Innovation & Job News

Hear that buzz? It's news about robotics and engineering innovation in Pennsylvania.
 
In recent weeks:
 
A robotic paint-stripping system, being developed for the Air Force by Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center  and Concurrent Technologies Corporation of Johnstown, was named gold winner in the material science category of the 2013 Edison Awards. The system uses high-powered lasers mounted on mobile robotic platforms to remove paint and coatings from aircraft.
 
NREC is building six autonomous mobile robots, each equipped with a high-power-laser coating remover developed by CTC. As part of a two-year project, the robots will be deployed in teams to remove paint and other coatings from aircraft at Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah. The lasers eliminate the needs for abrasives or chemical paint removers; the robots make it possible to automate and precisely control the stripping process.
 
Carnegie Mellon researchers are also at work on the Lifelong Robotic Object Discovery Process, which helps robots augment their "vision" with other information – an object's location, size, and shape and even whether it can be lifted – to recognize and understand objects. The team enabled a two-armed, mobile robot to use color video, a Kinect depth camera and non-visual information to discover more than 100 objects in a home-like laboratory, such as computer monitors, plants and food items. Eventually the technology could help people accomplish tasks of daily living as part of the Home-Exploring Robot Butler, with the quaint acronym HERB, being developed in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh.
 
Thirteen Penn State teams took honors in semester-long, industry-sponsored engineering projects. Altogether, 163 projects by engineering undergraduates were judged at the 2013 Student Design Project Showcase. Three teams won first place in the Lockheed Martin Design Awards: "Project Assignment/Algorithm," "Maximum Allowable Gasket Seating Surface Degradation Before Seal Failure" and "Robotic Parallel Bars Walking Device." Six other teams took second and third-place honors. The Boeing Systems Engineering Award went to "Rotor Wake Survey."
 
Sources: Carnegie Mellon; Penn State
Writer: Elise Vider
 
 
 

MRIs, CT scans and the like "don't travel well," notes Adam Simon. So Cerora, the Bethlehem startup he co-founded with David M. Devilbiss in 2011, is developing the first portable, objective, accurate and affordable diagnostic tool to quickly assess and diagnose brain disease or injury.
 
Non-specialists in the field can use Cerora's device to assess an individual through a battery of tests: an electroencephalogram (EEG) verbal tasks, cognitive, balance and stability measures, etc. Data is transmitted via the cloud to be interpreted by a doctor who will generate a report back within, the goal is, 15 to 20 minutes. The system has myriad applications, says Simon, including first responders, gyms, football fields, nursing homes, ski clinics, combat frontlines and even in physicians' and pediatricians' offices for routine physicals and the inevitable bumped heads of childhood.
 
Cerora already has data on the effectiveness of its technology for assessing Alzheimer's Disease and concussions and Simon anticipates broader applications including Parkinson's, sleep disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.  Eight clinical trials are underway with providers including Lehigh University's sports medicine program and Philadelphia's Rothman Institute.
 
Cerora recently received its first external funding, a $50,000 loan from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania and moved operations to Ben Franklin TechVentures at Lehigh University. The company is now actively working to raise $1.25 million through venture or angel investors in order to re-engineer its device. From there, Simon estimates, it's one year to FDA clearance and commercialization, hopefully in 2014.
 
For now the company has two full-timers and five part-timers and Simon hopes to add another two or three part-timers.
 
Source: Adam Simon, Cerora
Writer: Elise Vider
 
 
 
 
 

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania presented its 19th annual Innovation Awards this month, after hearing a few words from economist Todd Buchholz on how creative competition drives success.
 
With that it mind, the 2013 winners are:
 
CyOptics, Inc., Breinigsville for entrepreneurial achievement. A maker of optoelectronics, the company survived difficult economic times by building intellectual property and market share. It was recently acquired for $400 million.
 
Computer Aid, Inc., Allentown, named most successful BFTP incubator graduate. Founded in the early 1980s, CAI has grown from concept to successful operation as a worldwide leader in IT metrics, process and productivity -- "a classic incubator success story," says BFTP.
 
