Dayton : Innovation + Job News

When industries and academians tackle tough problems, they often look to their own experience for answers. Ditto the military. If the TecEdge Innovation and Collaboration Center has its way, solutions will come not from silos, but from working together in cross-functional teams.

TecEdge and its sister organization, TecEdge Works Rapid Prototyping Laboratory, are part of the Wright Brothers Institute in Dayton. Recently relocated into bright new space next to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, TecEdge is hoping to break down barriers.

One way is through Discovery Forums, which are one- to- five day problem oriented sessions that bring together experts from diverse disciplines, says Wright Institute Director Les McFawn. Another is Resident Teams, which work at TecEdge for weeks or months -- or in some cases full time -- to intensely collaborate on problems, to experiment and to reach the initial stages of prototyping.

McFawn says it's not just the Air Force that benefits from the programs; "We had a commercial and industry partner on the very first project that we ran in the Discovery Lab. At the conclusion of the program were able to take what they had learned and apply it commercially."

In the meantime, both the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) and TecEdge have teamed up to help develop the next generation of scientists and engineers, McFawn says. Summer at the Edge began three years ago with 15 students ranging from high school through Ph.D. Enrollment grew to more than 60 last summer. The AFRL is also sponsoring a new program called Wright Scholars in which students from the Dayton area spend time learning about technology needed for the future.

Source: Les McFawn, Wright Brothers Institute
Writer: Gene Monteith

Innova once made the delivery boxes that kept your pizza warm. Today, it's developing systems designed to keep the heat off of American military personnel.

Formed in 1994 as the offspring of CJ Laser Corp., Innova has its hands in numerous high-tech applications based on its expertise in lasers and other photonics applications.

Innova President Nilesen Gokay and her husband, Cem Gokay -- the firm's executive vice president -- say their relationship with researchers at the University of Dayton, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and a number of startup companies in the instruments- controls-and electronics industry has powered the firm's growth.

"We have a 7,000 square foot facility, and its going to grow to a 11,000-square-foot facility," says Cem Gokay. "(A year ago), we had five employees; now we have 17."

Innova is working with companies like FLIR Systems, which makes thermal imaging cameras, and Carl Zeiss Inc., which makes advanced optical lenses, to build systems needed for stabilized gimbals -- technology used in the noses of aircraft or ships to home in on military targets. Innova is also working with fellow Daytonian STAN Solutions to add capabilities to a mega-pixel camera STAN is refining for military applications.

Yet, the Gokays describe their main goal during the past two years as working to bring in larger defense companies to the Dayton region -- and lay groundwork for additional training capabilities for the industry.

Those efforts have led to Portland, Ore.,-based FLIR establishing a sales office in the community as a precursor to setting up production operations, says Cem Gokay. He says similar efforts are under way with Zeiss, and that "we hope that by end of 2010 we will be in the manufacturing phase with both."

Sources: Nilesen and Cem Gokay, Innova
Writer: Gene Monteith

Art Fritts says the market for nanomaterials wasn't completely clear when he launched his fledging company in 2004.

Luckily for Fritts and NanoSperse, the value has become crystal clear since then. In July, the Dayton-based firm moved from production space at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) to an 8,000-square-foot production facility at the National Composite Center in Kettering. Production capacity? A million pounds of material per year.

The move has prompted an increase in payroll, too. The company, which ended 2009 with two employees, now has eight and is expected to at least double that number within the next two years, says Fritts, NanoSperse's president.

NanoSperse has made its way commercializing a unique method of distributing nano-size carbon particles throughout materials to improve durability, reliability and functionality of composites for the defense, aerospace, and industrial marketplaces. The technology was developed at the University of Dayton, and Fritts -- with 30 years in the polymer industry -- started NanoSperse to commercialize it.

Fritz says that material is tailor-made for a desert environment by becoming the actual surface of the part, eliminating the need for more traditional coatings. He adds that the composite can be expected to hold up three to five times longer than traditional coatings. The company is now producing the material for aerospace uses and shipped its first big order in July.

Fritts says the relationship with UDRI was a godsend for the young company because it allowed NanoSperse to fill orders immediately while learning how to scale production to bigger orders -- and to work with cross industry teams as part of the Ohio Third Frontier's Research Commercialization Program.

Source: Art Fritts, NanoSperse
Writer: Gene Monteith

Like many start ups, Dayton's Applied Optimization Inc. was a case of smart folks deciding to work for themselves.

"I always worked very, very long hours, and was never home. So my wife said If you're going to work this much, you should start your own business," says company founder and Principal Scientist Anil Chaudhary, an MIT grad.

