We've all got them -- those ideas that we know, just know, would make a fortune if we could get them to a store shelf. Now, some University of Michigan students are hoping to tap into that genius. MPowered Entrepreneurship is challenging students to make their pitches -- whether for ideas they've mulled for years or an unexpected flash of brilliance.

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Student startups are sizzling at the University of Michigan. That's why various university officials have collaborated to create a permanent business incubator designed specifically for student-led companies and some other startups affiliated with the university.

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U-M's MPowered Entrepreneurship, an engineering student group, is challenging students campuswide to think like an entrepreneur with its annual "1,000 Pitches" competition. In its second year, the competition, running through Nov. 20, asks students to pitch new products and business ideas through a one- to three-minute video uploaded to the 1,000 Pitches Web site.

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How Shepherd Intelligent Systems got its start is the way University of Michigan officials anticipate a lot of future start-ups will launch. The 5-month-old U-M spin-off began as the project of U-M engineering student Jahan Khanna. He was creating software that gives riders the real-time position of university buses and realized it had broad commercial potential. So, with the help of TechArb, Jahan teamed up with U-M MBA student Adrian Fortino to start the firm, which now employs four people in downtown.

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The U.S. government has made it clear that developing a domestic auto-battery industry--for advanced batteries to power next-generation electric cars--is a priority. That has states scrambling to be sure they get a piece of the action.

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The University of Michigan recently reached a remarkable milestone given the difficult economic climate in which it was achieved. In fiscal year 2009, U-M exceeded $1 billion of research spending. Amazingly, the volume of research at U-M has doubled in the span of 10 years.

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Today's list of 21 nominees for the 5th annual Deals of the Year award shows the ongoing business successes in the Ann Arbor region in seven key sectors.

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While others worry about finding jobs in Michigan, Jonathan Carender is busy building his own future in the state. The 21-year-old University of Michigan senior is part of an expanding pool of college students who are forming businesses in Michigan, bucking the traditional route of going to work for a large company after graduation.

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For Lauren Leland, president of the University of Michigan's MPowered Entrepreneurship club, entrepreneurialism needs to be more than just a core focus for the university. It needs to be a cultural value.

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If you have an iPhone in the Ann Arbor area, then you know about apps and have probably spent a little coin on them.

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Academics in the United States are hoping that pending legislation and a presidentially mandated review could provide long-sought relief from export laws they believe hamper international scientific cooperation and research.

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U-M's embrace of entrepreneurialism as its academic centerpiece and business connection driver is leading to a leadership transition. Thomas Zurbuchen, founding director of U-M's two-year-old Center for Entrepreneurship, is being promoted to associate dean for entrepreneurial programs at the College of Engineering. It's a new position for the university. U-M has hired serial entrepreneur Doug Neal as the first full-time director of the Center for Entrepreneurship.

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A growing number of universities are teaching students to program for the iPhone, Google's Android, and other smart phone systems, fueled by the belief that mobile development is the next technological gold mine.

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Riders standing at bus stops may be able find out how long they'll have to wait, thanks to the efforts of three University of Michigan students.

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The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced today that it has selected 13 leading scientific postdoctoral researchers to become the first class of Kauffman Postdoctoral Fellows. The yearlong fellowship program will use entrepreneurship education and mentorship to equip the Fellows to commercialize their scientific discoveries.

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Student-run incubator hopes to breed tech moguls. Under Google's imposing shadow on East Washington Street in Ann Arbor, more than two dozen U-M students click-clack on keyboards and discuss third-party software, iPhone applications and angel investors. They are all attempting to grow technology-based startups and to see their big ideas succeed as part of TechArb, the student-run incubator.

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Under Google's imposing shadow on East Washington Street in Ann Arbor, more than two dozen University of Michigan students click-clack on keyboards and discuss third-party software, iPhone applications and angel investors. They are all attempting to grow technology-based startups and to see their big ideas succeed as part of the student-run incubator, TechArb.

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Part of the reason U-M may be such a hotbed for startups is that it is highly supportive of entrepreneurship in general. The university boasts both a Tech Transfer program and a Center for Entrepreneurship within the College of Engineering.

