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2016 | Doing Business in Connecticut 25 SPONSORED REPORT UConn's Innovation Quest Program Helps Scientist, Inventor Mark Smith Launch Unique Business D id you ever wonder what a bee looks like in mid-flight? Or how truly beautiful a spider is up close? Or how intricate the blue iris of someone's eye can appear when magnified? Scientist and inventor Mark Smith, a 2013 graduate of UConn, has elevated science to an art form with the creation of his company, Macro- scopic Solutions of Tolland, Conn. The company's first product, the Macropod, combines high- resolution digital cameras, powerful optics, precision hardware, and novel software packages, providing customers with extraordinary images that can be used for research, digitization, and education. It captures images of details too small to be seen by the naked eye, while maintaining the object's color and context even during substantial enlargement. Smith's project won first place in the UConn School of Business' Innovation Quest (iQ) competition in 2013. The iQ program is an innovation competition and startup incubator to help student entrepreneurs convert great ideas into great companies. UConn alumnus Keith Fox '80, launched iQ in 2010 with the mission of creating jobs and companies by teaching aspiring entrepreneurs what it takes to launch a new business. "Like all scientists, I have thousands of ideas, but I lacked the business know-how and money to get started,'' says Smith, who earned a master's degree in geoscience from UConn. His clients have included Harvard and Cornell universities, the Smithson- ian, the United States Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "The Macropod Pro's advantages are made clear by the researchers who remark about the system's superior quality and efficiency,'' Smith says. "Cornell University talks about an undergraduate working in the Cornell University Insect Collection (CUIC) who will be graduating in May 2016 with five publications where he used the Macropod Pro Imaging System to illustrate specimens in all of his papers. The imaging system is also used to take photographs of slide collections, which allows researchers around the world to view the CUIC and collaborate with the university." Not only is Smith's business thriving, he's using it to inspire the next genera- tion. For every 10 Macropods that Smith sells, he donates one to a high school to engage students in science. Macroscopic Solutions is just one of the many great ideas that have been nurtured through UConn's School of Business. With a legion of business experts at the ready, the School's Connecticut Center for Entre- preneurship & Innovation also offers programming and support to help bring robust ideas to the marketplace. For more information, please go to http://ccei.uconn.edu/. from both institutions access to cutting-edge equipment to analyze a single cell at high resolution. This collaboration makes shared equipment economically viable and brings unprecedented precision to biomedical research. UConn is a major component of Connecticut's growing bioscience research corridor and as such, the University is advancing partnerships with a variety of global life sciences companies. These relationships, which are in various stages of implementation, include three unique multi-year partnerships underway with New Haven-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals involving faculty from Storrs and UConn Health. Other key life sciences partnerships include the following companies: GlaxoSmithKline; Regeneron; Pfizer; Genentech; Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals; Histogenics Corporation; Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Xenoport; Abbott Labs; Proctor and Gamble; Pharmaxis; Endo Pharmaceuticals; Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation. Corporate partnerships and sponsorships are also key to the exploration of new digital methodologies and the development of new digital practices. UConn's Digital Media Center has many relationships with industry leaders including Cigna, Diversified Media Group, UTC Aerospace System, and BBDO allowing the Center to identify and tackle new challenges that further its research goals. A partnership funded by Connecticut Innovations for $10 million was established with UConn and Yale for PITCH, the "Program in Innovative Therapeutics for Connecticut's Health," designed to provide a streamlined translational pathway for researchers to convert their discoveries to new therapeutics. For more information, please go to http://innovation.uconn.edu/. Lacewing (Photo courtesy of Macroscopic Solutions) More than Meets the Eye