Furman University
Furman University, located just outside of Greenville, is an independent, coeducational liberal arts college founded in 1826. In a recent excerise, Furman professors Lloyd Benson, Diane Boyd, Mike Winiski, Wade Shepherd and Cort Haldaman posed the question, “How might one create a fully interactive virtual field trip with integrated mapping using readily available technologies?” In a collaborated effort, they used a combination of a GPS encoding camera/dataphone, Google Earth/Google Maps software, wireless internet, and cellular telephone service, to develop the concept of a virtual field trip. In written reflections students noted that the experience enriched their learning through real-time interactions with a tour guide, that the cities “came to life” and that they had a better sense of historical/spatial connections. At a total cost of about $1000, a diverse group of creative minds innovatively applied existing technology and provided genuinely novel classroom experiences to enhance the engagement of students in learning.
http://www.furman.edu

Automation Engineering Corporation
Founded in 1981, Greenville-based Automotive Engineering Corporation, designs and builds automated equipment and control systems for the manufacturing industry. AEC recently entered the high-speed packaging market with their new product, JOEY. JOEY is an innovative, high-speed, Vertical Form Fill Seal machine. Its modular design allows a single machine to be easily converted to run a wide variety of products and pouch sizes. The results are high-speed operation, more rapid changeover, less waste, and less downtime. JOEY was first introduced to the worldwide market in August 2007. Sales are expected to exceed $2 million dollars within the first year and $80 million dollars over the next 5 years.
http://www.teamaec.com/

KEMET Electronics – MLCCs
Headquartered in Simpsonville, South Carolina, KEMET Corporation leads the industry in the production of high-performance capacitors. Their capacitance solutions include a new environmentally friendly, high-performance, and low-cost multilayer ceramic capacitor, or MLCC. This new material system for manufacturing Class One ceramic capacitors is energy efficient and environmentally clean. KEMET produces these new lower cost MLCCs at a standard which meets and even exceeds the electrical performance and reliability of previous models. KEMET’s new technology has revolutionized the manufacture of MLCCs. Kemet is now on track to produce about 15 billion MLCCs per year.
http://www.kemet.com

Fuller Normal Advanced Technology Charter School
The Fuller Normal Advanced Technology Charter School in Greenville has a student population characterized predominately by low-income, minority students. The mission of “Fuller Normal” is to equip urban at risk students with the 3 kinds of literacy necessary to be successful: The ability to read, write, speak, and calculate with clarity and precision. To be competent in the technological skills necessary become productive members of Greenville’s workforce. Lastly, Fuller tries to instill the desire and ability to participate passionately and responsibly in the life of the community. The centerpiece of Fuller’s technology tools lies is its use of a research, internet and standards-based curriculum. This curriculum combines online technology with traditional content. It engages students using SMART Board technology. In addition to online lessons and instruction, the K12 curriculum also utilizes animations, simulations, audible pronunciations, internet links and talking books to provide students a content-rich learning experience.
http://www.fnatcs.org/

Susan G. Komen for the Cure - Upstate SC Affiliate
Founded 25 years ago, Susan G. Komen For The Cure is the world’s leading breast cancer organization. Recently, the Upstate South Carolina affiliate, Race for the Cure, collaborated with Champion Communications in an effort to increase participation, fund raising and sponsorship of the local race. Champion Communication’s electronic commercials or “E-mercials” allowed Race for the Cure the ability to reach out to the Update by sending out video messages and tracking the results. This electronic campaign fulfilled their mission to spread awareness of the rate while also increasing participation and fundraising. As a result of the innovate E-mercials, the annual Update South Carolina Race for the Cure had record participation, and significant increased in donations and fund raising.
http://www.komenupstatesc.org

PinPoint – Public Works (OA Technology Group)
The City of Clemson recently solicited the assistance of OA Technology Group, located in Central SC, in an effort to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of debris removal. The solution came in technology called PinPoint-PublicWorks. With this technology, each sanitation truck is equipped with simple and inexpensive GPS data collection devices customized for their specific tasks. Sanitation truck drivers can now quickly and easily report anything that needs attention—from piles of debris, to overhanging limbs, to missing street signs. Drivers report data directly to the public works office via the touch-screens mounted in their vehicles. The Public Works Office Administrator can then simply and instantly create a map containing unique icons for all marked points during that day. The locations are automatically matched to a street address and displayed in report format as well as mapped format. Savings realized by the employment of this new system include a reduction in the cost of fuel, manpower, maintenance, equipment, and infrastructure wear and tear. PinPoint-Public Works is now being marketed nationally to City and County Organizations as well as FEMA and the State Emergency Management Divisions.
http://pinpointpublicworks.com

Dr. Caron St. John

Dr. Caron St. John received the Dr. Charles Townes Individual Achievement Award. This award recognizes an individual who exhibits the true spirit of innovation, excellence and leadership through hard work and a commitment to the Upstate community. Dr. Caron St. John is the founding Director of Clemson University’s Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership and also serves as Director of MBA Programs and Associate Dean of the College of Business and Behavioral Science. Dr. St. John’s many academic and administrative accomplishments have been widely recognized both by Clemson and by national leaders in her field. It is, however, her contributions to the entrepreneurial life of Upstate South Carolina that make her deserving of the Dr. Charles Townes Individual Achievement Award.

