as menthol, cherry, vanilla, or mint. Non-nicotine e-cigarettes are also available.

Joining Kadimisetty and Rusling on the study, UConn Today reported, was former UConn Ph.D. student Spundana Malla, now a scientist at Alliance Pharma in Pennsylvania. The study was supported by funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

Photo: UConn postdoctoral researcher Karteek Kadimisetty. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Connecticut and TESLA: The Battle Lines Expand

It was a one-two punch from Connecticut aimed at Tesla, in the marketplace and in the boardroom. On Tuesday, at the company’s annual shareholder meeting at the Computer History Museum in Mountain view, CA, a shareholder resolution advocated by the Office of State Treasurer Denise Nappier was on the agenda.

And on Wednesday, the Connecticut legislature concluded the 2017 regular session, leaving behind a proposal that would have enabled Tesla to sell cars directly to Connecticut consumers, as is done in many other states.  It was the third consecutive year that the plan did not receive approval from legislators, in the face of strong opposition from the Connecticut Automotive Trades Association.

The Tesla proposal was approved by two legislative committees - Transportation and Finance, Revenue, and Bonding - but was never voted on by House or Senate members in their respective chambers.  The bill pitted the state’s longstanding car dealers against the new model that Tesla prefers.

The Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds shareholder resolution called for the declassification of Tesla’s board and for the annual election of all of Tesla’s directors.  The $32 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (“CRPTF”), of which Treasurer Nappier is principal fiduciary, owned 32,837 shares of Tesla, Inc. common stock with a market value of $11.6 million as of June 6, 2017.

Tesla’s board currently is classified, which means that each year only a portion of the directors are elected by shareholders.  This year shareholders had the opportunity to vote on three of Tesla’s seven directors. The company’s board recommended that “our stockholders vote against this proposal.”

“Independent shareholders gave Tesla a clear message: it's time to sharpen the company's governance profile and strengthen board member accountability to shareholders, whose interests they are elected to represent,” Nappier said after the shareholder vote.

Connecticut’s resolution, the first ever filed to declassify Tesla’s board, received an estimated 47 percent of the votes not controlled by directors and officers, indicating strong support for the annual election of directors, according to the Treasurer’s Office.  Representing the Connecticut Treasurer’s Office at the annual meeting, and presenting the proposal, was Aeisha Mastagni, a Portfolio Manager in the Corporate Governance Unit of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. Overall, according to a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing, 74.7 million shareholders voted against the proposal, with 32.7 million voting in favor.

“And now that Tesla has joined the ranks of the Fortune 500, we encourage the company to take particular heed of the recent vote,” Nappier added, “given that most of its largest U.S. company peers have already embraced annual election of directors.  It should reconsider its opposition to this fundamental provision of good governance.”

“At the end of the day, Tesla has and will continue to develop and deploy new technologies and products that will be an important part of the global economy’s clean energy future.   The company’s corporate structure should likewise evolve toward a more accountable governance framework that will fortify its bottom line and sustainable value,” said Nappier, a veteran shareholder activist.

In the aftermath of the Connecticut legislative session, a spokesman for Tesla told CT NewsJunkie that the company wasn’t quite ready to give up on the state. Tesla is allowed to sell direct to consumers in most jurisdictions in the U.S. and around the world. They are prohibited from selling directly in Connecticut, Michigan, Texas, and West Virginia, according to the company.

“The residents of Connecticut overwhelmingly want Tesla to be able to freely operate in the state, and despite inaction during this session,” a company spokesman said.  There are approximately 1,300 Tesla vehicles registered in Connecticut.

Student News Stories Showcase Next Generation of Journalists

With journalism and journalists under increasing criticism and new technology making old models of financing investigative journalism tougher, Hartford’s FOX 61 is showcasing young journalists as they learn the profession and develop stories that reach local newscasts. FOX 61 Student News was relaunched in February after a multi-year absence, and last week honored students at a special year-end awards ceremony held at Goodwin College in East Hartford. During the school year, FOX61 Student News empowered Connecticut middle and high school students to explore the world of multi-media journalism by giving them the opportunity to capture, edit and publish original content under the guidance of industry professionals.

Each student produced and hosted a news segment that showcased a local story or event that aligns with the station’s weekly HOPE segment. The student stories were featured on-air during Friday's Good Day Connecticut at 6:20 a.m. 7:30 a.m., and during the 5 and 10 p.m. news.

