FUTURE 50 INVENTION
Enseo’s virtual front desk agent, VERA
P H OTO A R T : M I C H A E L S A M P L E S ; P H OTO S C O U R T E S Y O F T H E C O M PA N I E S
AERIAL FIREFIGHTER
SENSOR SCIENTIST
VICTOR TROTTER
GUIDO VERBECK
President and CTO
Professor
Trotter Controls
UNT Chemistry and Biochemistry
Trotter and his team at this Haltom Citybased company develop on-board technology that’s been called the “gold standard” in aerial firefighting. In 2020, they received a patent and FAA approval for the world’s first all-electric fire gate system. “Think bomb doors,” says Trotter. The company’s FRDS GEN III was selected as a fire gate for Air Tractor (based in Olney, 100 miles northwest of Fort Worth) and its latest version of the AT802F firefighting plane. The new system replaces the hard-to-maintain hydraulics and pumps with a simpler electric motor that’s 40 percent lighter. That means the plane can carry more liquid fire retardant. Plus, the design automatically compensates when the tank is not level to deliver consistent coverage on the ground. Trotter calls the new technology groundbreaking, saying it represents disruptive improvements. It’s not just making controls for single-engine prop planes. Earlier in 2020, the company developed an all-electric fire gate for the Blackhawk helicopter and created a new tank design and controls for Sacramento-based Helimax’s CH47 heavy helicopter. Next, it plans to deploy an all-electric gate for agricultural aircraft.
Verbeck and his group at UNT developed a chemical sensor, then teamed with Dallas-based Worlds Inc. to turn it into a rapid COVID breathalyzer test. By detecting unique volatile organic compounds, the invention “fingerprints” the virus. It was initially developed to look for chemical variants in the air, as in a fire, drugs in a car, or mass graves, Verbeck says. Beyond COVID, the device has potential groundbreaking applications of “sniffing out” other dangerous diseases like cancers and diabetes. “Creating a device that can look for not only respiratory illnesses, but also earlystage cancer markers and metabolic disorders in real time could really change the diagnosis field,” he says. “Because of this large application set, it was important to use AI and machine learning. This is why Worlds is such a great partner.” Verbeck, who earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at Texas A&M, is an expert in mass spectrometry focused on instrument design and development. What’s next for the professor? He’s developing a new device for cancer treatment and one for increasing organ viability for transplants while continuing to pursue a host of new metabolic disease markers for his chemical sensor.
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