Corporate Innovation

  • All processors on deck in the race to research COVID-19

    All processors on deck in the race to research COVID-19

    Sometimes a problem is so urgent and complex, you need the whole world working on it.  That’s COVID-19. Sometimes you also need the help of a global supercomputer. That’s Folding@home. A distributed computing project powering research into SARS-CoV-2, Folding@home seeks to develop effective, patent-free drugs to treat the deadly coronavirus, which has caused over 732,000…

  • Advent, LLP invents the future of intellectual property law

    Advent, LLP invents the future of intellectual property law

    From his father, Ryan Grace inherited more than a love of fishing. He caught the invention gene as well. In 2007, Grace, the founding partner of Omaha-based Advent, LLP—an intellectual property, innovation and technology law firm with clients around the globe—teamed up with his father, Ted Grace, to come up with an invention that would…

  • Ground-to-cloud sharing: Lincoln AgTech startup RealmFive revolutionizes wireless connectivity in agriculture

    Ground-to-cloud sharing: Lincoln AgTech startup RealmFive revolutionizes wireless connectivity in agriculture

    It’s all about connecting the dots for Lincoln agriculture tech startup RealmFive.  Through a series of products, sensors and cloud technologies, RealmFive is bringing the latest in tech to farms around the world. “Our goal as a company is to connect and control all the things that our customers care about on the farm and…

  • Bay Area AI engineer turned VC joins retired Nebraska STEM educator to strengthen local tech, startup ecosystems

    Bay Area AI engineer turned VC joins retired Nebraska STEM educator to strengthen local tech, startup ecosystems

    Joshua Armah, president of Wiase Research Institute and managing partner of Wiase Capital, got hit in the head with a baseball bat when he was 14 years old. A former Boy Scout turned teenage runaway on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey, he was trying to save his friend from a beatdown. Stepping up…

  • Lincoln startup Pawlytics solving a doggone problem for animal shelters 

    Lincoln startup Pawlytics solving a doggone problem for animal shelters 

    Pawlytics founder Lizz Whitacre has four dogs, three cats, one ferret and two horses. The serial entrepreneur joked that the office of her Lincoln-based tech startup could double as a petting zoo. “Everything I’ve ever done has been related to trying to save animals, while trying to figure out how to make a bunch of…

  • There’s an App for That: Union Pacific Railroad Digitizes Workflows

    There’s an App for That: Union Pacific Railroad Digitizes Workflows

    It wasn’t so long ago that the railroad ran on paper. Stacks and stacks of paper were used to keep track of the hundreds of thousands of rail cars that flowed through Union Pacific’s 23-state system. A slip of paper captured the customer’s property, each rail car’s schedule and final destination. It was the train…

  • Leading with Curiosity, Passion and Integrity: Valmont Industries President & CEO Stephen G. Kaniewski Weathers the Storm

    Leading with Curiosity, Passion and Integrity: Valmont Industries President & CEO Stephen G. Kaniewski Weathers the Storm

    Leadership is defined in times of crisis, and a leader earns their mark when they “gird and inspire people through difficult times,” historian Nancy Koehn wrote.  Valmont Industries President and CEO Stephen G. Kaniewski learned this firsthand through trial-by-fire. The tireless researcher, people person and tech leader at the helm of the Nebraska-born irrigation-systems manufacturer…

  • Developing Leadership When Things Are Not Good

    Developing Leadership When Things Are Not Good

    Originally posted on the AIM Institute blog No one knows how the coronavirus pandemic will evolve, how long the economy will stay underwater, or even what recovery looks like.  But the radical workplace upheaval and sudden ad hoc shift to remote technology over the past month suggest two truths:  We need more tech talent.   We…

  • “At Home in a Crisis Trying to Work”: Cheered on by the Startup Collaborative, Founders Face Grim Future with Hope

    “At Home in a Crisis Trying to Work”: Cheered on by the Startup Collaborative, Founders Face Grim Future with Hope

    Erica Wassinger, Senior Director of Entrepreneurship & Innovation for the Greater Omaha Chamber, exerts considerable energy and influence helping entrepreneurs weather the storms of starting up. Her work as cofounder of The Startup Collaborative often brings her as close to founders as public health guidelines currently allow.  For the past month, she’s been speaking with…

  • Virtual Workforce Development Approach Encourages Youth to Dig Themselves, Discover Their Talents and Compete for Prize Money

    Virtual Workforce Development Approach Encourages Youth to Dig Themselves, Discover Their Talents and Compete for Prize Money

    When CEO of Symphony Workforce Todd Smith speaks about Discover Your Genius, a workforce development challenge for high school and college students, enthusiasm brightens his voice.  When he describes what DYG (“dig”) has done for underserved youth across Nebraska—particularly in rural areas where food deserts, poverty and lack of mental health services persist—it’s hard to…