Tim HartWSU Ventures at 成人头条 has awarded seven innovators with more than $100,000 in funding through the Competitive Innovation Accelerator Shock Tank competition. The projects receiving funding expect to add a combined 90-plus jobs to the Kansas economy by 2018. Winners are:
- ABI Chemicals鈥� Peelable Maskant System led by James Havers-Strong: $20,000
- Advance Guard Conservation鈥檚 water conservation reactor, led by Jeff Turner: $20,000
- iNOv8v Health Technologies鈥� non-invasive physiological assessment and biofeedback fitness systems, led by Jeremy Patterson, WSU associate professor and director of the Human Performance Lab: $20,000
- Leachrod鈥檚 blade removal tool, led by Rodney Leach: $15,000
- GoodFlight鈥檚 Flight-Tracking, led by Georg Schirmer, WSU graduate student: $14,600
- WSU Software Usability Lab鈥檚 Usability Evaluation Toolkit for Mobile Devices, led by Jibo He, WSU assistant professor of psychology: $10,000
- NMotion鈥檚 Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Public Safety Agencies, led by John Martens: $10,000
The competition, which began in October, sought innovations with commercial applications and a market-ready timeline of 18 months. Winners were chosen based on several criteria including innovation, technical merit, stage of development, commercialization timeline, job growth forecast, collaboration with 成人头条 State, student involvement and investments.
鈥淭he competition has not only helped raise awareness for WSU Ventures,鈥� said Cindy Claycomb, executive director, 鈥渂ut it is a direct reflection of and a tool for carrying out WSU鈥檚 mission to be an economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good.鈥�
Three of the seven projects are led by 成人头条 State faculty, and three are using additional university resources including hiring students and performing research and testing at WSU鈥檚 National Institute for Aviation Research.
The goal of the Competitive Innovation Accelerator is to identify and fund technologies that will create and retain jobs in Kansas. Funding for the competition was provided by the Kansas Department of Commerce.
鈥淭his competition is a great showcase for the innovative talent developing at our universities and is an aim of the Innovation Growth Program that supports economic development opportunities at Kansas universities as part of the governor鈥檚 strategic plan for the state,鈥� said Kansas Commerce Secretary Pat George.
WSU Ventures assists 成人头条 State faculty, staff and students in applying and commercializing their collective ideas, intellectual properties, know-how, talents, capabilities, ambitions and energies in ways that benefit the university community, industry and the public. WSU Ventures is part of WSU鈥檚 Office of Research and Technology Transfer. It protects and licenses university inventions and innovations, connects industry partners with WSU researchers, and links entrepreneurs and investors with WSU researchers and technologies.
Additional project information
ABI Chemicals鈥� Peelable Maskant System is a next-generation, EPA-friendly alternative protective chemical maskant product used in the aerospace manufacturing industry, replacing the archaic technology that has been used for 25-plus years.
Advanced Guard Concepts (AGC) is developing and implementing advanced water conservation solutions for manufacturing organizations. These solutions deliver value by reducing overall gallons of water used as well as waste-treatment costs. AGC will deliver these measurable savings through the implementation of a patent-pending 鈥渞eactor鈥� and proprietary chemical formulation.
GoodFlight LLC is developing a smartphone and tablet application and the associated technology (i.e. sensor system etc.) that will serve as an affordable flight tracking and recoding device to individual flight instructors and flight schools. In its initial form, the application will gather and record flight data for review and debriefing. Further development will allow flight instructors to conduct remote supervision of solo students while they are flying the aircraft.
iNOv8v Health Technologies鈥� Non-invasive physiological assessment and biofeedback fitness systems provides an application programming interface (API) to control and adjust cardiovascular fitness equipment based on physiological biofeedback (i.e., control and adjust fitness equipment according to physiological measures and personal fitness goals). Heart R8, a non-invasive system, uses a webcam, smartphone or tablet-based physiological monitoring system to capture physiological measures (e.g., heart rate, respiration rate, lactate threshold) for physiological-based image analysis and physiological biofeedback fitness training services.
Leachrod blade removal tool is a working product that will be examined by 成人头条 to determine the best materials and manufacturing processes for its mass production.
The WSU Software Usability Lab will refine and promote a Usability Evaluation Toolkit that can be used with desktop, mobile and the latest wearable computing devices.
NMotion鈥檚 Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Public Safety Agencies will enhance the public safety market by revolutionizing the dull, dirty and dangerous tasks that first responders face.