Mtech Impact Report 2010

2010

Impact Report MARYL AND TECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

Educate, Create, Connect Mtech Impact Economic Impact:

$25.7 billion Jobs:

5,306 2010 Entrepreneurship Courses:

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MIPS Product Revenue:

$21.6 billion 2010 Entrepreneurship Course Enrollments:

1,244

Companies Served by Mtech Programs in 2010:

368

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Martek Becomes Second Mtech Company Sold for More Than $1 Billion in Three Years Successes Validate Mtech’s Comprehensive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Martek Biosciences, a company that launched leveraging Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) programs at the University of Maryland, entered an agreement on December 21 to be acquired by the Dutch company Royal DSM NV for $1.1 billion, the companies jointly announced.

Martek is the second company sold for more than $1 billion in the past three years that made extensive use of Mtech’s venture-building and biotechnology programs during its early stages. Digene Corporation was acquired by Qiagen NV for $1.6 billion in 2007.

Martek is a leader in the innovation, development, production and sale of high-value products from microbial sources that promote health and wellness through nutrition.

The company’s flagship product is life’sDHA™, a sustainable and vegetarian source of algal docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) important for brain, heart and eye health throughout life for use in infant formula, pregnancy and nursing products, foods and beverages, dietary supplements and animal feeds.

In addition to Mtech’s Technology Advancement Program (TAP) incubator, Martek took advantage of Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) funding during the company’s early stages to figure out how to scale-up its microbial processes through Mtech’s Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF), which helps companies take bench-top or lab-produced products and prepare them for mass production.

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

With a $25.7 billion economic impact since 1985, 368 Maryland companies served by Mtech’s programs in the past year alone and 30 entrepreneurship courses offered to students at nearly all levels, the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute supports the State of Maryland’s technology economy by educating the next generation of technology entrepreneurs, creating successful technology ventures, and connecting Maryland companies with university resources to help them succeed.

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$25.7B 5,306 $3.6B

Mtech’s overall impact on the Maryland economy Jobs created through Mtech programs TAP incubator company revenue generated, sales of companies, and investments and contracts acquired

$23.8M

Investment, grants and contracts raised or acquired by TAP companies since 2008

$21.6B $343M $35M 1,244 30 250

Revenue generated by the top-performing MIPS products

6 368 2 19 111

Manufacturing Assistance Program’s economic impact on Maryland manufacturers Revenue generated by Hinman CEOs companies since 2000 Enrollments in Mtech’s entrepreneurship education courses during the 2009-2010 school year Entrepreneurship courses offered by Mtech Total students in the Hinman CEOs, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Hillman Entrepreneurs programs International, national, and local awards won by recent or current VentureAccelerator companies in the past year Companies served by Mtech programs in 2010 Companies started by Hinman CEOs program alumni in the Inc. 500 list for the second straight year Total companies currently in the TAP incubator, VentureAccelerator, and TERP Startup Lab Companies served by the Manufacturing Assistance Program in 2010 A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute Educate. Create. Connect.

“When I came to Mtech years ago, we had developed this fermentable algae,” said Henry “Pete” Linsert, former chairman and CEO of Martek.

“We were getting into the next stage where we said ‘will this stuff actually scale-up?’ If it doesn’t, we thought, if the economics aren’t good, if it doesn’t make pure products, if the organism doesn’t grow, well--we’re sunk. We didn’t have the equipment; we didn’t have the people. Mtech said let’s see if we can make this work. And it did!

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Two other incubator graduates, Cytonix and DataStream Content Solutions, were acquired in the past two years for undisclosed sums by Life Technologies and Dolan Co., respectively.

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Current incubator companies have acquired $23.8 million in contracts, grants and investment since 2008.

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MedImmune, Hughes Network Systems and Black & Decker (in addition to Martek and Digene) are some of the 468 companies using Mtech’s MIPS program to develop blockbuster and life-saving products such as Synagis, HughesNet, and the Bullet SpeedTip Masonry Drill bit, respectively, to generate more than $21.6 billion in revenue.

“Over 55 million babies worldwide have now had infant formula that included Martek’s nutritional ingredients,” Linsert - Henry “Pete” Linsert, former continued. “Over 99 percent Chairman and CEO, Martek of the infant formula in the United States has it, as well as products in more than 75 countries around the world. Almost every U.S. child under the age of six has had this Martek DHA in their brain. It all started here. It all came from this facility.”

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The Mtech living-learning entrepreneurship program Hinman CEOs, launched just in 2000, already has two companies in the Inc. 500, Squarespace and Lurn.

“Over 55 million babies worldwide have now had infant formula that included Martek’s nutritional ingredients. Over 99 percent of the infant formula in the United States has it, as well as products in more than 75 countries around the world.

Almost every U.S. child under the age of six has had this Martek DHA in their brain.

It all started here. It all came from this facility.”

Mtech has built a comprehensive entrepreneurship ecosystem for teaching, encouraging, supporting and accelerating innovation. This year alone, the institute offers 30 courses related to entrepreneurship, from 8th-grade and high school summer classes to a pair of living-learning

Martek is just one example of the success of Mtech’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.

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TAP incubator graduate Paice LLC licensed 23 of its patents to Toyota (used in hybrid cars such as the Prius) and Ford during summer 2010.

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Graduate Powerize.com was bought by Hoover’s for $30 million in 2000.

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NovaScreen Biosciences was purchased by Caliper Life Sciences for $30 million in 2005.

Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

Pictured: products incorporating Martek’s DHA.

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“The success of Martek and other Mtech graduates illuminates the path to economic growth and job creation for the state,” said University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh. “Nurturing and supporting innovators early on is a smart investment. The university’s concentration of technological, business and economic expertise can make the critical difference for Maryland entrepreneurs and innovators seeking to turn a bright idea into a thriving business that can benefit many.”

Pictured, from left to right: Kathryn Radmer, wife of Richard Radmer; Richard Radmer, Martek’s principal founder; Robert Flanagan, president of Martek’s board; Pete Linsert, former CEO of Martek; and Steve Dubin, current Martek CEO.

entrepreneurship programs and undergraduate, graduate and executive education classes. Mtech’s courses had 1,244 enrollments last year.

Mtech’s VentureAccelerator program, which offers intense business startup mentoring for university inventors, has led its companies to seven regional, national and international awards in the past two years.

Five winners of the Mtech-hosted University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition, started in 2000, are now multi-million ventures.

Mtech’s programs have served as best-practice models around the country. TAP was the first incubator in Maryland; there are more than 20 now. At least 18 universities have replicated the Hinman CEOs program. Two other state research funding programs were based on MIPS. The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance patterned its national Invention2Venture technology entrepreneurship workshop series after Mtech’s annual University of Maryland Technology Start-Up Boot Camp. The Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF) is one of only 17 comparable facilities in the country.

This support for entrepreneurs has translated into concrete economic benefits for Maryland. Both Digene and MedImmune (acquired by AstraZeneca in 2007) have announced plans to expand and add jobs in Maryland.

“Mtech’s programs are a great example of why Maryland is a leader in technology innovation,” says Governor Martin O’Malley. “The State of Maryland is committed to providing support for the entrepreneurship ecosystem that makes this kind of continued, sustainable success possible.”

Mtech works with an average of 400 companies each year through all of its programs. The institute has had a $25.7 billion impact and helped to create or retain more than 5,300 jobs since its inception in 1983.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute Educate. Create. Connect.

New Warren Citrin Graduate Fellowships to Support Sustainability Research, Entrepreneurship $560K Gift from Citrin Covers Five Years Warren Citrin believes graduate students can solve the world’s sustainability problems through research and entrepreneurship, and he is giving them the means to do it.

“I can think of no better way to invest in our collective future than to invest in the Clark School.”

- Warren Citrin, Co-Founder, Solipsys Corp. and Founder, Gloto Corp.

The co-founder of Solipsys Corp. (now Raytheon Solipsys) gave the A. James Clark School of Engineering $560,000 for graduate students conducting research in sustainability while starting innovative companies around the technologies they are developing.

Mtech administers the new program.

“Solutions to the daunting problems facing the global community will come from first-rate science, engineering and technology research institutions,” says Citrin, who is also co-founder and a board member of Gloto. “I can think of no better way to invest in our collective future than to invest in the Clark School.”

“The Warren Citrin Graduate Fellowship program will enable the Clark School to attract talented graduate students to address the critical societal issue of sustainability while contributing to an increasingly entrepreneurial culture at the University of Maryland,” says Mtech Director Dr. David Barbe.

Citrin’s gift also supports a new position at the university dedicated to helping the fellowship students start 6

Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

companies. This position will be housed under Mtech’s VentureAccelerator Program, which helps university faculty and students launch successful ventures from their inventions. VentureAccelerator team members guide and coach inventors through new business processes such as sound business planning, understanding customers and markets, setting goals and priorities, acquiring skills and recruiting talent, and raising capital.

Citrin has a history of supporting social and sustainability impact initiatives at Mtech. In 2007, he established the $250,000 Impact Seed Fund, which offers grants, in $500 to $5,000 increments, to students in Mtech’s Hinman CEOs, Hillman Entrepreneurs, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation programs. Students present business plans for new companies that benefit society to qualify. The funds are also used to support the UM $75K Business Plan Competition Social Impact Award each year.

Citrin is an accomplished businessman and engineer who received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2003. He received a BSEE from the University of South Carolina in 1973 and an MS in Applied Mathematics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1976. Citrin led numerous system engineering and radar processing programs over his 18-year career at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory before co-founding Solipsys Corporation in 1996.

As CEO of Solipsys, he provided strategic vision and leadership to grow the company before it was sold to Raytheon, a Fortune 50 company, in 2003.

“Sustainability problems are like a meteor coming our way,” says Citrin. “People younger than me are not going to be able to escape them. My hope is that something good can come from these fellowships to divert this meteor or perhaps lessen its impact.” www.mtech.umd.edu/citrin

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Mtech Founder Herbert Rabin Steps Down, David Barbe Becomes Director After nearly 30 years as founding director of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), Dr. Herbert Rabin, Ph.D. ‘59, physics, stepped down from that position on January 2, 2011.

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entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and state economic development.

Working side by side with Dr. Rabin almost since the beginning has been Dr. David Barbe, who became Mtech director effective January 2, 2011.

Dr. Barbe has done much to establish the vibrant culture of entrepreneurship that now pervades the Clark School and the University of Maryland.

He led the development of many of the leading

Pictured: Herb Rabin, director of Mtech since 1983.

The A. James Clark School of Engineering’s outstanding international reputation owes much to the vision and determination of Herbert Rabin and the institute he and his leadership team have built.

Dr. Rabin is one of the Clark School’s and the university’s most dedicated leaders, serving not only as Mtech director but also as Clark School senior associate dean (a position he will retain), interim dean on two occasions, and professor of electrical and computer engineering (a position he will also retain). In recognition of his extraordinary contributions, he received the President’s Medal— the highest award bestowed by the university—in 2010.

Dr. Rabin is also a benefactor to the school, generously endowing a scholarship in his parents’ names.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Rabin served as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy.

Under the leadership of Dr. Rabin and his team, Mtech has become one of the world’s pre-eminent organizations for the advancement of academic

Mtech programs, including Hinman CEOs, Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS), Venture Accelerator, the University of Maryand $75K Business Plan Competition, and the University of Maryland Technology Start-Up Boot Camp. As an indicator of Dr. Barbe’s impact, MIPS has resulted in more than 400 research projects conducted between faculty in the university system and Marylandbased companies and supported development of MedImmune’s blockbuster drug Synagis, Hughes Communications’ HughesNet, Black & Decker’s Bullet Speed Tip Masonry Drill Bit, and Quantum Sail Design Group’s entire line offwind sails.

Dr. Barbe’s achievements have been recognized with some of Pictured: David Barbe, director of Mtech, the top awards effective January 2, 2011. in his field: the 2008 Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award from Olympus; the first American Society of Engineering Education Outstanding Entrepreneurship Educator Award; and the Price Foundation Innovative Educators Award.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute Educate. Create. Connect.

Mtech Launches New Living-Learning Entrepreneurship Program for Academically Talented Freshman and Sophomore Students Initiative is Part of the University of Maryland’s New Honors College Academically talented freshman and sophomore students at the University of Maryland interested in living together and learning how to start their own companies have a new opportunity: the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program.

“Students entering the university now have access to the dynamic environment of living and learning with entrepreneurially minded individuals.”

- Dr. James V. Green, Director, Entrepreneurship Education, Mtech

Part of the new Honors College established by the university, this initiative, launched

by Mtech during fall 2010, provides freshmen and sophomores from all majors with the opportunity to learn and live entrepreneurship and innovation. Through experiential learning, dynamic courses, seminars, workshops, competitions and volunteerism, students receive a world-class education in entrepreneurship and innovation.

“EIP builds upon the award-winning Hinman CEOs living-learning program for juniors and seniors,” says Dr. James V. Green, director of the Hinman CEOs Program and Mtech’s director of entrepreneurship education. “Students entering the university now have similar access to the dynamic environment of living and learning with entrepreneurially minded individuals.”

Jay Smith is the director of the new program (see article, page 10).

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

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In collaboration with faculty and mentors who have successfully launched new ventures, all student teams develop an innovative idea and write a product plan. Students can compete in the UM $75K Business Plan Competition, apply for a share of the $250,000 Mtech Impact Seed Fund and volunteer through program-managed activities.

The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program combines small classes taught by exceptional faculty with the wide range of additional education opportunities offered by a large research institution. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program track starts with “Discovering New Ventures,” a one-credit seminar focused on building the entrepreneurial mindset and introducing basic entrepreneurship principles and terminology. In the second semester, “Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship & Innovation” inspires innovation and creativity through interactive lectures, workshops, and case studies in contemporary issues, including energy, life sciences, healthcare and technology.

The third semester includes

“International Entrepreneurship & Innovation,” an introduction to the opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurship and innovation from a global perspective through lectures and guest speakers with international experiences. The fourth semester is the capstone course, “Social Entrepreneurship Practicum,” enhancing strategic capabilities and leadership skills through the development of an innovative for-profit product or service concept with social benefits.

The academic program also consists of Honors 100 and two Honors Seminars approved

by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program. Honors seminars and courses are an excellent way to satisfy graduation requirements, as many of these classes totaling 16 credits may count towards general education requirements and a student’s major.

Staff offices are centrally located, so students can easily visit them to discuss their latest new venture idea or to tackle a tough legal, financial or ethical question. www.eip.umd.edu

ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION PROGRAM

University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute Educate. Create. Connect.

Jay Smith Named Inaugural Director of the New Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program Jay Smith’s 25-year career has taken him on four interconnected paths on both sides of the globe: as an entrepreneur, investment banker, management consultant and university faculty member.

Those paths have converged at the University of Maryland, where Smith directs the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP), a new livinglearning initiative for freshmen and sophomore honors students.

media business in Tokyo, with clients such as Citibank, CocaCola, Compaq, IBM, and Motorola, with Japanese partners such as Japan Telecom and a subsidiary of NTT. Introducing students to

Smith is uniquely qualified to lead the new program.

Pictured: Jay Smith, director of the new Entrepreneurship and

“EIP is foundational for Innovation Program. students,” says Smith.

“Being entrepreneurial entrepreneurship early in their and innovative gives students collegiate careers, Smith says, is the chance to express themselves important. “Some of the greatest through their businesses while companies were founded by creating value for the economy people between the ages of 18 and society. Entrepreneurship is and 22,” Smith explains. “Look at a creative undertaking. Your view Facebook, Dell, Microsoft, and of the world can be expressed Apple.” The living-learning aspect through your business.” of the program, Smith says, is also significant. “It’s the same as Smith should know. He led the you get in Silicon Valley, at MIT, curve in providing Internet Stanford and Harvard—when you services in Japan. As an get high-caliber, entrepreneurial entrepreneur in the 1990s, he people together, it’s like the co-founded a multi-million dollar energy at the World Cup—and technology, creative services and

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the creativity and output rises exponentially.”

Smith was in Silicon Valley during the dot-com boom as an investment banker for Jefferies & Company, where he helped raise over $400 million for technology and media businesses and evaluated numerous venture investment opportunities for the firm.

His subsequent work in New York and Tokyo as a management consultant to technology-based companies segues into his new mentoring role for students as they develop their own business and product/service ideas.

Smith spent the last five years as associate professor of the Inamori Academy of Kagoshima (National) University in southern Japan, where he developed and taught courses in venture business, entrepreneurship, business communications, and American business and culture in a program endowed by Japanese entrepreneur Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyocera Corporation,

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telecommunications firm DDI (now KDDI), and the Inamori Foundation, grantors of the Kyoto Prizes. Utilizing business presentations developed in his courses, Smith’s students won both local and regional business plan competitions and were top finalists in national student and open competitions.

Smith holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he focused on entrepreneurship and the management of technology. He graduated Phi

Beta Kappa, with high honors and a dual major in economics and physics, from Rutgers University.

Smith saw a unique opportunity at the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), which manages EIP in partnership with the University of Maryland Honors College. “Mtech has been successfully doing entrepreneurship and innovation for over 25 years,” Smith explains.

“There is a huge, established group here, a critical mass. It’s like when a spaceship launches from

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the back of an airplane—that’s how this feels.”

He also sees the current economic climate as an advantage. “Some of the most famous companies were launched during bad economic times—partly because of necessity—but if you can survive those times, you can survive even better when the economy turns around.”

Profile of the EIP Inaugural Class • 74 students • 1430 average SAT score • 17 percent are Banneker/Key scholars (given to just 2.5 percent of undergraduates) • 39 percent are business majors • 31 percent are engineering majors • 30 percent are arts and science majors • All share a passion for the power of entrepreneurship and innovation!

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute Educate. Create. Connect.

Mtech Entrepreneurship Courses Whether you are in middle school, high school, an undergraduate, a graduate student, or a corporate executive, Mtech offers a broad array of entrepreneurship and innovation courses. For an up-to-date list of courses, visit: www.mtech.umd.edu/educate/courses.

PRE-COLLEGE COURSES •

Entrepreneurship 101 (8th grade)

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ENES 140, Discovering New Ventures - Foundations in Entrepreneurship (high school)

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ENES 141, Introduction to High-Tech Product Development and Marketing (high school)

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ENES 142, Introduction to Innovative Thinking & Creativity (high school)

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BIOE 160, Biopharmaceutical Production (high school)

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES •

HEIP 100, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Colloquium

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HEIP 143, Foundations in Entrepreneurship & Innovation

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HEIP 144, Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship & Innovation

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ENES 210, Entrepreneurial Opportunity Analysis and Decision-Making in 21st Century Technology Ventures

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HEIP 240, Exploring International Entrepreneurship & Innovation

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HEIP 241, Social Entrepreneurship Practicum

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ENES 460, Fundamentals of Technology Start-Up Ventures

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ENES 461, Advanced Entrepreneurial Opportunity Analysis in Technology Ventures

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ENES 462, Marketing High-Technology Products & Innovations

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ENES 463 Strategies for Managing Innovation

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ENES 464, International Entrepreneurship & Innovation

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ENES 498, Special Topics in Entrepreneurship

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ENES 498A, Special Topics in Entrepreneurship / Introduction to Innovative Thinking

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ENES 498E/CHEM 498E, Special Topics in Entrepreneurship / Entrepreneurship in Chemical and Life Sciences

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ENES 498P, Special Topics in Entrepreneurship / Corporate Technology Ventures

GRADUATE COURSES

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BIOE 645, Advanced Engineering Startup Ventures

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Graduate Certificate in Engineering – Technology Ventures and Innovation: 12-credit graduate certificate program in entrepreneurial practices for technology ventures. oo

ENPM 690, Fundamentals of Technology Startup Ventures

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ENPM 691, Strategies for Managing Innovation

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ENPM 692, Innovative Thinking

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ENPM 808N, Corporate Technology Venturing

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EXECUTIVE EDUCATION •

Strategies for Managing Innovation

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Marketing in TechnologyDriven Industries

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Innovative Product Design & Development

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Effective Negotiation Skills

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Essentials of Financial Analysis

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entrepreneurship courses offered by Mtech students enrolled in Mtech’s entrepreneurship courses high school students in Mtech’s summer courses

Mtech’s Summer High School Courses Attract 76 Students From Across the U.S. Mtech’s three-week summer courses for high school students attracted 76 students from across the U.S. in 2010. Students earned three college credits in three weeks, tested academic interests, explored career options, met new friends who shared similar interests, and discovered college life at Maryland.

Mtech’s classes, offered through the University of Maryland Young Scholars Program, included: •

ENES 140: Discovering New Ventures – Foundations of Entrepreneurship: Students explore dynamic business and technology topics by working in teams to design a new business. This exciting multi-disciplinary course helps students learn the basic business, strategy, and leadership skills needed to launch new ventures.

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ENES 142: Introduction to Innovative Thinking & Creativity: Students learn methods for improving the flexibility and originality of their thinking and explore multiple approaches to create and sustain high levels of innovation. Topics include: personal thinking preferences, everyday creativity and eliminating mental blocks, creative thinking techniques, idea selection approaches, teaming techniques for creativity, design for interaction, and intellectual property.

