Third Frontier : Innovation + Job News

Michael Tomsic calls his Columbus-based HyperTech "a poster child" for how the Ohio Third Frontier should work. Not only has his company benefited from numerous state and federal grants, but since 2005 has increased employment from two to 25.

Tomsic says HyperTech is one of two companies in the world working to commercialize magnesium diboride wires, a superconducting material that could eliminate the need for high-cost helium baths needed to keep magnetic resonance imagers cool. The other is located in Genoa, Italy, and named, ironically, Columbus Superconducting.

In 2001, the company won an $800,000 grant from the Ohio Technology Action Fund to demonstrate that the magnesium-boron compound could be made into a useful wire.

"That was first major funding anywhere around the world to actually try to commercialize this magnesium diboride," says Tomsic, HyperTech's president.

That project helped paved the way for a three-year, $5-million Third Frontier research and commercialization grant in 2009, which in turn has helped HyperTech strengthen its collaboration with Siemens, Philips and General Electric -- who Tomsic says "have 95 percent of the MRI magnet market" -- as well as with the Ohio State University Wright Center of Innnovation in Biomedical Imaging and the OSU Center for Superconducting and Magnetic Materials.

Along the way, the company has garnered more than $18 million in federal funds to continue to improve the performance of magnesium diboride wire for MRI companies.

While most of HyperTech's focus today is on MRIs, Tomsic says the wires have great potential for upgrading and protecting electric power grids. In anticipation of further growth, the company moved into a 45,000 square foot facility in February.

Source: Michael Tomsic, HyperTech
Writer: Gene Monteith

When it was approved by the FDA in 1985, Seldane was the first non-sedating antihistamine to relieve the symptoms of allergies. In very rare instances � about once in a million � the drug caused sudden cardiac death in users. That may not sound like a lot, until you learn that billions of prescriptions were written for this blockbuster drug, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

"Early on, we identified the ion channel target that was being adversely affected by drugs like Seldane. That was the basis for starting our company," explains ChanTest CEO Arthur "Buzz" Brown. Today, the Cleveland-based medical company is regarded as the leader in preclinical cardiac safety testing. Seldane, by the way, was withdrawn from the market in 1997.

As a contract research organization, ChanTest provides pharmaceutical research services to drug companies, speeding the drug discovery process while making those drugs safer and more effective. "Our customers say, 'We have this drug and we want to make sure it has these beneficial effects and doesn't have these adverse cardiac effects,'" adds Brown.

The recipient of two rounds of Ohio Third Frontier funding, ChanTest is growing by leaps and bounds. These grants have allowed the company to add some 50 jobs in recent years, bringing the payroll up to approximately 70.

"The pharmaceutical market is in great turmoil right now," says Brown. "But this can be very good for us as drug companies reduce their R and D departments and outsource the work to firms like ours."

Source: Arthur "Buzz" Brown, ChanTest
Writer: Douglas Trattner

If you've got a complex system -- a jet engine, for example -- the last thing you can afford is for it to fail at a crucial time. Frontier Technology says it has a way to predict those failures well before they can happen.

Frontier, whose top executives are based in Dayton, is commercializing a pattern recognition system called NormNet, which can analyze any system that uses sensors and predict when a component will fail, says Frontier senior scientist Sam Boykin.

Boykin says the technology began as a project with the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Along the way, the company has benefited from several Ohio Third Frontier grants and is nearing the end of a two-year, $350,000 commercialization grant.

Boykin says the technology has been successfully demonstrated to a number of companies, including Caterpillar, Parker Hannifin and General Electric Aviation. NormNet has also been tested at wind farm companies in Texas and on jet engines for the British Air Force.

"It's a software solution," Boykin says, and works "as long as there are some kind of sensors on the system. So when the system is operating healthy, the system creates relationships between each sensor and all the others. That's really how (NormNet) is able then to predict -- when it sees the degradation, it sees one of these relationships start to change."

He adds that "in all cases, we've been able to predict these failures -- sometimes days and weeks ahead of where they actually occurred."

Frontier's Dayton operations employ 20, including the addition of two to three new jobs over the past two years.

Source: Sam Boykin, Frontier Technology
Writer: Gene Monteith

Jerrold L. Hutton became dean of the Hocking College Energy Institute in 2003 "with a briefcase and three students."