Chaudhary left a job in Air Force-related research to launch Applied Optimization in 1995. The specialized company uses computational mathematics to develop new generation manufacturing processes for the aerospace and manufacturing industries, eliminating trial and error. These new processes can reduce manufacturing costs while increasing efficiency. Clients include the Air Force Research Laboratory, Boeing and Edison Welding Institute.

A more off-the-beaten-path application for the company's mathematical wizardry is in space sciences. Tamara Payne, the company's principal scientist, noted in December that the company has catalogued 36,000 pieces of space junk that can now be tracked in a less expensive and more timely manner.

The company has 11 full- and part-time employees, including three who were hired last year. Chaudhary says the company's move into the Dayton Entrepreneur Center in 2002 has helped it grow.

"The ability to speak with people in the corridor who have similar problems is very helpful. Also there are support services that are provided; if I have a question they will point me to right person," Chaudhary says.

"The federal customers and Air Force base are here in Dayton, and those were important factors. But the support that is here in the city for this kind of work is very encouraging and positive," he says.

Source: Anil Chaudhary and Tamara Payne, Applied Optimization
Writer: Feoshia Henderson and Gene Monteith

Born out of tragedy, Dayton-based STAN Solutions believes the work it's doing will lessen the chances of similar incidents in the future.

"Stan Harriman was a friend of my brother's," explains J. Tony Manuel, president of the Dayton company that now bears Harriman's name. "He was on patrol in Afghanistan with my brother. There was an insurgency in the area, and an air strike was called in to provide assistance. They saw my brother, but they didn't see Stan."

Manuel said the loss spurred Chris Manuel to ask Tony if something could be done to prevent friendly-fire casualties in the future.

Manuel, a former engineering instructor at Sinclair Community College, launched STAN Solutions in 2002 to do just that, starting with three questions that have dogged militaries for centuries: Where am I? Where are my buddies? And where is the enemy?

Today, the answers are coming for the first time using a real-time network using video, data and text -- a system that now allows military personnel in places like Afghanistan and Iraq lessen friendly-fire casualties and civilian deaths.

Meanwhile, the company has continued to branch out into new network capabilities and sensor technologies that show promise in both military and civilian applications. STAN currently has the sole licensing rights to a super-camera developed by Israel-based Adaptive Imaging Technologies. STAN is making refinements to the instrument's capabilities to provide 360-degree giga-pixel resolution from 6.5 miles away, Manuel says. The camera has potential not just for the military uses, he says, but for such things as spotting the cause of smoke in a forest or allowing a rural doctor to transmit crucial medical images to a specialist.

The company currently employs about 50, Manuel says, but continues to grow.

Source: J. Tony Manuel, STAN Solutions
Writer: Gene Monteith

The pieces are beginning to fall into place as Dayton prepares to leverage its recent designation as Ohio's Aerospace Hub.

In September, Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher announced the first of what could be as many as a dozen Ohio Hubs of Innovation and Opportunity that promote urban revitalization and sustainable regional growth.

Dayton's selection is expected to create new companies, strengthen existing partnerships and attract new investment based on Ohio's research, development, and industry assets, including The University of Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Since September, a board representing five major partners --- the University of Dayton, the City of Dayton, Montgomery County, the Citywide Development Corporation and the Dayton Development Coalition -- has been laying the groundwork for development of a strategic plan that will guide efforts going forward.

While UD serves as lead partner, "it wouldn't be possible without the critical role of the other partners," says John Leland, director of the UD's Research Institute.

Adam Murka, communications director for the Dayton Development Coalition, notes that "Dayton achieved this designation because of how well folks in this region are working together. They really buy in, and that's very exciting."

Mickey McCabe, Vice President of Research and the UDRI's executive director adds that the hub designation is aimed not just at developing business partnerships, but an infrastructure of both business and quality-of-life components that "create a place where people can work, live, eat and play."

McCabe and Leland say a strategic board is starting to come together, after which an executive director will be hired and work on a strategic plan begun. While the hub begins work with $250,000 provided by the state, at least three times that will be needed for the first three years. Leland says the balance will be raised by the five partners.

Sources: Mickey McCabe and John Leland, University of Dayton; Adam Murka, Dayton Development Coalition
Writer: Gene Monteith

A Dayton software company is taking a new tack on an age-old problem for colleges: how to keep students on track for graduation.
StudentZen, a web-based business founded less than a year ago by partners Marcus Milligan and Afshin Ghafouri, allows college counselors track their school's academically at-risk students and help them stay on course to get their degree.

"It's both a safety net and a compass for when you first get on campus," explains Milligan, president of StudentZen. Not only does it track students' progress in the classroom, but also help college counselors keep an eye on off-campus distractions, he adds. "(Students) don't have to be alone in trying to figure out how to overcome these issues."