Among the winning stories:

• Best in Student News Reporting and Writing was awarded to Manchester High School’s Kailey Feshler for her story on the CT Humane Society.
• Best in Student News Pre and Post Production and Editing was awarded to three students from Daniel Hand High School in Madison: Liam Bennett, Delvantae Hutton and Ashleigh Violette for their story on Saferides.
• Best in Student News Photography and Lighting was awarded to two students from Norwich Free Academy: Alyssa Friedrich and Maggie Peter for their story on Local Manufacturing.

The winners in each of these categories received a scholarship, donated by Fox 61.

• Most Compelling Student News Story was awarded to three students from South Windsor High School: Lauren Adamo, Madison Donahue and Hannah Mitchell for their story on Josie the Therapy Dog. They shared the $3,500 scholarship provided by local sponsor, Big Y World Class Market.

Through the years, many students have participated in the Fox 61 Student News, reporting on different issues in their communities.

FOX 61 is one of the nation's most highly rated FOX Network affiliates, producing more news and winning more awards than any station in Connecticut. FOX 61 now airs more than 61 hours of local news and public affairs programming each week, more than any other market station. FOX 61 is owned and operated by Tribune Media, one of the country’s leading multimedia companies.

Innovative Start-Up Companies Seek State Funds to Propel Growth

CTNext will bring together start-up businesses seeking the financing to move forward, providing the opportunity for them  to pitch at the next Entrepreneur Innovation Awards (EIA) event scheduled for Thursday, June 15 at the LOFT at Chelsea Piers in Stamford. Connecticut's "innovation ecosystem" will be highlighted as the nine companies, from all across the state, will be competing for $10,000 grants.  The competitors include:

• Deo2go (Fairfield): Creating a topical delivery device that can be filled with a variety of products including, but not limited to deodorant, lip balms, and sunscreen
• Egghead (Danbury): Developing a new way to package and sell ice cream that brings new revenue to a mature market
• FallCall Solutions (Trumbull): Creating a tele-monitoring system for the Apple watch and other mobile systems for elders and caregivers
• Fjord Weather Systems (Wilton): Developing a way to turn every boat on the water into a weather-monitoring system
• LiquidSphere (New Haven): Creating an interactive app that will connect people who struggle with stress, anxiety, depression and addiction with therapists via text and video sessions
• Lucca Ventures (Southington): Developing a Bluetooth-enabled microphone attachment to a full-face oxygen mask, letting patients communicate clearly while wearing it
• Obvia (West Hartford): Manufacturing dual-winglet blades and semi-shroud power upgrade for Sunforce Wind Turbines that will improve efficiency and scalability for the turbines
• Sweet Equations (East Hartford): Making custom candy cakes, edible cupcake displays and other desserts through the development of an on-demand decorating device
• Trekeffect (Lyme): Developing a system to let individual travel planners buy and sell their itineraries.

To determine the finalist pool, each company’s application was vetted by a separate and independent team of reviewers who deemed their products, services and/or business ideas worthy of consideration for an EIA. Each finalist will have an opportunity to compete for a $10,000 grant as well as the judges’ and crowd favorite awards, each in the amount of $2,000 each.

The judges who will hear the company pitches and determine the winners include:

• Elena Cahill: Senior Lecturer, University of Bridgeport, Entrepreneurship Department
• Jim Kern: Co-founder, COMRADITY
• Greg Kivenzor: Associate Professor of Marketing, Director of Experiential Learning Collaborative, UCONN- Stamford
• Mark Lasoff: Founder, LearnToProgram
• Mike Roer: President, The Entrepreneurship Foundation

Throughout the year, CTNext hosts the EIA, a Shark Tank–style pitch event where Connecticut-based startups and entrepreneurs compete for grants that can be applied toward a specific project that will help accelerate growth.

CT Next support the success of companies and entrepreneurs by providing guidance, resources, and networks to accelerate their growth. CT Next is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Connecticut Innovations, described as "a network of passionate people who offer services to busy entrepreneurs." Launched in 2012, there are now more than 1,500 members. Since its inception in 2014, CTNext has held 11 total events in cities and towns all over Connecticut, awarding $544,000 to 52 unique companies.

https://youtu.be/Au4ULyo5L1g

Good News, Bad News in State Health-Related Data, Analysis Finds

Connecticut is 11^th best among states in the number of people who had no trouble finding a doctor in 2015, according to State Health Compare. The top 10 states were Minnesota, Kansas, Vermont, Utah, North Dakota, Montana, Maine, Nebraska, Hawaii and Tennessee.  That's the good news. But Connecticut is also 17^th worst among states in the percent of residents with high medical cost burdens, at 23.1 percent. Utah has the highest percentage at 27.5 percent; Maryland the lowest at 15.3 percent, among the 50 states.

