Houston-based academic group names top entrepreneurship programs in the world

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The Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers is a group of more than 250 university entrepreneurship programs that is headquartered at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. Photo courtesy of Rice

A Houston-based academic group called out top universities and programs from around the world — including one in Houston and another in Texas — that are excelling in educating future entrepreneurs at the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Conference last month.

The GCEC is a consortium of more than 250 university entrepreneurship programs that is headquartered at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, which has been named a top entrepreneurship program itself time and time again.

The group's annual conference was hosted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in October, and more than 550 member representatives attended, according to a statement from Rice. In addition to talks, break out sessions and collaboration time, 14 universities were awarded top honors at the event.

Houston Community College's entrepreneurial initiatives won in the Excellence in Specialty Entrepreneurship Education category. The office is known for signature programs like its annual business plan competition, which has been running since 2008. It is also home to the Minority Business Development Agency, created by a grant from the Department of Commerce in 2013, and the MBDA Pandemic Recovery Center.

Additionally, the HCC Alief Hayes Campus is in partnership with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, providing 100 hours of instruction and advising and access to capital and an alumni network.

The Texas A&M University System also won in the Outstanding Contributions to Venture Creation category along with the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota). TAMU was recognized for its TEES DeepTech Ventures program. The hands-on training program operated out of Doha, Qatar last November.

Meanwhile Babson College's Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship and Iowa State University's Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship were awarded the most prestigious honor at the conference. The universities received the The Nasdaq Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence Award. This was the first year that two programs received the award based on student body sizes of less than or more than 5,000 students.

Duncan Moore, a professor at the University of Rochester’s William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, and Carol Reeves, associate vice provost for entrepreneurship at the University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business, received legacy awards for their contributions to entrepreneurship education.

Other winners included:

  • Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship Center (schools with less than 5,000 students)
    • Lafayette College, Dyer Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  • Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship Center (schools with more than 5,000 students)
    • James Madison University, Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship
    • Nova Southeastern University, Alan B. Levan-NSU Broward Center of Innovation
  • Exceptional Activities in Entrepreneurship Across Disciplines
    • Northeastern University, Center for Entrepreneurship Education
  • Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation
    • Stanford University, Stanford Technology Ventures Program
  • Outstanding Student Engagement & Leadership (schools with less than 5,000 students)
    • London Business School, Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital
  • Outstanding Student Engagement & Leadership (schools with more than 5,000 students)
    • Marquette University, 707 Hub
  • Exceptional Contributions in Entrepreneurship Research
    • Florida Atlantic University, Adams Center for Entrepreneurship
  • GCEC Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership
    • UNLV, Troesh Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The 2023 GCEC Conference will be held in Dallas next October at the University of Texas at Dallas.
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TMC lands $3M grant to launch cancer device accelerator

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A new business accelerator at Houston’s Texas Medical Center has received a nearly $3 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

The CPRIT grant, awarded to the Texas Medical Center Foundation, will help launch the Accelerator for Cancer Medical Devices. The accelerator will support emerging innovators in developing prototypes for cancer-related medical devices and advancing them from prototype to clinical trials.

“The translation of new cancer-focused precision medical devices, often the width of a human hair, creates the opportunity to develop novel treatments for cancer patients,” the accelerator posted on the CPRIT website.

Scientist, consultant, and entrepreneur Jason Sakamoto, associate director of the TMC Center for Device Innovation, will oversee the accelerator. TMC officials say the accelerator builds on the success of TMC Innovation’s Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics.

Each participant in the Accelerator for Cancer Medical Devices program will graduate with a device prototype, a business plan, and a “solid foundation” in preclinical and clinical strategies, TMC says. Participants will benefit from “robust support” provided by the TMC ecosystem, according to the medical center, and “will foster innovation into impactful and life-changing cancer patient solutions in Texas and beyond.”

In all, CPRIT recently awarded $27 million in grants for cancer research. That includes $18 million to attract top cancer researchers to Texas. Houston institutions received $4 million for recruitment:

  • $2 million to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to recruit Rodrigo Romero from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City
  • $2 million to MD Anderson to recruit Eric Gardner from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City

A $1 million grant also went to Baylor College of Medicine researcher Dr. Akiva Diamond. He is an assistant professor at the medical college and is affiliated with Baylor’s Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Musk’s SpaceX spends $17B to acquire spectrum licenses from EchoStar

SpaceX Update

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has reached a deal worth about $17 billion with EchoStar for spectrum licenses that it will use to beef up its Starlink satellite network.

The deal for EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses includes up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock. SpaceX will make approximately $2 billion in cash interest payments on EchoStar debt through November 2027.

SpaceX and EchoStar will enter into a long-term commercial agreement which will allow EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers to access SpaceX’s next generation Starlink Direct to Cell service.

Shares of EchoStar surged 19% before the market opened Monday.

Last month AT&T said that it will spend $23 billion to acquire wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, a significant expansion of its low- and mid-band coverage networks.

EchoStar said that it anticipates that the AT&T deal and the SpaceX transaction will resolve recent inquiries from the Federal Communications Commission about the rollout of 5G technology in the U.S. The FCC had been calling for hearings on whether Echostar was properly using the spectrum that it is now selling, and its efforts to make 5G more available to communities.

EchoStar said Monday that it will use the proceeds from the sale partly to pay down debt. Current operations of Dish TV, Sling and Hughes will not be impacted, the company said.

Houston students develop cost-effective glove to treat Parkinson's symptoms

smart glove

Two Rice undergraduate engineering students have developed a non-invasive vibrotactile glove that aims to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease through therapeutic vibrations.

Emmie Casey and Tomi Kuye developed the project with support from the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) and guidance from its director, Maria Oden, and Rice lecturer Heather Bisesti, according to a news release from the university.

The team based the design on research from the Peter Tass Lab at Stanford University, which explored how randomized vibratory stimuli delivered to the fingertips could help rewire misfiring neurons in the brain—a key component of Parkinson’s disease.

Clinical trials from Stanford showed that coordinated reset stimulation from the vibrations helped patients regain motor control and reduced abnormal brain activity. The effects lasted even after users removed the vibrotactile gloves.

Casey and Kuye set out to replicate the breakthrough at a lower cost. Their prototype replaced the expensive motors used in previous designs with motors found in smartphones that create similar tiny vibrations. They then embedded the motors into each fingertip of a wireless glove.

“We wanted to take this breakthrough and make it accessible to people who would never be able to afford an expensive medical device,” Casey said in the release. “We set out to design a glove that delivers the same therapeutic vibrations but at a fraction of the cost.”

Rice’s design also targets the root of the neurological disruption and attempts to retrain the brain. An early prototype was given to a family friend who had an early onset of the disease. According to anecdotal data from Rice, after six months of regularly using the gloves, the user was able to walk unaided.

“We’re not claiming it’s a cure,” Kuye said in the release. “But if it can give people just a little more control, a little more freedom, that’s life-changing.”

Casey and Kuye are working to develop a commercial version of the glove priced at $250. They are taking preorders and hope to release 500 pairs of gloves this fall. They've also published an open-source instruction manual online for others who want to try to build their own glove at home. They have also formed a nonprofit and plan to use a sliding scale price model to help users manage the cost.

“This project exemplifies what we strive for at the OEDK — empowering students to translate cutting-edge research into real-world solutions,” Oden added in the release. “Emmie and Tomi have shown extraordinary initiative and empathy in developing a device that could bring meaningful relief to people living with Parkinson’s, no matter their resources.”

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