Tuscaloosa's Bidsters, Child Safety Pass join five other companies in the Alabama Launchpad Start-Up Competition Finale

Staff Report

 

Two startup companies from Tuscaloosa will join five other young companies from Birmingham and Madison in vying for a share of more than $100,000 in prize money Friday in the Alabama Launchpad Start-Up Competition Finale.

  

Representatives of the companies will make their pitch for financial backing starting at 9 a.m. The event, which is free and open to the public will be at the Evonik Corp., 750 Lakeshore Parkway, off Lakeshore Drive, in Birmingham, but the winners will be announced in the evening. The competition will be held at Evonik Corp., 750 Lakeshore Parkway, Birmingham.

  

The Tuscaloosa companies are both affiliated with the University of Alabama. They are Bidsters LLC, an online interactive database for personnel to efficiently connect, communicate and collaborate on project bids and Child Safety Pass, a software system to manage student transportation safety.

more...

[Tuscaloosa News]

 

 

 

 

 

 

ThyssenKrupp expands to Woodstock; coil processing center to eventually employ about 45

By Patrick Rupinski

Business Editor

Mar 20, 2014

 

ThyssenKrupp Materials NA Inc. has opened its $15 million, 100,000-square-foot metal coil processing and distribution service center in Woodstock.

 

The facility employs 20 people and when it reaches full capacity, it will have about 45 employees, the company said.

 

The new facility processes coil rolls of carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum by cutting the coils to customer specifications and then shipping the finished product to manufacturing customers across the Southern United States.

ThyssenKrupp Steel Services and Ken-Mac Metals, both divisions of Thyssen-Krupp Materials, occupy the facility, which has two cut-to-length lines and one 72-inch wide slitter to process material.

 

more...

[Tuscaloosa News]

 

Wise 'optimistic' on deal

 

more...

[Times Daily]

 

 

 

more...

[Alabamas13]

 

 

 

Alabama Launchpad and the University of South Alabama are offering a workshop March 28 in Mobile to help small high-tech companies secure funding through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. 

 

Those programs make more than $2 billion a year available to promising research and development companies.

 

Got a small company in need of funding or know of a company?

 

The Alabama SBIR/STTR Assistance Program's Proposal Preparation Workshop will offer information to help companies get the tools needed to write competitive proposals for high-tech, innovative projects.

 

The workshop will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 28, in the 3rd Floor Board Room at the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce. Check-in begins at 8:30 a.m.

Cost: $50 ($100 for out-of-state attendees)

Deadline for registration is Friday, March, 21.   Register here

 

 

Contact Austen Parrish at aparrish@edpa.org or 205-943-4727 or Mark Weaver at markweaver@southalabama.edu or 251-460-6702.

 

More information about the Alabama SBIR/STTR Assistance Program, a project of the Economic Development Partnership, is available on the Alabama Launchpad website.  

 

 Innovation Depot getting international attention

By Honora Gathings 

BIRMINGHAM - AL -Recently, no major job announcements have come to the Birmingham area. But there's a game changer- the Innovation Depot. The business incubator is getting the world's attention. Wednesday, an Australian trade commissioner had to see it for herself.

Until Wednesday, all of Australia's Minister-Counsellor and Senior Trade Commissioner Kelly Ralston's information about Birmingham came from magazines.

 

"We were getting the sense a lot of interesting things were happening. We didn't know what. We are glad to be here to explore that further," said Minister-Counseller Ralston.

more...

 

[abc3340]

 

College and Career Center to add robotics and automated manufacturing program

FROM STAFF REPORTS

March 19, 204

 

COLUMBIANA - Students interested in pursuing a career in robotics and automated manufacturing will soon have that opportunity in Shelby County.

 

The school district is utilizing a $500,000 grant to implement a Robotics and Automated Manufacturing program, known as R.A.M., at the College and Career Center in Columbiana.

 

Rene' Day, coordinator for career and technical education, college and career planning, and community partnerships, said the money for the grant was made possible thanks to a state bond issue passed by the Alabama Legislature.

 

"We wrote an Innovative Program Grant to fund this program. The grant will purchase all equipment needed, including an automated manufacturing line like students would encounter in industry," Day said. "These programs can be extremely expensive so we are very grateful that the Alabama Legislature saw Career and Technical education's important role in workforce development and approved a $50 million bond issue last year." said Day.

more...

 

[Shelby County Reporter]