News

NU's Innovation Campus to host packaged Korean food producer's research HQ

LINCOLN — On land once famed for food on a stick, an Omaha entrepreneur declared Monday that she’s hoping to put kimchi on a shelf.

Suji Park, founder and “chief inspirational officer” of Suji’s Cuisine USA, announced that the company will soon open a modest research and development division at Nebraska Innovation Campus. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln technology park occupies the former location of the Nebraska State Fair.

Innovation Campus adds Korean food processor

Suji Park owns and operates Korean restaurants in South Korea and Japan -- and caters food service at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul -- but she has long been drawn to Nebraska’s status as the Beef State.

“It’s the Silicon Valley of red meat,” said Park, whose Suji’s Cuisine was announced Monday as the fifth private company and first international tenant of Nebraska Innovation Campus. They already have a sales office employing six people in Omaha.

Wood cut from State Fair Park trees crafted into table

In line with the renovation of the former 4-H Building and Industrial Arts Building, Nebraska Innovation Campus is continuing to make the old new. Click here for the full story.

Students hone creativity in Innovation Studio course

This is the true story of 23 UNL students from various academic backgrounds, picked to work together and learn about new technologies; to find out what happens when people start tinkering and begin to develop bigger ideas.

This is "Making for Innovation," a unique, first-time UNL course offered in the new Innovation Studio at Nebraska Innovation Campus.

World-Herald editorial: Right vision for NU's Innovation Campus project

Innovation Campus is the University of Nebraska’s commendable effort to create a world-class scientific research park on the former Nebraska State Fairgrounds.

Rather than blindly copying what’s being done in, say, Massachusetts or North Carolina, Innovation Campus is rightly building on Nebraska’s proven strengths.

The point isn’t gargantuan size. Instead, it’s quality and specialization, using sound long-term planning and a phased approach to construction.

Innovation Campus adds three business partners

The market for crop imaging by drones was saturated, so Vishal Singh pivoted to using unmanned aerial vehicles in the beef industry.

Singh found a need to identify individual ailing cattle within a herd as a measure to improve food production and raise margins, so he experimented with fixing a thermal imaging camera to a drone to look for changes in temperature in the animals.

That idea, too, had trouble getting off the ground.

“The problem, of course, is that the cattle don’t hold still for you,” Singh said.

Nebraska Innovation Campus announces 3 new partners

Nebraska Innovation Campus has announced three new partners. Dan Duncan, executive director of NIC, said Hastings HVAC, Echo Canyon Services and Quantified Ag would move into space on campus later this year.

“NIC and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln welcome these three companies and are excited about the culture and innovation they bring in becoming our partners,” Duncan said.

Nebraska Innovation Campus ahead of its timetable for completion

By Natasha Rausch / World-Herald bureau

LINCOLN — The former State Fair Park is gone. In its place sits three state-of-the-art buildings that mark a new era of engineering and science at the Nebraska Innovation Campus, where private and public sectors will combine to create new technology near the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Construction began in 2013, and now the campus has 380,000 of the 2.2 million square feet covered, with $120 million spent.

Executive Director Dan Duncan said the goal is to have the project completed by 2038.

UNL network guides tech from campus to market

Publishing results in an academic journal or presenting them at a national conference represents a finish line for many researchers. For those looking to transfer their work from public institution to private industry, however, this finish line becomes a starting point.

'Making for Innovation' will be first class at NIC

A new course will allow up to 30 students to get hands-on experience and help launch the UNL Maker Space in the spring semester.

The course, "Making for Innovation," will be the first to meet at Nebraska Innovation Studio — formerly the UNL Maker Space — on Nebraska Innovation Campus. Shane Farritor, professor of mechanical and materials engineering, and Liana Owad, Maker Space coordinator, will guide the class.