According to the data, 70.7 percent of state residents had a general doctor or provider visit during the year, a lower percentage than the national average of 73 percent, and ranking the state 38th in the nation.  The data also reveal that Connecticut is 19^th lowest among states in the percent of state budget devoted to Medicaid, and 28^th lowest in state public health spending per person.

Nearly one in ten Connecticut residents (9.1 percent) spent the night in a hospital during the year, 15^th highest in the nation.

Created by SHADAC, State Health Compare is a new online comparison tool with state-level estimates across 46 measures of health and health care from six federal agency sources. SHADAC is a multidisciplinary health policy research center with a focus on state health policy, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and affiliated with the Health Policy and Management Division of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

Categories in the database include health insurance coverage, cost of care, health behaviors, outcomes, access, utilization, quality of care, public health, and social and economic factors. Metrics include costs of potentially preventable hospitalizations, percent of residents who needed but did not get care due to cost, chronic disease prevalence, weight assessment in schools, and adult cancer screening rates.

Data for most measures is available for multiple years, allowing trend analysis. Within most of the 46 measures, the tool allows visitors to dive deeper into the data by subpopulations such as by age, race/ethnicity, and education level. The tool provides a map, state rank and trend display for each metric. The data can be downloaded and exported.

The data was recently featured in CT Health Notes, a biweekly informational newsletter of the Connecticut Health Policy Project. It includes research summaries, news, event notices, policy proposals and other issues important to Connecticut’s health policy.

New Ventures Impress, Receive Funds to Advance Entrepreneurial Efforts

reSET, the Social Enterprise Trust (www.reSETCo.org), whose mission is advancing the social enterprise sector and supporting entrepreneurs of all stripes, revealed the winners of its 2017 Venture Showcase last night at The Mark Twain House and Museum to a sellout crowd of 200. The annual event recognizes the talented entrepreneurs and innovative businesses that have just graduated from reSET’s nationally recognized accelerator. 17 early stage enterprises graduated from the recent cohort, and last night, seven finalists competed for $30,000 in unrestricted funding.

The entrepreneurs pitched their business models to an audience of founders, investors, and community and corporate stakeholders. An esteemed panel of judges, including Tony Vengrove of Miles Finch Innovation, Michael Nicastro of Continuity, and Lalitha Shivaswamy of Helios Management Corporation, selected the ultimate winners.

Recipients of the competition’s three “reSET Impact Awards” are listed below, as is the winner of the “Tech Impact Award,” which was given by reSET’s Founding Partner and the evening’s Presenting Platinum Sponsor The Walker Group.

reSET Impact Awards:

$10,000 - Career Path  http://www.careerpathmobile.com

$6,000- Pelletric  http://www.pelletric.com

$4,000 - Phood  http://phoodsolutions.com

The Walker Group’s Tech Impact Award:

$10,000 - Phood http://phoodsolutions.com

Other finalists included:  Almasuite http://www.almasuite.com, Eureeka BI http://www.eureekabi.com, Optima Sports System http://optimasports.es,

and Sweetflexx http://sweetflexx.com/en.

The Showcase’s prize purse was made possible by a handful of reSET’s community partners: The Walker Group (Presenting Platinum Sponsor), The Hartford (Platinum Sponsor), Eversource (Gold Sponsor), AT&T (Gold Sponsor), Accounting Resources, Inc. (Silver Sponsor), Qualidigm (Silver Sponsor), CT by the Numbers (Silver Sponsor), and Aeton Law Partners (Silver Sponsor). The David Alan Hospitality Group and Capture provided in-kind services.

CareerPath is a platform that enables career planning teams to "effectively connect and communicate with students." Using a series of milestones, tasks, and events as drivers, CareerPath allows students to "tackle their career planning objectives in an organized and manageable way."

reSET also receives generous support from its Strategic Partners: The Walker Group, Connecticut Innovations, MetroHartford Alliance, and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development.  reSET, the Social Enterprise Trust is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance the social enterprise sector. Its strategic goals are threefold: to be the “go-to” place for impact entrepreneurs, to make Hartford the Impact City, and Connecticut the social enterprise state.  Since its inception, reSET has awarded more than a quarter of a million dollars to scaling ventures. Graduates of the organization’s accelerator have generated $4.4 million in revenue and have taken on $5.5 million in investment.

https://youtu.be/EAC6W3Dn_k8