www.memphis.edu/fedex
January 2014
THE FEDEX INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 10 YEARS
The FedEx Institute of Technology held a “birthday” party on November 19 to recognize the opening of the
building 10 years ago. Students, faculty and staff were invited to stop by for a slice of birthday cake and enjoy
entertainment provided by guitarist Aaron Brock from the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music.
“We would like to express our gratitude to FedEx Corporation for their significant support. They have given the
FedEx Institute the vital resources that allow us to invest in technology commercialization, corporate engagement
and entrepreneurship. These three initiatives enhance the university’s capacity to affect the economic growth of
our community,” said Kevin Boggs, interim Executive Director of the FedEx Institute.
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Cathy W. Carrigan, Editor
3rd Memphis Research and Innovation Expo
Crews Center for Entrepreneurship Grand Opening
The Crews Center for Entrepreneurship held its grand opening on November 21. A culmination of years of planning,
The FedEx Institute hosted the 3rd annual Memphis Research and Innovation Expo on October 3. The expo
designing, and construction, the Crews Center is a state-of-the-art space dedicated to helping University of Memphis
provided a platform for leading local scientists to explain their research, innovations and creations. The FedEx
students and faculty commercialize their ideas, inventions, and research through early-stage entrepreneurship.
Institute lobby was filled with 26 booths of research, many offering attendees a hands-on, interactive experience.
Approximately 150 guests from the university and the community toured the building prior to the ceremony. Notable
In addition to University of Memphis departments and colleges, local research-oriented organizations including
features of the new facility are a conference room, prototype development lab, dedicated office for Entrepreneurship
Buckman, Smith & Nephew, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital were present. Two speakers were on the
MBA students, and a co-working space that serves as the hub of entrepreneurship on campus.
morning agenda. Former FBI and CIA counter terrorism expert Philip Mudd spoke about risk management and
how it parallels the work of federal agencies tasked with countering risks to the U.S. from terrorist organizations.
University of Memphis interim President Brad Martin spoke at the event and stressed the importance of
Procter & Gamble (P&G) CEO A.G. Lafley talked about business strategy and shared examples from his experiences
entrepreneurship and how it brings together all the resources of the university. Other speakers included Kevin Boggs,
at P&G including the decision to divest all their food businesses. He stated that above all, P&G is an innovation
Ben Bryant, executive-in-residence of the FedEx Institute, Brian Summerhill, a student entrepreneur, and Hilliard
company. The afternoon speaker session featured a panel of local entrepreneurs who discussed launching a high-
Crews, whose generous gift helped make the Crews Center possible. The Crews Center is a program of the FedEx
growth startup in Memphis.
Institute. Additional donors include the First Tennessee Foundation, Mitchell and Janet Spurlock, Jim and Ann Vining,
Glen and Sherry Herald, Reynolds Bone & Griesbeck, Mitch and Lynn Lewellen, Farris Bobango, Rick and Sandy Spell,
Ben C. Bryant, Jr., Triumph Bank, Lisa and John Bobango, Gil and Sybille Noble.
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Brian Janz,
FedEx Institute’s Innovator- In-Residence
Dr. Brian Janz is the FedEx Institute’s first Innovator- In- Residence. His idea to bring organizations to
the University of Memphis with challenges that could be addressed by an eclectic yet skilled collection
of experts was realized at the recent Memphis Innovation Bootcamp (MIB). “Instead of being the
innovator people seek out for answers, I want to serve as an improvisational bandleader of sorts to
bring together those who have challenges and innovators who have expertise,” says Dr. Janz.
He has been at the University of Memphis over 18 years. Dr. Janz is the First Tennessee Professor of
MIS, a George Johnson Teaching Fellow, and serves as the Associate Director of the FedEx Center for
Supply Chain Management. He is a recipient of the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the
MIS Advisory Council’s Outstanding Teaching Award. He was the first faculty member in the Fogelman
College of Business to design and implement an online course. His research interests focus on how
information technologies affect organizational strategy, design, business processes, and supply chains.