Today, the Institute has a brand-new green building, 131 students and hopes to add two new associate degrees next fall.

The new building in Logan was deliberately built next to the Logan-Hocking Industrial Park Hutton says. The facility, which opened last September, serves as a hands-on learning lab for students studying in energy programs such as alternative energy, fuel cells, and vehicular hybrids

The Institute currently offers two associate degrees: one in applied science and advanced energy and fuel cells; the other in vehicular hybrids and electrics and fuel cells.

"Starting this fall, if everything goes well with the (Board of) Regents . . .we will start two new agriculture-focused programs which will be under our advanced energy but it will be a major in regenerative design for sustainable development with a specialization in energy production -- and the other major will be a specialization in bioproduct production."

The $3.4-million building on 15 acres allows students to work hand-in-hand with nearby companies within the industrial park, Hutton says. In December, the Institute was awarded $498,000 as part of a $1.49-million Ohio Third Frontier grant for a collaborative project with Lewis Center-based fuel cell manufacturer NexTech Materials.

The Institute has plans to install a tape casting line in a building leased within the industrial park for production of anodes, cathodes and electrolyte for solid oxide fuel cells, Hutton says.

Meanwhile, the Institute building -- powered by geothermal, photovoltaics and wind -- is awaiting word on a LEED Platinum designation for its green building design -- an honor that would make it the first Ohio college or university building to win such a designation, Hutton says.

Source: Jerrold L. Hutton, Ph.D., Hocking College
Writer: Gene Monteith

Nexergy is on the cutting edge of advanced battery technology -- a niche that helped the company add nearly 20 jobs between 2009 and early 2010.

The Columbus-based company is working on some of the technological challenges of building lithium ion battery packs -- a battery that produces more energy per weight and size than anything else on the market.

Lithium ion batteries today are used in many consumer products, like notebook computers and cell phones (by contrast, Nexergy builds battery packs for high-value portable electronics like medical instruments and tools, safety and security equipment). But they have a couple of problems when battery size increases -- they can generate a lot of heat and they have to be carefully controlled with electronics. That makes developing a large lithium ion battery that can be used in such things as electric vehicles a major technological challenge.

"One of the big issues that the industry is dealing with in kind of moving up the food chain in getting lithium ion used in bigger and bigger packs for things like wheelchair batteries or lawnmower batteries or electric vehicle batteries," says company founder Phil Glandon.

Nexergy is helping to solve that problem in a collaboration with GrafTech, Mobius Power, and the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State University. The companies are receiving $965,000 from the Ohio Third Frontier to build a next generation of applications for lithium ion power.

Overcoming those challenges could mean tremendous growth for a company like Nexergy if it's able to convert its large lead-acid battery business to lithium, Glandon says. The company, which also has operations in California and Colorado, employs 165 in Ohio.

Sources: Phil Glandon, founder, and Sean Harrigan, president and CEO, Nexergy
Writer: Gene Monteith

The neon signs and posters at the bar? Those kitschy grocery store displays that highlight your favorite brew? They're often paid for by the beverage distributors.

Though all part of the cost of doing business, they can be pricey. So, it was only a matter of time before an entrepreneur found a way for businesses to recoup some of their expenses.

SignTrak, a Cincinnati software development company funded in part by CincyTech and Ohio Third Frontier money, has put the web to work to that end. The point-of-sale promotional items are often ordered by the same sales people who meet with bar owners, restaurateurs and grocery store buyers to take their beverage orders; they then relay sign orders to largely in-house print shops.

Before SignTrak, that sometimes left a long and error-prone paper trail.

"Without our software, it's a very manual process. Everything's on paper, which the salesperson has to take back and stuff into a slot, the print shop prints it and sends it out. 'Oops, there's an error.' And back it goes to the print shop," says SignTrak Executive Vice President Denis Clark.

Using SignTrak's web-based service, the customer can proof the point-of-sale promotional items online, cutting down on errors, and print shops can manage their workload better, boosting production by up to 20 percent, Clark adds.

The company's founder, Mark Fullerton, designed the first system in 2004 for Walton, Ky.-based Chas. Seligman Distributing Co. The distributorship's president, Jennifer Doering, was so impressed with the results, Clark says, she took it to an industry conference to show it to others.

SignTrak launched in 2007 and now counts seven of the 25-largest beer distributorships in the nation among its clients. It employs ten.

