Assemblyman Robin Schimminger and Kevin Clarke, vice president and general manager for Quebecor World Buffalo Inc., will be recognized today for their leadership in local economic-development efforts during the UB Business Alliance's 2001 Grand Reception, which will be held from 4-6 p.m. in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

In keeping with the reception's theme of "Igniting Ideas," Schimminger and Clarke will receive "Igniting Ideas Leadership Awards"-Schimminger for the public sector and Clarke for the private sector-as the individuals who in the past year demonstrated leadership in and helped "ignite ideas" for economic development in Western New York.

The reception also will feature a keynote address by Arvin Mueller, group vice president of General Motors Powertrain, who will discuss his organization's recent decision to expand operations in Western New York.

Other speakers will be Kevin Donovan, area director, United Auto Workers Region 9, and Ron Allman, vice president for manufacturing for the forging division of American Axle & Manufacturing.

SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King will make opening remarks.

The UB Business Alliance also will use the reception as an opportunity to celebrate its accomplishments of the past year and look ahead to the future.

"In the coming year, the UB Business Alliance will be front and center in UB's new thrust to better integrate industry needs with our research capabilities and technologies ranging from drug discovery to industrial design," said Jaylan Turkkan, vice president for research and co-chair of the UB Business Alliance with Mark Karwan, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Major achievements during the past 18 months include retention of more than 8,000 jobs and the creation of more than 600 new ones through the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR).

"SPIR continues to be a significant help to local companies," said Karwan.

Through the UB program and similar ones at the SUNY university centers at Binghamton and Stony Brook, SPIR aims to bolster the state economy by promoting the transfer of knowledge from university to industry and by providing consultation, technical assistance, research facilities and resources for industrial restructuring.

Funded by New York State, SPIR grants to businesses cover up to 50 percent of a project's cost for utilizing faculty members, students and other technically trained personnel, as well as fees for using sophisticated research facilities, such as those available at UB.

This year, in response to "overwhelming demand by its business partners," SPIR participants were invited to attend short courses that are eligible for continuing-education credits, according to Tim Mattulke, director of business development for the Business Alliance. Topics that will be covered this spring include the new ergonomic standard and its impact on business, lean supply-chain management, agile manufacturing that helps companies be more responsive to customers and statistical process control.

As the business outreach arm of UB, the UB Business Alliance also will be a key participant in a $600,000 National Science Foundation project with counterparts at the University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology and the cities of Rochester and Buffalo to enrich entrepreneurial efforts in the region.

Through SPIR and other programs it offers, the UB Business Alliance has assisted nearly 60 companies in the past year and a half, including:

- Technicor, a biotech start-up, now a tenant in the UB Technology Incubator of the Business Alliance. The company benefited from assistance from the UB Department of Chemical Engineering. Technicor President Michael Hacikyan had invented a way to fundamentally alter the way blood and other fluids are transported from location to location by turning them into gels. But he wasn't sure he knew how to turn them back into fluids. With assistance from chemical engineering professors Sriram Neelamegham and Paschalis Alexandridis, he found a way to accomplish this biotech feat.

- Sonwil, which specializes in food and medical storage. The Business Alliance assisted the firm in achieving ISO 9002 certification (international standards certification required for global businesses). With a portion of the project covered by Empire State Development and half the training costs underwritten by SPIR, Sonwil was certified, a month ahead of schedule.

- The Depew plant of Quebecor, a key facility for the world's largest commercial printer, Quebecor World, now undertaking a $15 million expansion. Through the assistance of Li Lin, associate professor of industrial engineering, the UB Business Alliance is involved in this major plant expansion and layout, as well as implementation of computerized scheduling plans.

- Chemical manufacturer Carborundum. Rakesh Nagi, associate professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering, and Chunming Qiao, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, helped automate a scheduling system by developing customized software.

Other actions the UB Business Alliance has taken to strengthen both the university's own ability to turn inventions into commercial products and its capacity for assisting local and regional firms include opening a satellite office in the Health Care Business Center on the South Campus to increase access for UB inventors and instituting a series of seminars on intellectual-property issues for faculty and local business people through its Technology Transfer and Licensing (TTL) division.

"Technology-oriented companies help drive economic growth," said Jerry McGuire, director of the TTL, "and key to their success is knowing how to protect intellectual property. The aim of these seminars is to bolster the university's protection processes, while sharing that information for the economic good of the region."

The UB Business Alliance was formed in November 1998 to improve the way that businesses access the university and to provide a central focus for all of UB's economic-development and industrial-outreach activities.

It combines four critical services that the university provides to industry:

- The Center for Industrial Effectiveness (TCIE), which offers training programs, research-and-development assistance, technical assistance and assessments, and translation services

- Office of Technology Transfer and Licensing (TTL), which specializes in patenting and licensing UB inventions to the private sector.

- UB Technology Incubator, operated in cooperation with the Western New York Technology Development Center, which supports the establishment of technology-intensive businesses-many of which are run by UB faculty, students or alumni-commercializes UB inventions and provides applied-learning opportunities for students

- Health Care Business Center, a partnership with the Health Care Industries Association, which brings researchers, manufacturers and health-care providers together with the university to enhance the local health-care industry