The Wayne State University School of Business Administration received a Michigan Corporate Partnership Award during the Michigan Technology Leaders 2006 forum held in Rochester. The award is made in recognition of joint ventures between Michigan companies and local individuals or groups, benefiting the technology community and enhancing commercial relationships. Wayne State received the award for its work with SpaceForm, Inc.

The School of Business Administration received a generous grant in support of the Adams Entrepreneur Fellowship through The Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan, an independent, nonprofit organization governed by a board of 50 volunteer civic leaders.

Administered by Executive-in-Residence Terry Cross at the School of Business Administration, the Wayne State program selected Alain R. Piette as Adams Fellow to work with an entrepreneurial venture.

As Adams Fellow, Mr. Piette is the lead person of the start-up company SpaceForm, Inc. This new company is headquartered in TechTown, Wayne State’s urban research and technology park located in Detroit’s New Center area. Piette is involved in business start-up, customer development, capital funding, technical planning, and technology transfer.

Delphi Technologies Inc. (DTI), a Delphi Corp. subsidiary, launched the new welding company SpaceForm, Inc. with funding provided through an award from the Michigan Technology Tri-Corridor and from Automation Alley. The company is commercializing Delphi\'s innovative Deformation Resistance Welding (DRW) technology within the mobile space-frame market.

The inventor of DRW, Dr. Anthony Ananthanarayanan, is helping to further the development of DRW under a $1.3M grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) provided through the Michigan Research Institute.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students.