The floor-length wrap-around garment fastens at the waist, can beput on in seconds, and, unlike rain pants, does not require removal of shoes orslacks. So many passersby asked Earthman where they could buy a rainskirt like hers thatshe applied for a patent and started a company, Emergent Designs. The skirts arestitched out of a waterproof, breathable fabric made of recycled soda bottlesand sell for $90 to $220. The two other Big Bang! finalists announced Wednesday proposed companies to savewater in grape vineyards and preserve sight in people with diabetes: Tom Shapland, a viticulture graduate student at UC Davis, and Michael Crews, afirst-year MBA student, teamed up to create Latent Harvest. The company aims tomarket a technology capable of giving farmers real-time crop water-usemeasurements.
Currently, growers rely on estimates rather than directmeasurements. Five UC Davis students are behind VisionQuest, which proposes retinal scanningkiosks at retail stores. Scans would be relayed to VisionQuest ophthalmologists,who would study the scans for signs of diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause ofblindness Team members are Megan Roberts, a Ph.D. candidate in molecular,cellular and integrative physiology and a Business Development Fellow with theCenter for Entrepreneurship, and MBA candidates Nathan Bowersox, Christine Chen,Courtney Hans and Sam Wainer. “Something special happens when you mix great technology, a solid business planand prize money,” said Nicole Woolsey Biggart, dean of the management school.”Big Bang! is a showcase of what is happening at UC Davis — big ideas put intoaction, and a growing entrepreneurial spirit campuswide.” For more information on the competition, visit the Big Bang! Web site at. About the Graduate School of Management Established in 1981, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management providesmanagement education to more than 500 students enrolled in Daytime MBA andWorking Professional MBA programs on the UC Davis campus, in Sacramento, and inthe San Francisco Bay Area. It also offers a technology management minor forundergraduates and business development programs in which doctoral sciencestudents develop skills to commercialize research.
UC Davis For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public servicethat matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the statecapital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds$500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers.The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and EnvironmentalSciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science — andadvanced degrees from six professional schools — Education, Law, Management,Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. Graduate School of ManagementTim Akin, orUC Davis News ServiceClaudia Morain, Copyright Business Wire 2009. (Adds background, S&P’s comment) Currencies | Bonds | Funds News | ETFs News NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service onThursday said it is comfortable with the triple-A sovereignrating on the United States, but it is not guaranteed forever. “There are longer-term pressures on the rating, that’s veryclear,” said Steven Hess, lead analyst for the U.S creditratings agency Moody’s has a stable outlook on the U.S.