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ENES 141: Introduction to High-Tech Product Development and Marketing: This multi-disciplinary course covers basic concepts in technology marketing, business, engineering, and entrepreneurship in the context of developing and marketing innovative technology products and services. Through a mix of lectures, experiential learning, and hands-on team projects, the course culminates in student team presentations of 21st century product concepts and marketing plans.

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BIOE 160: Biopharmaceutical Production: This course takes students through a biotechnology “campaign” where they will transform E.coli into a green fluorescent protein factory. Students work in teams, simulating a start-up biotech company. Students work through a “production campaign” including all key steps of manufacturing a protein product.

To register for 2011 summer courses, visit: www.mtech.umd.edu/educate/ysp/

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hinman CEOs Program Living-learning undergraduate entrepreneurship program

Former Hinman CEOs Company Squarespace Inc. Raises $38.5M from Index Ventures and Accel Partners Squarespace Inc., a company offering an industry-leading Web publishing platform founded by Hinman CEOs alumnus (2005) Anthony Casalena, announced in July 2010 it completed a $38.5 million minority investment from Index Ventures and Accel Partners.

It was the first outside capital that Squarespace had raised since its founding in 2003.

As part of the transaction, Squarespace’s newly formed board includes Dominique Vidal, of Index Ventures growth team, Andrew Braccia, from Accel’s investment team, and Jonathan Klein, Founder and CEO of Getty Images. Casalena remains the company’s largest shareholder.

“The addition of Index, Accel and Jonathan Klein to the Squarespace team will help us achieve further growth and cement our position as a clear leader in Web publishing,” said Casalena.

Casalena founded Squarespace with the goal of redefining publishing on the Web. Today, the company's SaaS platform powers tens of thousands of websites worldwide. Businesses, bloggers, web developers and

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artists use Squarespace to quickly and easily create and maintain professional, high quality websites. Squarespace’s product is differentiated by its intense focus on design, integration and scalability. Notable customers include Marc Ecko, Porter Novelli, Bob Woodruff, Kevin Pollak, and Don Imus.

www.squarespace.com

“There are a lot of tools on the market that allow people to set up simple blogs for free. At Squarespace, we offer something different—a high quality, professional, reliable platform that is designed from the ground up by us to work in a very streamlined way,” said Casalena.

The size of the round will enable Squarespace's team to significantly expand operations as they seek to solve the problem of content management at its core, and allow its new partners to contribute to and participate in Squarespace’s continued success.

“Squarespace has been a profitable business since its first year of operation. This investment will not change that, but it will allow us to be much more aggressive in our quest to both create an incredible product and bring that product to market,” said Casalena.

Pictured, above, top to bottom: Squarespace’s office in New York, Squarespace’s team (middle two photos), and Anthony Casalena working.

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Two Mtech Hinman CEOs Companies, Squarespace and Lurn, Named to Inc. 500 List for Second Straight Year Squarespace Inc. and Lurn Inc., two companies founded by former Hinman CEOs students while in the program, were named to the Inc. 500 list of the country’s fastest growing companies for the second straight year in 2010.

Squarespace, an industry-leading Web publishing platform founded by alumnus Anthony Casalena (2005), is ranked 416th overall and 30th in the software category. The company reported $5.4 million in revenue for 2009, with a 713 percent three-year growth rate.

“Squarespace has had a spectacular year,” says Casalena. “We’ve added a record number of clients, closed a $38.5 million funding round led by Index Ventures and Accel Partners, and are poised to execute on our vision of changing publishing on the Web like never before in our seven-year history. I’m really excited to see how far our team takes the product over the next year.”

Based in New York City, Squarespace has 28

employees. The company offers a fully hosted, completely managed environment for creating and maintaining a website, blog or portfolio.

Squarespace’s SaaS platform powers tens of thousands of websites worldwide. Businesses, bloggers, Web developers and artists use Squarespace to quickly and easily create and maintain professional, high-quality websites.

Lurn, a company offering a broad range of e-learning technologies and services founded by alumnus Anik Singal (2005), is ranked 493rd overall and sixth in the education category. The company reported $7.1 million in revenue for 2009, with a 609 percent three-year growth rate.

“Being recognized in the Inc. 500 list is a great testament to the team we’ve assembled, our hard work, and the market and the services we provide,” says Singal. “We look forward to expanding our offerings while continuing to deliver industryleading e-learning technologies and services.”

Based in Gaithersburg, Md., Lurn has 72 employees.

The company provides a range of products and services, including online training courses and live events on a variety of online marketing topics, online communities and publications for Internet marketers, and e-learning technology platforms for educators of business and marketing professionals.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hinman CEOs Program Living-learning undergraduate entrepreneurship program

Hinman CEOs Student Greg Waldstreicher Named One of the Top Five College Entrepreneurs of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine Greg Waldstreicher, a senior in the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) Hinman CEOs Program, was named one of five finalists

Recovery and Reinvestment Act. New regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services require all health care providers to use electronic

for Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur of 2010 Awards in the College Entrepreneur category.

record systems by 2014 or face penalties.

Waldstreicher is the co-founder of DoseSpot, a company developing an electronic system for medical doctors to submit prescriptions over the Internet to pharmacies. Patients receive electronic notifications when their prescriptions are ready.

“Being selected from among 1,000 fellow entrepreneurs across the U.S. is an honor,” says Waldstreicher. “We have worked hard to build an easy-to-use, secure, reliable product that revolutionizes the sometimes difficult process of writing, tracking, and filling prescriptions.

Our system makes it as easy as writing an e-mail.”

More than 85 percent of pharmacies in the U.S. are ready to use Surescriptenabled systems, according to Waldstreicher, while 23 percent of doctors are already writing prescriptions online.

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Pictured: Hinman CEOs student Greg Waldstreicher, co-founder of DoseSpot

Doctors have incentives to use an electronic prescription system.

From 2011-12, they will receive a 1 percent incentive from Medicare to do prescriptions online. In addition, doctors who adopt electronic health records, of which electronic prescriptions are a part, are also eligible for $44,000 through the American

DoseSpot is certified through Surescripts, the nation’s largest e-prescription network. The company is deploying its software with customers.

In May, DoseSpot won first place in the undergraduate category and $10,000, as well as a $5,000 Warren Citrin Social Impact Award, in the UM $75K Business Plan Competition. The company also received $10,000 through Mtech’s Impact Seed Fund. www.dosespot.com

Hinman CEOs $35M 90 2

revenue generated by Hinman CEOs companies since 2000 students in the Hinman CEOs program

Inc. 500 companies started by Hinman CEOs Program alumni

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Adam Ostrow: Watchdog of all Things Web 2.0, Social Media Hinman CEOs alumnus Adam Ostrow, now Editor in Chief for Mashable.com, The Social Media Guide, has always led the pack when it comes to new Internet technologies.

Before anyone had heard of Facebook or Twitter, he co-launched Mindsay.com, a social media Web site that to this day has thousands of users.

Ostrow founded the company in 2003 while at the University of Maryland.

After graduating in 2004, he worked for Chip-In, a Web-based “social PayPal” to collect money for gifts, personal causes, or for community fundraising. He also worked with MicroStrategy for a year after graduation on the company’s Angel.com interactive, on-demand voice response software system.

Ostrow now oversees 22 writers and content for one of the premier Web 2.0 new media publications, one spoken of in the same breath as TechCrunch: Mashable.com.

“I started out guest-writing for Mashable,” says Ostrow. “I started writing more and more until it became a full-time position in 2007.”

As editor in chief, in addition to overseeing submissions by other writers, he also digs for news, tracking blogs, RSS feeds, and Twitter accounts, and monitoring tips from readers.

“I like the different dynamics involved in building a media brand—from determining editorial strategy to experimenting with new content formats and exploring business development and partnerships,” says Ostrow. “From my position, I also get to stay on top of all of the latest Internet and technology trends and meet some fascinating people.”

Those people (he’s met) include New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, the entire cast of HBO’s Entourage, Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha. On June 8, his company co-hosted the Mashable Media Summit with CNN. Mashable is a media sponsor for PepsiCo10, a new competition that looks to match startups in fields like social media and mobile marketing with industry mentors and brands within PepsiCo with which they can pilot their products.

“At Mashable we cover a lot of new technologies in areas like social media and mobile that target enterprise customers,” says Ostrow. “Through the PepsiCo10, we’re looking to identify some of the most promising, and then let them work with Pepsi to further developer their ideas and products.From our perspective, we also view it as a great story as we watch the PepsiCo10 companies develop.” www.mashable.com

“I like the different dynamics involved in building a media brand— from determining editorial strategy to experimenting with new content formats and exploring business development and partnerships.”

- Adam Ostrow Editor in Chief, Mashable.com

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hinman CEOs Program Living-learning undergraduate entrepreneurship program

Alertus: Deployed in Hundreds of Institutions, Now Offering Four Products, Partnering with WeatherBug, New Products in Pipeline Launched in 2002 by Hinman CEOs alumni Jason Volk (business) and Blake Robertson (engineering), Alertus Technologies now has national market penetration, patent protection, large installations with significant customers, and major partnerships.

offers to deploy Alertus’ Alert Beacons every time it installs the WeatherBug Total Lightning Network™ advanced lightning detection system, which schools use to know when to clear children from outdoor playing areas when lightning is near.

“Our business is stronger than ever in terms of new projects that happen each week,” says Alertus CEO Jason Volk.

Alertus recently received a patent for the functionality and utility of its Alert Beacon product.

Additional are patents pending on its overall system.

The 20-employee, Calverton, Md.-based company specializes in implementing emergency notification and alert systems for campuses, military bases, government and other large facilities.

Alertus’ first product, the Alert Beacon, was initially developed by Volk and Robertson while at the University of Maryland. During emergencies, the wall-mounted display unit, placed inside buildings within a campus environment, flashes and emits sounds to capture the attention of building occupants at a distance, and displays a custom message from public safety/security about the nature of the emergency and the appropriate response.

Alertus has installed thousands of its Alert Beacons in hundreds of facilities nationwide, including: U.S. Capital; Aberdeen Proving Grounds; Boston University National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL); University of Maryland; University of Virginia; Virginia Commonwealth University; Galludet University; American University; Kansas State University; University of Kansas; Maricopa Community Colleges (Phoenix); Berkeley County Schools, W. Va.; Allegany County Schools, Md.; Washington County Schools, Md.; and Chambersburg Schools, Pa. One of the company’s newest partners, WeatherBug, 18

Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

The product lineup Alertus now offers, developed in-house, includes: •

A text-to-speech interface module, which leverages the latest in voice synthesis technology to deliver fully customizable spoken alert messages in real time across public address (PA) systems;

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Digital signage override software, which enables users to display alerts across LCD and plasma displays placed in various facilities; and

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Alertus Desktop, which pushes full-screen popup alerts onto select or all computer screens on a given computer network.

In 2009, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contracted with Alertus Technologies through Northrop Grumman to study Alertus’ radio subcarrier systems technology for usefulness in the nation’s new Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS). FEMA has since showcased Alertus’ products at conferences.

The company is developing new products to retrofit existing emergency systems. www.alertus.com

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Two Hinman CEOs Students Earn Prestigious Goldwater Scholarships Two students in Mtech’s Hinman CEOs Program were awarded scholarships by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education

oceanic engineering. He hopes to help advance the mechanical, sensing, and systems design of submerged vehicles, through research, with the

Foundation, which encourages students to pursue advanced study and careers in the sciences, engineering and mathematics.

goal of enhancing the ability to explore and monitor bodies of water for scientific research.

Sophomore Alexander Leishman and junior MengMeng Xu were among four students from the University of Maryland and 278 nationwide selected from 1,111 nominations.

The Goldwater Scholarship program was created to identify students of outstanding ability and promise in science, engineering and mathematics, and to encourage their pursuit of advanced study and research careers.

Alexander, an aerospace engineering major, plans to earn a Ph.D. in aerospace, mechanical, or

MengMeng, a biochemistry and economics dual major, plans to earn an M.D. and Ph.D. in biochemistry. She hopes to conduct research in drug delivery, perform clinical trials and teach at the university level. She is also interested in exploring the possibilities of incorporating natural developmental mechanisms into safer, more efficient, target-specific drug delivery systems.

Goldwater scholars receive one- or two-year scholarships that cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board—up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

Pictured: Hinman CEOs student Alexander Leishman. Photo by John Consoli.

Pictured: Hinman CEOs student MengMeng Xu. Photo by John Consoli.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hillman Entrepreneurs Program Four-year transfer program to create entrepreneurial leaders

A Dream of Electricity in Sierra Leone Through Tseai Energy Unlimited Is One Step Closer, Thanks to a Generous Gift from Warren Citrin, MIPS Funding Hillman Entrepreneurs student Trevor Young had a dream when he started Tseai Energy Unlimited (TEU) in 2009: use native crops in Sierra Leone to generate products and use the waste created to generate electricity.

It went further.

Young envisioned powering sorely needed schools and medical centers. The local economy would thrive from the use of indigenous crops.

used as cooking oil in Sierra Leone and neighboring countries.

“The farmers are pretty excited,” says Young. “Up until now, they have processed palm fruit into palm oil by hand. Now they can focus solely on their crops, growing as much as possible, while we focus on the processing.”

Tseai plans to ramp up production quickly, taking advantage of the peak growing season between March and August.

His company would be a model Pictured, left to right: TEU team members Nnenna Nwosu, Akua Nkrumah, and for third-world Trevor Young countries to take “We plan to advantage of their produce thousands of gallons in the first six agricultural resources and simultaneously bring months,” says Young. He travelled to Sierra Leone electricity to people without it. at the end of December 2010 to oversee initial Now, thanks to a $35,000 gift in November from operations on the ground.

Warren Citrin, co-founder of Solipsys Corp. (now Citrin’s donation has been critical.

Raytheon Solipsys), Young’s dream is one step closer to reality.

“Without Mr. Citrin, we would not be where we He employed the funding immediately.

TEU’s production mill in the town of Mile 18 in Sierra Leone to process palm fruit into palm oil is almost complete. Prototype machinery used to automate palm oil production, built by engineers from Njala University, is undergoing tests.

Local farmers are ready to produce palm fruit and traders are lined up to sell the palm oil, which is 20

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are right now,” says Young. “Not only did his support get us started initially, but it is getting us through this second, difficult phase. His continued support has ensured that we see this through to completion.”

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., design for equipment to digest palm fruit waste into methane, which will generate electricity, is underway thanks to $260K in Mtech Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS)

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funding, awarded in January, 2011. Stephanie Lansing, assistant professor in the department of environmental science and technology, is developing the small-scale, anaerobic digestor. She is also conducting tests on the methane potential of palm fruit waste from samples TEU acquired from Ghana.

In 2009, Young founded TEU and entered the University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition. He won first place and $10,000 in the undergraduate student category, as well as first place and an additional $15,000 through the Warren Citrin Social Impact Award.

Pictured: palm fruit processing equipment being designed for TEU.

Young and TEU teammate Nnenna Nwosu (UM alumna, 2008) visited Sierra Leone in February 2010.

In addition to acquiring land parcels in the town of Mile 18, their agenda included meetings with: •

Farmers, to establish a co-op to provide palm fruit for the plant;

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Schools for Salone, a non-profit organization committed to helping Sierra Leoneans rebuild the many rural schools destroyed during their country’s ten-year conflict;

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A nearby health clinic that could be renovated to provide services to the community;

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Agronomists at Njala University;

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The Sierra Leone Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports;

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The Sierra Leone Ministry of Agriculture and Food Safety; and

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Contractors for building the plant and school

Since then, the company has sought funding. Citrin’s support was a breakthrough. Young believes the momentum TEU gains from selling palm oil will carry his company to the next phase.

Pictured: the initial palm fruit processing mill being built in the town of Mile 18 in Sierra Leone.

“Having a product generating revenue is paramount,” says Young. “Ideally we will generate enough to expand to the next phase. The goal is to be sustainable.”

TEU’s team also includes Akua Nkrumah, a UM senior pursuing a degree in environmental science and technology with a specialization in ecological design.

Former Hillman Entrepreneurs Director Karen Thornton and current Director Carolyn Karlson have played key roles in mentoring TEU’s team. www.tseai.com

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hillman Entrepreneurs Program Four-year transfer program to create entrepreneurial leaders

Hillman Entrepreneurs Student Profile Shauntia D. White, alumna, May 2010, graduate student studying Alaskan Native grandparents Shauntia White is a graduate student at Oklahoma State University, where she is earning her master’s degree in human development and family science.

White is conducting a study of Alaska native grandparents with support from the National Science Foundation. She is specifically investigating grandparents raising their grandchildren.

“We are looking at historical events and the social and temporal phenomena that shape grandparents,” says White. “Approximately 56.1 percent of Alaskan American Indians and Alaskan natives are raised by their grandparents.”

Aspects she is surveying include how culture, traditions and language are preserved, health and legal issues, and how grandchildren raised by the grandparents develop as an adult.

White is conducting literature reviews and comparing federal, state and tribal data. Next semester she will travel to Alaska.

Since moving to Oklahoma, White has rented two garden plots on campus with a graduate housing group.

“I am trying to see what is like to be more interdependent like the Alaska natives,” she says.

She also helps facilitate a women’s group at a local church.

“Female students talk about things that empower us to keep us strong,” White says. “I have matured a lot more since I came here. People look up to me. There is a sense of accountability that creates a level of maturity I didn’t expect so soon.”

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The Hillman Entrepreneurs Program, she says, helped lay the foundation for her graduate study.

“The business plan writing class was perfect for those interested in grant writing and also in the areas of scientific research.,” says White.

“Coupled with the McNair Program, working on demographic profiles (similar to market analysis), drafting participant fliers (similar to recruitment or advertisement), or even the structure of the business plan (similar in conceptualization) have

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helped me to think entrepreneurially in all of my research endeavors or pursuits.”

She also enjoyed working with students.

“Mentoring incoming students from Prince George’s Community College was my favorite part of the program,” says White. “Everyone has some characteristics or personality that is unique to them and that made the program what it is today.”

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White hopes to teach someday.

Her academic achivements while in the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program included: Academic Achievement Award (PGCC), 2006 -2007 Psychology, Sociology, Education Collegian Center Award (PGCC), School of Public Health Dean’s Senior Scholar (UMD).

Hillman Entrepreneurs in 2010

Pictured: Waqar Manzur, Santiago Maxell, and Latasha Harris after winning Pitch Dingman with their company Nu Skool.

Pictured: Tuka Chalabi, Victoria Johnson, and Ja’Lisa Dixon.

Pictured: Kailyn Cage, left, talking with David Hillman.

Pictured: Alumna Laurene Dampare in the laboratory where she studied the effects of alcohol on the brains of crayfish. Laurene is now in South Africa doing AIDS-related research.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hillman Entrepreneurs Program Four-year transfer program to create entrepreneurial leaders

Hillman Entrepreneurs Student Profile Victoria Johnson, already accomplished researcher ready to pursue her Ph.D. and have a positive impact on minority populations Victoria Johnson is someone who makes a difference and delivers results beyond expectation.

While at Prince George’s Community College, she was invited by her psychology studies mentor, Professor Sonia Bell, to conduct an independent research project exploring the relationship between cardiovascular health and positive affect among minorities. She found there was a high correlation between the two and suggested future research explores the relationship between cardiovascular health and cultural factors.

What’s more, Johnson was invited to present her research at a conference at Johns Hopkins University. Her presentation was accepted along with research being conducted by graduate students.

A precedent was set.

Before she graduates in May 2011, Johnson will have published three research papers in peer-reviewed journals.

At PGCC, Bell saw the potential.

She encouraged Johnson to apply to the National Institute of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for an internship. She has worked for that organization two summers since.

In 2009, Johnson worked through NIDA at the San 24

Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

Francisco General Hospital psychiatric ward assisting with case management for patients who were HIV+ or at risk of becoming HIV+. Case management consisted of helping clients look for housing and additional services through various local clinics.

Johnson presented a poster at University of California San Francisco looking at HIV-Related Stigma and Receipt of HIV Primary Care among Illicit Drug Users. Though a significant relationship was not found as predicted between HIV stigma and receipt of primary care, the suggestion was made that future investigations should examine the role other overlapping stigmas play in mediating the relationship between HIV stigma and access to care.

The following summer, also through NIDA, Johnson worked at the University of California, Los Angeles with Steven Shoptaw, Ph.D. studying HIV services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations. What she found was that of the 7.4 percent of services available in the U.S. tailored to these populations, only .4 percent of them resided outside of California and New York.

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Johnson’s findings will be published in the Journal of AIDS and Behavior by spring 2011. She wrote nearly the entire paper herself and was extremely grateful for the belief Dr. Shoptaw had in her writing ability and the opportunity to demonstrate her writing skills.

At the University of Maryland, Johnson is juggling roles as a student, a research assistant, a teaching assistant, and a co-investigator on another research project.

As a research assistant, she is working with Christa Schmidt, program director of the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology at Towson University (formerly with the University of Maryland) looking at the health and wellness of college students at UM. Together with a graduate student, Johnson is helping with data analysis, pulling literature together and co-authoring a segment of a paper to be published based upon their study.

Johnson is also a co-investigator with Clara Hill, a professor in the department of psychology, in a study looking at the attitudes of students towards seeking help (psychotherapy). Johnson is conducting interviews of students at the University of Maryland, after which she and five other students will transcribe those interviews, will place them in domains using consensus, and will write the introduction and method section of the paper.

