Art and technology in Chicago and beyond
by Cyan Zhong Medill Newsmakers What happens at the intersection of art and technology? Chicago has the answer. From the world’s largest public art display, a tech-infused interactive museum to educating the future generation of artists, the windy city provides a rich cultural landscape for interdisciplinary creativity. On this episode of Medill Newsmakers, we explore […]
Chicago’s impact investing landscape: A conversation
By Cyan Zhong Medill Reports What is the primary purpose of business? To maximize profit or to make the society better with products and services? Can businesses balance these two goals? Impact investing, a trend quickly gaining momentum in Chicago, offers an answer. In February, small businesses, not-for-profits, corporations, foundations and venture capitalists alike gathered […]
How a women-led tech startup e-prescribes community resources for self-care
By Cyan Zhong Medill Reports Stacy Lindau wears many hats – practicing physician, researcher, professor. But she never imagined herself a technology startup founder. As electronic prescriptions make the old-school pencil-to-paper prescriptions obsolete, Lindau found the calling to expand the power of information technology outside exam rooms and into a broader community. With funding from […]
Your old cell phone could become the medals for 2020 Tokyo Olympics
By Cyan Zhong Medill Reports If you live in Japan, you might have a chance to see top athletes all over the world wear your old phones on their necks next summer. Well, not quite, but close. The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has been collecting used electronics all over Japan, […]
Majority of Americans now accept climate change, support carbon tax
By Cyan Zhong Medill Reports Remember this tweet from President Donald Trump as the Midwest shivered through record low temperatures? Despite the nation’s chief executive still denying climate change, America’s public sentiment on climate science is shifting to acceptance and a call for action. The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) and […]
Show-stopping concept vehicles grandstand music and grill fresh pizza at Chicago Auto Show
By Cyan Zhong Medill Reports As the flashiest fleet revved its way into the 2019 Chicago Auto Show, one special model boomed into spectators’ ears and eyes at the pre-show media exhibition. Penetrating bass and beats came from the back of the vehicle. Kicks DJ, an orange Nissan vehicle adapted into a music powerhouse, has […]
How this nano startup tackles big problems at the smallest scale
By Cyan Zhong Medill Reports A floating birthday balloon that sticks to the wall. A sponge absorbing water. An exploding soda can. A bottle rocket. These seemingly unrelated items are all analogies Benjamin Hernandez uses to explain his startup, NuMat Technologies, a nanotechnology company in Skokie that tackles big problems at the smallest possible scale. […]
Cleantech innovations in the Midwest need more venture capital money
By Cyan Zhong Medill Reports Though still an industrial metropolis, Chicago is actively becoming a clean energy innovation hub for microgrids, electric cars and next generation battery research. But the startup momentum in the energy sector isn’t matched with enough venture capital enthusiasm. “There are great founders working hard on great new inventions and new […]
