At the Innovation Underground, we are always working on projects to support communities as they seek to grow vibrant economies. The Distributed Urban Farming initiative, better know around here as DUFi, is one of those projects. DUFi uses local, urban farming to encourage healthy communities. Over the last several months our project team has been researching best practices, building test planting beds and building the relationships that will be critical to sustaining DUFi over the long term.

After a great deal of work by our interns and volunteers, the DUFi pilot garden is open and the team launched a campaign on Kickstarter to generate the financial support we need to take DUFi to the next level. We plan to:

– build additional food plots around downtown Bryan

– share best practices and demonstration projects with the community

– grow food and provide it to local restaurants so we can eat healthy food grown right here in Bryan

– share our enthusiasm for great, fresh food with kids and adults

– bring other communities to Bryan to learn how they can start their own DUFi

To learn more and support DUFi, visit our Kickstarter page and be part of the movement for good food, good health and good growth!

Visit our DUFi project website to see more project pictures and learn more.

Imani Tumani Upendo, Inc. will hold its second annual M.O.V.E. event in coordination with First Friday in Historic Downtown Bryan this Friday October 5th. The M.O.V.E. event will feature Jimmy Needham and offer a motivating message encouraging all to use their voice for the Lord.

The M.O.V.E. message encourages participants to MOTIVATE others, seek OPPORTUNITY for change, use your VOICE for the Lord and EXPERIENCE God’s grace. The show will also feature inspiring stories of Imani’s mission work in Africa.

The event will take place at the Palace Theater with doors opening at 7PM. Event tickets are available for purchase online at Eventbright. Tickets are $8 online and $10 at the door.

Imani-Tumani-Upendo is a start-up non-profit  that serves mission organizations in Africa. By complimenting existing organizations, Imani helps families develop a better future and defeat poverty. Imani is located at the Innovation Underground, a private business incubator owned by Advent GX and located in historic downtown Bryan, TX. Imani-Tumani-Upendo means Faith-Hope-Love.

Advent GX launched its Arts and Innovation series of gatherings with a house recital by Concert Pianist Roberto Hidalgo. More than 50 friends of Advent GX, the Innovation Underground (IU) and Downtown Bryan enjoyed an afternoon of piano and networking followed by a reception with wine and refreshments.

The intimate event was held in the IU Parlor on the main floor of the Federal Building in Historic Downtown Bryan. Roberto Hidalgo introduce each selection, providing insight into the connections between the featured composers. Roberto Hidalgo is known for programs that combine Latin American works with those from traditional western repertoire. During the IU event, he performed a selection of works by Leo Smit, Manuel M. Ponce, Leonard Bernstein,Carlos Chavez, Mario Lavista and Aaron Copland.

Roberto has participated at festivals such as Foro de Compositores del Caribe in Medellín, Colombia; Festival Cervantino in Guanajuato; Foro Internacional de Música Nueva “Manuel Enríquez”, in Mexico City; Festival Internacional de Interpretación, in Gerona, Spain, the Chappaquiddick Summer Music Festival and the Festival-Institute at Round Top,Texas.

His appearances include the Bing Auditorium at the LA County Museum Los Angeles; Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Bruno Walter Auditorium and Merkin Hall in New York City; Palacio de Bellas Artes, Sala Blas Galindo, Sala Nezahualcoyotl, Sala Carlos Chávez in Mexico City.

He holds degrees from Mannes (BM and MM) and The Manhattan School of Music (DMA) where he studied with Nina Svetlanova.

He has participated at festivals such as Foro de Compositores del Caribe in Medellín, Colombia; Festival Cervantino in Guanajuato; Foro Internacional de Música Nueva “Manuel Enríquez”, in Mexico City; Festival Internacional de Interpretación, in Gerona, Spain, the Chappaquiddick Summer Music Festival and the Festival-Institute at Round Top,Texas.

His appearances include the Bing Auditorium at the LA County Museum Los Angeles; Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Bruno Walter Auditorium and Merkin Hall in New York City; Palacio de Bellas Artes, Sala Blas Galindo, Sala Nezahualcoyotl, Sala Carlos Chávez in Mexico City.

With pianist Marc Peloquin, he has given succesful two-piano concerts hailed for their innovative programs. A First Prize winner of the Artist International Competition, he has received support from The Magowan Family Foundation and the Faculty Resource Grant from the Bloomingdale School of Music where he is a member of the faculty.

He holds degrees from Mannes (BM and MM) and The Manhattan School of Music (DMA) where he studied with Nina Svetlanova.

Faith-Hope-Love. That’s the meaning of the name Imani-Tumani-Upendo, the only non-profit member of the Innovation Underground here in Bryan, Texas. This is only the second summer Imani has coordinated mission teams serving organizations working on the ground in Africa, but the company has already expanded from one team in 2011 to four teams this year. Next year, Imani expects to send nine teams to Africa.

