News

200,000 gallons and 6,000 miles — The man who helped sanitize Nebraska, and the team that produced it

In early April, when the pandemic was keeping most Nebraskans home, Lew Sieber started setting his alarm for 4 a.m.

The 57-year-old would leave his northwest Lincoln home in the dark, headed for Innovation Campus and a 5,000-gallon tanker truck. He wanted to be first in line when the Green Plains ethanol plant near York opened at 7, and he had nearly an hour’s drive west ahead of him.

Nebraska PPE partnership project receives Excalibur Award at AURP 2020 International Conference

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) announced recipients of the Awards of Excellence during the 2020 virtual international conference. The Nebraska PPE Partnership Project, a partnership between Nebraska Innovation Studio (NIS), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Food Processing Center and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, received the Excalibur Award.  

Students, Innovation Studio team up to help Whiteclay Makerspace

In a small way, a group of University of Nebraska–Lincoln students and staff are helping Whiteclay, Nebraska, make a big change.

Through a partnership with Rotary International District 5610 out of southern South Dakota, staff from Nebraska Innovation Studio and students from the College of Engineering learning community, Engineering to Change the World, made 30 individual toolboxes for Native American artists who are utilizing the new and developing Whiteclay Makerspace.

Virtual Incision Receives Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) to Initiate Study of First-of-its-Kind MIRA Platform

Virtual Incision Corporation, a medical device company pioneering a first-of-its-kind miniaturized surgical platform, today announced it has received an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the company’s MIRA® (“miniaturized in vivo robotic assistant”) Platform.

The IDE will allow the company to initiate a clinical study of MIRA at a limited number of U.S. hospitals in support of the system’s regulatory pathway to approval.

On Nebraska Innovation Campus, The Combine incubator hatches new agtech startups

Before Seattle-based Costco broke ground on its $280 million poultry operation in Fremont in 2017, Scott Niewohner remembers a conversation with his cousin about the pros and cons of building barns to raise chickens to supply the plant. 

Chief among the cons, according to Niewohner’s cousin: daily retrieval of the dead birds scattered throughout the barns, which at a ‘typical’ capacity can contain up to 50,000 chickens at once.

“He said he wanted nothing to do with picking up all those dead birds every day,” Niewohner remembers.

How a Biomedical Engineer Helped Meet the Need for Hand Sanitizer During the Pandemic

In March of 2020, many people began moving to working and learning from home as coronavirus made its way across the nation. Hand sanitizer was hard to find, not only for individuals and families—but for businesses and organizations on the front lines and for essential workers. From ingredients to make hand sanitizer to plastic to package it, supplies were low and availability was limited.

Agtech incubator at Innovation Campus gets $600,000 grant

An incubator program for agricultural startups that's based at Nebraska Innovation Campus has received a $600,000 grant from the federal government.

NIC hosts drive-in screening of Le Sueur documentary Sept. 30

“The Art of Dissent,” a feature documentary film by historian James Le Sueur, explores the role of artistic activism during Czechoslovakia’s communist takeover and nonviolent transition from communist power. It will be screened as a free drive-in film at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at Nebraska Innovation Campus, 2021 Transformation Drive, in the northwest corner of the A lot.

The Scarlet ‘a game changer’ for Hospitality, Restaurant, Tourism Management program

Perdue says innovation, collaboration key to agriculture’s future

The future of U.S. agriculture is dependent upon research, innovation and collaboration, which together will lead to increased agricultural efficiency and sustainability, as well as development of foods designed to improve human health, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said Sept. 4 during a visit to Nebraska Innovation Campus.

“It’s universities like this that make that happen,” Perdue said.