Deere invested $1 million into the new Technology Innovation Center in the Research Park. Deere moved into their new office on July 1, 2008. The center is a satellite organization of the Moline Technology Innovation Center and is responsible for tracking technology trends, building an open innovation strategy for potential commercial value, and recruiting talent for Deere. "This investment dovetails perfectly at the University of Illinois with our 140-year history of addressing the most critical need of society. Furthermore, it will enhance the knowledge and skills of faculty and students as we continue to prepare out graduates to compete and succeed in the global marketplace," said Chancellor Richard Herman of the University of Illinois. Deere currently employs graduate students and full time engineers to support research projects throughout the company. Their work coordinates with Deere sponsored research initiatives and primarily consists of software, data analysis, and engineering projects.

There are two new graduates of the EnterpriseWorks incubator, Riverglass and SpartSpark Energy Systems in the Research Park. Riverglass is an IllinoisVENTURES portfolio company with significant revenue growth in the homeland security market and industrial clients. Riverglass was formed in 2003 by Michael Welge, head of NCSA's Automated Learning Group, who worked to transform the D2K software environment into a commercial venture. The goal was to offer data analytics solutions to help organizations gather, organize, merge and analyze data from disparate sources, including unstructured textual and visual data. Riverglass groundbreaking data analytics technology is designed to deliver intelligent monitoring and analysis of unstructured data. They moved into their new office in June 2008 at 2001 South First Street.

SmartSpark focuses on making green technologies safer and less complex with a current focus on solar energy. SmartSpark is an energy middleware provider and developer whose power electronics technologies and products support electricity conversion and control between almost any energy source and load. SmartSpark is working on a project to increase solar power on the nation's utility grid with solar inverter technology that could bring in over $6 million in revenue. The company is based on patented technologies licensed from the University of Illinois, developed by the company founder Dr. Phil Krein. Earlier this year, SmartSpark secured Series A funding from Battery Ventures to help grow their business. SmartSpark moved from EnterpriseWorks to the Technology Development and Fabrication Center into a new office and lab area with over 7,000 square feet to allow their company to grow.

Fox-Atkins Development closed on the purchase of Research Park's former Motorola building on June 23, 2008. The building is 74,000 SF located between Oak Street and First Street across from the Assembly Hall. The building offers the latest standards in lighting, large raised-floor data center rooms, backup generator power, more than a dozen conference rooms, and fiber infrastructure. The first company that moved into the building was Illini Computing, a small firm that signed a lease with Fox-Atkins in July 2008.

Illini Computing, Inc. is a full-service technology consulting company offering their services and products to individuals as well as businesses. They can assist in software development, web design, and system and network administration. They have recently relocated to the Research Park from the Chicago area and occupy space in the Motorola building.

Qualcomm, who currently occupies space in the Research Park, signed a lease and begun planning the construction on a new 11,000 SF office in the former Motorola Building to grow their current operation. Qualcomm supports a software development and engineering center in the Research Park to employ available talent in the area, especially with expertise in blue tooth applications for mobile phones. The center develops software that helps integrate the chips into cellular phone products. With the additional space after the move, Qualcomm will be able to hire up to 12 interns and continue to add full time engineering positions in Champaign.

R Systems NA, inc. is a privately held corporation providing high-end computing resources for research. The company opened a new data center location to house its supercomputing resources in the Research Park this summer. R Systems offers rapid response, queue sensitive, production environment with utility or dedicated access depending on the project. R- Systems has the most powerful supercomputer owned and operated by a private company in the U.S. R Smarr, was ranked #44 on the 31st annual TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers at the 23rd annual International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in Dresden, Germany. The cluster was named after Dr. Larry Smarr, founding director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. R-Systems is providing high end computing resources to large energy corporations in addition to local research companies.

The Graduation Building is being built to accommodate companies currently operating in the EnterpriseWorks that are beginning to emerge as dynamic, growing companies that require more advanced, non-traditional office space. The Graduation Building will be a cost efficient building option for companies leaving the Incubator and seeking longer term lab and offices. The building will be conducive to the assembly process, large equipment, and flexible lab areas along with an ease of shipping and receiving for deliveries. The building construction will be completed and ready for occupancy in January 2009. Suites are available from 3,000-10,000 SF. The building features a limited amount of shared common area space to allow shared facilities for the tenants including a break room, conference room, shipping and receiving area, and telecom room. Starfire will be graduating out the EnterpriseWorks incubator and moving into lab and office space at the south end of the new building. Starfire develops advanced plasma technologies to assist research in space propulsion, nuclear fusion, and industrial processing and has several hopeful technologies in each of these areas. Starfire has several promising technologies including: the Planar Hall Thruster for dual-mode satellite propulsion, the "nGen" plasma neutron generator for on-line analysis and security inspection, and a microdischarge array light source for EUV photolithography.

The I Hotel and Conference Center, located in the University of Illinois Research Park, had their grand opening this August and is now welcoming guests and events into their new facilities. The I Hotel and Conference Center is unlike any other facility in the Champaign-Urbana area. The I Hotel is dedicated to AAA Four Diamond Quality Standards and creates an atmosphere in which every guest's need is met. In addition to the Hotel, the Conference Center's 38,000 SF, state-of-the-art facility is Champaign-Urbana's unrivaled resource where space can be reserved for business conferences, seminars, career fairs, symposiums, wedding receptions, and other social functions. Within the new building you can also find the new I Cafe, which is proudly brewing Starbucks® coffee as well as Houlihan's Restaurant & Bar located right next to the I Hotel.

TECH cocktail was founded in May 2006 in hopes of creating a place for bloggers, technologists, entrepreneurs and other business professionals to meet, share ideas and have some fun. It has taken place in cities including Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. and Boulder, and on September 25th TECH cocktail came to Champaign! The event was open to anyone in the technology community and Research Park and was held at Houlihan's Restaurant & Bar. Informal demonstrations were made by local technology firms and the cocktail became a great site for networking and sharing ideas. To find out more about TECH cocktail and to become part of their online community please visit www.techcocktail.com.

On October 30th from 5pm to 8pm, Sun Singer will be holding a Wine Tasting Gala to celebrate their 5th anniversary at the I Hotel and Conference Center located at 1900 South First Street in Champaign. They are inviting the public to socialize and sample over 240 wines, spirits, and beers from around the globe. The Gala will also feature a silent auction of wine and wine accessories, plus all attendees will receive a Stolzle crystal souvenir wine glass. Generous discounts will be available on wine purchases made at the Gala and proceeds from this special anniversary event will benefit The Carle Heart Center. Tickets will be available at the door for $20 a piece. More information is available at www.sunsingerwines.com or by calling 351-1115.

Fox Development will be participating in two philanthropic events this Fall and Winter with the Cunningham Children's home and the Eastern Illinois Food Bank. In November, FDC is arranging to have "Giving Trees" placed in the Research Park, each one decorated with name tag ornaments of the children housed at Cunningham Children's Home. Employees of businesses located in the Research Park will chose "ornaments" this holiday season and donate gifts for the children in time for Christmas. The Research Park will be participating in a Food for Families Drive run by the Eastern Illinois Food Bank from November 10 through November 14. There will be boxes set up in each a building where food can be collected for the drive. Thanks for your participation!