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March, 2005 |
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DAYNA DESIGNS MAKES THE BALTIMORE
SUN
Sparkling school spirit:
Style File
By Tanika White, Sun Staff
Originally published Sunday, February 27, 2005 in
The Baltimore Sun
Dana Lande was an MBA candidate at the University of
Maryland, College Park, trying to figure out a way to
break into the saturated world of jewelry design. She
was a semester behind on her entrepreneurial track,
while most of her fellow classmates were graduating in
the spring.
So, she might have jealously grumbled when a
graduate-to-be asked Lande to make her some classy, but
fun jewelry to wear at the May 2004 graduation
ceremonies. Instead, Lande showed up in class with four
bracelets and a few pairs of earrings she had made out
of natural stones in the university's colors and
dangling with silver turtles - the campus mascot.
"People loved them," says Lande, now the founder of
Dayna Designs, a local jewelry design and production
company. Lande didn't know it, but she had just scored a
slam dunk toward finding her niche.
 Today,
Lande, who also makes a line of mid-priced all-occasion
jewelry, sells about two dozen different designs of
custom university jewelry under a brand she calls Dayna
U. The collection of Terps necklaces, bracelets,
earrings, toe rings and key rings are hand-crafted from
sterling silver and natural gemstones, such as black
onyx, red coral and garnets. "What I found was
there's really a dearth of mascot jewelry that is fun,
but nice," said Lande, 31, who graduated in December.
"You either have really cheesy, rhinestone, $5 stuff -
which has its place - or you have a $300 gold Terps
pendant that just says 'Terps,' which is OK, but not
fun." Lande's red, black and silver jewelry fills
in that gap. At a mid-range price level, students,
alumni and jewelry lovers can buy custom, quality
jewelry that can be worn to games, meetings,
conventions, parties, reunions - just about anywhere.
Most of her designs cost between $10 and $70.
Lande, of Beltsville, started in
July selling her designs to the University of Maryland
Alumni Association. From there, she moved more of
her wares to the campus bookstore. "They sold out
two or three times before Christmas," Lande says.
Last month, Lande expanded to the university's Comcast
Center basketball arena and the off-campus bookstore,
the Maryland Book Exchange.
Lande has gotten such a good
reception about the Terps jewelry, she's started
designing a line for Penn State, and hopes one day to
design similar jewelry for other big colleges and
universities. "I think that, especially at a
really large school, people want to be connected," Lande
says. "It gives people pride in the school and helps
them identify with the best parts of their school. And
it's fun."
Fear the (sterling silver)
turtle!
You can see more Dayna U Terps jewelry at
http://www.daynau.com.
Ed. Note: Dayna Designs has been working closely
with the Dingman Center and The Smith Store.
You may view and purchase Dayna U Terps jewelry at
The Smith Store,
http://www.thesmithstore.com .
UPCOMING DINGMAN CENTER EVENTS
Monday, March 7, 9:30 a.m. CAN Breakfast,
at the Chesapeake Innovation Center (CIC),
175 Admiral Cochrane Drive, Suite 400, Annapolis, Maryland. This event is for
angel investors who are interested in meeting entrepreneurs
who have been selected by the Dingman Center and the CIC
as having a promising business idea and are in need of
venture capital. RSVP to Maya Rao, Dingman
Scholar, at mrao@rhsmith.umd.edu
Tuesday, March 8, 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
TEDCO Showcase: Personal Protective Technologies
This event is co-sponsored by the Dingman Center
and Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO),
and will be held at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in
Aberdeen, Maryland. Attendees will learn about
cutting edge research and technologies with commercial
applications; state and other funding programs for
technology development; and accessing the Aberdeen
Proving Ground resources and expertise.
Additionally, there is a significant bio/medical
section, there are unique facilities and capabilities
offered for public sector use, and collaboration
opportunities on technologies ranging from testing
capabilities to training support to licensable
technologies to R&D collaborations being sought.
To register, visit their website at
http://www.gbtechcouncil.org/events/tedco.asp or
call 410-327-9148, ex. 4. The cost is $40 per
person. The registration deadline has been
extended until March 3.
Friday, March 11, 9:30 a.m. Venturing Into
Biotechnology: Strategies for Successful Growth in
Maryland
This event is co-sponsored by the Smith School's
Bio-Pharma Business Association and The Dingman Center
for Entrepreneurship, and will be held at the business
school in Van Munching Hall. Dr. Wei-Wu He,
General Partner and Co-founder of Emerging Technology
Partners will be the keynote speaker. The audience will
be students, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs
interested in Maryland state resources and strategies for
company growth. Discussions will include emerging
topics in biotechnology and venture capital funding for
life sciences companies. This event is FREE, but
pre-registration is required. Space is limited,
but is still available, so register quickly! Visit their website
at
http://ee.rhsmith.umd.edu/biotechventures .