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What kind of projects do U-M students usually tackle? You might be surprised by the complexity and high-level importance of their assignments. Let me give you a few examples.

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A growing number of iPhone application developers are calling Ann Arbor home, continuing a long but informal relationship between Apple Computer and the city's information technology community and the University of Michigan.

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Three student entrepreneurs at the University of Michigan think they can use their phones to make the world a better place, one download at a time.

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There are an astonishing number of things that apps can do. They can help you to level a picture, build a custom radio station, and do your banking. Now there's is an app that can make you feel a little better about yourself and the world around you.

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A group of University student entrepreneurs has created an innovative business incubator in downtown Ann Arbor to foster ideas, share advice and consolidate resources with other enterprising students.

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Now, normally on a free app, I'd give you a few sentences about it and go on with my weekend. But DoGood has inspired me to put in a bit more effort in the hopes that a few more of you will try out the app and be motivated to pay it forward, so to speak.

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Have you done your good deed for the day? I understand: You're busy. You forgot. You couldn't think of anything good to do. Enter DoGood, a free app that suggests and encourages good deeds, crowdsourcing-style.

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Behind a graffiti-covered door, at the end of the alley next to the Michigan Theater and one floor below street level, a handful of entrepreneurs are working at all hours in some pretty unusual office space.

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"What about a place for the kids?" is a statement sure to make most eyes roll, but a group of University of Michigan students are dead serious about such a subject when it comes to business incubators.

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A Web site created by U-M students proposes a new twist on the music industry's business model--the chance for fans to invest directly in specific artists.

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A group of student entrepreneurs has opened a small-business incubator in the basement of a downtown Ann Arbor building. They'll spend the summer sharing space, equipment and ideas. The incubator, called the TechArb, hosts 30 students running 10 different start-ups.

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I worry about two things that are critical for the future of Michigan: first, that the definition of entrepreneurship is misunderstood, and second, that too many people still don't understand how critical it is to unleash the entrepreneurs among us.

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Refrigerator vacuum panels made from the ash of burned rice husks won University of Michigan students first prize in the M.I.T. Clean Energy contest.

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The University Research Corridor (URC) institutions- Wayne State, Michigan State, and Michigan- have sent 27,000 graduates into the uncertain world this year. Will they build their futures in Michigan? And why should the state's taxpayers subsidize these universities when most of their graduates leave the state? I hear these questions a lot.

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GM has just formed a partnership with another startup, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Sakti3.

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Husk Insulation was named the winner of the $200,000 MIT Clean Energy Prize, a national student competition. Husk Insulation is a team of MBA students from U-M that came up with an idea to make more efficient insulation for refrigerators and other products, said a spokeswoman for NSTAR, a Boston-based electric and gas utility company.

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Darryl Weinert plans to spend the coming months in this column examining some bright spots in this state's economic future--its universities and their incredible transformative power. This won't be an "academic exercise" with lots of graphs and tables assessing multipliers and espousing theories of wealth creation. Rather, I plan to explore how this works--the daily interactions between students, faculty and companies that spark innovation, creativity, and ignite dreams.

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U-M students are inventing new ways to experience music, helping the hard-of-hearing and deaf. This news coverage was a follow-up to the "Feel the Music" competition at U-M.

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When Robert Alexander saw the e-mail announcement for the "Feel the Music" competition - a contest that asked U-M students to design devices that would enable hearing-impaired people to experience live music - he thought it was a prank. Months earlier, while composing a song, the media arts graduate student had discovered that he could "hear" music through his leg. Alexander and his four teammates were named the winners Wednesday evening of the "Feel the Music" competition for their Thumping Threads. The threads - a stylish and discretely vibrating Italian-wool vest - bested five other student prototypes to take the $5,000 top prize.

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Universities and businesses are teaming up around the United States to promote clean-energy ventures that get students out of the laboratory and into the business world, marketing much-needed solutions to the nation's energy woes.