Johnson was hired as a teaching assistant for the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program last June.

“Being a TA for the Hillman program has given me a different perspective as to just how much they [the program administrators] really care about us,” says Johnson. “The position itself did not exist when I transferred here from PGCC. My responsibilities include: helping to guide students transferring from PGCC and attempt to make their transition seamless, giving campus tours, helping

them register for classes, getting them in line with advisors in their schools and departments, helping them find scholarships and other grants to apply for, and helping in general with obstacles or concerns that may arise throughout the semester.”

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Before she graduates in May 2011, Johnson will have published three research papers in peer-reviewed journals.

After graduating, Johnson plans to earn her doctoral degree in psychology with a special focus on health behavior research and evaluation working with minority populations (e.g. women of color, men of color, LGBT).

In the long-term, she wants to open a non-profit organization that serves minority populations, providing career and related services, with a therapy aspect included. She is committed to conducting research and finding ways to evaluate and apply the findings in settings that will provide a positive impact on society.

Hillman Entrepreners Alumni Network Formed Graduates of the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program have formed an official alumni program and elected officers. Students plan to stay active in the program by visiting, and hopefully contributing to the program one day, keeping in contact with everyone via phone, Internet and social gatherings, and by attending functions and seeking advice from the directors and support staff.

Visit www.hillman.umd.edu for details!

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hillman Entrepreneurs Program Four-year transfer program to create entrepreneurial leaders

Hillman Entrepreneurs Student Profiles April Chaires, an artist in Rome (for a semester), aims to use her art to put forth positive messages When in Rome, April Chaires does as the artists do.

A senior graphic design major, Chaires is studying abroad and living a dream of studying art history at the American University of Rome.

“We see so many negative signs and sayings on peoples’ shirts, while we are Christian and believe in being positive. We decided to try and catch people’s attention with positive messages.”

- April Chaires

“I’m getting to see all of the places we’ve covered in class,” says Chaires, “the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Circus Maximus, and ruins of the Roman Forum.”

Her favorite though (so far) is the Ara Pacis Augustae, or Altar of Augustan Peace, created in 9 B.C. to commemorate peace brought by the Roman Empire. Sculpted entirely in gleaming white marble, the altar depicts scenes of traditional Roman piety

and is recognized as the most famous surviving example of Augustan sculpture.

“For the time it was done, it is amazing how detailed and precise the figures are, especially since they didn’t have access to the technology we have now,” Chaires explains. “The carvings are perfectly preserved.”

Third in line in a family of artists (her grandmother was a painter and her father drew and created murals), Chaires has already focused her talents in an entrepreneurial fashion, creating a t-shirt company called Messiah’s Misfits, which offers designs portraying positive messages.

“My family and I were talking about ideas we had one day, things we wanted to do, and the idea of a t-shirt company came up,” says Chaires. ”We see so many negative signs and sayings on peoples’ shirts, while we are Christian and believe in being positive.

We decided to try and catch people’s attention with positive messages.”

The company has created 40 designs so far and had one produced, selling many of them at Chaires’s family church. She plans to grow the company, sell product online and perhaps accept designs from customers that the company then prints.

In addition to Hillman, Chaires is in the Design in Marketing Fellows Program, a joint effort between the department of art and the Robert H. Smith School of Business that bridges the gap between marketing research and theory and the realization of well-designed applications with a blend of art and business-related courses.

The Hillman Entrepreneurs Program, for Chaires, is like a home extension.

“It’s like a family to me,” says Chaires. ”I look forward

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to the Friday lunch and our class. It is the highlight of my week. I have made so many friends in the program.”

The Hillman program has also exposed her to new possibilities. “I have learned so much through the leadership and entrepreneurial classes,” she explains. “It opened up a an entirely new area for me

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that I didn’t even realize I was interested in.”

Chaires plans to blend her passion, artistic ability, and entrepreneurial skills after graduating by developing her t-shirt company, as well as exploring opportunities in printmaking, painting, sculpture and design.

Kailyn Cage, entrepreneur, NASA researcher, student and athlete There are not enough hours in the week for Kailyn Cage.

She is a full-time student, a fulltime intern at NASA Goddard, runs her own business and plays on the University of Maryland softball team.

For NASA, she is working 40 hours a week on elliptical mirrors for a balloon flight being launched in 2-3 years to study cosmic microwave background radiation related to the Big Bang theory. That theory predicts that the early universe was a very hot place and that as it expands, the gas within it cools.

The thinking is, the universe should be filled with radiation that is literally remnant heat left over from the Big Bang. This mission will look for it.

“I am learning a lot,” says Cage. “This project is giving me hands-on experience you don’t typically get in the classroom.”

A senior earning a degree in physical sciences with a focus in mechanical engineering, her career path started when she was in 8th grade and was frustrated with candy vending machines.

“I took the machines apart because I wanted to see how they work and wanted to see if there was a way you could get more candy out,” she explains.

The result? Cage developed her own candy vending machines that gave out more candy and started a company to provide the machines and keep them stocked: The Catering Group LLC. “My intent for the company was and is to cater to the customer,” says Cage.

She has eight vending machines installed in the Greater Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, including two at the University of Maryland. She checks and fills the vending machines herself.

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A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hillman Entrepreneurs Program Four-year transfer program to create entrepreneurial leaders

Hillman Entrepreneurs Student Profiles Kailyn Cage, continued from previous page In 2006, Ernst & Young LLP and Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area (JANCA) selected Cage as the Youth Entrepreneur of the Year.

In 2009, she was featured on PBS Biz Kid$ in an episode about the importance of good credit.

Cage secured financing for her company from the manufacturer of her vending machines.

On April 28, 2010, Cage rang the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange with a team from Biz Kid$.

Through everything she does, the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program has helped her stay focused.

“I understand why a lot of great entrepreneurs are not able to finish school,” says Cage. “If it wasn’t for a program like Hillman, I don’t know if I would

Howells Ihekweme: Hope for Bringing Light (electricity) Where There Is None For Howells Ihekweme, majoring in electrical engineering runs far deeper than the degree he will receive.

Ihekweme wants to learn everything he can about electricity and start a company that can bring the vital resource to countries like his native Nigeria.

“Since coming to the U.S. [at the age of 19] I’ve seen what electricity does for a society,” says Ihekweme.

“In high school I studied by lantern and candle light. A lack of electricity keeps so many things from happening. With it, people can set up businesses, go to school and study in a much more ideal environment.”

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have been able to maintain my company and try to finish school. Karen [Thornton] and Carolyn [Karlson] helped me see the importance of both school and entrepreneurship, and that I could get access to more resources by staying in school.”

Cage plans to pursue graduate study in reliability engineering and enhance technology, including possibly vending machines, in a way to help disabled populations, especially the elderly.

“I love older people,” says Cage. “They have so much wisdom and knowledge to share with the world.

Not everyone values their expertise. If they don’t understand the technology how can they contribute their knowledge to advance the world?”

Cage hopes to change that.

This past summer, Ihekweme participated in an eight-week cybersecurity program at the University of California, Berkeley. The program, offered to just 32 students nationwide, was hosted by the Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology (TRUST), a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center (STC). TRUST is focused on the development of cyber security science and technology that will radically transform the ability of organizations to design, build, and operate trustworthy information systems for the nation’s critical infrastructure.

In the program, Ihekweme was part of a team dedicated to detecting and isolating traffic anomalies on a computer network. Students created a computer security testbed for people to attack and defend.

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“It was exceptional,” says Howells. “This was my first exposure to a research program at such a prestigious university.

I learned so many things about network attacks and about how people send in malicious data to infiltrate data networks. We read about many attacks done to major companies and countries.

I also met a lot of people and made new friends.”

Each week guest speakers visited from companies such as Google, Microsoft and Oracle.

Graduate students also spoke about how to apply to graduate school. On weekends they took trips to places such as Alcatraz in San Fransisco.

This semester, Ihekweme is conducting research on biosensors that can detect bacteria and

microorganisms with Ravi Doraiswami, assistant research scientist in the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE).

Stanley Ohaka, a geologist who fell in love with the Rocky Mountains

“It was amazing and very different from in-class learning,” says Ohaka. “They teach you some of the tools you need in class, but until you go out in the

Stanley Ohaka spent six weeks this past summer in

field, you don’t appreciate them.”

Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

The geology major fell in love.

“It is hard to appreciate nature until you spend time outside and figure out how mountains like those were formed,” says Ohaka. “Huge earthquakes occurred in the Rocky Mountain region long ago.

We tried to connect these events with the region.

We traced a fault line from Wyoming to Montana.”

Ohaka and 25 other students from around the country participated in the geology summer field camp.

Ohaka had never camped outside before. He purchased his first tent and first sleeping bag for the trip.

“The wildlife thrilled me the most,” says Ohaka. “We saw bears and bison for the first time. We found dinosaur bones. It was spectacular.”

They also visited Yellowstone National Park and saw the cone geyser Old Faithful, a sight Ohaka said was jaw-dropping.

The group would hike all day, climbing mountains up to 10,000 feet in elevation.

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Hillman Entrepreneurs Student Profile Stanley Ohaka, continued from previous page “We had to carry our backpack, three liters of water, lunch, our rock hammer, all in heavy hiking boots. I lost weight.”

The best part of the trip, though, Ohaka said, was exchanging ideas with and making friends with people he didn’t know before.

Ohaka came to the U.S. from Nigeria by himself in 2004 to pursue an education.

After a year he entered Prince George’s Community College at the recommendation of relatives. He was maintaining a 4.0 grade point average in two classes when he applied for the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program and was accepted.

“The first two classes I took were the last I paid for out of pocket,” says Ohaka. “It’s been a miracle ever since. The program has given me huge leverage to focus more on school. Otherwise, I would have to work more to support family back home.”

Having access to speakers who come in and talk with students in the program and writing a business

“The first two classes I took were the last I paid for out of pocket.

It’s been a miracle ever since.

The program has given me huge leverage to focus more on school.

Otherwise, I would have to work more to support family back home.”

- Stanley Ohaka

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plan have been equally valuable to him.

“During one of the competitions we had I was given the market analysis to do,” Ohaka explained. “I was learning while doing it and now I can add it to my resume. I can wholeheartedly tell someone I have done it before.”

His plans for after graduation?

“I am looking for a job in Wyoming,” says Ohaka.

“Not only do you have the spectacular environment but people live their lives in healthier manners.

The food is homegrown, homemade, the salad harvested before you eat it, the milk milked locally.”

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Hillman Entrepreneurs Graduates: 2010

Hillman Entrepreneurs Graduation 2010 Pictured, 2010 winter Hillman Entrepreneurs graduates, from left to right: Anthony Ajayi, Ivana Mejias, D’Angelo Perrier, and Stanley Ohaka.

Pictured, May 2010 Hillman Entrepreneurs graduates, from left to right: Myeshia Workeman, Laurene Dampare, Steven Silver, Wade Cassamajor (2008 graduate), Santiago Maxwell, Shauntia White, Jose Vargas, and Waqar Manzur.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Hillman Entrepreneurs Program Four-year transfer program to create entrepreneurial leaders

Hillman Entrepreneurs Student Profile Tony Ajayi: Spreading the Love of Music Anthony (Tony) Ajayi has always lived in music.

His father had a recording studio in his home in Riverdale, Md. Tony learned to play drums, piano and guitar. His father and brother play instruments as well.

But it wasn’t until his father expanded his studio, moved it out of the house and eventually to Nigeria, that Tony decided to start his own music business.

Along with his brother Samuel Ajayi, cousin Jacob Korede and friend Clarence Richards, Tony founded Sanbox Entertainment.

Tony built his own studio, took on musicians and artists, a band called Genre, a poet and singers.

Sanbox produced CDs and gave performances around the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, at places such as The National Harbor, Station 9, Howard University, the University and Maryland, and Westfield Shopping Center.

In 2009, Sanbox began hosting an event called AHAVA (a Hebrew word for love) every Friday and

Saturday night at the National Harbor at the Amber Tree Art Gallery. AHAVA featured live performances from Sanbox singers and poets, creating nights of soulful music and poetry in a calm and invigorating atmosphere.

In March, 2010, Ajayi was named to the top 30 under 30 best and brightest young African-Americans in the D.C. region by WKYS (93.9 FM).

He was also selected for a summer leadership program by Ernst & Young in 2009, and interned at Deloitte during the summer of 2010.

An accounting and information systems dual-major, Ajayi puts both to use at NASA, where he does purchasing and works with information technology with the Global Change Master Directory, a comprehensive directory of information about Earth science data, including the oceans, atmosphere, hydrosphere, solid earth, biosphere and human dimensions of global change.

Ajayi has worked there since high school, when he acquired the job through a work-study program.

NASA kept him on even after he graduated.

Shortly after transferring from Prince George’s Community College to UM in spring 2008, Ajayi helped LDTech win first prize in the undergraduate category of the University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition. LDTech develops a Liquid Desiccant Waterfall, a visually appealing, low-energy dehumidifier that pulls moisture from the interior of a house and releases it outside in the atmosphere.

“It was interesting,” says Ajayi. “I had never written a business plan and at that point I had only taken beginner’s accounting, yet I did the financials for LDTech and presented them during the competition.”

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Ajayi hopes to a open lounge called AHAVA and eventually a non-profit called AHAVA Gives Back.

“The non-profit will cater to young musicians,” says Ajayi. “It will give them an outlet outside of their day-to-day lives and support them by doing things such as paying for their music lessons.”

The Hillman Entrepreneurs program has given Ajayi the opportunity to interact with people from different backgrounds. He has liked going to Mtech events, and has especially enjoyed entrepreneurs

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who come and talk to students in the program.

“It’s been great having real entrepreneurs come in and give us the real scoop,” Ajayi explains. “They all remind us that you really have to put work into it.”

For Ajayi, work and passion come together, and if he is successful, Sanbox may inspire and support many musicians to come.

Emmanuel Ogunsalu International business major Emmanuel Ogunsalu runs Queensway Restaurant & Catering Services with his sister in Riverdale, Md., an establishment specializing in Nigerian food.

Ogunsalu and his family plan to expand and franchise the restaurant in Nigeria.

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute Educate. Create. Connect.

2010 University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition Features Cellular Communications, Solar Energy, Biomedical, Electronic Prescription Companies Managed by Mtech, the 2010 University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition featured innovative winning companies in cellular communications, solar energy, biomedical devices, and electronic prescriptions.

Winners were selected from nine finalists who presented their venture concepts on May 7 to teams of judges from the startup venture community in three categories: high technology, biotechnology, and undergraduate. Three teams also received Warren Citrin Social Impact Awards.

“This was one of the strongest sets of finalists we have seen in the ten years we have offered this competition,” says Dr. Dean Chang, director of Mtech’s venture programs. “They not only addressed real market needs with unique, viable solutions, but also demonstrated compelling early evidence of customer validation and customer traction. This group of companies should have significant economic and social impact in Maryland and beyond.”

OmniSpeech LLC, a company developing speech extraction technology for cellular and other communications, won the high technology category and $25,000. The company also won a $15,000 Warren Citrin Social Impact Award.

Omnispeech’s technology solves a major problem— background noise in cell phone conversations— with cost-effective software, while current solutions require bulky, cost-intensive hardware.

“When you get the combination of an easy-todescribe problem and an elegant solution that is very low cost but can scale into billions, you are inherently exciting,” says Morgan O’Brien, 34

Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

Pictured: OmniSpeech founder Carol Espy Wilson presenting at the tenth annual University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition.

co-founder of Nextel Communications, current chairman of Cyren Call Communications, and an advisor to Omnispeech.

Omnispeech’s team includes Carol Espy-Wilson, professor of electrical and computer engineering and company founder, and Tarun Pruthi, a research associate in the department of electrical and computer engineering.

Aeramatics won the biotechnology category and $15,000. The company is developing a spirometer, which measures the volume of air inspired and expired by the lungs, that reduces post-operative complications by reminding patients to use it, tracks usage, and sets targets.

Aeramatics’ team includes Eranga Fernando, an undergraduate in the department of criminology and criminal justice, and Himali Fernando, a 2009 alumnus of the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.

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DoseSpot won the undergraduate category and $10,000. The company also won a $5,000 Warren Citrin Social Impact Award. The company has developed an easy- to- use and easy- to- integrate Web-based medication prescribing system that connects medical technology vendors to the SureScripts electronic prescribing network.

DoseSpot’s team includes Greg Waldstreicher, a Hinman CEOs Program undergraduate student in the department of accounting & information assurance, and Gideon Platt.

CloudSolar also won a $5,000 Warren Citrin Social Impact Award. The company is developing a system to capture solar thermal energy to heat swimming pools, with plans to later enter additional markets.

CloudSolar’s team includes: Michael Armani, a Ph.D. student in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering; Ramik Chopra, a UM alumnus from the department of electrical and computer engineering and current UM MBA student; and Danny Lee, a 1989 UM alumnus.

High technology and biotechnology winners also earned automatic eligibility for Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Cisco’s 2010, by-invitationonly, $250,000 DFJ - Cisco Global Business Plan Competition, and an upcoming Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) Power of Ten Investor Forum. All category winners are eligible to attend TEDCO workshops for one year as a TEDCO affiliate and receive complimentary admission to TEDCO showcases for one year.

The high technology winner also earned a complimentary admission to the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA) Capital Connection Venture and Private Equity Conference.

Sponsors of the competition included: Fish & Richardson P.C., Nixon Peabody LLP, SAIC, and Warren Citrin.

The Undergraduate Category judges included: Bill

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Bellows, serial entrepreneur and entrepreneurship instructor; Jay Calhoun, Associate, Nixon Peabody LLP; Adam Donovan, Marketing & Business Development Manager, Fish & Richardson P.C.; Craig Dye, Director of Venture Investments, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship; Ben Hallen, Assistant Professor of Strategy, Robert H. Smith School of Business; and Anik Singal, CEO, Lurn Inc. Biotechnology Category judges incuded: Henry Ahn, Program Manager, Technology Funding Programs, Maryland Technology Development Corporation; Rudhir Patel, Associate, Fish & Richardson P.C.; Steve Dubin, CEO, Martek Biosciences Corporation; Michael Gutch, Member, Life Sciences Team, H.I.G. Ventures; Mark Kass, Partner and Chair, Israel Business, Nixon Peabody LLP; and Matt Zuga, Managing Director, Red Abbey Venture Partners.

High-Technology Category judges included: Steve Carchedi, CEO, Zoom Intelligence LLC; Warren Citrin, Co-founder and Board Member, Gloto Corporation and Co-founder, Solipsys Corporation; Sam Feigin, Partner and Chair, Israel Business, Nixon Peabody LLP; Mark Grovic, Co-founder and General Partner, New Markets Venture Partners; Kiran Hebbar, Partner, Valhalla Partners; amd Karl Renner, Principal, Fish & Richardson P.C. The tenth annual University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition promotes the commercialization of innovative ideas and university-created technologies by offering faculty and students prizes for the best new venture plans.

The competition emphasizes learning through coaching and the experience of presenting ideas to an expert panel of judges.

Since its inception in 2001, $536,000 in prizes have been awarded through the competition to University of Maryland faculty, students, and alumni to help them launch their innovative new ventures. www.bpc.umd.edu A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Mtech Launches Maryland International Incubator with Foreign High-Tech Tenants The new Maryland International Incubator is open for business in College Park, adjacent to the University of Maryland campus, with 13 foreign companies as tenants and others in the pipeline.

A program of Mtech and a joint project of the University of Maryland and the state Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), the Incubator is designed to spur economic growth, bring foreign investment to Maryland and ultimately create jobs in the state.

It provides a one-stop gateway that helps private foreign businesses in the technology sector set up operations in Maryland. Currently, the facility offers 7,500 square feet of office space on U.S. Route 1 in College Park (8400 Baltimore Ave.).

Incubator tenants get office space and a base for development, proximity to talent and research facilities at the University and vital services from Mtech, which operates the facility.

High-tech firms frequently seek locations close to a major research university to benefit from its expertise and talent. The Incubator encourages research collaboration in such areas 36

Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

as health care, environment, agriculture, energy and fire protection.

The new incubator is part of Governor O’Malley’s new Maryland International Growth Strategy—a broad effort to help foreign companies expand their operations into Maryland.

Companies in the incubator include: Community DNS CommunityDNS Limited, based in the United Kingdom, is a community-based initiative designed to promote best practice in handling Internet infrastructure Domain Name resolution Services (DNS), the underlying infrastructure that makes the Internet work.

DaSol Solar Energy Science & Technology Co. Ltd. Located in Zhejiang, China, Dasol specializes in the research, development, manufacturing, installation and service of solar panels, photovoltaic application systems and photovoltaic power systems.

Dimetek Digital Medical Technologies Ltd. Established in 2007, Dimetek Digital Medical Technologies Ltd. is a Sino-American joint

venture concentrating on the research, manufacturing and sales of devices relating to cardio-electrophysiology, neuroelectrophysiology, clinical multiparameter monitoring, wireless/ remote monitoring, clinical data network transmission and processing, and automatic vision assessment equipment.

DYCENT Biotech Company Founded in 2003, DYCENT’s research activities are located in Shanghai, China and include a full range of analytical testing of more than 100 diverse biochemical and materials.