Source: Denis Clark, SignTrak
Writer: Dave Malaska

Energy Technologies is working to take its fuel cell technology from the laboratory to the battlefield. And the Mansfield-based company hopes to add a few jobs along the way.

Since 1992, the company has been producing portable power sources for the most rugged conditions, with Department of Defense as its most interested customer.

Now, the company has its sights set on fuel cell technology � a device that could be employed as a portable power plant at a temporary, military tactical facility.

"Our big claim to fame is that there is no platinum in our fuel cells, so our costs are way down," says Energy Technologies Vice President Tim Lowe. "This program (uses) technology that pulls out that noise and stink of a diesel engine and replaces them with fuel cells."

Lowe also touts the company's product as small, lightweight, low-cost and quiet � but it is the stack's smooth transition that separates Energy Technologies product apart from a run-of-the-mill generator at the hardware store.

The Ohio Third Frontier has taken notice. In the last three years, Energy Technologies has been awarded three $1-million grants for its work. Lowe says the company is making arrangements with the Department of Defense for field-testing. And he adds long-term goals include adding as many as 200 jobs to a current staff of 72.

More good news: The company also plans to continue to manufacture the mini-power plants at its Mansfield location. Lowe proudly points out that the company recently installed the hardware for welding the stacks.

"When Governor Strickland came here, he said this must be one of the better kept secrets in Ohio," Lowe recalls.

Source: Tim Lowe
Writer: Colin McEwen

Rich Petrovich describes his company's transformation from an old-school tooling company to a high-flyer in Ohio's advanced materials industry as "quite a paradigm shift for us."

Petrovich is president and chief executive officer of Brooklyn Heights-based North Coast Tool & Mold, founded in 1976, and North Coast Composites, launched in 2003. He says North Coast got involved in high-performance composites about 20 years ago "but as a tool maker."

North Coast took a giant step forward seven years ago when it moved into production of composite parts. North Coast Composites, which manufactures carbon, Kevlar and fiberglass parts, primarily for the aerospace industry, shares 65,000-square-foot building with its sister company -- and the two work hand in hand, Petrovich says.

While Petrovich can point to a number of customers, competitors and suppliers who have gone out of business during the current recession, the Companies of North Coast are growing. In the past year, the company has increased employment between 24 and 27 percent, to 33 employees. 2009 sales were up 75 percent from the year before, and Petrovich expects them to double this year over 2009.

Two years ago, North Coast was included in an Ohio Third Frontier-funded consortium managed by the University of Dayton to develop a new process to include nano-enhanced materials in a composite inlet guide vane for military aircraft. The $5-million grant, of which North Coast received a part as a subcontractor, "has supported our growth in nanocomposites," Petrovich says.

The company is currently negotiating for serial production of a rudder it helped develop for the new Gulfstream G250 aircraft and is producing low-cost, lightweight containment cases for jet engines.

Source: Rich Petrovich, North Coast Companies
Writer: Gene Monteith

Quasar Energy Group is banking on the promise of alternative energies and an abundance of farm, food processing and other biomass that can be converted to electricity, gas and heat.

The Cleveland company is developing that potential at Ohio State University's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster, where a bio-digester is currently supplying a third of the center's electricity needs. But the potential extends beyond the demonstration stage, Quasar says. Its commercial digester in Zanesville is nearing completion and the company plans to break ground on a Franklin County facility in spring or summer.

Digesters heat biomass like manure, crop waste, food waste, or fats and greases to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which allows bacteria to turn the mixture into methane. The gas can then be used as fuel to generate electricity -- which in turn can then be sold to the local power company or used on site -- for example, on a farm. Farmers can also use the processed biomass as clean animal bedding or fertilzer. While farmers aren't widely adopting the technology today, Ohio produces enough biomass to support at least 7,000 digesters large and small, says Clemens Halene, vice president of engineering.

The company had its beginnings three years ago when Schmack BioEnergy of Germany built a digester to help KB Compost Services process bio-solids generated at the Akron wastewater treatment plant. Later, Quasar spun off.

A recent $2-million Ohio Third Frontier grant is allowing Quasar and the OARDC to research and develop next generation technology and new possibilities, such as auto or home heating fuel. The company recently added five positions, giving it 20 employees. 