Jenny Jenkins (r) and Rachel Driskell (l) are the founders of Imani-Tumani-Upendo

Imani founders Jenny Jenkins and Rachel Driskell are especially proud that they are able to offer internships for credit to Texas A&M University students serving on the mission teams.

Imani trains team leaders and prepares participants for the summer in training sessions in downtown Bryan before they set out to Africa. Imani’s new video produced while on the ground in Jinja, Uganda provides insight into the impact these teams are having, and just as important, the impact the mission is having on each team member.

So far, Imani supports three mission organizations, including:

Real4Christ operating in Mombasa, Kenya

Healing Faith, Jinja, Uganda

The Cries of a Child, Burundi, Africa

Jenny and Rachel hope to expand by reaching out to additional mission organizations operating in Africa and enhancing their operations to provide support to more individuals and even organization seeking mission opportunities abroad.

Rachel in the mission field.

Watch the Imani video to learn more, and visit their website to get the full story about this rapidly growing start-up.

This week, Advent GX leadership traveled to Austin to meet with government agencies and hosted distinguished guests here at the Innovation Underground, all with the aim of learning about programs available to support entrepreneurs and rural communities. We’re learning a lot. In meetings with the Economic Development Administration, Texas Department of Agriculture and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) we were met with overwhelming enthusiasm. All three agencies were eager to learn more about the Innovation Underground and the businesses our members are getting started in Bryan.

We learned about a wide variety of low interest loan programs for rural entrepreneurs through the USDA. State Director Paco Valentin toured the IU along with Daniel Torres, USDA business and cooperative programs director. The two provided insight into the wide ranging programs aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship and healthy communities.

Similarly, during meetings with Texas Department of Agriculture, we learned about a number of programs targeting communities and young farmers, all with the goal of economic development and job creation.

The insight gained will help us continue to serve our member companies and client communities as they do the hard work to grow and prosper.

Today marks the official start of a new Advent GX project with Donna, TX Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Donna (cityofdonna.org) is a community of nearly 16,000 located in Southeast Hidalgo County and home to a new international port of entry. The community is eager to increase bridge crossings and expand economic activity.

We will use our Advent GX Strategy Deployment (ASD) process to engage community stakeholders and form an economic development strategy that takes advantage of the community’s assets. Among these are a rich heritage, abundant agricultural operations and location along a primary North American trade corridor. In addition, Advent GX will begin immediately to evaluate best developmental opportunities for Donna and begin pursuing those.

The AdventGX team for the Donna project includes former Hidalgo County Judge and new Advent GX Managing Partner JD Salinas III, AdventGX President Jose Quintana and Joan Quintana, AdventGX Managing Partner. In addition, subject matter experts in the fields of development, international trade, manufacturing, nature tourism and heritage tourism will serve the project.

Today we are delighted to tell the world that JD Salinas III will join Advent GX has a managing partner effective Monday, June 25th. JD joins us after stepping down from his post as Regional Administrator for the US General Services Administration (GSA). You can expect to see JD here at the Innovation Underground in Bryan, TX in the coming months. He will also be working to expand the Innovation Underground network with new incubation locations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley region of Texas and in other areas of North America.

JD has served as Regional Administrator for the GSA’s Greater Southwest Region since November 2009. Prior to his service at GSA, Salinas served as County Judge of Hidalgo County, Texas. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Parks and Tourism Sciences in 1991, and of University of Texas – Pan American where he earned a Masters of Public Administration in 2002.

We are honored that JD has chosen to join our team. He will significantly enhance our ability to reach and serve communities and businesses throughout Texas and North America. JD brings an exceptional understanding of local, state and federal issues that impact both local governments and businesses and his servant values are a perfect fit with Advent GX.

Texas music, Texas beer and locally crafted pizza were on hand to welcome international visitors to downtown Bryan and the Innovation Underground during the 2012 International Conference on Design, Computing and Cognition. The group of international travelers gathered in the IU’s patio garden to meet colleagues from across the globe representing a variety of disciplines all with a shared interest in design aspects of artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

According to Texas A&M’s website, Design Computing and Cognition is a biannual conference series that provides an international forum for the presentation and discussion of state-of-the-art and cutting-edge design research with a focus on artificial intelligence, cognitive science and computational theories in design. The conference proceedings form a continuing archive of design computing and cognition research. DCC is one of the few high-profile and highly respected international interdisciplinary conferences. Most conferences are dedicated to a topic that interests only a single discipline. DCC is different in that the audience, talks, and presenters are from a variety of disciplines, all circling around a central theme.

DDC’12 was chaired by Dr. John S. Gero, a research professor in the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, the Volgenau School of Engineering, and the Department of Computational Social Science at George Mason University. Dr. Tracy Hammond was the Texas A&M local chair of the event. She is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the director of the Sketch Recognition Lab.

Previously, the conference was held at MIT, the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands (DCC’06), the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Stuttgart in Stuttgart in Germany (DCC’10).