DYCENT offers application testing for molecular biology, cell culture, clinical and diagnostic reagents.

In addition to analytical and applications testing, custom services include stability studies, bacteriological testing, microbial limits testing and other evaluations to meet individual customer requirements. The company has continuously expanded plant and technical capabilities, adding large-scale process equipment and state-ofthe-art facilities.

Glodon Company, Ltd. (formerly Grandsoft) Founded in Beijing in 1994, Glodon provides information

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technology solutions for the construction industry. Its principal products consist of complete packages for bidding management, construction cost management, and purchasing and supply chain management.

Indus Links Indus Links promotes Maryland as an investment destination for Indian companies interested in the U.S. market. Indus Links assists the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development (DBED) in recruiting Indian companies to establish locations in Maryland.

Investment & Venture Fund of Tatarstan (IVFRT) Located in Kazan, Russia, the Investment & Venture Fund of Tatarstan was established in 2004 to promote innovation in the Republic of Tatarstan. IVFRT will consider investments in projects at the earliest stages of development, as well as those that are more mature.

JSC National Scientific and Technology Holding Company of Kazakhstan JSC’s main business activity is scientific research and technology development in five areas: metallurgy, mining and related service industries, nanotechnologies, photochemistry, renewable and alternative energy, information

and space technologies.

Mina Mar Group Mina Mar Group, a Canadianbased stock development and investor relations firm, provides custom-tailored solutions for individual investors, third party owners, or small-cap and microcap public companies in the North American capital market arenas.

Shandong Province Liaison Office The Department of Science and Technology of Shandong Province has established a liaison office at MI2 to assist Shandong businesses in entering into collaborations with U.S. businesses.

researchers at universities and in biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies.

Totus Lighting Solutions Inc. Totus provides solid-state lighting for applications in street lights, area lighting and signage lighting.

Za Za Ltd. Za Za is an infrastructure development firm dedicated to providing technologies, equipment, and human resources to assist Bangladesh in expanding its emerging economy. www.mii.umd.edu

Signalway Antibody Biotech Company (SAB) With headquarters in Nanjing, China, SAB provides custom antibodies to customers worldwide, including

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Technology Advancement Program Leading technology venture incubator in Maryland

AccuStrata Inc. Receives $432K Phase II NSF; Grant is the Sixth Acquired in the Last 18 Months AccuStrata Inc., a company in the Mtech Technology Advancement Program incubator developing a control system that increases the power solar cells generate, received a $432,000 phase II small business innovation research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation in October 2010. The grant is the sixth the company has won in the past 18 months.

AccuStrata is developing a real-time process control system, called TF Auto-Pilot, which detects manufacturing flaws in solar panels and allows manufacturers to correct the panel and return them to their targeted specification, enabling higherpower panels and fewer product rejects.

“Solar cells manufactured with our system can produce 15-20 percent more power,” says AccuStrata President George Atanasoff. “With this funding, we are developing an improved prototype system and validating it for the two most widely used thin film solar panel manufacturing technologies.”

Decreasing flawed and rejected panels “on the fly” as products are made increases solar panel efficiency and manufacturing yield, reduces manufacturing costs, and increases revenue and profit for manufacturers.

In March 2010, AccuStrata received a $70K phase I SBIR grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. In January 2010, the company received a $35K phase II SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation. In December 2009, the company won a $150K, phase I Department of Energy SBIR grant. In August 2009, the company won a DOE Supply Chain grant for $150K. In June 2009, AccuStrata received a National Science Foundation phase I SBIR grant for $100K. The company also received funding from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation

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Pictured, left to right: Oscar von Bredow, COO, and George Atanasoff, president of AccuStrata, testing their product at a large solar cell manufacturing facility.

through the Maryland Technology Transfer Fund.

AccuStrata was selected as the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year in 2008 and was again nominated for a separate Maryland Incubator Company of the Year award in 2009. www.accustrata.com

AccuStrata Funding October 2010

$42K phase II NSF SBIR

March 2010

$70K phase I EPA SBIR

January 2010

$35K phase II NSF SBIR

December 2009

$150K phase 1 DOE SBIR

August 2009

$150K DOE Supply Chain Grant

June 2009

$100K phase 1 NSF SBIR

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TAP Company Pixelligent Technologies Closes $2 Million in Equity Financing, Awarded $8.2M Project

by NIST Mtech TAP incubator company Pixelligent Technologies, an emerging leader in developing nanotechnology applications, closed on $2 million in new

we are now expanding this technology into other related fields.

equity financing. Pixelligent is developing groundbreaking applications in optical lithography and nanocomposites for the semiconductor and microelectronics markets.

This funding, in combination with the support we have received from federal grant programs, has enabled us to support our world class nanotechnology team and move our technology closer to the market,” said Greg Cooper, president of Pixelligent.

“To raise capital for a development stage company in the current economic environment is a true testament to the tremendous potential and importance of our technology,” said Craig Bandes, CEO of Pixelligent Technologies.

Investors included local angel investors, a well-known, west coast-based tech entrepreneur, and the company’s management team. The proceeds were used for costs related to completing the company’s reorganization and will also be used to help fund current development initiatives and government programs going forward.

“We were one of the first to recognize the potential of using nanotechnology in critical optical lithography applications for the semiconductor industry and

Pixelligent Technologies was also awarded an $8.2 million project by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through their Technology Innovation Program (TIP) for the Development and Scale-Up of Nanocomposites.

A joint research venture led

by Pixelligent, partnering with Brewer Science Inc., involves developing new processes

$23.8M $2.8B 12

and technologies to scale up the production of highquality nanocompositesnanocrystals dispersed in polymers to create materials with enhanced performance and new functionality that cannot be provided by polymers or traditional composites.

Such nanocomposites are expected to have a wide range of semiconductor and microelectronics applications such as coatings that can create brighter and more efficient LED displays and new materials that can improve the performance of Blu-ray discs. www.pixelligent.com

Investment, grants and contracts raised or acquired by TAP companies since 2008 total TAP companies have sold for since 1985

companies currently in the TAP incubator

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Technology Advancement Program Leading technology venture incubator in Maryland

TAP Incubator Graduate Paice LLC, Toyota Reach Settlement on Patent Disputes Paice LLC, an Mtech TAP incubator graduate company formed in 1992 to develop hybrid vehicle technology that promotes lower emissions, superior driving performance and fuel efficient operation of internal combustion engines, reached a settlement with Toyota in July 2010 after six years of patent disputes.

Toyota agreed to license all 23 of Paice’s domestic and foreign patents, the last of which expires in 2019. Terms of the licenses remain confidential.

“I am pleased that Toyota and Paice came to an amicable resolution regarding our patents,” said Paice founder Alex Severinsky. “We have long believed that hybrid vehicles represent the wave of the future for the auto industry and hope that consumers will continue to embrace hybrid vehicles as a meaningful way to reduce

emissions.”

Their legal fight began in 2004, shortly after Toyota introduced its second-generation Prius. In a 2004 corporate report Toyota said the key to the improvements was its decision to switch to a high-voltage system.

Paice sued, and in 2005 a federal judge in Texas ruled that Toyota had infringed upon one of Paice’s patents. An appellate court upheld the ruling in 2007.

Toyota then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to review the case. Paice was poised to take the case to the International Trade Commission on Monday, July 19. That morning the case was settled out of court.

On July 8, Paice LLC and Ford Motor Company entered into an agreement for the license of Paice’s breakthrough 1994 hybrid vehicle patent (U.S. Patent 5,343, 970). The terms of this license are also confidential.

Paice will continue to pursue licensing agreements with other automakers that use hybrid technology patented by the company.

Severinsky

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Pictured: Alex Severinsky, founder of Paice LLC.

developed the Hyperdrive poweramplified internal combustion engine power train, a unique successor technology to the conventional internal combustion engine power train, in the early 1990s and founded Paice to license Hyperdrive to hybrid vehicle manufacturers.

Hyperdrive’s key innovation is in the use of an alternating current electrical subsystem, which offers significant performance advantages over conventional power trains and other hybrid technologies, with average fuel economy improvements of greater than 50 percent at equivalent cost, broad applicability across chassis sizes and vehicle types, lower environmental impact, and ample power for all vehicle accessories.

Paice joined TAP, the first technology company incubator in

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patent rights. After a long legal battle with Toyota, he won a civil case in 2005. Further litigation ensued until the July settlement.

Severinsky served as CEO and chairman of Paice until 2006.

In October, 2008 Severinsky was inducted into the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s

Pictured: A drawing from Severinsky’s breakthrough 1994 hybrid vehicle patent, U.S. Patent 5,343,907.

the State of Maryland, in 1992.

“Mtech was most helpful in introducing us to relevant university faculty and technology companies that could analyze the Hyperdrive technology and provide advice on commercialization,” says Severinsky. “The university as a whole played a significant role in Paice’s success.”

Severinsky consulted with A. James Clark School of Engineering faculty members to develop and refine his ideas for Hyperdrive. He lectured in

the Department of Mechanical Engineering, delivering a course on innovation.

Severinsky made a physical prototype of his technology and demonstrated the system in Detroit on October 14, 1999.

He proved that the system could effectively reduce the gas consumption of a Cadillac Coup de Ville by half during city driving while retaining its driving performance.

Engineers at U.S. and Japanese automakers were interested in Severinsky’s invention, but top management resisted. A staff engineer at Toyota later developed the Toyota agreed to license same idea as Severinsky all 23 of Paice’s domestic for hybrids. When and foreign patents, the the Toyota Prius was last of which expires in introduced, Severinsky 2019. fought to protect his

Innovation Hall of Fame for his “pioneering work in the development of the Hyperdrive power-amplified internal combustion engine power train for hybrid vehicles.”

Severinsky is considering entering TAP again with his new company, AtomNet, which develops safe, portable technologies for generating electricity. www.paice.net

Pictured, left to right, at the inauguration of Severinsky into the Clark School Innovation Hall of Fame in 2008: Darryll Pines, Marilyn Berman Pollans, Alex Severinsky, Nathan Bluzer, Herb Rabin, and Nariman Farvardin.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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FlexEl LLC Wins Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Award Three Additional TAP Incubator Companies Named Finalists FlexEl LLC, a company in the Mtech TAP incubator developing rechargeable, flexible, thin-film batteries, was named company of the year in the technology transfer category at the 2010 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards.

FlexEl was recognized at a ceremony held June 15 in Baltimore, Md. The company was selected among 22 finalists.

“The State of Maryland’s 2010 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year award is a great honor, and reflects the steady progress FlexEl is making in bringing our revolutionary technology to market,” says FlexEl CEO Bob Proctor. “For the distinguished 49-person selection committee to choose us over the many other compelling technology companies in Maryland is a testament to the hard work and commitment of our entire team.”

FlexEl won the University of Maryland’s Invention of the Year award in 2008, and the hightechnology category of the University of Maryland’s $75K Business Plan Competition in 2009.

FlexEl is commercializing a

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Pictured, front row, left to right, FlexEl team members: Co-Founder Martin Peckerar, Karina Drees and CEO Bob Proctor. Pictured, back row, left to right: Benjamin Wu, Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development; Christian S. Johansson, Secretary, Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development; Barbara Dreyer, president and CEO, Connections Academy; John M. Wasilisin, acting president and executive director, TEDCO. Photo by Tracey Brown.

flexible, ultra-thin battery with a thickness comparable to a business card. The batteries have higher storage capacity than any other battery available today, are non-toxic, and can be recharged wirelessly.

University of Maryland electrical and computer engineering professors Martin Peckerar and Neil Goldsman, along with research associate and alumna Zeynep Dilli, developed the company’s patent-pending technologies.

Three additional Mtech finalist companies were Omnispeech

LLC, Remedium Technologies Inc. and Resensys LLC. Selection criteria for a winning company include: success in achieving its objectives, its technology or product development; growth in revenue or earnings; number of customers and significant customers; technology transfer; attraction of outside investors; and impact on the region. Award recipients were chosen based on their nomination form, on-site visits, interviews with references. www.flexelinc.com

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Previous TAP Incubator Company of the Year Award Winners 2009

Lurn Inc., Best Technology Service Company AccuStrata Inc., Best New Incubator Company

2008

TRX Systems, Inc., Best Homeland Security Company Zymetis, Inc., Best Technology Transfer Company

2007

2006

Digene Corporation, Hall of Fame Inductee Pixelligent Technologies, LLC, Best New Incubator Company Martek Biosciences Corporation, Hall of Fame Inductee

2005

Innovative Biosensors, Inc., Best Life Science Company

2003

Datastream Conversion Services LLC, Best Technology Service Company Chesapeake PERL Inc., Best Biotech/Life Science Company

2002

2001

Advanced Therman & Environmental Concepts Inc., Best New Incubator Company NeuralStem Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Best Overall Incubator Company Claragen, Inc., Best Biotech Company

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TAP Launches TERP Startup Lab for Very Early Stage Entrepreneurs University of Maryland and local technology entrepreneurs have a new place to explore starting ventures: the Tech Entrepreneur Research and Prototyping (TERP) Startup Laboratory.

Located in the Mtech Technology Advancement Program (TAP) building, the university’s incubator for high-tech startup companies, the TERP Startup Lab is designed for entrepreneurs who need a place to quickly develop technology prototypes and get some help in starting their companies.

“The TERP Startup Lab is the next logical step for students and researchers who have been tinkering in the off hours in a dorm room, an academic lab, or a garage and now need a space dedicated to moving their idea to the prototype or product stage,” says Dr. Dean Chang, director of Mtech’s venture creation programs and director of TAP. “The TERP Startup Lab provides entrepreneurs with a real business address, access to prototyping tools and equipment to get a proof-ofconcept working, shared meeting rooms and other business office necessities, and perhaps most importantly, an opportunity

to connect with and bounce ideas off of other startup lab entrepreneurs at similar early stages for their new ventures.”

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) provided $35K in funding for software and equipment for the lab.

The lab features 700 square feet of furnished space. Participants receive a mailbox, company listing, shared conference rooms, and access to basic hardware and software development tools, including Microsoft BizSpark, a complete suite of all Microsoft development tools and productivity software, for free.

Participants gain the same access to TAP incubator operations staff as TAP companies and benefit from the entrepreneurial community and networking among all TAP, VentureAccelerator, and TERP Startup Lab companies.

Priority for acceptance into the program is given to University of Maryland-based companies, then to those with a strategic benefit or alignment with the university. www.startuplab.umd.edu .

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center Moves to UM Legal Services Provider Now Headquartered in Mtech’s TAP Incubator The Maryland Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center (MIPLRC), which offers free legal services on intellectual property and related matters to entrepreneurs and emerging technology companies and explores relevant legal, ethical and policy issues in the high technology and intellectual property areas, has moved to the University of Maryland, College Park.

The center, a joint initiative of the University of Maryland School of Law, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, and now Mtech, is headquartered at the TAP incubator.

MIPLRC’s legal services are available at no charge to university faculty and students, as well as to regional entrepreneurs and startup companies.

“One of the most common obstacles confronting entrepreneurs is an inability to properly protect their intellectual property and legal rights due to lack of knowledge or lack of funds,” says Patricia Campbell, Law School Associate Professor and MIPLRC Director. “MIPLRC helps to eliminate those obstacles, and relocating to TAP brings the center’s valuable services directly to the vibrant community of technology entrepreneurs at the University of Maryland.”

“A comprehensive and affordable offering of legal expertise and services is every bit as important to creating great new university ventures as unique technology, business mentoring, and seed funding,”

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says Dr. Dean Chang, director of Mtech’s venture programs and director of TAP. “The MIPLRC is an ideal legal entrée for any University of Maryland entrepreneur just starting a company on a limited budget, and the center perfectly complements and can naturally transition these entrepreneurs to professional law practices.”

University of Maryland School of Law students provide the center’s legal services, working under the supervision of experienced faculty members and other practitioners. Types of services routinely provided include: • General counseling on all areas of intellectual property law, including patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks and service marks.

Students provide advice and education on issues such as the requirements for obtaining a patent; preparation of detailed invention disclosures; requirements for trademark and copyright registration; maintenance of trade secrets; keeping a laboratory notebook; domain name registration; impact of public disclosures; and obtaining foreign patent protection.

• Assisting in the preparation, filing and prosecution of trademark and service mark applications.

• Assisting in the preparation and filing of copyright registrations.

• Undertaking limited patent and prior art searches.

• Assistance in the preparation of various agreements, such as nondisclosure agreements,

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employment and consulting agreements, and licenses.

• Providing basic counseling on business entity selection and formation.

The center was created in 2002 to educate law students, entrepreneurs, and the community about the legal aspects of intellectual property. It was previously located at the Maryland Technology Development Center in Rockville, Md.

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MIPLRC also offers academic courses for credit to law students and presents workshops and lectures on intellectual property issues of interest to start-up companies.

For more information about the center, visit www.miplrc.org.

Renova Life Inc. Joins Mtech TAP Incubator Renova Life Inc., a company developing research and testing models for human cardiovascular disease, joined the Mtech TAP incubator in February 2010.

“The most important factors [for joining TAP] were its proximity to Washington, D.C. and its access to world-class university research resources,” says Jie Xu, chief executive officer for Renova Life Inc. (RLI). “Other incubators simply do not offer these combined features.”

RLI develops transgenic technologies for research and regenerative medicine related to human cardiovascular disease. The company’s team is comprised of startup veterans who launched a biotech company, developed several key technologies and successfully sold these technologies before starting RLI. An estimated 80 million American adults (one in three) have one or more types of cardiovascular disease, according to a 2009 report released by the American Heart Association. In almost every year since 1900, cardiovascular disease accounted for more deaths than any other single cause or group of causes of death in the United States, according to the same report.

Traditional, inexpensive research models can prove ineffective, as some animals, including mice, are not prone to cardiovascular disease. Widely used models that are susceptible are also more expensive.

RLI is developing models that are both effective and inexpensive. Company scientists are investigating technologies such as DNA microinjection, cloning and animal embryonic stem cells in mouse, rabbit and bovine models.

“Our goal is to develop novel biotechnologies that enable scientists to study inexpensively and effectively towards therapeutics for cardiovascular disease, and other human diseases,” says Xu. “Our vision is to become the leader of research and innovation in animal embryo biotechnologies.”

RLI has secured contracts, a federal grant, and a patent related to its technology. www.renovalife.com

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Corinna Lathan Named One of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative Business Persons in U.S. Corinna Lathan, co-founder of Mtech TAP incubator graduate (2004) AnthroTronix Inc., was named one of the 100 most creative people in business in 2010

by Fast Company magazine.

Lathan, who co-founded AnthroTronix in 1999 and currently serves as board chair and chief executive officer, was recognized for leading the development of innovative products such as CosmoBot, a socially assistive robot designed to promote educational and therapeutic activities, data gloves to control a robot arm for bomb disposal for the Department of Defense (DoD) and other uses, and a project on the International Space Station to study the impact of microgravity on 3-D perception in astronauts.

“Our mantra is to do fun projects with good people,” says Lathan. “We try not to compromise that.”

AnthroTronix is an R&D firm specializing in advanced interface technology, product development for wearable computing and robotic control systems, and the design, development, and testing of simulation tools for training applications.

The company’s client base ranges from government agencies to private sector firms in the fields of rehabilitation, education, entertainment, military and space.

For the second straight year, AnthroTronix was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. The company reported $2.5 million in revenue for 2009, with a 68 percent threeyear growth rate.

In the past year alone, the company has received contracts from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, NIH, and Disney.

One of the company’s newest products, the AcceleGlove™, or iGlove for military applications, detects the individual motions of fingers, the hand, wrist and arm.

It can be used for robot control, motion capture, sign language, sports training, hand rehabilitation and even virtual disc jockeying, according to Lathan.

“AcceleGlove is the biggest advancement in data gloves in ten years,” says Lathan. “In addition to military applications, we can modify the glove for gaming, sports training, and 3-D CAD interfaces.”

Over the past 10 years, AnthroTronix has developed a robot called CosmoBot, which interacts with children with and without disabilities to promote educational and therapeutic activities. The current version, CosmoBot V3, is at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where it is being used in physical therapy with children with disabilities through an NIH-funded project.

Lathan was named a Technology Pioneer and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, as well as Maryland’s “Top Innovator of the Year” and one of MIT Technology Review magazine’s Top 100 Young Innovators Under 35. She also received the Women in Technology Leadership Award for Entrepreneurship and was featured in the book “No One Path: Perspectives on Leadership from a Decade of Women in Technology Award Winners.” www.anthrotronix.com

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Notable TAP Graduates DataStream Content Solutions (DSCS) offers conversion of legacy data to XML, data system design, information management software, conversion for print in the Federal Register, Statutory and Regulatory updates, and more. The company has 40 employees and has achieved double-digit growth in the past two years. DSCS was acquired by the Dolan Company in December 2010.

Digene developed the first gene-based test for human papillomavirus (HPV). The company’s test screened for the presence of high-risk types of the virus shown to be the cause of cervical cancer. The company was acquired by Qiagen NV in 2007 for $1.6 billion.