Micro Interventional Devices in Langhorne, which has developed a device used in heart surgery, was honored for product innovation.
 
East Penn Manufacturing Co., Lyon Station, an old-line company that produces and recycles lead-acid batteries, was honored for manufacturing achievement.
 
The partnership award, made to an individual, went to Edward Thompson, a Clarks Summit CPA and "a seasoned finance and accounting advisor to a number of Ben Franklin early-stage clients, [who] is enormously helpful, supportive, and proficient," BFTP says.
 
Source:  Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania
Writer: Elise Vider

Shale gas is as old as the earth, but three high-tech innovations have won their companies $25,000 each in the 2013 Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation Competition. 
 
"Innovation, research and technological advancements have been and continue to be the catalyst for shale gas development's sustained success," said Kathryn Klaber, CEO of the Marcellus Shale Coalition in a statement. "Without forward-looing thinkers and companies willing to invest in new technologies, the natural gas revolution that we're witnessing today would not have been possible."
 
The winners, chosen from more than 70 applicants, are:
 
Pyrochem Catalyst, New Brighton, which has developed a catalyst technology, known as "Reformer," for converting natural gas and carbon dioxide to hydrogen-rich synthesis gas for use in fuel cells and processes for making chemicals and transportation fuels. The company is the early stages of commercializing its technology for its initial target markets -- fuel cells and refining applications.
 
REV LNG in Ulysses is a full-service, distribution company for liquid natural gas (LNG) as an alternative to traditional diesel fuel. The company is one of the first in the U.S.  to deploy small-scale, mobile liquefaction units that can be hooked up to existing gas pipelines to create LNG.
 
Atlantis Technologies in Richboro has developed a "Radial Deionization System," which is 10 times the speed, 15 times the range and less than half the price of previous technologies that deionize wastewater from oil, gas and mining operations.
 
Sources: Bill Hall, Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center; Jeffrey Harrison, Pyrochem Catalyst; David Kailbourne, REV LNG
Writer: Elise Vider

Whatever you call it – smart home, connected home, Internet of things or M2M (machine to machine) – Malvern's Zonoff is poised for major growth in this booming market.
 
The company recently announced that it has raised $3.8 million in venture capital to support technical and global sales growth of its software platform, available via apps, on the cloud or in the home via a router or other device. Zonoff's technology allows users at home or away to monitor and control thermostats, light switches, locks, motorized window coverings, security systems and more.
 
Mike Harris, Zonoff's co-founder and CEO, says a major target is the mass-market consumer via a do-it-yourself starter kit sold at big-box retailers. But Zonoff doesn't sell direct to consumers. Instead, it sells its products and services through "channel partners" -- mass-market retailers, hardware manufacturers, electronic device makers and service providers such as cable and telephone companies.
 
"The thing we like about Zonoff is that they are not attempting to build a consumer brand, but rather are empowering big name consumer brands who already have deep and long-lasting consumer relationships," said Lawson DeVries, general partner at Grotech Ventures  which is making the VC investment, along with Valhalla Partners. 
 
Zonoff also offers its channel partners an ecommerce platform that combines consumer education and merchandising to deliver ongoing revenue streams as consumers expand and upgrade their homes.
 
Zonoff was spun off in 2011 from Bulogics, a designer and developer of  custom wireless automation systems. Zonoff currently employs 18 and Harris anticipates it could as much as double its workforce in the year ahead.
 
Source: Mike Harris, Zonoff
Writer: Elise Vider
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mom-and-pop operations don't need it and giant corporations have their own methods. So companies in the middle are the sweet spot for Lewisburg's Bison Analytics, which makes cloud-based, business intelligence software for small businesses that use the ubiquitous QuickBooks accounting software.
 
Companies hovering around $1 million in revenues are big enough to benefit from analytics -- tracking vendors, studying cash flow, evaluating performance indicators and myriad other functions.  "We make it possible for companies to extract data from QuickBooks and review their numbers and understand what is going on trendwise and growthwise via the Internet," says founder and CEO Kurt Steckel.
 