During the past eleven years, Caron St. John’s vision has inspired the founding and development of the Spiro Institute. Under her leadership, the Institute has been propelled into the ranks of the most innovative university-based programs in the country. Simply stated, Dr. St. John’s vision has been to enact a fundamental change the way that the university is engaged in the business world, and a fundamental change in the way that students are educated for the challenges they will face as entrepreneurs in highly a competitive business environment.

The key to enacting this vision has been to strategically integrate the missions of three key programs at Clemson: The Spiro Institute, our MBA programs and the most recent addition, the Renaissance Center in Greenville. Under Dr. St John’s leadership, these programs work together to take maximum advantage of real-world business experience for students, and to provide access for the area’s entrepreneurs to state-of-the business analysis. Under the direction of faculty mentors, MBA student teams work closely with area businesses providing a range of assistance, from start-up advice for new ventures to analysis for some of the area’s flagship companies. An example is the center’s market opportunity analysis for Michelin’s “Tweel” project, an effort that was reported in The New York Times.

Dr. St. John enjoys the challenges of creating new programs and seeing them through to success, and often provides inspiration and foresight that inspires her colleagues and associates. A primary example is the thought leadership she provided in the establishment of the Clemson University Renaissance Center, which opened its doors on Main Street this past spring. It was Caron St. John who first conceptualized the idea several years ago, then tirelessly promoted the vision at Clemson and to Grenville business leaders.

Dr. St. John has attained many honors, awards and other achievements in her nineteen years at Clemson. Those accomplishments, outlined on the following pages, attest to her tireless quest for excellence in educational programs, and to her dedication to the entrepreneurial community in the Upstate. Moreover, her accomplishments speak to the outstanding ways in which she has used her knowledge, skills, and abilities to help make Greenville a continuing source of economic vitality in the region.

It has often been said that good entrepreneurs know how to “connect the dots.” That is, they scan the competitive environment, determine what needs to be done, acquire the necessary resources, and inspire others to achieve results. Dr. St. John does all of that, and more. She is one of those rare, inspired leaders who also see “dots” to connect that do not yet exist, and find ways to make bring them into existence.

Professor St. John’s research focuses on the strategic, technical and operations issues within businesses. In her research with Professor Jeffrey Harrison, which has been referenced in The Economist, she investigated how diversified firms achieve synergies from business units that have similar technological and manufacturing resources. In her work with Professor Richard Pouder, she explored the effects of geographical clustering of high technology firms on competitive practices and innovation. She and Professor Pouder were invited to present their work at the Conference Board of Canada’s Technopolis Conference in September 1997. In 1999, she and co-authors Raju Balakrishnan and James Fiet received the Decision Sciences Institute’s Best Interdisciplinary Paper award for their use of neural networks in predicting the wealth effects of corporate strategy decisions.

Professor St. John has participated in grants receiving $1.5 million from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation. She has published and presented numerous articles in outlets including Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Human Relations, International Business Review, Academy of Management Executive, International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, and other journals. She has served on the editorial review boards of Production and Operations Management, Business Case Journal, and Academy of Management Executive, and has served as a reviewer for Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Management Science, and Journal of Operations Management.

With Jeffrey Harrision, she co-authored two texts, Strategic Management of Organizations and Stakeholders and Foundations in Strategic Management. She regularly teaches strategic management, operations strategy, and technology and innovation management at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. She also participates in team-taught courses within the entrepreneurship course sequences, including a technology entrepreneurship course for science and engineering majors. She is the past recipient of the Department of Management Scholarly Achievement Award and the two-time recipient of the Outstanding MBA Faculty Award.

During her tenure as director of the Spiro Center, she developed several new curriculum initiatives in entrepreneurship, planned and implemented several outreach programs that link graduate business students and experienced business executives with inventors and entrepreneurs for assistance and mentoring, created a competitive research grants program for faculty and graduate students, and established a formal relationship with the university's Office of Technology Transfer to graduate business students in the university’s technology commercialization efforts. She has also involved the Spiro Center in several collaborations on campus and in the state that are intended to spur economic development through technology-based entrepreneurial initiatives. She is a founding board member of the Upstate Coalition for Entrepreneurial Development and of InnoVenture. She serves on the Clemson University Research Foundation Board.