Innovatiove Biosensors develops and manufactures rapid testing systems for the detection of pathogens. Over its first five years, the company raised over $17M in funding, deployed technology protecting a portion of the nation’s critical infrastructure, began to develop clinical assays of great importance to the nosocomial market, and entered into relationships with numerous key partners.

Martek developed and commercialized life’sDHA, a vegetarian source of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), for use in infant formula, pregnancy and nursing products, foods and beverages, dietary supplements and animal feed. Martek supplies infant formula companies representing 75 percent of the estimated $15 billion worldwide retail market for infant formula and nearly 100 percent of the estimated $4.5 billion U.S. retail market for infant formula. Over 200 domestic and international companies have launched non-infant formula products containing Martek’s DHA product. Martek has generated over $2.1 billion in revenue.

Neuralstem has developed a patented technology that enables, for the first time, the ability to produce neural stem cells of the human brain and spinal cord in commercial quantities, and the ability to control the differentiation of these cells into mature, physiologically relevant human neurons and glia. The company is targeting major central nervous system diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, traumatic spinal cord Injury, Huntington’s disease and stroke. Neuralstem commenced a Phase I safety trial to evaluate its treatment of ALS patients with its spinal cord stem cells in January 2010 at Emory University.

Novascreen Biosciences, a former Hanover, Md.-based company providing screening, profiling and assay development services for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide, and for government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, was acquired by Caliper Life Sciences Inc. in 2005 for $30 million.

Paice LLC, a company formed in 1992 to develop hybrid vehicle technology that promotes lower emissions, superior driving performance and fuel efficient operation of internal combustion engines, licensed all 23 of its domestic and foreign patents to Toyota in 2010. Paice also licensed its breakthrough 1994 hybrid vehicle patent (U.S. Patent 5,343, 970) to Ford Motor Company in 2010.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Technology Advancement Program Leading technology venture incubator in Maryland

Energy Dense Power Systems Joins Mtech TAP Incubator Company Develops High-Energy, Intelligent Battery Systems Energy Dense Power Systems LLC (EDPS) , a company developing innovative, “green,” highenergy, battery-based power management product solutions, joined the Mtech TAP incubator in 2010.

The company builds and sells light-weight, energy-dense, intelligent battery packs that allow an end user to greatly extend the operation of portable equipment or create situations that can allow equipment to run indefinitely with wind, solar, generator or a grid recharge.

EDPS can provide a kilowatt of power from a lunchbox-sized battery pack that weighs only 25 pounds, according to Donavin. That pack can replace 100 pounds of lead acid batteries. Plus, it can be recharged through solar panels or wind turbines, which EDPS also provides, enabling customers to remain off the conventional power grid indefinitely.

EDPS is the only U.S. company capable of safely multiplexing energy-dense, lithiumion, SMBus cell packs that meet the U.S. and United Nations criteria for transport as nonhazardous material, according to Donavin.

The batteries can be safely disposed into any

EDPS’ products combine arrays of lithium-ion (or other chemistry) Pictured: a high-output (650wh continuous) system EDPS designed battery packs with the for General Dynamics’ fly-away satellite uplink. company’s proprietary power management system to safely and efficiently municipal waste stream. store and release energy. EDPS’ technology provides a scalable, building-block architecture, allowing EDPS’ battery packs range in size and power provided them to quickly power almost any electronic or from 300W hours to 50 kW hours. The company’s electro-mechanical device with battery packs. programmable power management system contains sensors, intelligence, communications, self“Our patent-pending power management systems diagnostics, status reporting and control capabilities. are a unique combination of technologies that Each battery block is designed to protect itself and provide safe, easy to install and maintain, scalable, operate autonomously should communication with high-energy, regulated power sources,” says other modules fail.

Christopher Donavin, CEO of EDPS. “Our battery packs are used to power mission-critical equipment The intelligent battery system also acts as a power in remote and fixed locations, as well as any conditioner or uninterruptible power supply and electronic devices that can benefit from lighter, more protects the battery packs and powered equipment energy-dense battery applications. Our system can from harm should they be connected to a conventional even be recharged as it powers a device.” power grid providing unregulated or “dirty” power.

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In May 2010, EDPS entered into a strategic partnership with Stanton Park Group LLC, a bipartisan federal affairs consulting firm offering firsthand knowledge of Washington politics and the legislative process.

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one container,” says Donavin. “You could not do this with older technology as the batteries themselves weighed 100 pounds.”

Founded in 2008, EDPS is privately funded and employs six persons.

“Through this partnership with Stanton Park Group, we are gaining experience with and access to strategically advantageous levels of the federal government, from appropriations committees to the U.S. Department of Defense, Special Operations Command, and related entities,” says Donavin.

EDPS was selected as one of three finalists for the Tech Council of Maryland’s Emerging Company of the Year Award during TCM’s 22nd Annual Tech Awards ceremony on May 13.

The company’s batteries powered point-to-point communications for the 2010 Ladies Professional Golf Association tour and the 2009 Professional Golf Association tour.

Pictured: an EDPS assembly line for a 760wh power system for the Boomerang Shooter Detection System used by the U.S. Marine Corp.

EDPS recently developed a portable 5kW, lithiumion, solar-rechargeable, uniterruptable power supply, scaleable to 100 kW. The U.S. military has shown interest in using the device for forward operating bases where they cannot bring in diesel generators, according to Donavin.

The company is also halfway through a design build for a 2kW backup power unit for new Humvee military vehicles through a partnership with a large defense contractor.

“The idea is if the motor in a Humvee gets hit, the electronics on the vehicle will still run using our battery system,” says Donavin.

EDPS is also designing an exclusive rack-mounted power system for Ameripack’s portable military telecommunication systems.

“This is a proprietary system with the power unit and telecommunications equipment all packed into

Pictured: a system EDPS deisgned for Lockheed Martin’s new mandeployable surveillance system. The picture was taken at a Special Operations Command (SOCOM) trade show.

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Technology Advancement Program Leading technology venture incubator in Maryland

Prognosys LLC Joins University of Maryland Technology Company Incubator, First Device in Production Prognosys LLC, a company developing rapid, multiplexed diagnostics for multiple diseases, joined TAP last year. Already the company has its first device in production and is creating new products.

“TAP has been great. I cannot recommend it hghly enough. It’s been the best experience. By being on campus, we get very good students working with us. The facility is excellent. We have everything we need.”

The first, supported by $100K from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, is a test for multiple cardiovascular diseases built on Prognosys’ proprietary barcode platform.

The product is designed to rapidly and economically diagnose patients with acute cardiovascular diseases in emergency rooms, enabling physicians to make quick decisions based upon - Kenneth Gabriel, President, Prognosys LLC whether a patient tests positive for heart inflammation, blood clotting, or impending heart failure.

“When a person goes to a hospital with chest pain, the triage nurse or physician may initially have no idea what a patient has,” says Kenneth Gabriel, president of Prognosys. “A blood sample is taken and shipped to the lab, where technicians work to process samples, but some tests can take up to two days for results, and in some cases patients die. Our test can be done in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, with results in as little as ten minutes.”

Prognosys’ patent-pending technology involves embedding multiple sensors on a barcode that react to certain indicators and show results when scanned with a standard bar code reader. Results are then sent through the company’s software to a Webbased portal accessible by nurses and physicians or to a handheld device.

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The cardiovascular device is now in production.

Gabriel is engaged in discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about approval for the device, which could occur in as few as 90 days.

The company is also developing a product for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency that tests for anthrax, botulism and tularemia.

Prognosys plans to expand its barcode sensors to additional medical and other markets. The company’s barcodes can be equipped with biological, chemical, physical and intelligencegathering related sensors, as well as tracking devices and medical monitors, according to Gabriel.

A privately funded company, Prognosys was founded in February, 2007. The company has five employees.

Gabriel is affiliated with the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s department of electrical and computer engineering and is an adjunct faculty member in the Robert H. Smith School of Business department of management and organization.

Prognosys’ technology was developed outside of the university.

“TAP has been great,” says Gabriel. “I cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s been the best experience. By being on campus, we get very good students working with us. The facility is excellent.

We have everything we need.“ www.prognosysinc.com

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Mtech TAP Incubator Graduate DataStream Content Solutions Acquired by Dolan Company DataStream Content Solutions LLC, a graduate of conversion and analytic tools and services. Its the Mtech Technology Advancement Program subsidiary Potomac Publishing was included in the (TAP) incubator and a leading provider of federal transaction. legislative and regulatory DataStream will remain data and advanced in its College Park, Md. content management “It’s an exciting fit office but will become part systems to information between our technological of The Dolan Company’s businesses, publishers approach to government Business Information and governments, was Division. Anstey and chief information and Dolan’s acquired by the Dolan information architect Ed ability to market highCompany, the companies Schulke will continue to value business information announced in December. run the company. Both and intelligence.”

Terms of the deal were not will report to The Dolan Mark Anstey, President disclosed.

Company’s Business DataStream Content Solutions Information Division DataStream’s proprietary Executive Vice President processes and technology Mark Stodder. transform highly complex and unstructured data into valuable products and The Dolan Company’s Business Information Division services for its business and government clients. publishes business journals, court and commercial It specializes in applying XML markup language media and other highly-focused information to convert complex and unstructured data into products and services, operates web sites and “smarter” forms, allowing flexible queries and produces events for targeted legal and professional dynamic database updates. audiences in 21 geographic markets across the United States.

“We are very pleased to be joining The Dolan Company,” said DataStream founder and president Mark Anstey. “It’s an exciting fit between our technological approach to government information and Dolan’s ability to market high-value business information and intelligence.”

DataStream’s proprietary business lines include Legislative Impact® and Regulatory Impact®, data management technologies which simplify searches of vast federal databases and are licensed to business clients and to the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Legislative Counsel.

The company also offers other data management, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Technology Advancement Program Leading technology venture incubator in Maryland

New, Wireless, Battery-Less, Energy-Scavenging Sensors to Test Safety of Aging U.S. Bridges Developed by TAP Company TAP company Resensys LLC has developed tiny, wireless, battery-less, energy-scavenging sensors that can continually test the structural integrity of bridges.

Now test-deployed on a bridge on the Capital Beltway just outside of Washington, D.C., the sensors are gathering data in conjunction with the Maryland Department of Transportation.

More than 71,000 bridges in the U.S. are structurally deficient, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory database. About 66,000 of those are more than 30 years old.

The potential vulnerability of U.S. bridges was highlighted on August 1, 2007, when the eightlane, 1,900-foot I-35W highway bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

“Most U.S. interstate bridges were built in the 1960s-that was 50 years ago,” says Chung Fu, director of the Bridge Engineering Software & Technology Center at the University of Maryland.

“We have to decide whether to renovate or replace them, and we need more efficient, effective, and inexpensive methods for gathering the information we need to make that decision.”

Resensys’ sensors, says Fu, may provide an answer.

“I began developing this technology in 2006 after reading federal reports on the status of bridges in the U.S.,” says Resensys founder Mehdi Kalantari, a research scientist in the department of electrical and computer engineering who created the sensors and founded Resensys to commercialize them. “The 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse was a turning point though, as the public suddenly became aware of how widespread the problem of our aging bridge infrastructure is.”

Federal regulations require every bridge to be inspected every two years. Much of this inspection is done visually, with heavy, expensive equipment that helps inspectors get to very inaccessible locations. Traffic is often interrupted.

Resensys’ sensors, which are less than two millimeters thick and fit into the palm of your hand, are deployed once, last at least 10 years and gather data continually (right now every 30 seconds, but they are programmable).

The sensors require no power source and almost no maintenance-they gather energy from ambient light and radio waves. They are also battery-less, so they possess no toxic battery sources.

Pictured, left to right: Resensys founder Mehdi Kalantari and Senior Research Engineer Arash Takshi.

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Here is how they work. The sensors are made up

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In 2008, Resensys won $6,000 in the University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition.

That same year, the company joined the Mtech VentureAccelerator Program, which helps university faculty and student inventors launch companies by guiding them rapidly and systematically through new business processes.

Pictured: a prototype of the Resensys’ sensor, held by Kalantari.

of four, thin, flexible layers. The first is the sensing layer, made up of piezoelectric material and thin film strain gauges, which measure strain (force), and high frequency vibrations.

The second layer is made of super-capacitive media, which stores energy harvested by, and supplies energy for, the sensor.

The third layer houses radio antennas for energy harvesting and for communication data out of the sensor.

The fourth layer consists of flexible electronics and small solar cells to capture energy from ambient light (they do not need direct sunlight to gather energy).

The sensors are then easily installed at strategic points on a bridge. There, they gather data, communicate with each other and then send data remotely through a cellular modem to a data center for analysis.

Resensys is gathering data from sensors installed on a Capital Beltway bridge and is developing userfriendly software diagnostic tools.

In September 2010, Resensys received a phase II $500,000 National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant to commercialize its technology.

Resensys received a $75,000 Maryland Technology Transfer Fund award from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation in 2008. In 2009, the “Dean Chang [director of company won both a Mtech’s venture programs] $165,000 Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) project has been very supportive award and $25,000 through of Resensys. Any time we the SAIC VentureAccelerator needed something, from Competition. The company space to operations, from also received a $100,000 specific instruments for phase one Small Business our labs to endorsement Innovation Research grant letters for grants, Dean from the National Science Foundation. has been right there In spring 2010, Resensys joined the TAP incubator.

for us. He has referred many potential investors, potential customers, and potential collaborators to us.”

“Dean Chang [director of Mtech’s venture programs] has been very supportive of - Mehdi Kalantari, Founder Resensys,” says Kalantari. “Any Resensys LLC time we needed something, from space to operations, from specific instruments for our labs to endorsement letters for grants, Dean has been right there for us. He has referred many potential investors, potential customers, and potential collaborators to us.”

Resensys has five employees. Two patents, filed by Resensys, are pending on the sensor technology. www.resensys.com

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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VentureAccelerator Program Intense, hands-on venture creation assistance for faculty and students

Remedium Technologies Wins Oak Ridge National Laboratory Global Venture Challenge Remedium Technologies, a company in the Mtech VentureAccelerator Program, won first prize and $25K in the Community Resilience and Homeland Security division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) 2010 Global Venture Challenge in March 2010.

The Global Venture Challenge brings together the innovative ideas of graduate student teams to compete for cash prizes for addressing the world’s future needs in energy and security.

Dowling, CEO of Remedium Technologies.

“The Department of Defense, the military, would be our first potential customer because they have a great need for this sort of product, which can sustain a lot of different temperatures and quickly stops bleeding.”

Remedium’s team includes CTO and bioengineering doctoral student Peter Thomas and scientific co-founder Srinivasa Raghavan, an associate professor in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Twenty-two teams of graduate students from five countries traveled to Oak Ridge to present new technology products that satisfy current market demands.

The award caps off a string of competitions Pictured, left to right, Matt Dowling and Peter Thomas More than 50 judges, for the company. In 2007, from Remedium Technologies at the Oak Ridge National including judges from Remedium won second Laboratory 2010 Global Venture Challenge.

15 venture capital firms, place and $8K in the selected winners based faculty and graduate on the quality of the student division of the University of Maryland $50K technology and the product’s projected strength in Business Plan Competition. After that, company the marketplace. team members entered the Rice Business Plan Remedium won for Kytoclot, the company’s newly developed hemostatics (blood-clotting) foam. Kytoclot is sprayed into a wound, fills the space and stops the bleeding without using any pressure.

“Currently there is no market for a product like this,” said Matt

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6 international, national and local awards won by recent or current VentureAccelerator companies in the past year

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Competition, won the University of Nebraska’s New Ventures World Competition, and competed in the University of Texas at Austin’s Moot Corp.

Competition.

In 2009, Remedium won first prize and $10,000 in the Most Promising Security Idea category of the Global Security Challenge.

The Global Security Challenge LLP is a forum for security innovators, start-ups and investors. It provides a valuable launching pad for security innovation and each year over $500,000 is awarded in its world-leading competitions to entrepreneurs and researchers within the security technology field.

The mission of the GSC is to stimulate technological innovations that make airports, cities and enterprises safer without encroaching upon civil liberties.

Matt Dowling was selected as a 2009 Maryland Inventor of the Year by the Daily Record.

Remedium received $104K in Maryland Industrial Partnerships funding in August 2008, and $50K from the TEDCO University Technology Transfer Fund in March 2009.

The company joined VentureAccelerator in May 2009.

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Recent VentureAccelerator Company Awards

OmniSpeech

2010 University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition, first place, high technology category and Warren Citrin Social Impact Award

OmniSpeech

2010 $50K SAIC VentureAccelerator Competition, winner

OmniSpeech

2010 Rockville Economic Development Inc. (REDI) StartRight!

Women’s Business Plan Competition, grand prize

Remedium Technologies

2010 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Global Venture Challenge, first prize, community resilience and homeland security division

Remedium Technologies

2009 Global Security Challenge, first prize, most promising security idea category

FlexEl

2010 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year, technology transfer category

Selected from more than 100 entries from around the world, Remedium’s team pitched their invention at the GSC Security Summit conference held at the London School of Business.

Winners were chosen by an independent judging panel from industry, government and the investor community. Accenture sponsored the $10K grant award.

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www.remediumtechnologies.com

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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VentureAccelerator Program Intense, hands-on venture creation assistance for faculty and students

OmniSpeech LLC Wins $50K SAIC-VentureAccelerator Competition Company’s Novel Technology Mimics Human Perception to Make Speech Clear for Mobile Phones, Related Communications OmniSpeech LLC, a company developing technology that mimics human perception to make speech clear in cellular and related communications, won the 2010 $50,000 SAIC-VentureAccelerator

resulting from loud background noise. Traditional technologies handle this problem by suppressing interfering signals, leaving a speech signal with some noise leakage, musical noise, reverberation

Competition.

or weakened syllables. Two microphones are sometimes employed to do this, The competition, made with the hope that one takes in possible by funding from the speech signal and the other SAIC, supports companies takes in the noise, but this can in (or entering) the Mtech be difficult to achieve because VentureAccelerator program you cannot control which commercializing technology direction noise is coming from. that solves problems in the A second microphone requires areas of national security, additional hardware (most cell energy and the environment, phones have only one), and critical infrastructure, or special design considerations, health. VentureAccelerator as the microphones must be is a fast-track program that spaced apart on a phone and Carol Espy-Wilson, professor of electrical and guides faculty and student computer engineering and founder of OmniSpeech. they may need to be manually technology entrepreneurs in calibrated. Many feature phones rapidly developing companies based upon their are too small for a second microphone to provide inventions. any advantage.

“Getting involved with companies such as OmniSpeech through this competition allows SAIC to explore promising new technologies that benefit national security and serve citizens,” says John Ferriter, senior vice president of strategic program development for SAIC. OmniSpeech’s technology could solve speech communications challenges for commercial, homeland security, assistive, and a wide range of other applications.

Everyone has experienced poor call clarity

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OmniSpeech is the first company to look at this problem from the other perspective, that is, of “extracting” the clean speech signal from interfering noise signals. The company’s technology uses a single standard microphone and a physiologically realistic model of how the ear detects tones to extract speech from noise. The noise can be stationary or non-stationary, it can come from any direction, and it can even be the speech of a competing talker. OmniSpeech’s solution is architecture-agnostic, cost-effective, and can be integrated into the existing handsets or added to

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the firmware through an over-the-air upgrade.

OmniSpeech was founded in 2009 by Carol EspyWilson, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the A. James Clark School of Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research.

The company joined VentureAccelerator in spring 2010.

In May 2010, OmniSpeech won the high technology category and $25,000, as well as a $15,000 Warren Citrin Social Impact Award, in the University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition. The company also won the grand prize in the 2010 Rockville Economic Development Inc. (REDI) StartRight! Women’s Business Plan Competition.

OmniSpeech’s team includes Tarun Pruthi, a research associate in the department of electrical and computer engineering.

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SAIC donated $60,000 to launch and equip the TERP Startup Laboratory, a new technology incubation program for University of Maryland faculty, students, and regional entrepreneurs who are too early for or don’t yet meet the requirements for VentureAccelerator or the Technology Advancement Program incubator, but need a place where they can quickly develop their technology prototypes and get some help in starting their companies.

The company also provided $39,000 for two years of educational internships in the Hinman CEOs Program, the nation’s first living-learning entrepreneurship initiative.

“We are excited about our ongoing relationship with Mtech through these initiatives, which collectively enable us to support the development of cutting-edge technologies at the University of Maryland,” says Ferriter.

SAIC has provided $200,000 in the past two years to support Mtech’s programs. This is the second year the company has funded the SAICVentureAccelerator Competition. Last year’s winners of $25,000 each were FlexEl and Resensys.

Pictured, from left to right: OmniSpeech founder and professor of electrical and computer engineering Carol EspyWilson and Tarun Pruthi, research associate in the departmnt of electrical and computer engineering.

Photo by John Consoli

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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VentureAccelerator Program Intense, hands-on venture creation assistance for faculty and students

Craig Dye Named Director of VentureAccelerator High-Tech Startup and Angel Investment Veteran Teams with Faculty and Student Startup Ventures at UM Craig Dye, an accomplished entrepreneur, business executive and investor with 15 years of experience in building and mentoring start-up companies, is the new new director of the Mtech VentureAccelerator Program.

VentureAccelerator is a fasttrack, early admission program tied to Mtech’s TAP incubator.