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The Michigan Daily recognized Julia Samorezov and Ashwin Lalendran as U-M Students of the Year. Lalendran created MPowered two years ago to encourage entrepreneurship by students, which if aided by Michigan businesses and alumni, could help bolster the state economy.

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The Michigan Daily recognized Julia Samorezov and Ashwin Lalendran as Students of the Year. Samorezov is vice president and co-founder of Michigan Health Engineered for All Lives (M-HEAL), a student organization founded in 2006 to design medical equipment for needy communities in the developing world.

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Some local college students are well on their way to owning a green, high-tech company. The first step was winning a big competition.

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A student team that developed a plan to use algae to simultaneously treat wastewater and produce raw material for biofuels has won a top prize in a competition established by DTE Energy Co. and the University of Michigan.

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At least 1,200 students registered to attend the job fair held by the University of Michigan's MPowered Entrepreneurship Wednesday afternoon.

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I'm walking the hallways of the MPowered Career Fair, a joint effort between the University of Michigan's MPowered student organization and the U-M Center for Entrepreneurship.

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Using a cell phone, two University students have a plan to completely change the way hearing impaired students attend class.

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Attention, Ann Arbor area employers: You have a chance to help end the brain drain that is so often lamented by our state. By making a small commitment to the one-day local career fair put on by the University of Michigan, each of you has a chance to demonstrate to the young talent coming out of the university that Ann Arbor has a very viable business community to consider after graduation.

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Against the backdrop of the faltering economy, more than 1,000 members of the University of Michigan community put forth their ideas for new businesses, inventions and non-profit groups in a contest named after its goal: 1,000 Pitches. Seven of them won $1,000 prizes.

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In a modest office near Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor, Ann Marie Sastry oversees a small group of engineers racing to create what could become the ultimate savior of the U.S. automobile industry: a next-generation lithium-ion battery.

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Magnetically assisted artificial joints and a device that translates sign language into speech were among the winners of a online video contest at the University of Michigan held this fall to collect 1,000 business ideas from students and faculty.

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How is the automotive crisis playing out in the classroom? Students at Michigan universities - particularly those whose parents work in the automotive industry - are, well, stressed out.

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Ann Arbor-based lithium ion battery manufacturer A123Systems Inc. received $10 million in state funding for a battery manufacturing facility. Michigan State University and the University of Michigan will contribute research to bolster the company's efforts.

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FlexSys is showing some flex, inventing new technology to make wind turbines more efficient and resilient. Oh, and they're creating more jobs in Ann Arbor.

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Michigan's universities must work more closely with local businesses to help them become more competitive, a panel of experts said Tuesday night at the Creative Cities Summit 2.0 in Detroit.

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U-M announced last week that its research spending topped $875 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year, a record, and including $100 million in private sector funding. Its tech transfer operation is large, sophisticated and growing. And its spinoff effect in the Ann Arbor area is obvious and indisputable.

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The convergence of the automotive industry and Ann Arbor's emerging battery technology sector could be a force in spurring the electrification of the vehicle, experts suggest.

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At first glance, U-M researcher Jay Guo's invention just might look like a small newspaper printing press. But look closer, he said, and you'll see a machine that can continuously imprint tiny computer chips with information nearly as easily as a compact disc burner writes on a CD.

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In the early days of recorded music and pop concerts, deaf people devised makeshift techniques for connecting to sounds: holding a balloon to feel subtle vibrations, for instance, or standing barefoot on a wooden floor.

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Don't worry about the white paper. You can make your pitch by vodcast. Southeast Michigan entrepreneurs and industry experts will serve as judges of "1,000 pitches," a competition launched last week by the University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship.

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Three U-M groups spent the summer launching businesses as part of a program called RPM 10. The program was a partnership between the U-M engineering school's Center for Entrepreneurship and local venture capital company RPM Ventures Inc.

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Engineering junior Yue Fan is testing his flashing alarm clock idea on a larger scale thanks to a program that awarded him and 11 other U-M students up to $5,000 to pursue their business ideas.

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The University of Michigan College of Engineering opened its Center for Entrepreneurial Programs to students in early October.

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