Sources: Clemens Halene and Caroline Henry, Quasar Energy Group
Writer: Gene Monteith

Almost 2 million Americans suffer from pressure ulcers � also know as bed sores. And almost $1.3 billion is dedicated annually for that treatment. A new device capable of relieving chronic pain (with a lower price tag) is now a reality.

But it took a neighborhood of Ohio innovators in the state for the Valtronic Advanced Photobiotherapy Device to make it to the marketplace.

The Cleveland-based Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET) provided engineering expertise, patented the design and developed working prototypes; the University of Toledo's Department of Bioengineering developed the optical system; the UT College of Medicine conducted clinical trials. Valtronic Technologies USA , of Solon -- which specializes in medical industrial products -- handled commercialization, manufacture and distribution.

Greg Krizman, senior director of marketing for MAGNET, exudes pride while talking about the Valtronic Advanced Photobiotherapy Device.

He's also proud of MAGNET's role. "We're a one-stop shop for manufacturers who wish to grow their businesses," Krizman says. "Whatever people need to make their operations go faster, better and smarter, we have people to make that happen."

Krizman says one of the consequences of the recession is that companies have often been forced to lay off engineers. MAGNET serves companies with engineers on an "as-needed basis."

The partnership of organizations received some assistance from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative. About $1.3 million in assistance.

About 100 units have been sold to date. But those involved are optimistic about the product. Home care clinics and nursing homes are more likely to afford the portable device at $20,000 a unit � compared with the predecessor's $70,000 price tag.

Source: Greg Krizman, MAGNET
Writer: Colin McEwen

ACME Express wants to take $35 million a year out of Ohio healthcare costs. So far, it's received a lot of help to pave the way.

The Cleveland-based software developer, founded in 1980, has caught the attention both of the federal government and the State of Ohio, which have helped fund research and development as well as commercialization of software that makes scheduling of medical personnel more efficient.

ACME Express was founded in 1980, and since then has developed products and services aimed at everything from logistics, to education, to medicine. These days, however, "we're focusing on healthcare," says President and Founder Don Scipione.

Grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Ohio Third Frontier have made it possible.

First came a $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the NIH in the late 1990s for Phase I "proof of concept" work. The successful completion of early work led to a Phase II grant for $250,000, Scipione says.

The company's successful DOCS scheduling software is now being used by 80 healthcare customers representing 5,000 doctors, Scipione says.

In 2009, ACME received a two-year, $350,000 grant from the Third Frontier's Ohio Research Commercialization Program to extend the product's reach into hospitals and clinics, where Scipione says the real healthcare savings will be. Meanwhile, the company is awaiting word on a pending Small Business Innovation Research Grant to extend the capabilities of the product to maximize savings.

Scipione, whose company went from 4.5 employees last year to a current seven, counts among his staff three interns attracted through the Ohio Third Frontier Internship Program.

Source: Don Scipione, ACME Express
Writer: Gene Monteith

No doctor wants a cure that's worse than the problem it treats. In the case of traditional radiation therapy for cancer patients, internal organs affected by cancer can shift, causing radiation to be directed accidentally to healthy tissue.

"The problem is," says Greg Ayers, president and CEO of Oakwood Village-based ViewRay, "if you scan continuously, you will kill the patient by imaging him."

ViewRay, which moved to northeastern Ohio two years ago from Florida, believes it has found a better way. The company, with assistance from the Ohio Third Frontier, is in the final development stages of a new process that combines magnetic resonance imaging and radiotherapy that Ayers says allows clinicians to see where the radiation is being delivered throughout the treatment. The technology is designed to reduce side affects and improve the treatment of patients with all sorts of cancer.

"What the MR imaging allows is for continuously watching that tumor and shutting off the radiation or adapting the radiation depending on the tumor's location," Ayers says.

Ayres is hoping to see a product in the marketplace within the next year to year and a half. But already, the work being done at ViewRay is drawing attention. Last month, NorTech -- the Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition -- and Crain's Cleveland Business, recognized ViewRay's advancements with a NorTech Innovation Award. The honor is given to businesses and other organizations that "transform technical and scientific knowledge into novel products, services and processes that result in a positive economic impact."

Ayers says his company moved to Ohio from Gainesville because of the Cleveland area's long-time expertise in MR technology and workforce knowledge. Since arriving, the company has increased its employee base from two to 49.

