Other Voices—
From the Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff, Ann Arbor SPARK, exclusive to Saline Journal. [1,2]
In January, I had the opportunity to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas — a massive expo of the latest and greatest tech innovations. Over the past several years, CES has become more and more of an auto show, and we use it as a chance to connect with startups and international companies that might be looking to plug into the Michigan market. The show takes place in Las Vegas, but is covered by international press and attracts thousands of visitors from across the US, Europe, and Asia. [3]
It’s not uncommon to see tour groups headed through the expo, with guides stopping along the way to outline the latest and greatest consumer product they should consider purchasing.
In reviewing my itinerary ahead of CES, I was shocked to see a very familiar name on the agenda — Akervall Technologies. The Saline-based manufacturer of mouthguards used CES as a place to unveil their latest product — SISU Sense — a mouthguard that measures head impact in contact sports. It was clearly a cool innovation and something of interest to anyone that plays a contact sport (and their parents, of course). [4,5]
Although I was initially surprised that a Saline-based company was pitching at CES, it actually makes perfect sense: Saline is a Tech Town.
Cruising around Saline, you can’t get very far without meeting a company, or a resident, that is involved in some of the latest tech advancements. Akervall taking on concussions through mouth-gear, of course, but also: Navya assembling autonomous vehicles, Quantum Signal developing mobile robotics and simulation technology, Liebherr handling technical aerospace parts, In2Being working with startups on the latest medical devices, co-working space sprouting up with tech or arts focus. [6-9]
These are just a few of the companies doing really interesting things around town.
For the past few years, SPARK has been working to showcase the tech happening in our backyard through things like Tech Trek, and now a week-long series of events called a2tech360, happening in June. [10]
We’ve noticed that this series has become a great opportunity to provide information to students and families on what working in the local tech scene is like, and have dozens of entire families that join for Tech Trek. This year we’ve expanded the event series to include hackathons, 2029 (about the future of tech), Intermitten (an annual convergence on art and tech), Tech on the Edge showcasing life science innovation, and many other events.
We’re excited to showcase many of the Saline-based innovations during a2tech360 and are hopeful that our community can better understand the amount of innovation and next-generation tech happening in our backyard. We invite you to check things out June 2 through 10 — a full list of the events online and features:
- Quantum Signal on Mobility Row, part of Tech Trek on June 7th
- Navya on Mobility Row, June 7th
- In2being at Tech on the Edge, during the afternoon of June 6th at MI-HQ
References
- “Phil Santer” Ann Arbor SPARK.
- Ann Arbor SPARK (home page).
- CES: Consumer Technology Association (home page).
- Akervall Technologies (home page).
- “SISU Mouthguard | Introducing SISU Sense” SISU Mouthguards (January 10, 2019) YouTube.
- NAVYA (home page).
- Quantum Signal (home page).
- Liebherr (home page).
- in2being (home page).
- “a2Tech360 presents: Tech Trek 2019” Ann Arbor SPARK.
- “a2Tech360” Ann Arbor SPARK.