Dr. Janz’ research has been published in MIS Quarterly, Decision Science, Communications of the
AIS, Journal of MIS, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Database Management, Journal of Information
Technology Management, and Information and Management.
Memphis Innovation Bootcamp
The first official Memphis Innovation Bootcamp (MIB) was held November 6-8 at the FedEx Institute. The participants
He has over 30 years of experience in the information systems field working for the University of
represented many local organizations including ALSAC, FedEx, First Tennessee Bank, International Paper, Merck, Methodist Le
Minnesota, IBM, Honeywell and General Motors. He did his bachelor’s degree work in electrical
Bonheur Healthcare, and ServiceMaster as well as the University of Memphis.
engineering at both the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota and earned an MBA
and Ph.D. from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
During the Bootcamp, participants learn from the MIB “Posse” -- a group of experienced facilitators and apprentice facilitators
from the academic, arts, scientific, and corporate arenas -- about the human-centered design principles of empathetic
data collection, creating compelling points of view for addressing problems and opportunities, ideation, iterative, fast-cycle
prototyping with constant customer interaction, and how to learn quickly from failure. These principles are applied to a handson “Design Challenge,” a real-world problem or opportunity that could benefit from the collaborative and innovative energies
of the MIB participants. For this first Bootcamp, participants took on the design challenge of re-imagining the daytime Beale
APLU Designates U of M An Innovation & Economic Prosperity University
Street experience.
In recognition of a strong commitment to regional economic engagement, the U of M has achieved designation as an Innovation
After collecting data from interviews with tourists, locals and employees of Beale Street businesses, Bootcamp teams continued
& Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). The new designation
to apply the human-centered design principles of ideation and iterative prototyping to ultimately develop customer-tested
acknowledges universities working with public and private sector partners to support economic development through a variety
prototypes which the teams then presented to an executive panel from the mayor’s office, Memphis Grizzlies, Downtown
of activities, including innovation and entrepreneurship, technology transfer, talent and workforce development, and community
Commission, and FedEx Forum.
development. Applicants for the new Innovation & Economic Prosperity designation conducted a self-study that included
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input from external stakeholders. The U of M is intentionally and systematically aligning its instruction, research and outreach
While the goal of the MIB is to increase the number of innovators in Memphis and Shelby County, the desired outcome is
to current and emerging economic drivers in the region. As evidenced in three case studies identifying the strengths of its
that the innovations presented to the relevant stakeholders have some real world value. Initial feedback from this MIB session
partnerships (Strengthening Communities, the FedEx Institute of Technology and the Memphis Research Consortium), the U of
was positive and suggests the group is on the right track. The next Bootcamp is scheduled for March 5-7, 2014.The MIB is a
M is creating new forms of connections that enable innovation in economic development.
program of the FedEx Institute.
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Office of Technology Transfer
The Office of Technology Transfer works closely with University
of Memphis faculty researchers to identify commercially
valuable inventions that are being developed in their
laboratories. Since May, six invention disclosures were
Washington Monthly Ranks U of M Highly on Social Media
Washington Monthly magazine has ranked the University of Memphis 37th among 284 national colleges based on social
mobility, research and service. The U of M is ranked sixth in the area of service staff, courses and financial aid support.
According to the publication’s methodology, social mobility encompasses recruiting and graduating low-income students;
research means producing cutting-edge scholarship and awarding PhD degrees; and service is encouraging students to
give something back to their country.
Washington Monthly asserts that its criteria are more important in judging the worth of a college or university than that
used by other well-known publications. It views schools in light of what they are doing for the country and whether they
submitted and four patents were issued.
Tidbits
Invention Disclosures:
Kevin Boggs gave the welcome address at the Business
Growth and Procurement Summit (BGPS) event which
was hosted by the City of Memphis in partnership with the
University of Memphis last summer. BGPS was held at the
FedEx Institute and was designed to expand awareness about
upcoming business opportunities with the city as well as other
partner agencies.