Source: Greg Ayers, ViewRay
Writer: Gene Monteith

Platform Lab may be flying under the average person's radar, but within Ohio's information technology world, the "the nation's only state-funded IT test and training facility" seems to have come of age.

Formed in 2001 as a partnership between the Ohio Supercomputer Center and the Columbus-based Business Technology Center (now known as TechColumbus), the center's client list has grown to more than 240 companies ranging in size from startups to established giants like Victoria's Secret Catalog.

The non-profit organization, located with parent TechColumbus, was launched with a $250,000 state grant to give companies an economical place to test IT solutions, says lab Director Steve Gruetter.

"They put together a focus group with 43 consulting companies, and what they decided to do was to create a facility where companies could go to test solutions to get to market quicker," he says.

Then came the Sept. 11 attacks and the dot-com implosion. Platform Lab needed to remake itself quickly. The answer: disaster recovery plan validation, a decision that led to a number of big clients like Wendy's and BMW Financial.

A $1.164-million Ohio Third Frontier grant in 2005 allowed the lab to create a statewide network that interconnected with the Third Frontier network and offered clients a way to use the system on a test-test-only basis to validate high-bandwidth applications.

First came load and stress testing, then the Expertise Partner Program, an initiative that links clients with Ohio-based IT consultants and which has resulted in 71 sales opportunities for consultant partners.

Most recently, Platform Lab built a "private cloud" that allows clients to connect into its resources to do testing using "virtual machines" that mimic what a client would see if he or she were physically present in the lab.

Source: Steve Gruetter, Platform Lab
Writer: Gene Monteith

Need a prefab bridge that you can drop over a small stream? Dayton-based Composite Advantage just might be able to fix you up.

Founded in 2005 as a spinoff of the National Composite Center, the company is making its way in the world using composite materials to replace old standbys like steel, wood and concrete.

Bridge decks. Drop-in-place portable bridges. Structural panels. Concrete forms. Pads to give cranes and other heavy equipment a stable surface. The list goes on.

In most cases, says company President, Scott Reeve, "they are fiberglass reinforcement with a polyester or vinylester resin. They're durable and corrosion resistant and can stand up to any environment."

Reeve says the company has benefited from market development projects through the Dayton Development Coalition as part of the Ohio Third Frontier's Entrepreneurial Signature Program. Starting with two employees in 2005, "we have grown to where we generally run with a basic workforce of 16 people. We have peak times where we will add another 10 people on a temporary basis."

The company's big focus at the moment is a composite mat now being used by Canadian Mat Systems to provide "big flat panels that become temporary roadways, work surfaces. When they go in and are going to drill for oil, they need a big work space around big oil rigs. The main advantages are corrosion resistance, lighter weight, they're stronger and don't take as long to install."

Reeve says the company grew in 2007 and 2008 and held steady in 2009. But he looks for more growth in the future as it introduces new products.

Source: Scott Reeve, Composite Advantage
Writer: Gene Monteith

It can take as long as 24 hours to detect toxins (ranging from E-coli to anthrax) and the people affected could be long gone by the time lab technicians and health departments figure it out. Thanks to new technology, that may all change.

Crystal Diagnostics � with its parent company Pathogen Systems Inc. � is working to develop liquid crystal biosensors to detect pathogens in real-time, instead of a day.

The detection device � jointly invented by researchers at Kent State University and the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rootstown � combines both liquid crystal technology and antibody research to find harmful pathogens.

Work at the Crystal Diagnostics Applied Research Laboratory on the campus of NEOUCOM is ongoing. And plans are in motion to move into Centennial Park at KSU for manufacturing the device.

As the project grows, so will the local workforce.

Walter E. Horton Jr., NEOUCOM's vice president for research, said there are a total of 15 full-time positions at Crystal Diagnostics, and that when the device goes "live" there could be a dozen jobs added immediately.

"We see this as one of the innovation success in Ohio," says Horton, who also oversees the millions of dollars the company has received from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative in the last two years. "We have two public entities � Kent State and NEOUCOM � working together. This is exactly the direction this state wants to go."

"This company is based in Colorado, but (Pathogen Systems) saw a real benefit of moving to Northeast Ohio, because of the support of the Third Frontier and because of the regional success in terms of biomedical innovation," he says.

Source: Walter E. Horton Jr.
Writer: hiVelocity staff