VentureAccelerator helps University of Maryland inventors speed the process of creating ventures from their technologies by systematically guiding and coaching them through new business processes such as sound business planning, understanding customers and markets, setting goals and priorities, acquiring skills and recruiting talent, and raising capital.

“VentureAccelerator is perhaps the most critical component in

Prior to joining Dingman, Dye was an advisor to Affinity Lab (founded by two of Dye’s friends), an incubator for corporate and social entrepreneurs, where he helped launch and sustain well over 100 companies and nonprofits in the mid-Atlantic region.

Pictured: Craig Dye, director of the VentureAccelerator Program.

the University of Maryland innovation ecosystem in terms of harnessing the half-billion dollars of research here on campus each year and systematically launching and growing successful new high-tech ventures,” says Dr. Dean Chang, director of Mtech’s Venture Programs and director of the TAP incubator. “VentureAccelerator provides the critical functional role of veteran startup CEO and COO for these faculty and student startups, and Craig’s rare combination of extensive venture expertise as a founder, executive, business mentor, and investment professional make him perfectly suited to lead the program.”

Dye joins Mtech from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, where he was

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the director of venture investments at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, a university initiative for enterprise creation and funding. While at Dingman, Dye secured investment in companies such as ClassWatch, Gold Lasso, and Sitscape through the Capital Access Network (CAN), which joins together angel investors with early-stage companies for deals worth up to $1.5 million.

“Having the opportunity to turn the rich pool of research at the university into startup ventures gives me the feeling of a kid in a candy store,” says Dye. “There is so much that gets built

here-high-quality, high-tech research-much of which could lead to successful, revenue-producing ventures.”

Craig was previously the chief operating officer of Articulated Impact, a software development and Web strategy company that provides solutions to the challenges of top-tier companies, hedge funds, and nonprofits.

Before that, Dye was the founder and CEO of Wheelhouse Networks, delivering enterprise-class computing and telecommunication platforms as a managed service to corporations and professional services firms.

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He began his career with Informatics General, one of the first software and computer services firms in the U.S., and subsequently served as the global chief information officer for Hogan Lovells, supporting its growth into a $2 billion legal services leader and more than doubling in size during his tenure. Dye serves on the board of

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directors for several companies and advises startups and nonprofits in the D.C. metropolitan area.

He received his bachelor of arts in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Current VA Companies Remedium Technologies Inc. develops innovative products to treat bleeding injuries. www.remediumtechnologies.com

Omnispeech LLC is developing speech extraction technology for cellular and similar communications.

Select VA Graduates Lurn is an emerging company committed to building game-changing e-learning technology and services. www.lurn.com

Flexel develops rechargeable, flexible, thin-film batteries. www.flexelinc.com Resensys develops self-powered, wireless, distributed sensors for monitoring structures such as bridges, buildings, and pipelines. www.resensys.com Traffax develops a revolutionary line of traffic surveillance equipment that employs Bluetooth technology to provide accurate traveltime and origin-destination data for vehicles and pedestrian applications, for use in high-speed roadways, arterial roadways, and pedestrian environments. www.traffaxinc.com Video Semantics develops proprietary semantic video segmentation and search technology that understands the content and context of the videos being searched.

Zymetis is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel enzyme products derived from unique organisms to achieve lower costs, improved yields and higher manufacturing efficiencies in the conversion of cellulosic biomass to useable energy product. www.zymetis.com

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Industrial Partnerships Research funding for technology product development

Have a Phone? Then Your Doctor is “In” Imagine if your phone could “be” your doctor when she was not there. It would respond to your physical condition with recommendations, remind you to take medication and suggest steps you can take to manage and improve your health.

Now imagine you are a diabetic. You enter your blood sugar level several times daily, and your phone tells you what you should do based upon that data. Everything you enter is sent to your doctor at a time increment she chooses. The next time you meet with her, she already “One of the biggest knows how you’ve been, in differentiators for detail, since you last met.

WellDoc was the outcome we saw through the MIPS-supported clinical studies with Charlene Quinn. We haven’t seen anyone in our competitive space invest the time and resources to conduct a randomized controlled trial; MIPS played a huge role in helping us make that happen.”

- Ryan Sysko, co-founder and CEO WellDoc

“It didn’t make sense to me that I would see [diabetic] patients only every three months when their blood sugar level changes with every meal,” says Suzanne Sysko Clough, a former endocrinologist and co-founder and chief medical officer for WellDoc Inc. “It is not the optimal way to manage patients with diabetes.”

Sysko Clough saw an opportunity to transform the model for managing diabetes with a technology as pervasive as cellphones. WellDoc was born.

The Baltimore-based company developed the WellDoc DiabetesManager®, a mobile health (mHealth) solution that helps diabetics manage their disease. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the product in July 2010.

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with AT&T, through which AT&T will market and sell the company’s mHealth solution in the United States to facilitate improved patient outcomes and reduce the spiraling costs of managing chronic diseases.

“Our product is designed to help coach patients and empower them to better manage their chronic disease by coaching them over their cell phone, connecting them back to their provider, and support the provider in managing their patient’s care,” says Ryan Sysko, co-founder and CEO of WellDoc. “Let’s say a patient enrolls in our program,” Sysko explains. “They get an application on their cellphone where they can record diabetes information—their blood sugar level, the medication they take, their activity and what they are eating. We have realtime algorithms built into the application that analyze that information and provide feedback. If their blood sugar is low—WellDoc’s solution helps them correct the blood sugar and keep it within a recommended target range, all based on their physician’s treatment plan.”

Diabetics spend an average of two hours each day managing their disease, according to Sysko—and the problem is growing. Although 1 in 10 U.S. adults have diabetes now, as many as 1 in 3 could have the disease by 2050, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Only 35 percent of diabetics meet recommended targets for blood glucose control,” says Sysko. “Even worse, only 7 percent meet recommended targets for blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar control combined. We don’t have the resources to

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deal with this ballooning problem, which is also driving costs in the health care system and not a whole lot people are available to support these patients. Technology is going to have to be a part of the answer.”

In 2007, WellDoc conducted a clinical trial of its DiabetesManager® product with Charlene Quinn, Ph.D., RN, assistant professor in epidemiology and public health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, with the support of MIPS funding.

In August, Dr. Quinn presented the preliminary data from the WellDoc study and reported a 1.87 point reduction in A1c, an indicator used to identify the average blood glucose level of a diabetic over a ~12-week time period.

Every one-point drop reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease risk for diabetics by as much as 40 percent, according to Sysko. The top ten diabetes drugs in the U.S., on average, reduce A1c by about one point.

“One of the biggest differentiators for WellDoc was the outcome we saw through the MIPS-supported clinical studies with Charlene Quinn,” says Sysko.

“We haven’t seen anyone in our competitive space invest the time and resources to conduct a randomized controlled trial; MIPS played a huge role in helping us make that happen.”

AT&T plans to deploy the WellDoc technology through an internal initiative with a select number of employees, using the WellDoc DiabetesManager® System in 2011. AT&T will potentially expand to other disease areas (upon FDA clearance), including: heart disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and oncology.

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patients from accessing WellDoc’s services on other wireless networks.

In December 2010, WellDoc announced the first integration of a clinically tested mHealth coaching platform with the electronic health records (EHR) system at George Washington University Medical Center.

The integration automates the pre-population of a patient’s health information from the EHR into the WellDoc DiabetesManager, thereby enabling immediate customization of the DiabetesManager algorithms to the patient’s treatment regimen. In turn, as changes are made to the patient’s Medical Record, the DiabetesManager automatically reconfigures the coaching system, enabling seamless and effective lifestyle and medication adjustments. Simply put, integrating the DiabetesManager with an EHR makes the system smarter and better able to deliver personalized behavioral coaching.

WellDoc, which employs 40 people in Baltimore and 80 worldwide; the company is currently planning to expand internationally. WellDoc has raised over $15 million in funding from private individuals.

The company has filed several patents around its technology.

“Pharmaceuticals don’t change behavioral pathways,” says Sysko. “Our application is about helping people use the resources they have, including medications, in the most effective way.

We are helping people change their behaviors, lifestyle—what they eat, how they exercise, etc.” www.welldocinc.com

WellDoc’s partnership with AT&T does not exclude A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Industrial Partnerships Research funding for technology product development

CSA Medical’s Growth: 78 Centers Using the Company’s Medical Device, Two Landmark Papers Published, Third-Generation Prototype Coming Former MIPS project award winner Baltimore-based CSA Medical Inc. is gaining market penetration, publishing positive results, and is setting to release an improved version of its main product.

The company’s Spray Cryotherapy System, which enables physicians to quickly and easily flash freeze, destroy and remove diseased tissue in the esophagus, is being used in 78 academic medical centers, including all three Mayo Clinics, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Moffitt Cancer Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Boston Medical Center, UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

CSA Medical’s device sprays low-pressure liquid nitrogen onto pre-cancerous or cancerous tissue and freezes and kills malignant cells, which then die and slough off harmlessly, allowing normal tissue to grow back. The treatment is an outpatient procedure, with patients generally resuming normal activities the next day.

Data from clinical trial trials of the Spray Cryotherapy System was published in two landmark papers in the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Journal in April 2010. The first covered the treatment of patients with esophageal cancer.

Pictured: CSA Medical’s Spray Crytherapy System 62

“We collected data from a series of patients with esophageal cancer treated at nine sites around the country,” says Bruce Greenwald, M.D. and professor of medicine at

Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

Pictured: CSA Medical’s Spray Crytherapy System spraying nitrogen.

the University of Maryland School of Medicine and lead author of the paper. “These were earlystage cancers. Traditional therapy involves either an operation or a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. The problem was, in this group, they had already had those treatments and they had failed, or they were not eligible to receive them.

Some were too sick or too old to have surgery, they may have had kidney problems, or simply did not want them. The average age of our patients was 76 years. The oldest was 93.”

Patients were treated by freezing the cancers in their esophagus with CSA Medical’s Spray Cryotherapy System. After one year, 75 percent of patients with top-layer or mucosal cancer were still cancer-free. ”This was for a group for which there was no other alternative,” says Greenwald. “Approximately 20 percent of them had previously received a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. About 11 percent had undergone just radiation.”

The second paper reviewed data from 60 patients at 12 sites with a pre-cancerous condition called Barrett’s esophagus with high-grade dysplasia

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Medical. “It started with an invention at National Naval Medical Center and some CRADA [Cooperative Research And Development Agreement] work out of the National Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After some single-center work at the Cleveland Clinic, the next stage of spray cryotherapy evolution was through the MIPS grant.

It’s really what got the technology to that next stage.”

Pictured: surgey in the esophagus using CSA Medical’s Spray Crytherapy System.

(HGD). Barrett’s is a condition where the lining of the esophagus is damaged due to chronic acid reflux. When patients show severe dysplasia, or a high degree of abnormal cells, the risk of acquiring esophageal cancer goes up 5-7 percent per year, according to Greenwald. That’s usually when it is treated.

Patients were treated with CSA Medical’s Spray Cryotherapy System.

“We found that after 11 months 97 percent of the patients exhibited no high-grade dysplasia, and 87 percent of patients showed no signs of any dysplasia at all.”

While Greenwald was a co-author on the second paper, the lead author was Nicholas Shaheen, M.D., MPH, professor of medicine and epidemiology and director of the Center for Esophageal Diseases & Swallowing at the University of North Carolina Center for Functional GI & Motility Disorders.

MIPS funding initially enabled CSA Medical to team with Greenwald in a 2006 clinical trial at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

“The MIPS program was critical to the evolution of the science,” says Ric Hughen, vice president of marketing and business development for CSA

CSA Medical’s team has developed a thirdgeneration system, which makes it easier to use, improving the consistency of the cryogen delivery and lowering the intra-cavity pressure of the gaseous nitrogen. “These are significant improvements that will eventually allow us to treat more organ systems and more disease states [with the appropriate FDA clearances]” says Hughen.

Another new feature is a flexible catheter that can bend 180 degrees (retro-flexing) within a scope. This could not be done with the old device.

CSA Medical’s team is conducting verification and validation tests of the new device in preparation for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) submission next year.

The company has 15 employees in Baltimore, with four in the field.

“The MIPS program was critical to the evolution of the science... After some single-center work at the Cleveland Clinic, the next stage of spray cryotherapy evolution was through the MIPS grant. It’s really what got the technology to that next stage.”

- Rick Hughen, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, CSA Medical

The American Cancer Society estimated that 16,470 new cases of esophageal cancer were diagnosed in 2009, with 14,530 deaths each year. An estimated 1 percent of the U.S. population, or 3 million people, have Barrett’s esophagus. www.csamedical.com

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Industrial Partnerships Research funding for technology product development

Martha Connolly Receives President’s Award at the Greater Baltimore Committee’s Fifth Annual Bioscience Awards Ceremony Martha Connolly, director of the Mtech Maryland Industrial Partnerships program, was given the President’s Award at the Greater Baltimore Committee’s fifth annual Bioscience Awards ceremony, held in Baltimore on March 25, 2010.

“The bioscience industry has made tremendous contributions to the Maryland economy and is critical to its growth in the future,” says Connolly. “I am proud to have contributed to this vibrant and vital Maryland community.”

Connolly has served as a leader in the Maryland bioscience industry for 25 years. She was the first biotechnology advocate hired at the state level when she joined the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development in 1997 to foster the bioscience industry in Maryland.

As head of the MIPS program for almost seven years, where nearly 40 percent of the funding for technology product research is awarded to projects led by bioscience companies, Connolly has supported the development of products for successful companies such “The bioscience as MedImmune, industry has CSA Medical, made tremendous PharmAthene, contributions to GenVec, the Maryland Innovative economy and Biosensors, is critical to 20/20 Gene its growth in Systems, Alba the future. I am proud to have Therapeutics, A&G contributed to this vibrant and vital Pharmaceuticals Maryland community.” and Gliknik.

- Martha Connolly, Director, MIPS

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

Connolly created and spearheaded the new Maryland Drug Discovery Network, which collated the vast bioscience resources in Maryland to advance drug development. This network spans the University System of Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University, and several of the state’s community colleges. The Drug Discovery Network is now a part of the Maryland Biotechnology Center as one of the first deliverables promised by Governor Martin O’Malley at the BIO 2009 international meeting.

Previously, Connolly directed business development activities at a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, and also co-founded a start-up technology development/commercialization firm.

Connolly was the first woman to graduate from The Johns Hopkins University’s biomedical engineering doctoral program. She was also among the first class of co-eds at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Connolly is a member of the GBC Bioscience Committee, where she donates her time and expertise to advocacy efforts for the bioscience community.

The annual President’s Award is given to the individual who has made a major contribution to the industry during the preceding year. The contribution may be in terms of volunteer work provided to help the industry grow, a unique program that he or she instituted, workforce development, or a visionary program.

This award recognizes individuals who may not head a bioscience company but who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to the growth and well-being of the industry.

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Ammonia in the Chesapeake Bay from Poultry Houses Could Soon be Gone New Technology Developed by AviHome, University Researchers Eliminates Ammonia Salisbury-based AviHome LLC and researchers from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) have conducted successful trials on a new type of flooring for poultry houses developed by AviHome that dramatically reduces ammonia emissions and promotes faster-growing and healthier chickens.

The project received funding from MIPS through the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Chicken house floors are typically covered with litter (wood shavings and sawdust), which serves as bedding and absorbs moisture spilled from the waterlines and/or excreted through the birds.

When the level of moisture is not managed properly it is conducive to the bacteria and chemical reaction that produces ammonia.

AviHome engineers developed a patentpending plenum flooring system with tiny holes in it that dries the area underneath the chickens, eliminates the need for litter, and reduces ammonia emissions.

Through several trials with more than 33,000 chickens, ammonia emissions were not just reduced but virtually eliminated.

The trials, conducted by Jeannine M. Harter-Dennis, an associate professor at UMES, found that the ammonia-producing bacteria need a basic pH (potentiometric hydrogen ion concentration, a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance) to thrive, and AviHome’s flooring prevented pH

from ever even going above seven (the neutral line between an acid or base), which prevented the production of ammonia.

“When you put litter into a chicken house it becomes a compost pile,” says Harter-Dennis. “The reused litter is a breeding ground for ammoniaproducing bacteria if the pH is basic. This system prevents a basic pH from developing, which then prevents the ammonia-producing bacteria from doing their job.”

The chickens also grew 5-20 percent faster and were heavier; in fact, chickens in some of the trials weighed a pound more than the average birds during the same time frame.

“Our flooring appears to increase general bird health,” says Felipe Correa, former operations manager for AviTech, which spun off AviHome to develop this flooring. “Whether attributed to improved air quality or the lower bacterial load challenge, we are growing a healthier heavier bird faster; we are taking genetic potential to new levels-naturally.”

Additional funding for the AviHome/University of Maryland Eastern Shore trials came from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the Maryland Hawk Corporation and the Rural Development Fund.

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Maryland Industrial Partnerships Research funding for technology product development

Maryland Biotechnology Center Supports $270,000 in MIPS Biotechnology Product Projects The Maryland Biotechnology Center, the State of Maryland’s portal to programs and resources intended to grow and strengthen the state’s bioscience community, has enabled biotechnology product development projects to be funded through the Maryland Industrial Partnerships program through $270,000 in support.

“MIPS has a proven process for evaluating viable research projects and a strong history of successfully helping biotechnology companies develop commercial products.”

The Center signed off on initial funding for three projects. Each was in the second year of a two-year (phase 2) project. Three additional first-year projects were also made possible by freeing up MIPS funds to support them.

“As Maryland’s resource center for growing and strengthening the state’s bioscience - Judy Britz, Executive Director, Maryland Biotechnology Center community, one of the Maryland Biotechnology Center’s charters outlined by Governor Martin O’Malley in his 2009 BioMaryland 2020 strategic plan is to provide funding to assist companies with latestage commercialization objectives,” says Judy Britz, the Center’s executive director. “MIPS has a proven process for evaluating viable research projects and a strong history of successfully helping biotechnology companies develop commercial products, so by supporting MIPS, we are fulfilling part of our charter and are boosting key contributors to the growth of the state’s bioscience cluster.”

MIPS teams Maryland companies with faculty from the University System of Maryland to help the companies develop high technology, biotechnology, or technology-related agricultural products. Companies provide matching funds

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to help pay for the projects. All funding goes to participating faculty.

The three second-year projects directly supported by the Center include: • Rockville-based Aparna Biosciences Corporation (www.aparnabio.com) and A. James Mixson, associate professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore: developing therapeutics to treat a variety of fungal infections.

• Baltimore-based Encore Path Inc. (www. encorepath.com) and Appa Anjanappa, professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County: developing a new rehabilitative TREADTRAC Device to enable stroke patients to regain walking skills.

• Rockville-based VectorLogics Inc. (www. vectorlogics.com) and Vikram Vakharia, professor, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute: developing a treatment for the hepatitis C virus using viral vectors to deliver therapeutic proteins.

MIPS was able to support three additional projects thanks to the Center funding, including: • Rockville-based Celek Pharmaceuticals LLC (www.celekpharma.com) and Susan Keay, professor, University of Baltimore: evaluating the efficacy of a novel therapeutic for interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome, a chronic and debilitating bladder disorder.

• College Park-based Zymetis Inc. (www.zymetis. com) and Robert M. Briber, professor, University of Maryland, College Park: developing low-cost solvent systems to reduce the crystallinity of native cellulose, reducing the need for enzymes in

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biomass digestion for the production of ethanol and other biofuels.

“MIPS has helped three of the most successful biotechnology companies in Maryland— MedImmune [part of AstraZeneca], Martek Biosciences, and Digene Corporation [now part of Qiagen]—develop products,” says MIPS director Martha Connolly. “These companies have generated

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thousands of jobs, brought in millions in revenue and contributed tax dollars to the economy. The Maryland Biotechnology Center funding allows us to bolster what could be the leading biotechnology companies of tomorrow.”

The Maryland Biotechnology Center contract with MIPS is for one year.

Top Products Developed Through MIPS Funding Hughes Communications The company’s HughesNet service delivers business-grade satellite Internet access at speeds comparable to DSL and cable, even to remote locations. The communication protocol used by the service was developed by Hughes in conjunction with John Baras, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and Institute for Systems Research, through several MIPS projects. During 2009, HughesNet® subscribers grew to a record 500,000, a major milestone in scaling up the business.

Impact: $9.4 billion in revenue Martek Biosciences Martek developed and commercialized life’sDHA, a vegetarian source of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), for use in infant formula, pregnancy and nursing products, foods and beverages, dietary supplements and animal feed. MIPS funding helped Martek evaluate the best procedures for maximizing DHA yield from the company’s microalgae. Access to Mtech’s Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility was critical.

Martek supplies infant formula companies collectively representing 75 percent of the estimated $15 billion worldwide retail market for infant formula and nearly 100 percent of the estimated $4.5 billion U.S. retail market for infant formula. Over 200 domestic and international companies have launched non-infant formula products that contain Martek’s DHA product.

Impact: $2.1 billion in revenue MedImmune (part of AstraZeneca International) MedImmune’s Synagis product is the first monoclonal antibody approved for the prevention of an infectious disease, as well as the first such drug to be safely used in children. Synagis prevents a serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by the respiratory synctial virus (RSV), prominent in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months. Since its launch in 1998, Synagis has become the standard of care for RSV prevention. MIPS has jointly funded six different research projects with MedImmune, including three directly related to Synagis, since 1996.