Thursday, March 17, 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Mosh Pit Business Plan Mixer. RESCHEDULED from
February 24 due to snow. This event is
co-sponsored by the Dingman Center and the Hinman CEO's
program. It is for students (undergrad and grad)
interested in entering the upcoming business plan
competition in April, with $30,000 in cash prizes.
Mosh Pit is self-titled as the "coolest
business competition in the world!" Free pizza and
sodas will be served. Visit their website for more
information.
http://www.gbtechcouncil.org/events/mp/umdmixer.asp
Wednesday, April 6, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Speaker Series -- Mr. Phil Samper, Gabriel
Venture Partners
Mr. Samper will speak on the topic of
business execution. He is the founding
partner of Gabriel Venture Partners ,
a
former vice chairman of Eastman
Kodak, the former president of Sun Microsystems
Computer, and the former CEO of Cray Computer.
This event will be held in the Rouse Room, 1415
Van Munching Hall beginning at 6:00 p.m., with
an opportunity for networking and light
refreshments. The talk will begin at 6:45
p.m. RSVP to Carol Cron, at
ccron@rhsmith.umd.edu .
UPDATE ON STUDENT-RUN BUSINESSES
$10,000 Investment in Hook and Ladder Brewing Company
On February 14, 2005 the Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship announced that it has invested $10,000
in start-up funding to Hook & Ladder Brewing Company, a
student-run business founded by second-year Smith MBA
student Matthew Fleischer. The investment is part of the
seed stage funding the center makes available to
student-run, start-up companies.
The Dingman Center assists students and regional
entrepreneurs with expertise, resources and funding. As
part of the center's mission in nurturing regional
entrepreneurship, students are eligible to compete for
$50,000 of seed stage funding per year. Investment is
determined on a case-by-case basis with a maximum
investment of $10,000.
“This seed funding provides a great opportunity for
students to take the required steps towards becoming
successful entrepreneurs,” said Asher Epstein, managing
director of the Dingman Center. “Too often people
associate entrepreneurs with the Bill Gates of the world
and that can be intimidating. The Dingman Center is
singular in its commitment to providing entrepreneurs
with the tools they need and in recognizing
entrepreneurship as a key driver of the global economy.”
Fleischer founded the brewery with
his brother in 1999 after a year of successful
experimentation. Hook & Ladder won a Gold Medal at the
2001 Great American Beer Festival, the beer industry's
equivalent to an Academy Award. As a result the beer has
successfully been distributed in select parts of
California, Florida, and the Washington DC area. The
funding from the Dingman Center will enable Fleischer to
focus greater expansion in the DC metro area.
“Growth is good and so is success, but each brings its
own set of challenges to a small business,” said
Fleischer. “Access to the Dingman Center's mentors,
funding and resources has put me in a stronger position
to navigate building on a winning formula.”
EVENT SUMMARY
Tech Visionary: Grid Computing -- February 2, 2005
The final frontier of grid
computing is sometimes referred to as “ubiquitous
computing”, the notion that your idle PC is crunching
data for a stranger somewhere halfway around the world.
This vision is clearly a long way off; however,
enterprise level grids that provide serious parallel
computing are already starting to add value today.
On February 2, the Dingman Center hosted a discussion
on the future of grid computing for regional venture
capital professionals. The panel for this event
included: Michael Cummings, Alan Sussman, Henry
Lucas, and Robert Cohen (bios are below).
The term grid computing is still being used to describe
a variety of different computer applications and
technologies. The panel was able to separate out
different definitions, but generally they all defined
grid computing as some type of distributed computing,
memory or storage with differing degrees of abstraction
for the end-user. At the extreme, the user has no
knowledge of or control over where and what machines are
doing the actual data processing or where the data they
are using is being stored. This is somewhat analogous to
the electrical grid where consumers just “flip a switch”
and know almost nothing about where the electricity is
made or how it gets to them.
Professor Lucas made the pointed that while the idea of
using latent resources makes sense to a CEO, there are
several organizational hurdles to the adoption of grids. The
CIO may resist adoption of another complex technology,
and users may resist adoption of a technology that takes
their machine out of their complete control. Publicly
distributed computing projects like SETI@Home have run
into several issues of quality control. However,
companies have had more success because of their ability
to dictate IT practices.
