Below is a preliminary list of young companies and new technologies being shown at the Innovation Showcase:
Advanced Electron Beams (AEB)
Advanced Electron Beams (AEB) has developed an innovative electron beam technology which represents a breakthrough in capability, size, and cost over previous electron beam technology. This high performance, low cost, compact technology enables customers to save energy, reduce pollution, and increase productivity. AEB's innovation enables e-beam technology to become a pervasive industrial process throughout the wide range of applications including converting, sterilization, and pollution control and remediation.
Ferro Solutions
Ferro Solutions develops and designs vibration energy harvesters, independent power sources that generate electricity from vibrations or movement and deliver power to wireless transceivers, sensors, micro-motors and actuators. These energy harvesters can replace or recharge batteries in many environments and provide devices with a continuous, nearly endless supply of electricity. By doing so, the Ferro Solutions energy harvesters reduce the total cost of ownership of wireless sensor networks and collect valuable data from places they cannot economically collect data today.
Kiva Systems
Kiva Systems brings simplicity, speed and flexibility to the distribution center through the development of the Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System. The Kiva system uses adaptive software and mobile robotic drive units to move, sort and store inventory, bringing any item to any worker at any time. The results are shorter cycle times, higher productivity and lower inventory levels in a facility that is easily expanded or changed as needed.
Holosonics
Holosonics is the developer and manufacturer of the award-winning Audio Spotlight directional loud speaker system. It is the first and only system in the world that can make high-quality sound travel in narrow, focused beams, just like light. Sound can be beamed directly to specific listeners without disturbing the quiet of those around them.
i2chem – Integrated Intelligent Microsystems for Chemistry
The goal of this Deshpande Center project is to transform the classical chemical lab, with its batch-wise synthesis and analysis, into a compact system capable of rapid, continuous discovery and development of new products in pharmaceutical, fragrance, advanced materials, and specialty chemicals industries. The project employs integrated, automated microchemical systems for high throughput experimentation and scale-up. These systems require less space, are easier to vent, use fewer utilities, produce less waste, and are safer than synthesis setups in chemical fume hoods.
Novel Conductors for Flexible, Robust Electronic Devices
Currently, indium tin oxide (ITO)-based conducting electrodes are a $1 billion market, and demand for ITO has been outstripping supplies. The introduction of a transparent conducting material using smaller amounts of ITO would not only increase flexibility and robustness, but reduce cost and improve availability of a vital component for the electronics industry. This Deshpande Center project is developing a composite material consisting of ITO and a conductive polymer. A recently invented polymer processing technique opens the possibility of co-depositing ITO and electronic polymers — a single-step process that would result in a thin, homogeneous ITO/polymer composite film combining the high conductivity of ITO and the flexibility of the polymer.
Optodot
Optodot is an advanced materials and components company with its primary focus on the energy market. Since its founding in 2000, Optodot has expanded its nanoporous membrane and IR optical materials technologies into the battery separator, energy conserving window film, security, and optical films markets.
Seldon Laboratories
Seldon has developed a new technology that reliably removes microorganisms from fluids, without the use of heat, ultra-violet radiation, chemicals, contact time, or significant pressure. Its product takes advantage of the most recent advances in nanotechnology to create a "kill zone" capable of destroying all shapes and all types of bacteria and virus, as well as other pathogenic microbes such as the common Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia.
Short-Warp Weaving for Fast-Changing Fashions
This Deshpande Center project proposes a new fabric-production process, called "short-warp" weaving, which eliminates the cost, lead time, and factory complexity of traditional weaving setup operations. Short-warp weaving produces fabric using yarn drawn from a single supply in a continuous process that allows weaves to be altered on the fly. The project's goal is to develop a business that rapidly supplies small orders of custom fabrics to high-end apparel makers and that alters the economics of weaving to enable local sources of production and supply.
SQUID Labs
SQUID Labs develops breakthrough technologies by interfacing bits with atoms. The SQUID Labs team has expertise in a wide range of technical fields: from software, chip design and embedded systems to manufacturing, materials, and nanotechnology. The company is characterized by its multidisciplinary skill set and ability to combine those diverse skills to create novel solutions. SQUID Labs develops core technologies which are then spun-out as separate companies or else licensed to commercial partners. Examples of SQUID Labs technologies include smart rope, custom lens molding, augmented reality, solar pavement, swarm robotics, and open source hardware.
Tribotek
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Tribotek is focused on the design, development and manufacture of new, high-current density power connectors and high-density data connectors. It has developed a new class of connectors that utilize a combination of woven contacts arrayed with an appropriately shaped mating surface to produce multiple redundant controlled contact points. The resulting contact interface can be designed for very high current density or for very high density discrete data paths. |
