On Feb. 27-28, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will host the Milwaukee Engineering Research Conference, which will spotlight the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. With its new Lubar Center for Entrepreneurship (LEC), UWM is strengthening its support of local student and academic innovators.

The conference, co-hosted by UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science and the LEC, will bring together industry, academia and state and federal funding agencies for technical discussions around innovations in water, energy, big data, biomedical engineering and materials and nanomaterials. It will be held in the UWM Student Union.

Highlights will include:

Four successful UWM alumni engineering entrepreneurs, including:

• Two who were recently featured in WisconsinInno, which covers local innovation.
• One who is seeing a surge in business from the Wisconsin primaries and the DNC.

Local, federal, international speakers, including those from:

• Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (Missy Hughes, CEO)
• Foxconn Industrial Internet (Brand Cheng, CEO)
• U.S. Department of Energy (Peter Faguy, Vehicle Technologies Office)

Also, the new interim director of the Water Equipment and Policy Center, UWM’s Qian Liao, will lead a discussion on developing smart and resilient urban water systems.

Admission is $69 for the general public, $29 for students. Media are welcome.

The conference schedule and more information are available online.