Industry professional Robert Cohen explained that
companies with serious parallel computing needs are
using cluster computing and enterprise grids today to
great benefit. Brokerage firms are using enterprise
grids to help run complex multivariate financial
modeling in 1/10th of the time. Pharmaceutical companies
are using enterprise grids to conduct new product
research via complex molecular level modeling. Auto
manufacturers are using enterprise grids to accelerate
new product development and to simulate crash tests.
They have even extended those grids to their partners as
well.
Dr. Cohen believes firms could realize 15 - 30
percent gains in
annual efficiency in the next five years. His own
research showed drastic increases in output,
productivity, and decreases in employment and product
costs.
(Moderator) Phil Garfinkle,
Venture Partner at Gabriel Venture Partners
Phil Garfinkle is a three-time successful entrepreneur,
an experienced CEO, and an active angel investor. He is
widely credited as the pioneer of online photofinishing
and holds many patents in this area, as well as in the
fields of communications and networking. As a Venture
Partner, Phil continues to focus on emerging
applications for disruptive technologies. Prior to
Gabriel, he was a founder of Yazam, a global VC firm
that was acquired by US Technologies. Prior to Yazam, he
founded PhotoNet Japan, which went public in 2002. Phil
was most notably the founder, CEO, and Chairman of
PictureVision, which was sold to Kodak. At Kodak, he
also served as a General Manager and in the CTO's
office. His operating experience also includes having
been the CTO/VP Engineering at Network Imaging, and VP
for Information Technologies at ASG.
Smith Professor Hank Lucas,
Professor of Information Systems
Professor Lucas' research interests include the impact
of information technology on organizations, IT in
organization design, electronic commerce, and the value
of information technology. A prolific researcher, he has
authored 11 books as well as monographs and more than 70
articles in professional periodicals on the impact of
technology, information technology in organization
design, the return on investments in technology,
implementation of information technology, expert
systems, decision-making for technology, and information
technology and corporate strategy. His most recent books
include Information Technology and the Productivity
Paradox: Assessing the Value of Investing in IT (Oxford
University Press, 1999) and The T-Form Organization:
Using Technology to Design Organizations for the 21st
Century.
Michael Cummings, Visiting
Associate Professor, Center for Bioinformatics and
Computational Biology
Professor Cummings' research interests are in the areas
of molecular evolutionary genetics (including population
genetics, systematics, comparative genomics) and
computer science related to bioinformatics,
computational biology, and Grid computing. He has
authored or co-authored 38 publications. His research is
supported by the National Science Foundation, National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of
Energy, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Fujitsu Laboratories
of America, and Intel Corporation.
Robert Cohen, Fellow, Economic
Strategy Institute
Dr. Cohen works on a number of telecommunications and
Internet issues. He authored ESI's study on the impact
of the Internet on the U.S. economy, and had earlier
estimated the impact of a more rapid deployment of
broadband communications on productivity and economic
growth. He recently served as President of the
Forecasters Club of New York, and has taught at the City
University of New York and NYU's Stern School of
Business. Cohen received a Ph.D. in economics from the
New School for Social Research.
Alan Sussman, Assistant
professor, Computer Science Department
Professor Sussman's current research emphasis is on the
design and implementation of high performance database
systems for multi-dimensional data sets, with many
applications including analysis of remote-sensing data,
medical information systems and support for processing
and visualization of scientific simulation results.
Previous and continuing work includes compilers and
runtime support for parallelizing geometrically complex
and/or adaptive scientific computations on distributed
memory parallel machines.
THE DINGMAN
CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Founded by Rudy Lamone in 1986, the Dingman Center was one of
the first of its kind in the country and has emerged as a
top-ranked entrepreneurship center. Thanks to initial funding
with a generous grant from Michael D. Dingman, founder of the
Signal Corporation (now part of Honeywell International), the
Dingman Center continues to grow as a regional and national
catalyst in the field of entrepreneurship. The Center is now
aggressively evolving, and in some areas, is expanding its
services to further its role as a leader in the student,
regional, and academic entrepreneurial communities.
The Dingman Center is currently led by:
Asher Epstein, Managing Director
Dr. Charles Heller, Chairman of the Board and Director Emeritus
Dr. Scott Koerwer, Associate Dean, Executive Education,
Entrepreneurship, and
Marketing, Communications
Please visit our website at
http://www.dingman.rhsmith.umd.edu .
Previous
2005 Issues of Dingman Center
Newsletters:
February, 2005
January, 2005
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