Some huge companies use QuickBooks, but in general, Steckel says, his strategy is to "bring the same experience down to smaller companies."
 
So, for example, a document-shredding outfit running QuickBooks used Bison's Bat System business intelligence tool to create a web-based invoice that is customizable for each client.  Bison helped a sales team extract detailed data and generate sophisticated reports to document its results.
 
Steckel founded Bison in 2010 and recently received his first outside investment, a $35,000 loan from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, earmarked, he says, for software enhancements and marketing. Bison has six employees and Steckel's goal is to add three or more new positions in the next year. The company is also expanding physically, with the addition of 400 square feet, bringing its space to 1,400 square feet, at its Lewisburg offices.
 
Source: Kurt Steckel, Bison Analytics
Writer: Elise Vider

A state-of-the-art, new helicopter is landing in Philadelphia. AgustaWestland Philadelphia will add a new production line to manufacture the AW169 helicopter starting in May 2014. The plant, located at Northeast Philadelphia Airport, employs over 560.
 
"The arrival of the AW 169 production line will secure and create jobs here in Philadelphia," CEO William Hunt said in a statement. "We have been in Philadelphia for over 30 years and have realized tremendous growth in servicing and supporting the commercial helicopter market over the past 10 years."
 
AgustaWestland is an Anglo-Italian helicopter company owned by Italy’s Finmeccanica. The Philadelphia facility includes assembly lines for two other helicopters, a parts supply depot for the Americas and a repair station. AgustaWestland Philadelphia also performs helicopter customization and provides maintenance for customer aircraft in the area out of its 275,000-square-foot facility on 39 acres at the airport.
 
AgustaWestland says it already has orders for more than 80 of the new helicopters, a versatile, new-generation, twin-engine helicopter that can seat 10 passengers. The first Philadelphia-built AW169 will be delivered in early 2015 and the new production line will ramp up to about 20 aircraft a year by 2017.
 
The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the Philadelphia unit has been growing steadily over the past seven years, with revenues growing from $217 million in 2005 to $771 million last year.  The workforce has increased from 100 to 560 and the number of aircraft made in Philadelphia annually has risen from 23 to 48. Nearly half the aircraft it makes are exported.
 
Source: AgustaWestland, Philadelphia Business Journal
Writer: Elise Vider
 

Laboriously cutting corn root specimens into ultra-thin sections for x-ray study at a rate of four or five an hour, Penn State horticulturalists approached the university's Applied Research Lab for a better way.
 
It was there that Benjamin Hall developed an imaging technique that uses lasers to create digitized, 3D models from physical samples and boosts productivity to 11 sections – per second.  Last year, Hall and Brian Reinhardt established Lasers for Innovative Solutions (L4IS) to develop and commercialize the technology.
 
Besides speed, the 3D models are much more cost effective and allow for easier electronic collaboration and analysis (scientists can "dissect" specimens without damaging them). "The amount of data we get out of them is enormous, measured in terabytes," says Hall.
 
L4IS got an immediate boost with an early investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA and space at the BF TechCelerator in State College. This week, L4IS was a finalist in the Shell Gas Innovation Competition.
 
Besides plant biology, "new applications are showing up every day," says Hall, who says that potential uses range from healthcare – think tissue and biopsy analysis – to manufacture of semiconductors to the oil and gas industry.
 
For now, the startup is focusing on developing its technology for tomography – imaging by sections – with a pending patent and developing a capacity for chemical analysis of samples using a spectrometer.
 
Source: Benjamin Hall, L4IS
Writer: Elise Vider

Along with two other Carnegie Mellon grad students, Juergen Fritsch founded MultiModal Technologies in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh in 2001. Three had grown to over 100 by 2011 when MultiModal merged with MedQuist to form M*Modal,  which today counts 12,000 employees in five countries.
 