The company's program, RetentionZen, features a suite of tools including a case management system, an early alert system that lets college instructors provide input, and counseling journals and goals programs that keep track of the student's progress. In all, it cuts down on a deluge of paperwork while allowing counselors more time to spend in one-on-one with students seeking help.

The program was developed six years ago at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, where it proved an early success in increasing the school's student retention and graduation rate, while raising student GPAs.

Early this year, Milligan, a former Sinclair staffer, and Ghafouri, an IT entrepreneur, persuaded the school to let them take the program into the commercial ring with funding help from the Ohio Third Frontier Entrepreneurial Signature Program through the Dayton Development Coalition.

Since February, the company has signed up nine community college systems, including the Lone Star and Austin Community college systems in Texas, the 10th- and 15th-largest systems in the country. Closer to home, another customer is North Central State College in Mansfield, which reports that the tool has driven annual student contacts from 300-500 in the past to more than 15,000 this year.

Sources: Marcus Milligan, StudentZen, and Beverly Walker, North Central State College
Writer: Dave Malaska

Juice Technologies is helping the University of Toledo "go green." But that project -- an effort to audit and upgrade the campus's energy infrastructure -- is only a fraction of what the company believes awaits it within an evolving automotive and electric utility industry.

At the University of Toledo, Juice Technologies is helping the campus both with an extensive energy audit and in managing the evolution of the institution as one that will, in the future, leave no "carbon footprint."

Rich Housh, Juice's president and CEO, says that project is paying the start-up's bills for now. But he sees a future in which his company is also leader in management of plug-in vehicle charging and energy management technologies that tie into utility "smart-grid" infrastructures.

Developed under the Plug Smart brand, products include the Plug Smart Pal and Plug Smart Solo, cordset devices that can be carried in a car's trunk to allow charging anywhere. Both collect, store, report and calculate emission statistics that can be viewed at a Plug Smart-hosted website. The technology is expected to be in the marketplace sometime next year. Meanwhile, the company is advancing charging station technology that can communicate directly with a utility company to authenticate the vehicle and owner as well as information needed to bill the owner through his or her home utility bill.

The 12-person, Columbus-based company -- which appropriately shares a location with the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research -- is also developing prototypes of a networkable energy management system to let homes and businesses tie into a utility company's advanced meter infrastructure using a web server to view energy statistics, configure their own energy strategies, and control their usage.

Source: Rich Housh, Juice Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith

The United States is awash in water, but our capacity for storing surface water and the demands on it are growing. In fact, 36 states anticipate shortages in localities, regions, or statewide in the next 10 years, according to the U.S. Accountability Office.

While that's bad news for states like Colorado and Texas, the Dayton region sees an opportunity. Sitting on top of one of the largest clean aquifers in the nation, those who market the region are preparing to lure new companies to the area with the promise of 1.5 trillion gallons of H2O.

"We don't have mountains, we don't have oceans, but boy we have water," says Maureen Patterson, vice president of stakeholder relations for the Dayton Development Coalition. "We're seeking responsible water users, like data centers, chip manufacturers, food wholesalers," Patterson says. "Or brewers, or bottlers."

In April, the Coalition placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal as the first volley in its H2Open for Business campaign touting the region's water resources. Subsequently, the coalition sent a bottle of Dayton-area water to site selection officials across the country.

After the first of the year, the coalition will begin distributing marketing materials to site selectors and companies that might be tempted by an almost unquenchable resource. Patterson says the Water Innovations Alliance will hold a convention in Dayton in May. Backed by IBM and Intel -- which Patterson says is "the number one user of water" -- the conference is a perfect forum to highlight Dayton water, she says.

"This is a clean, buried, valley aquifer. You don't have to purify it. And it also remains a constant 56 degrees -- that's perfect for geothermal heating and cooling."

Source: Maureen Patterson, Dayton Development Coalition
Writer: Gene Monteith

Imagine the typical American teenager. He or she is wearing a t-shirt that bears the image of a celebrity and may be chewing fruit-flavored gum or printing photos from a home computer.

That image makes Ibrahim Katampe and Emmanual Itapson very happy, because it personifies their dream for Iya Technologies.

"We can become a part of every facet of life," says Itapson.

The men, CEO and senior vice president, respectively, of the Dayton-area company, are responsible for heat-transfer papers (to put pictures on fabric), microencapsulation of things like flavors in gum, and photo imaging papers. "We are a technology company that specializes in product development, providing solutions," says Katampe.

The patented heat transfer paper technology has been licensed to a Fortune 500 company. Though Katampe said Iya has agreed not to disclose the name of that company, he said Iya's innovations are in products sold under that company's name in office supply and craft stores across the U.S.

