Now that buying .XXX domain names is an option, universities are snapping them up in an effort to protect their brands. These universities include the University of Kansas, the University of Michigan, Indiana University, Purdue University, Ball State University, Grand Valley State University, Central Michigan University, Penn State University, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University, etc. None of these universities will be doing anything at all with the .XXX domain names.

Michigan State University professor of civil and environmental engineering Syed Hashsham, Michigan State University professor Jim Tiedje, and University of Michigan professor of Chemical Engineering Erdogan Gulari is working on a low-cost and hand-held device for nations with limited resources to help physicians detect and diagnose cancer. The device is called the Gene-Z device, which can be operated using an iPod Touch or Android tablet.

A group of American universities have banded together to offer their campuses high speed computer networks beyond anything that is currently commercially available. The Gig.U project will offer one-gigabit connections to university campuses and their surrounding areas, which the project hopes will draw companies to the areas. The New York Times reports that in the test program in a small area near Case Western, three startups moved to the neighborhood within three months.

Borders Group, Inc. (PINK:BGPIQ) is shutting down their remaining 399 stores. All 11,000 remaining employees across the company will be laid off. The bid deadlines for the company passed.

Abdrahamane Traoré and Md. Shanhoor Amin are a couple of students at The University of Michigan that are working on a personal solar panel product out of inspiration from the lack of resources that their villages back at home were dealing with. Traoré had a hard time reaching his family at home and his mother had to walk to a neighboring village to keep her cell phone charged. Traoré had to study with a dim kerosene lamp when he was a child. So the two decided to start a company called June Energy and designed the personal solar panel light product called the Emerald.

YtSwift.com is a website that lets you search and watch YouTube videos simultaneously. In the right-hand sidebar there is a search box that lets you search for keywords in a Google Instant format, meaning that the search box will give you suggestions as you type keywords. You can also filter and sort the results displayed in the thumbnails below.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has renewed their Ann Arbor office space for another 5 years according to an article in Crain’s Detroit Business. Google has 80,000 square feet of office space in the McKinley Town Centre on South Division in downtown Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is the city where Google co-founder Larry Page attended the University of Michigan and studied computer science. Page delivered the graduation commencement speech in May 2009 [see here]. Google operates the AdWords division in Ann Arbor. When they first moved into that office, they promised to employ about 1,000 people. So far about 250 people work out of that office. [AnnArbor.com]

GM Ventures and Itochu has invested $4.2 million in lithium ion battery development company Sakti3. GM Ventures, the venture capital arm of General Motors invested $3.2 million and Itochu invested the rest.