Impact: $10.1 billion in Synagis sales A. A. James James Clark Clark School School of of Engineering, Engineering, University University of of Maryland Maryland

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MIPS Project Funding Rounds Mtech Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program Approves 16 Technology Product Development Projects, Worth $3.3M, Teaming Companies, Faculty MIPS awarded $3.3 million in August to 16 teams of Maryland companies and faculty developing commercially promising technology products.

All MIPS funds, plus matching company funds, supports the projects conducted by faculty and graduate students.

“Programs such as MIPS are critical to our 21st century technology economy in Maryland,” says Governor Martin O’Malley. “Blockbuster companies in Maryland like MedImmune, Martek, and Hughes Network Systems have leveraged MIPS to create thousands of jobs in the region, generate $19.5 billion in revenue and develop products that enhance, protect and save lives.”

Projects for this round of funding include floating wetlands to clean the Chesapeake Bay, bolts that change color as they are tightened, faster Internet-via-satellite upstream, wireless sensors for monitoring home energy use, bioremediation for restaurant oil, and a backup mass-emergency electrical system. Treatments, vaccines or tests for anthrax, malaria, influenza, staph infections and infertility are also included.

Worth $3.3 million, the projects combine $1.9 million from participating companies and $1.4 million from MIPS. Funding supports research in the laboratories of participating university faculty, who work closely with partner companies to advance their products.

Nine company partners are in Montgomery County; four are in the Baltimore area, one is in Howard County, one is in Frederick County and one is in Frostburg.

Projects awarded include: • Silver Spring-based Bio-Quick Corporation (www. bio-quick.com) and Richard Zhao, associate professor and division head, pathology, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($195,570): clinical study of Bio-Quick’s ultrasound-facilitated tissue preservation system, which cuts down the time it takes medical and research facilities to preserve tissue samples from two days to one hour.

• Ellicott City-based BlueWing Environmental Solutions & Technologies LLC (www.bluewing-env.com) and Joshua McGratch, assistant professor, environmental science & technology, University of Maryland, College Park ($139,000): developing BioHaven Floating IslandsTM, which closely model natural floating island systems commonly found in clean waterways, to remove harmful nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from impaired waters such as the Chesapeake Bay. • Rockville-based Cellex Inc. (www.cellex.us) and Richard Zhao, associate professor and division head, pathology, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($172,600): performing a second phase clinical evaluation on the QFLU test, which simultaneously diagnoses influenza and detects flu virus drug resistance in point-of-care settings.

• Frederick-based Cerona Networks Corporation (www. cerona.com) and John Baras, Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering, and professor, electrical and computer engineering and Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park ($161,500): developing algorithms for Internet via satellite communications to improve upload speeds from users to the Internet, support more subscribers per satellite and enable communications on the move.

• Takoma Park-based CoolCAD Electronics LLC (www. coolcadelectronics.com) and Shuvra Bhattacharyya, professor, electrical and computer engineering and Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland, College Park ($150,000): developing a cost- and power-consumption-optimized wireless sensor network for monitoring energy use in residential and commercial buildings.

• Lutherville-based Corridor Pharmaceuticals Inc. (www.corridorpharma.com) and Gerald Rosen, professor, pharmaceutical sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($223,031): testing the use of a compound against bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax.

educate • Olney-based EcoEmergence Corporation (www.

EcoEmergence.com) and Jianhong Meng, director, Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition, University of Maryland, College Park ($440,745): developing the first industry standard test to evaluate the efficacy of bioremediation products (including EcoEmergence’s bacteria mixture) for fats, oils and grease, which clog sewer systems and have a negative impact on the environment.

• Baltimore-based Encore Path, Inc. (www.encorepath. com) and Jill Whitall, professor, physical therapy and rehabilitation science, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($138,872): developing a new rehabilitative TREADTRAC Device to facilitate the recovery of walking in individuals with stroke in clinical and, eventually, community settings.

• Baltimore-based Fyodor Biotechnologies, Inc. (www. fyodorbio.com) and Ganesh Sriram, assistant professor, chemical and biomolecular engineering, University of Maryland, College Park ($180,330): developing and optimizing a yeast-based platform to reliably produce the drug artemisinin, a therapeutic effective against malaria and other diseases.

• Frostburg-based Instant Access Networks LLC (www. stop-EMP.com) and Hilkat Soysal, lecturer, physics and engineering, Frostburg State University ($225,000): developing an economically viable backup electricity system by combining battery and hydrogen storage with renewable energy sources to provide power for missioncritical infrastructures during disasters when the electric grid is not available.

• Germantown-based Integrated BioTherapeutics, Inc. (www.integratedbiotherapeutics.com) and MaryClaire Roghmann, professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($137,277): developing a toxin-based vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus, a common cause of both hospital-acquired and community-acquired infections and bacterial sepsis.

• Halethorpe-based KYDES Pharmaceuticals, LLC (www.kydespharm.com) and Stephen Hoag, professor, pharmaceutical sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($300,399): developing compounds that deactivate drugs such as opiates, amphetamines and benzodiazepines when they are tampered with to prevent their abuse.

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• Rockville-based Opticul Diagnostics Corporation (www.opticuldiagnostics.com) and Richard Venezia, professor, pathology, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($325,849): pre-clinical and clinical testing of Opticul’s rapid, point-of-care test system for antibiotic-sensitive and antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the bacterium that causes staph infections such as MRSA. • Gaithersburg-based Pregmama, LLC (www.pregmama. com) and Istvan Merchenthaler, professor, epidemiology and preventative medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($143,278): developing a therapeutic regimen called Fertamax to prevent egg aneuploidy, infertility, miscarriages, and trisomic pregnancies for women over 35.

• Bethesda-based StarEnergyCo, Inc. (www.starenergyco. com) and Nam Sun Wang, professor, chemical and biomolecular engineering, University of Maryland, College Park ($225,848): developing an economical, turn-key process to produce astaxanthin-useful as an antioxidant and as a pigment in aquaculture-from algae and using carbon dioxide emitted from ethanol plants.

• Bethesda-based Stress Indicators Inc. (www. smartbolts.com) and Chandrashekhar Thamire, professor, mechanical engineering, University of Maryland, College Park ($200,000): developing a reliable process for manufacturing the company’s High Resolution (HR) Smartbolts®, fasteners which are fitted with special visual tension indicators that show whether a joint is loose or tight with a clear, reversible color change.

Funding from the Maryland Biotechnology Center supported projects with Cellex and Integrated BioTherapeutics. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources provided support for the project with BlueWing.

This was the 46th round of MIPS funding. The program has supported research projects with more than 450 different Maryland companies since 1987.

University System of Maryland institutions participating, along with the number of projects, include: University of Maryland, College Park (7); University of Maryland, Baltimore (8); Frostburg State University (1).

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MIPS Project Funding Rounds Mtech’s Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program Announces 17 Research Projects Teaming Companies and Faculty to Develop Commercial Products MIPS awarded 17 research projects in January teaming Maryland companies and university faculty to develop high technology and biotechnology commercial products.

Projects included a system to harvest nutrients from wastewater, technology to restore vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay, high-performance wind turbines for residential and other applications, as well as therapeutics or medical technologies related to diabetes, kidney disease, bladder disorder, fungal infections, non-healing wounds, and cancer. They also include an unmanned aircraft system that takes off vertically, new, highly efficient traffic surveillance technology, a system for reducing the crystallinity of cellulose for biofuel applications, an integrated flight control system, a high-definition headmounted display, an exoskeleton device for hand and finger rehabilitation, an automated manufacturing process for paint brushes, a polymer coating for gold nanorods, and more.

Worth $3 million, the projects combine $1.5 million from participating companies and $1.5 million from MIPS. Funding supports research in the laboratories of participating university faculty, who work closely with partner companies to advance their products. All funding goes to the project faculty and often supports the work of graduate students.

Projects approved include: • Jessup-based American Dynamics Flight Systems Inc. (www.adflightsystems.com) and Jewel Barlow, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($135,150): validating the propulsion system for the company’s next-generation, maritime-capable, highspeed Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).

• Rockville-based Aparna Biosciences Corporation (www.aparnabio.com) and A. James Mixson, associate professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($141,249): developing therapeutics to treat a variety of fungal

infections.

• Rockville-based Celek Pharmaceuticals LLC (www. celekpharma.com) and Susan Keay, professor, University of Baltimore ($159,500): evaluating the efficacy of a novel therapeutic for interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome, a chronic and debilitating bladder disorder.

• Rockville-based Cellphire Inc. (www.cellphire. com ) and Daniel Kuebbing, director, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute MDBioproSM (GMP Biomanufacturing Program) ($154,842): establishing a quality system and manufacturing processes for the current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) production of the company’s freeze-dried platelet products for both diagnostic and therapeutic indications.

• College Park-based Coil LLC (www.coil-guitars.com) and Patrick O’Shea, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($135,000): developing novel signal processing and programmable hardware technologies for audio and communications applications.

• Columbia-based Emerald Sky Technologies LLC (www.fly-esky.com) and J. Sean Humbert, assistant professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($215,260): developing an integrated aircraft flight display and control system with a collaborative autopilot that will allow pilots to maintain situational awareness and engage in the higher level task of managing and directing a flight.

• Easton-based Maryland Environmental Plastics LLC and Patrick Kangas, associate professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($236,299): developing biodegradable, inexpensive, uniquely designed seed pots that allow for proper root growth to restore vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay. • Hunt Valley-based Mastix Medica LLC (www. mastixmedica.com) and Thomas Dowling, associate professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($143,941): developing a chitosan chewing gum to help control

educate phosphorus levels in dialysis-dependent kidney disease patients.

• Germantown-based NanoRods LLC and John Fourkas, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($174,420): developing a polymer coating for gold nanorods that enables them to survive biological conditions without interfering with normal functions of living cells for potential cancer therapeutics, tomography, or additional biotechnology applications.

• Hollywood-based Recovery Science LLC and Jae Kun Shim, assistant professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($302,000): developing an innovative exoskeleton device for hand and finger rehabilitation in the medical community.

• Germantown-based Renewable Energy Solutions LLC and Jewel Barlow, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($82,200): performance testing the company’s small-wind, scalable, vertical-axis turbine that performs well in a broad range of wind conditions for residential, small commercial building and other distributed wind applications.

• Columbia-based Sensics Inc. (www.sensics.com) and Marc Olano, associate professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County ($145,659): developing video processing algorithms that optimize video streams to a high-definition, panoramic, head-mounted display for mass-corporate applications such as virtual design, training, medical pain management/therapy, remote presence, data visualization and more.

• Crisfield-based Sherwin Williams Corporation (www.sherwin.com) and Chandrasekhar Thamire, senior Keystone lecturer, University of Maryland, College Park ($270,500): developing a fully functional/ operational assembly system for automating the knot gauging, straightening, combing, and contour-inserting operations of the paint-brush manufacturing process.

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runoff and air pollution that harm the Chesapeake Bay. • Bethesda-based TelCare LLC (www.telcare.com) and Charlene Quinn, assistant professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($233,713): evaluating the effectiveness of TelCare’s cellular communicationsembedded glucose meter with two-way, personalized communication between patients and care managers to improve blood glucose testing compliance.

• College Park-based Traffax Inc. (www.traffaxinc. com) and Michael Pack, director, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory, University of Maryland College Park ($138,600): integrating Traffax’s traffic surveillance system, which detects, processes, and delivers traffic information in real time, with the Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS) to effectively distribute traffic data to Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

• College Park-based Zymetis Inc. (www.zymetis.com) and Robert M. Briber, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($108,085): developing low-cost solvent systems to reduce the crystallinity of native cellulose, reducing the need for enzymes in biomass digestion for the production of ethanol and other biofuels. This is the 45th round of MIPS funding. The program has supported research projects with more than 450 different Maryland companies since 1987.

University System of Maryland institutions participating include, along with the number of projects: • University of Maryland, Baltimore (4); • University of Maryland, Baltimore County (2); • University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (1); and • University of Maryland, College Park (10)

• Elkton-based Spiralcat of Maryland (www.spiralcat. com) and Douglas Frey, professor, University of Maryland Baltimore County ($210,448): developing full-scale industrial modules to extract fertilizer nutrients as part of the company’s system for harvesting water, energy and biofuel from diverse waste sources, reducing both

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20/20 BioResponse’s BioCheck® Emergency Response Biological Screening Kits Distributed by Smiths Detection Globally 20/20 BioResponse’s BioCheck® Suspicious Powder Screening Kit, a product improved, optimized and tested for efficacy at the University of Maryland through MIPS funding, got a major boost this year when Smiths Detection began distributing the product worldwide.

“This partnership reinforces our goal of becoming a total solutions provider for biological threat assessment,” said Mal Maginnis, president of Global Military and Emergency Responders for Smiths Detection. “BioCheck complements our line of suspicious powders assessment technologies giving emergency responders a comprehensive suite to choose from for quick, efficient and accurate detection in suspicious powder incidents.”

Pictured: 20/20 BioResponse’s BioCheck® Suspicious Powder Screening Kit,

A division of the Smiths Group ($4.2 billion in global sales), Smiths Detection offers advanced security solutions in civil and military markets worldwide, developing and a product improved, optimized and tested for efficacy at the University of manufacturing BioCheck® is a Maryland through MIPS funding. governmentpatented and regulated technology products that identify easy-to-use screening kit that combines a bestexplosives, chemical and biological agents, in-class protein assay with a pH test to rapidly weapons and contraband. assess suspicious powders representing potential biological threats. Emergency responder teams and government agencies worldwide have used the sensitive kits for more than seven years.

BioCheck® delivers test results of suspicious powers in less than five minutes. The product detects all known biotoxins and pathogens dispersed as solid powders. First responders know almost immediately if they and those they protect are at risk of exposure to a biowarfare agent. The results are read as simple color changes and the kit can be used after minutes of training.

20/20 GeneSystems (20/20 BioResponse is a division of the company) worked with J. Norman Hansen,

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“Dr. Hansen and MIPS were essential to the success of this product, which has become an international gold standard for suspicious powder screening. Over the past seven years thousands of government and commercial places of businesses have been able to safely and promptly resume operations following suspicious powder incidents through the use of this product by first responders.

BioCheck® has likely saved hundreds of millions of dollars in economic waste while creating many new jobs in Maryland.”

- Jonathan Cohen President and CEO 20/20 BioResponse

professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry, through a $140,000 MIPs project starting in 2004.

Through the project, Hansen improved, optimized, and tested the effectiveness of BioCheck®.

“The MIPS award permitted us to procure the services of Dr. Hansen,” said Jonathan Cohen, president and CEO of 20/20 BioResponse. “At that time in our company history we could not have afforded those services otherwise.

“Dr. Hansen had a deep background in relevant biochemistry and had previously invented chemical

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Pictured: 20/20 BioResponse’s BioCheck® Suspicious Powder Screening Kit.

agents to kill anthrax spores so he was quite expert in the environment in which our test kits would be employed.

He made specific recommendations on improvements to and optimization of BioCheck® and ran many tests demonstrating its efficacy compared to generic protein tests.

“Dr. Hansen and MIPS were essential to the success of this product, which has become an international gold standard for suspicious powder screening.

Over the past seven years thousands of government and commercial places of businesses have been able to safely and promptly resume operations following suspicious powder incidents through the use of this product by first responders. BioCheck® has likely saved hundreds of millions of dollars in economic waste while creating many new jobs in Maryland.” www.biocheckinfo.com

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Biotechnology Research and Education Program Bioprocessing, scale-up, education and training for biotech companies in Maryland

UM Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility to Double in Staff and Size, Expand to Shady Grove, Create Pilot Plant for Biofuels in College Park Growth Supported by $200K Grant from the Maryland Biotechnology Center The University of Maryland Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF) will double its facilities and staff, expand into Shady Grove, acquire new equipment, and create a pilot plant for biofuels in College Park through the support of a $200,000 Shared Resource Grant from the Maryland Biotechnology Center.

“The purpose of providing this funding to the university is to

Pictured: a 250-liter fermentor in the Biopfocess Scale-Up Facility.

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make sure the BSF’s capabilities are available to the growing number of biotechnology companies in Maryland,” says Judith Britz, executive director of the Maryland Biotechnology Center. “Expanding cell culture and related services into the I-270 corridor ensures that companies in that region have ready access to these important capabilities.”

The BSF, part of the Maryland

Technology Enterprise Institute’s Biotechnology Research and Education Program (BREP), is a modern bioprocessing laboratory that helps companies scale-up and manufacture biotechnology products and processes, and provides practical training for the region’s workforce and students.

Much of the BSF’s work is done using fermentation, growing drug candidates or other biologicals using bacteria on a contract basis. Its lab produces such materials under non-GMP (good manufacturing practice) conditions for process optimization or research conducted prior to human clinical trials. The BSF has conducted more than 1,000 fermentations since 2000 and has accelerated the R&D of numerous companies such as MedImmune and Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, as well as thenfledgling, Marylandbased startups Martek Biosciences and Digene Corporation.

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“We pride ourselves on flexibility in our contract work and training programs,” says BREP Director Paul Allenza. “This support from the Maryland Biotechnology Center and the University of Maryland will lead to even greater flexibility, expanding not only what we can do but also how efficiently we do it.

Bringing us closer to many of the biotechnology companies which can benefit from our workforce training and scale-up expertise is also a real plus.”

Through the MBC grant, the BSF will expand to Shady Grove, with the added space dedicated to non-GMP fermentation and cell culture programs. The new facility will be in what was formerly part of the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology and now part of the new Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR). The BSF occupies 2,400 square feet at the University of Maryland, College Park location.

The BSF will bring $160,000 worth of equipment from College Park and purchase $200,000 in new equipment for Shady Grove.

The expansion will also enable more work in tissue culture, or growing cells to express certain proteins, which will now be possible as it can be separated from the areas conducting fermentations. This will lower the risk of potential contamination.

Pictured: Ben Woodard, director of the Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility, conducting one of the many training programs offered to professionals and students.

Large-scale bioprocessing equipment, including 100-liter and 250-liter fermentors, will stay in College Park to conduct ongoing larger scale work and open up pilot plant biofuel processing for Maryland companies, faculty and graduate students.

Mtech will hire two additional staff to run the Shady Grove facility.

Through its Shared Resource Grants, the MBC administers funding to qualifying universities and non-profit research organizations to assist in the purchase of multi-user equipment or establishing core facilities that specifically allow for collaborations or contractual agreements with Maryland’s bioindustry.

The BSF also plans to expand its bioprocessing and protein purification trainings and courses at both Shady Grove and College Park, as the new laboratory will allow staff to continue bioprocessing projects while conducting training.

Pictured: High school students during a bioproduction course offered by BREP through the Young Scholars Program.

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Biotechnology Research and Education Program Bioprocessing, scale-up, education and training for biotech companies in Maryland

Photos From BREP’s New Shady Grove Facility

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BSF Helps Nabi Pharmaceuticals Optimize Manufacturing Processes for Staphylococcus Aureus Vaccine Company Sells Vaccine to GlaxoSmithKline PLC for $47 Million Rockville-based Nabi Biopharmaceuticals has a pipeline of biopharmaceutical products under development. These research and development pipeline products consist of novel vaccines in various stages of development to prevent Grampositive bacterial infections, and nicotine addition.

One of those products was a pentavalent vaccine, called PentaStaph, designed to prevent Staphylococcus aureus infections, including those infections caused by the most dangerous antibioticresistant strains of S. aureus.

Hospital-based S. aureus infections are an increasingly serious public health issue. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 2 million patients in the U.S. each year contract an infection as a result of receiving healthcare in a hospital. Within the nation’s 7,000 acute care hospitals, S. aureus is one of the three leading causes of hospital-based bloodstream infections and has a crude mortality rate of 25 percent.

BREP’s Bioprocess Scale-up Facility (BSF) worked with Nabi to help develop the vaccine. Working closely with Nabi, BSF staff optimized their fermentation and purification processes for the efficient expression of new proteins for the vaccine.

The work performed at BSF was instrumental in advancing the development of the vaccine to cGMP production and clinical evaluation.

In November 2009, Nabi sold PentaStaph and related assets to GlaxoSmithKline PLC. Under the terms of the agreement, Nabi received cash payments of $21.5 million, of which $20 million was associated with the PentaStaph transaction close, $1 million associated with the sale of a separate pre-clinical program for a vaccine against S. epidermedis, as well as $0.5 million as reimbursement for license fees and clinical materials previously manufactured for use in the Phase I trial. The remaining $26 million in payments contemplated in the transaction are associated with the completion of four milestones, which the company expected to complete within 16 months.

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Biotechnology Research and Education Program Bioprocessing, scale-up, education and training for biotech companies in Maryland

Companies and Laboratories Served by BREP through Fermentations, Training, Tours, and On-Site Assistance Last Year 1. Accugen Biosciences LLC, Rockville, Md. 2. Advanced BioScience Laboratories Inc., Kensington, Md. 3. Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, Rockville, Md. 4. American Gene Technology International Inc. (AGTI), Rockville, Md.