Since its formation in July, 2004, Iya has grown from one employee to 10, with more expected. Katampe expects the specialty papers and microencapsulation businesses will expand greatly. Soon, the company will move from Kettering to The Mound Advanced Technology Center in Miamisburg.

One thing's for sure. Iya will remain in Ohio. Itapson says support from economic development programs conducted by the state, Montgomery County, and Dayton has won their loyalty. "All the businesses in the area support and embrace us. If our experience is a measuring stick, as many other entrepreneurs as possible should move to Ohio," he says. "We would shout it from the rooftops."

Sources: Ibrahim Katampe and Emmanual Itapson, Iya Technologies
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

In 1956, Elvis Presley released his first hit, Prince Rainier of Monaco married American actress Grace Kelley, and the Federal Highway Act was signed into law promising 41,000 miles of road improvements across the United States.

Under the radar, another milestone occurred: The University of Dayton Research Institute was born.

Starting with just 20 sponsored projects, those seeds have born tasty fruit. Today, the institute has grown to more than 1,000 sponsored projects, 400 employees and more than $96 million in research expenditures this year.

The university now ranks second among all American colleges in the amount of federal and industry-funded materials research it performs. It also ranks first in Ohio and among the top 30 universities for federally sponsored engineering R&D.

All the while, it has managed to do something no other university has done, according to UDRI Director John Leland: remain a not-for-profit arm of the university.

"There have been a lot of university research institutes," he says, "but all have spun off into separate corporate entities. The University of Dayton never spun this off," instead keeping full-time researchers on university staff, which "gives them the ability to give full-time attention to customers."

Projects can run from the simple -- analyzing why a part broke on a piece of machinery -- to complex -- analyzing how a bird brought that plane down in the Hudson River.

Besides its work helping companies develop new materials and scale them up for production, UDRI is also conducts research related to energy and the environment, aeropropulsion, structures, mechanical systems, sensors and how to improve the interface between human beings and complex systems.

Source: John Leland, UDRI
Writer: Gene Monteith

When natural disasters strike, response teams are faced with assessing damage so cleanup efforts can be mobilized quickly. Yet, disasters also require mountains of paperwork to map the damage and document response efforts -- often meaning too much time in the office and not enough in the field.

TDC Group, a Dayton software firm, has one answer: a new application that allows government agencies and businesses to file reports from the field -- right from a BlackBerry.

TDC's Freeance Mobile allows users to receive and file real-time data on location, cutting down on travel, says Matthew Reddington, TDC Group's president and CEO.

"They don't have to come into the office at the start of the day, get information (from the data base), drive half-way across the state and come back at the end of the day to file their reports."

That saves valuable time -- an important commodity during disasters.

Reddington says that Freeance Mobile is the first software that allows GIS (geographic information system) applications to be run from a BlackBerry. As such, it's not just the U.S. Weather Service that is using the software, but law enforcement, businesses and utilities that need a real-time picture of their infrastructure, crime sites or distribution of their people.

TCD was formed in 1988. With customers in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, TDC is growing and adding jobs, Reddington says, though he declined to reveal how quickly for proprietary reasons.

Reddington notes that the Dayton Development Coalition has provided funding and consulting services that have allowed the firm to expand into new markets and build infrastructure.

Source: Matthew Reddington, TDC Group
Writer: Gene Monteith

The world's largest infrared camera may soon be helping to keep America safe.

That's just one of the latest products sprouting from a collaboration between the University of Dayton's IDCAST and its partners in business, government and academia.

Two-year-old IDCAST � short for the Institute for the Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology � accelerates the development and commercialization of camera and sensor technologies for private and government entities. In partnership with the UD Research Institute, the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate, and other university, government and military entities -- IDCAST has fast become an organization that matters.

Initially made possible by $28-million in state grants, "we've created more than 250 jobs, 36 in academia and 215 in industry," says Larrell Walters, the center's executive director.

That brings us back to the world's largest infrared camera.

L-3 Cincinnati Electronics, a division of L-3 Communications Corp., is developing the camera with the help of a $4.2-million grant made through IDCAST. It's only the latest in sophisticated imaging devices the company has built for the surveillance needs of private and government clients.

Dubbed "Night Stare," the camera boasts a 25 megapixel resolution (that's 25 million pixels), but by panning its target in a four-step pattern can supply an image reaching 100 megapixels, says John Devitt, the company's engineering manager.

What does that mean? The next biggest infrared camera provides just over 300,000 pixels � about the resolution of a traditional TV screen. Devitt "we should make delivery of a prototype this year."

Sources: Larrell Walters, John Divett
Writer: Gene Monteith