Automated, On-line Preconcentration and Analysis
of Haloacetic Acids in Drinking Water using
Sequential Injection Analysis, Internal Standardization
and Postcolumn Reaction - Ion Chromography with
Nicotinamide Fluorescence
Gary Emmert, Christina Henson, Paul Simone
Synthesis of Iron Oxide-Gold Core-Shell
Nanoparticles in Different Shapes
Xiaohua Huang, Bhana Saheel
are high quality, affordable and accessible.
Microporous Chitosan Sponge
Warren Haggard, Keaton Smith, Jared Cooper
Springer Best Paper Award
Generalized Image Processor Using Cellular
Simultaneous Neural Networks
Khan Iftekharuddin, John Anderson
Brooke Sanford was awarded the Springer Best Paper Award at the 16th International Conference on Medical Image
Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Computational Biomechanics for Medicine Workshop VIII in
Nagoya, Japan for her paper “Hip, knee and ankle joint forces in healthy weight, overweight and obese individuals during
walking” authored by Brooke A. Sanford, John L. Williams, Audrey R. Zucker-Levin, and William M. Mihalko. The research
was supported by the FedEx Institute because it has real potential to help local medical device companies better design
orthopedic implants for overweight patients.
Efficient FIB Caching Using Minimal NonOverlapping Prefixes
Lan Wang, Yaoqing Liu
Earthquake Early Warning Microarray
Charles Langston
Patents Issued:
Biomaterial Composition and Method of Use,
U.S Patent No. 8,404,256
Warren Haggard, Johnathan McCanless
Spatially-Selective Reflector Structures, Reflector
Disks, and Systems and Methods for Use Thereof,
U.S Patent No. 8,508,892
Eddie Jacobs, Furxhi Orges, Layton Thomas
Pipemidic Acid Derivative Autotaxin Inhibitors,
U.S Patent No. 8,497,371
Abby Parrill, Daniel Baker, Adrienne Hoeglund
JumpStart America is a community-focused effort leveraging public, private, philanthropic and institutional partnerships to spur the creation of new jobs
by developing, identifying and supporting high impact entrepreneurs. JumpStart America recently announced that it was partnering with Memphis to help
grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem. Mike Hoffmeyer and Kevin Boggs met with JumpStart America President Michael J. Mozenter (2nd from left) and
Regional Advisor Erin Dorsey (2nd from right) to discuss the key role the U of M can play in high growth startup ecosystems in Memphis.
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Nanothin Polymer Films with Selective Pores and
Method of use Thereof, U.S Patent No. 8,519,015
Evgueni Pinkhassik, Delia Danila,
Benjamin Clayton, Larry Banner
Funding from the FedEx Institute supported FITKids pilot work
on pediatric obesity and enabled the U of M’s School of Public
Health to obtain a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Dr. Ramin Homayouni, Associate Professor of Biology
and Director of the Center for Translational Informatics (CTI),
recently received a grant from the prestigious Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation that was made possible, in part, by initial
funding from the FedEx Institute. The Gates-funded project will
explore the use of modeling approaches developed by the
CTI for analysis of malnutrition and growth stunting in children
across the globe.
Kevin Boggs gave an overview of the FedEx Institute’s
key initiatives at the Society for Information Management in
November.
Bob Wenker has joined the FedEx Institute Corporate Advisory
Board. He is Vice President and Chief Information Office at
International Paper.
The FedEx Institute was a sponsor of the 6th Cyber Security
Expo held in October.
The Institute for Intelligent Systems hosted the 16th
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education
(AIED). The conference provided opportunities for crossfertilization of approaches, techniques and ideas from the
many fields that comprise AIED, including computer science,
cognitive and learning sciences, education, game design,
psychology, sociology and linguistics. The FedEx Institute
helped to support this conference.
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A Tennessee Board of Regents Institution • An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action University • UOM319-FY1314/6C DirectFx Solutions, Inc.