By Innovate Pasadena Staff — July 27, 2017
Connect '17 Event and Connect URB-E Derby registration here, Pasadena BIO Collaborative Incubator, more $$$ for ObEN and Impact Health while Guidance and YP get purchased, and more!
In Case You Missed It!
AROUND TOWN
Event Registration Has Begun
Innovate Pasadena Connect ’17, formerly known as “Connect Week,” kicks off October 13, 2017 with Art Night and Playhouse District’s ARTWalk2017. LEARN MORE and REGISTER YOUR EVENT
URB-E and Innovate Pasadena Team Up to Raise Money for STEAM:Coders and Math Academy
Pasadena-based URB-E and Innovate Pasadena have teamed up to raise money for STEAM education for elementary school kids in the first annual Connect URB-E Derby with trophies donated by Supplyframe DesignLab. Teams will compete in a relay race while riding URB-Es in Pasadena. All proceeds from Team registration go to STEAM:Coders and Math Academy. LEARN MORE and REGISTER YOUR TEAM
Friday Coffee Meetup Hosted Adaobi Gwacham
On July 21, Friday Coffee Meetup hosted Adaobi Gwacham where the entrepreneur shared her story from her beginnings as a Chick-Fil-A employee to franchise owner of Pasadena’s $8 Million a year location. READ MORE
Huntington Hospital Names Dr. Lori Morgan President and CEO
Huntington Hospital announced that its board of directors has appointed Lori Morgan, MD, MBA, as president and chief executive officer effective early to mid-September, 2017. READ MORE
Blaze Pizza off to Fastest-Ever Start for Any Food Chain
Pasadena-based Blaze Pizza, founded by Elise and Rick Wetzel in 2012, is now officially the fastest growing launch in the history of the U.S. food service business, going from two to 200 franchises in five years. READ MORE
DESIGN
ArtCenter’s Women in Industrial Design Forum Hosted Female Leaders to Talk Success in Tech and Design
At ArtCenter’s Women in Industrial Design Forum on Saturday, July 15, 2017, design leaders from companies including Nike, Airbnb, Sony, Mattel, MIT Media Lab, Google and Snap gathered at the College to share wisdom from the trenches. READ MORE
SCIENCE
Pasadena BIO Collaborative Incubator Highlighted as Biotech Explodes in LA County
Biotech companies across Los Angeles County are unlocking new solutions for a host of as-yet-untreatable ailments, from sickle-cell anemia and rheumatoid arthritis to all varieties of cancers. READ MORE
CalTech Conte Center Poised for Next Chapter in Decision-Making Research
After five years of investigating the basic mechanisms of human decision-making, the Caltech Conte Center will tackle a more complex topic: How do social settings affect the way we make decisions? READ MORE
CalTech Professor Designing Computer Software of the Future
In a new Caltech study, accepted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2017 Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, Fernando Brandão, the Bren Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech and co-author Krysta Svore of Microsoft, have demonstrated that quantum computing could be useful for speeding up the solutions to "semidefinite programs," a widely used class of optimization problems. READ MORE
TECHNOLOGY
ObEN Lands $5 Million for AI-Powered Avatars
Pasadena-based ObEN, a startup that is building software to create personalized avatars for celebrities, has raised $5 million in a strategic investment that should help it expand its product into China. The round was led by Chinese tech giant Tencent, with participation from Fengshion Capital and Li Ruigang, the chairman of China Media Capital. READ MORE
I’m a Great CEO and I’m Not a Loud Powerhouse
Gladys Kong, CEO of Pasadena-based UberMedia writes for Fortune magazine about leadership, STEM education, and innovation. READ MORE
Pasadena Police Department Tries New Spokeo for Law Enforcement to Find Suspects
The Pasadena Police Department is using a new investigative tool from Spokeo that aggregates public record and any public information, from a full list of crimes to interests on Facebook. The new “easy-to-use investigative tool,” filters through more than 95 social media platforms like Facebook, Venmo, Twitter and dozens of other sites which carry an excessive amount of public information to acutely narrow down possible suspects. LEARN MORE
OpenText Acquires Forensic Security Vendor Guidance Software for $240 Million
OpenText agreed to pay Guidance shareholders $7.10 a share. The price will be less Guidance’s cash on hand of approximately $18 million, making the final price just around $222 million, according to OpenText. Under the terms of the purchase, the company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of OpenText. READ MORE
Roomba Vacuum Maker iRobot Betting Big on the 'Smart' Home
Smart home lighting, thermostats and security cameras are already on the market, but Colin Angle, chief executive of Roomba maker iRobot Corp., says they are still dumb when it comes to understanding their physical environment. He thinks the mapping technology currently guiding top-end Roomba models could change that and is basing the company's strategy on it. READ MORE
Pasadena Defense Supplier Gets Certification for Barrier to Stop Terrorist Vehicle Attacks
Pasadena-based Meridian Rapid Defense Group said its portable Archer 1200 vehicle mitigation barrier has just received a passing certification on the European Publicly Available Specifications security standard known as the PAS 68. READ MORE
Directory Publisher Dex Media Buys Rival YP Holdings to Create DexYP™
Dex Media, Inc. has announced that it has acquired YP Holdings, a leading marketing solutions and search platform provider and publisher of the Real Yellow Pages® and YP.com. The combined company, called DexYP™, provides local business automation software and digital and print marketing products enabling local businesses to compete and win in today’s on-demand economy. READ MORE
Impact Health Raises $13M
Impact Health, a health insurance platform provider, has raised $13 million in Series A funding. The investors were Techstars and Foundry Group. READ MORE