But M*Modal, the largest provider of medical transcription services in the U.S., hasn't abandoned its Pittsburgh roots. Fritsch, who serves M*Modal as chief scientist, reports that in the last 12 months, the company has made 50 hires – a 44% increase -- bringing its Squirrel Hill workforce to 160, with more hiring possible.
 
The company is now headquartered in Tennessee, but the Pittsburgh office, says Fritsch, maintains "pretty much the same focus, developing software … for physicians and nurses to use in their daily operations." Fritsch attributes the fast growth of the last two years to M*Modal's global reach, providing more resources to support expansion into new products and markets.
 
Right now, Pittsburgh is focused on two particular products. One is a further refinement of software that uses advanced natural language understanding and voice recognition technologies to turn dictation into written clinical documentation, "a major productivity driver," says Fritsch, to speed compliance with complex new health records rules.

The other is a set of "tools to find information in a vast sea of documentation," Fritsch says, concerning everything from individual patients to vast patient populations.
 
 
Source: Juergen Fritsch, M*Modal
Writer: Elise Vider

With a new moniker, the Technology Council of Pennsylvania (the trade group formerly known as TechQuest Pennsylvania) shined a spotlight on technological innovation earlier this month, honoring companies, individuals and one government entity with its 21st annual PA Tech Awards.
 
The Mechanicsburg office of GL Noble Denton,  a global technical service provider for the oil and gas industry, was named innovation company of the year. David Bonsick, the Technology's Council's president and CEO, says the award recognizes the company's technological advances in drilling, refining and delivery of both natural gas and water.
 
Harrisburg's Red Privet, with its emphasis on optimizing customer and online interaction, was named startup company of the year. "They knocked the ball out of the park," says Bonsick.
 
Concurrent Technologies Corporation in Johnstown, a nonprofit, applied science research and development professional services organization, was named technology provider of the year and WebPageFX in Carlisle an Internet marketing firm, was technology company of the year.
 
Also honored were Ken Moscone of QBC Diagnostics in Port Matilda, Chuck Davis of Harrisburg University and David Zinn of the Southwestern School District as, respectively, post-secondary and K-12 technology educators, and the PA Department of Labor and Industry as public service innovator.
 
From more than 75 nominations, "the diversity of the winners, everything from web design companies to medical and defense technologies, really demonstrates the tremendous scope and breadth of the Commonwealth's technology industry," Bonsick said.
 
The organization says it adopted its new name as a rebranding to emphasize the diversity of its 200-plus members and the fact that it represents technology companies statewide.
 
Source: David Bonsick, Technology Council of Pennsylvania
Writer: Elise Vider

Sometimes, a little tough love is in order for aspiring entrepreneurs. No one knows it better than Pam Martin, executive director of the Ben Franklin TechCelerator program. 
 
"Who is going to buy what you're talking about?" asks Martin. "It's so easy to come up with an idea, it's not so easy to determine if it is [viable]."
 
The TechCelerator Capstone project offers prospective companies eight weeks of rigorous evaluation and a safe environment to test ideas. Seven companies started in this latest round and one dropped out. "We consider that a success," says Martin. "That person has not invaded his retirement or 401K."
 
The remaining six presented their business plans to a panel of judges, who awarded fledgling startup Donors Impact three months of free rent at the TechCelerator incubator in Carlisle, along with mentoring and other perks.
 
Carlton Langley, the entrepreneur behind Donors Impact, an education fundraising software package aimed at colleges and universities, says he emerged encouraged from the Capstone competition. "They challenge you throughout the entire process. They beat you up; they pick you apart to validate your idea. It gives me a whole lot more confidence."
 
Martin says that Langley and Donors Impact impressed the judges with a well-formed business plan, a knowledge of who the customers are and a ready-to-go prototype. During his residency at TechCelerator, Donors Impact will conduct a beta test with Penn State, Langley says.
 
Martin says of about 40 entities that have competed for the Carlisle Capstone in three years, about 25% are actively setting up or conducting business. With continued smarts and perseverance, Donors Impact might join that roster.
 
Sources: Pam Martin, BF TechCelerator and Carlton Langley, Donors Impact
Writer: Elise Vider