22. Intralytix Inc., Baltimore, Md. 23. Lankenau Institute for Medical Research Chemical Genomics Center, Philadelphia, Pa. 24. Marcor Development, Corporation, N.J.

5. Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University

25. Maryland Biotechnology Center

6. ATR Inc., Laurel, Md.

26. MedImmune, Gaithersburg, Md.

7. Baxter Healthcare, Beltsville, Md. 8. BioFactura Inc., Rockville, Md. 9. Chemisty & Biochemistry, Dr. K. Dayie, University of Maryland 10. CIA University, Va. 11. Cotec, Portugal 12. EcoEmergence Corporation, Olney, Md. 13. Eli Lilly and Company 14. FiberCell Systems Inc., Frederick, Md. 15. Fina Bioisolutions LLC, Rockville, MDd. 16. FMC Inc., Pa. 17. Fortis College, Landover, Md. 18. Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pa. 19. Fyodor Biotechnologies, Baltimore, Md. 20. GlycoPure Inc. , Cambridge, Md. 21. Henry M. Jackson Foundation

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for the Advancement of Military Medicine Inc., Rockville, Md.

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27. Meso Scale Discovery, Gaithersburg, Md. 28. Michigan State University 29. Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, Md. 30. Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, Rockville, Md. 31. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

40. Paragon, Baltimore, Md. 41. ProteinOne, Rockville, Md. 42. Scheer Partners, Rockville, Md. 43. Terapio, Texas 44. The Johns Hopkins University Department of Biology, Md. 45. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, Dr. G. Sriram 46. Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland 47. Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Maryland 48. United States Department of Defense 49. United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Md. 50. University of Alabama Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Dr. Noel Childers 51. University of Pennsylvania

32. National Institutes of Health (NIH)

52. The Universities at Shady Grove

33. New Brunswick Scientific N.J. 34. Phyllom LLC, CA

53. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

35. Precision Antibody, Columbia, Md.

54. Women in Engineering, University of Maryland

36. ProteoSource LLC, Pa.

55. Zoom Intelligence, Silver Spring, Md.

37. Quanta Biosciences, Gaithersburg, Md. 38. Quiagen (SABiosciences), Germantown, Md. 39. Remedium, College Park, Md.

56. Zymetis Inc., College Park, Md.

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Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility Helps Cotec Manufacture Revolutionary Health Drink Nutriplus Portugal-based Cotec had what appeared to be a revolutionary product: a non-dairy health drink with active probiotics that did not need to be refrigerated.

The non-profit association, created by the government and supported by Portugese companies to promote the competitiveness of companies in Portugal, had created the drink in flasks at a very small scale but never tried at a large scale.

That’s where the Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF) came in.

“They needed to understand future manufacturing issues, as well as to produce large samples for submission to an external laboratory to characterize and confirm the drink’s nutritional properties,” says Paul Allenza, director of Mtech’s Biotechnology Research and Education Program.

“We went through their lab-scale process and reproduced it here,” Allenza explained. “We then repeated the process on a larger scale. That revealed some important process parameters and some things that were important to adjust.”

Maintaining the active probiotics took particular care.

“We obtained for use a special unit to encapsulate the probiotic bacteria under very specific conditions to produce uniform-sized capsules,” Allenza continued. “There were different capsule sizes for different probiotic species. All of the components were put together to create the final product.”

From the scaled-up process, BSF staff submitted samples to an outside testing laboratory, which

Pictured: Nutriplus samples produced at the BSF.

provided Cotec with the information the company needed to proceed with the product.

Nutriplus blends a fermented oat base and encapsulated probiotic microorganisms for its health drink. The oat base acts as a metabolic substrate for the microorganisms, and functions as a carrier that establishes a matrix to which they can adhere. This matrix helps to increase the survival rates of the bacteria and helps them to be more resistant to stress.

The product is based on a proprietary technology that encompasses both product and process and can be used by the food and beverage industry as an additive to enhance existing products or as a food and beverage base for the development of new products for new markets.

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Manufacturing Assistance Program Growth and operational consulting services for Maryland manufacturers.

Bill Barnes Named Director of Mtech Manufacturing Assistance Program New Director Believes Companies Can Succeed by Creating High-Value Products and Services Worth the Cost Bill Barnes, the new director of Mtech’s Manufacturing Assistance Program, knows how manufacturers can compete in the 21st century: create high-value products that customers are willing to pay more for, as opposed to competing with off-shore manufacturers and lower-quality goods.

Barnes led two successful National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers in Ohio, generating over $1 billion in additional sales and cost savings and creating 3,000 jobs at client manufacturing companies.

channels. Manufacturing Assistance Program experts work with manufacturers to harness technology and innovation that results in new business opportunities. These experts also support manufacturers as they resolve operational problems that impact their ability to generate results.

According to an independent third party hired to survey the Manufacturing Assistance Program’s clients by the Federal Government’s Department of Commerce in 2008, Manufacturing Assistance Program clients received: • A return on fees paid of $16 for every $1 spent by clients;

“Real results come only from the creation of products and services that are highly • Over $1.5 million in new valued by customers who are or retained sales on average willing to pay a differential to from projects; and receive them,” says Barnes.

Pictured: Bill Barnes, new director of the Mtech “Manufacturers who adopt Manufacturing Assistance Program.

• Over $117,000 on average this viewpoint and adapt to in operating cost savings the model of continuous product differentiation will from work performed by program experts. relieve themselves of the pricing and cost pressures As vice president of manufacturing and innovation that demonstrate product mediocrity from the for the Cleveland, Ohio-based MEP center MAGNET, customer’s point of view.”

Barnes led the generation of $1 billion in additional Barnes is launching the Manufacturing Assistance sales and cost savings. In addition, 3,000 jobs were Program’s Next Generation Plus strategy, which created at client companies. He also merged six internal provides manufacturers with the knowledge business units and an outside consulting organization and support that allows them to create marketinto MAGNET and lowered MAGNET’s operating risk by based differentiation of products, services and generating more than $1.5 million in surplus.

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

Barnes was a consultant for much of his career, including 12 years with Arthur Andersen in Chicago. As a business manager and change agent experienced in growing revenue and reducing costs in economic development organizations and industry, he has built organizations through joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, and partnering, as well as by restructuring marketing, sales, operations, logistics, and IT units.

Barnes’s experience includes leading business teams delivering lean/6-SIGMA, training, quality systems, growth planning, market research, new product development, engineering and IT projects. He has done work for organizations in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

Barnes graduated from Purdue University with a degree in industrial management.

New Next Generation Plus Strategy The Manufacturing Assistance Program’s Next Generation Plus strategy provides manufacturers with the knowledge and support they need to create a market-based differentiation of products, services and channels. Through this strategy, the program works with manufacturers to identify market-based opportunities and harness the technology and innovation that results in new business. The program also supports manufacturers as they resolve operational problems that impact their ability to generate results.

Opportunity Identification •

New product, market and customer opportunities

Technology Acceleration •

New product development: research, expertise, technology, funding and tools

Workforce • • • •

More efficient personnel Improved product and service quality Fewer field problems and better customer service More stable workforce

Sustainability • • •

Lower energy, raw material, waste disposal and handling costs Reduce regulatory compliance and liability costs Improve employees’ safety and health

Supplier Development • • • • • •

Lower manufacturing and transportation costs Improved quality and consistency Potentially fewer suppliers Better service levels Better product design Increased capacity

Continuous Improvement • • • • •

Lower shop and office labor costs Lower material, scrap and rework costs Better quality, fewer returns and field problems Better customer service Increased capacity, better layout and flow

Top line, cost and qualitative results—so you make more money!

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MIPS Project Funding Rounds Manufacturing Assistance Program Growth and operational consulting services for Maryland manufacturers.

Sherwin Williams Increases Brush Manufacturing Productivity, Adds 175 Employees with Help from Manufacturing Assistance Program Sherwin Williams was looking to increase the productivity of the paint brush manufacturing operations at its Crisfield, Md.–based facility.

The 150,000 square-foot plant manufactures all of the Sherwin Williams-branded paint brushes sold in

Manufacturing Assistance Program.

“There is an existing manufacturing strategy that managers are migrating away from called functional manufacturing,” says Carr. “It’s where all machines of one type are in one place and machines of another

North America.

type are in another place.”

In each department, an operator would be at a machine with a cart to the left and a cart to the right.

That person would pull from one cart, perform a function, and pile the finished product onto the other cart.

Norm Wolske, site manager for the facility and recent chair of the board of advisors for Mtech’s Manufacturing Assistance Program, championed the adoption of lean manufacturing in the company’s production lines.

Lean manufacturing is a systematic process that emphasizes eliminating non-value added activities to improve productivity, quality and delivery.

Pictured: the end-of-arm tooling developed and built by Charlie Carr for Sherwin Williams to grab different-sized brushes.

“We wanted to improve our throughput and update our process flows,” says Wolske, “and we wanted to rethink every process we were engaged in to those ends.”

The company started with its brush production line. In 2008, Sherwin Williams started working with Charlie Carr, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, lean facilitator, and senior technical consultant for the

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Wolske had a vision several years ago of converting the Crisfield brush operation from a functional operation to a flow cell embodying many lean manufacturing principles. The Manufacturing Assistance Program assisted him in that effort.

Lean manufacturing employs the creation of cells, where a continuous flow of product is created by putting each step of the manufacturing process physically right after the previous step, enabling product to flow through the line until it is complete, rather than getting stacked up in piles until it is retrieved by someone performing the next task.

Carr drew up the physical layout of the lean cell for Sherwin Williams. He also helped the company

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Pictured: the computer Charlie Carr programmed to control the brush-grabbing robotic arm for Sherwin Williams.

identify a six-axis robotic arm to pick brushes from one step of the process and move it to the next. He developed and built the arm’s hand, called an endof-arm tooling, to grab different-sized brushes. He then programmed a computer attached to the arm to adjust to whatever size brush was being made at the time. All Sherwin employees had to do was select a different option on the computer, and the arm would adjust.

Fadi Khalifeh, site engineer for Sherwin Williams, led the company’s lean implementation. “Our brush production is one complete, continuous flow

Pictured: Norm Wolske, former site manager for Sherwin Williams, and former chair of the Manufacturing Assistance Program’s advisory board.

operation now,” says Khalifeh. “Making a production lot of brushes takes 3 hours rather than 7 days. The lean manufacturing cell also takes up 2/3 less space than the original brush production process.”

Sherwin Williams’ executives, based in Cleveland, Ohio, took note of the Crisfield facility’s increased productivity, and decided to move its entire roller brush manufacturing operation to Crisfield as well.

The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development’s Renee Stephens secured funding for Crisfield to help Sherwin Williams establish the additional facility.

The new roller brush operation created 175 additional jobs in the area. www.sherwin-williams.com

Pictured, left to right: Charlie Carr, holding the device he programmed to control the robotic arm he customized to pick up brushes for Sherwin Williams, and back, center, Fadi Khalifeh, site engineer for Sherwin Williams.

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Manufacturing Assistance Program Growth and operational consulting services for Maryland manufacturers.

EU Services Reduces Waste, Saves on Energy Through Mtech’s Manufacturing Assistance Program EU Services, a Rockville-based provider of direct marketing services, wanted to minimize the waste it produced and save on energy costs.

The privately held, Rockville-based company ranges in business activity from electronic pre-press to printing, coating, binding, packaging, and shipping of documents in various configurations. EU Services employs 325 persons and operates three eight-hour shifts, five days a week. The company’s 160,000 square-foot facility, located on over eight acres of land, is veteran-owned and operated.

EU Services joined the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and Mtech Manufacturing Assistance Program ISO 14001 Implementation Assistance Program in Spring 2008. The ISO 14001 program offers free assistance to Maryland manufacturers in implementing environmental management systems (EMSs) based on the ISO 14001 global standard.

Shortly after the consortium, the Manufacturing Assistance Program’s Paul Gietka, who leads the ISO 14001 program, arranged to have the company enter the Pollution Prevention (P2) Intern Program, which employs a University of Maryland engineering student over a two-semester period to assess how a company can reduce waste and save energy. Participation was voluntary by EU Services.

The P2 Intern Program is supported by the Maryland Department of the Environment through funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Pollution Prevention Incentives for States program for Region III, and facilitated by the Manufacturing Assistance Program.

Through the P2 program, then civil and environmental engineering student Sean Vorsteg (now Coordinator of the Manufacturing Assistance Program’s Clean Energy Internships Program)

conducted a pollution prevention assessment for the company.

Vorsteg’s assessments found four projects that EU Services could implement that would directly lower the company’s environmental impact and result in significant cost savings: fountain solution filtration; blanket wash distillation; energy efficient lighting; and high-volume low-speed fans.

For the four main projects Vorsteg recommended, EU Services would pay $142,000. The initiatives would then save the company $80,000 annually.

The company installed one high-volume, low-speed fan. EU is also in the process of installing its second cool roof and new insulation on its facility. Company employees have reported a 5-10 degree difference in temperature on the inside of the roof. EU plans on eventually re-roofing all of its facilities with cool roofs.

EU also switched from solvent based parts washers to new, aqueous-based automated parts washers, which reduced the company’s VOC emissions and allows employees to perform other tasks while the parts are cleaning.

EU switched its computer system to no PCs (‘thin computing’) at a substantial cost, but the company is expecting significant reductions in environmental and energy costs.

“Working with MTES was a great experience for all of us to see what we can do,” said Ford James, EU Services’ manager for safety and security. “It is important to our customers and to us to leave the world a better place than when we found it.” www.euservices.com

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Manufacturing Assistance Program Companies Served in 2010 (111) 1.

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A & A Global Industries Inc. Adcor Industries Aeroflex Weinschel Corp Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam AHPharma Food Safety Products Inc. American Dynamics Flight Systems Inc. Amplimmune Aparna Biosciences AVIHOME LLC Baltimore Animal Medicine Inc. Becton Dickenson Diagnostic Systems Bio-Quick Corporation BlueWing Environmental Solutions & Technologies LLC Bowles Fluidics Corp.

Caldwell Manufacturing Company CCC Diagnostics LLC Celek Pharmaceuticals LLC Cellex Inc. Cellphire Inc. Cerona Networks Corporation Chicago Metallic Corporation Coil LLC Community Analytics Container Research Corp.

CoolCAD Electronics Corridor Pharmaceuticals, Inc CSA Medical Diebold Information and Security Systems LLC Dixon Valve & Coupling Co. DuPont Vitron E-Structors Inc. Eastern Plating EcoEmergence Corporation Emerald Sky Technologies LLC Encore Path Inc. Erachem Comilog Inc. Esai LLC EU Services Fairlawn Tool & Die Company Inc. FlexEl LLC Foligo Therapeutics Inc. Friends Aware Inc.

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Frito-Lay Fuzbien Technology Institute Fyodor Biotechnologies Inc. GAF General Motors Baltimore Gliknik Inc. Hamilton Charter School Harbor Designs and Manufacturing Harris Lithographics Inc. Hedwin Corporation Helmut Guenschel Company Inc. Instant Access Networks LLC Integrated BioTherapeutics Inc. Inter-Connect Electronics Intertwine Health Solutions J Green Foods Kaydon Ring & Seal Kydes Pharmaceuticals LLC Lion Brothers Co. Inc. Marlin Wire Products Maryland Environmental Plastics LLC Maryland Thermoform Mastix Medica LLC McCormick and Company Inc. MD & VA Milk Producers Manufacturing Division Meals On Wheels of Central Maryland MedImmune NanoRods Neuronascent, Inc. Ocean Equities LLC Opticul Diagnostics Pack-It LLC PCTEST Engineering Laboratory Inc.

$343M 111

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Performance Pipe Plymouth Tube Co. Potomac Photonics Pregmama LLC ProParts LLC Rafagen Inc. Recovery Science LLC Refractory Composites Inc. Renewable Energy Solutions LLC 85. Resensys LLC 86. Rubberset Company 87. Save A Lot Food Stores 88. SEGMA Technologies Inc. 89. Sensics Inc. 90. Severstal 91. Sherwin Williams 92. Sirnaomics Inc. 93. St. Marys Parish 94. Stancills Inc. 95. StarEnergyCo Inc. 96. Stress Indicators Inc. 97. Sustainable Systems Inc. 98. Syan Biosciences 99. TelCare 100. Teledyne Brown Engineering Energy Systems 101. Thales Communications 102. The Forum Condominium 103. Traffax Inc. 104. TRX Systems Inc. 105. Tulkoff Food Products Inc. 106. U.S. Bullet Proofing 107. UMRobotics Inc. 108. United Therapeutics 109. Vane Brothers 110. VectorLogics Inc. 111. Zymetis Inc.

Manufacturing Assistance Program impact on Maryland manufacturers Maryland manufacturing companies served by the Manufacturing Assistance Program in 2010

MIPS Project Funding Rounds Manufacturing Assistance Program Growth and operational consulting services for Maryland manufacturers.

Manufacturing Assistance Program Helps TIPCO Technologies Enter New Markets, Grab Big New Customers, Reduce Production Errors TIPCO Technologies Inc. (www. tipcotech.com) had a problem many businesses would envy: it was growing too fast.

With $15 million in annual sales, the 45-employee company specializes in hoses, hose assemblies, fittings and connections for the biotechnology, biopharmaceutical, and military industries, as well as for industrial applications and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

TIPCO assembles products at its Baltimore headquarters and operates express hose centers throughout Maryland and Virginia.

But the company was growing faster than its infrastructure could handle.

“Our company grew so fast that it was starting to choke us,” said Robert Lyons, president and co-owner of TIPCO. “We were making mistakes, having to do things twice.

Our customers were asking to come to our facility and audit us.

We were very good at

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fixing our mistakes but terrible at preventing them.”

The company contacted David Rizzardo, lean services manager for the Manufacturing Assistance Program (www.ummap.umd. edu), an initiative of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) in the A. James Clark School of Engineering, who introduced the company to the concepts of lean manufacturing.

Lean manufacturing is a systematic process that emphasizes eliminating nonvalue added activities to improve productivity, quality and delivery.

Rizzardo gave the company a half-day training session on Lean Manufacturing.

locations and clearly identifying hoses and components to reduce pick time and material/ personnel travel, utilizing visual methods to reduce search time and improve standardization, investigating causes of inventory accuracy errors and evaluating cellular design methods for a new product line.

“Then we formed a team and started analyzing how they fulfill their orders from when they take the order to when they gather parts and assemble them and how we could eliminate wasteful activities that didn’t provide

TIPCO was retrieving parts from its warehouse and taking them to the other side of the facility for assembly.

any value to the customer,” said Rizzardo.

most-used products were near the fabricators pulling it,” said Lyons.

He facilitated the team in addressing issues such as evaluating storage

“We started relocating product near our warehouse where the

Last-minute orders were also a problem for TIPCO.

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“Our company lives by the customer-first approach,” said Lyons. “Our customers often needed something tomorrow or today, so we would drop everything and make it for them.

We wanted to fold that into our normal production process.”

So the company built customercentric work cells to quickly assemble products for its large OEMs. TIPCO also changed some employees’ roles so they were working with product in the flow.

They built shadow boards to keep tools straight and workstations clean.

The result? In just six months, the company has reduced mistakes by 30 percent and increased production by 10 percent. Sales are up 7.5 percent compared to

the same time last year.

“Many of our customers are far along in the lean journey,” said Lyons. “Now when they come and see the things we have done, they feel much more comfortable partnering with us.”

TIPCO has acquired big new customers, including Northrop Grumman and the Equipment Development Corporation.

General Dynamics is also a customer.

“Our company used to be heavily involved with chemical plants and steel mills, but those industries left,” said Lyons. “The faces of our customers today are military subcontractors, OEMs, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

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Those customers feel very comfortable after being through our site audits that we are partnering with them to compete globally.”

Lyons said the company owes a lot to the Manufacturing Assistance Program lean manufacturing initiative.

“The program is so critical,” he said. “With lean manufacturing, small businesses can compete globally. If we don’t take care of our customers, someone outside of this region will take care of them for us.”

TIPCO is co-owned by Terri Lyons.

Manufacturing Assistance Program Impact Data The following table shows the Manufacturing Assistance Program’s economic impact on manufacturers. The data is based upon client surveys from January 2000 through Q2 2010 by NIST through a third-party provider.

Manufacturers

Amount

Increased sales by:

$88.2 million

Retained sales of:

$171.5 million

Saved on costs:

$21 million

Saved on investments made by:

$20.4 million

Increased investments, plants or equipment by:

$41.9 million

Total impact:

$343 million

Created or retained jobs:

1,754

A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

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Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute A. James Clark School of Engineering University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742-3415

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The mission of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), a unit of the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, is to educate the next generation of technology entrepreneurs, create successful technology ventures, and connect Maryland companies with university resources to help them succeed. Founded in 1983, Mtech has had a $25.7 billion impact on the Maryland economy and helped create or retain more than 5,300 jobs. Top-selling products such as MedImmune’s Synagis®, which protects infants from a deadly respiratory disease, and Hughes Communications’ HughesNet®, which brings satellite-based, high-speed Internet access to the world, were developed through or enhanced by our programs. Billion dollar companies such as Martek Biosciences and Digene Corporation graduated from our incubator.

Director: Dr. David Barbe | 301.405.3906 | www.mtech.umd.edu

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