Innovation + Job News

Prfessor.com officially launched this year, beckoning anybody who knows something about a subject to create an online course for the benefit of others.

According to Jim Kukral, one of three owners of the Rocky River-based e-learning curriculum designer, "hundreds of thousands of visitors and students have experienced Prfessor." Topics currently on the site range from marketing to green living.

Now Prfessor is promoting the use of its online resource for businesses that want to educate staff without the expense and time-consuming nature of classroom-style training. Prfessor offers corporations, small businesses and nonprofits a variety of advanced interactive tools designed to encourage self-paced learning.

This style of training benefits both employer and employee, according to Kukral. 

"Prfessor.com helps you control your costs as you improve the quality of your staff and they, in turn, improve profits by doing their jobs better selling more products, providing better customer service and leading their teams effectively," he says. "Prfessor allows anyone, without tech skills, to go out and teach what they know."

Businesses and organizations can take advantage of Prfessor by signing up online to create unlimited courses, develop quizzes to gauge students' understanding of topics and make use of A/V, PowerPoint and graphics to stimulate the learning process.

Kukral foresees strong growth in Prfessor's future, thanks to ever-expanding use of the Internet for educational purposes. "The market for education online is growing by leaps and bounds," Kukral says. Prfessor is designed to encourage users to "empty your head onto the Web," he adds.

Source: Jim Kukral, Prfessor.com
Writer: Diane DiPiero

This story originally appeared in Fresh Water Cleveland.

When people ask who e-Cycle's biggest competitors are, the answer comes easily to Tonia Irion.

"The closet, the drawer or the warehouse," says Irion, e-Cycle's VP of marketing.

e-Cycle has risen quickly within the environmental industry by building its own niche recycling smart phones. While businesses (and individuals) are still likely to stash away their outdated devices, word is getting out that there's another option, Irion says.

Founded in 2005 by Irion and husband Chris (e-Cycle's president), the Hilliard firm buys up old wireless devices -- mainly phones, and primarily from businesses -- and either recycles them for parts (phones more than two years old) or wipes them of all data and resells them to overseas markets.

e-Cycle's services seem to have met a long-simmering need. The company's revenues rose to $3.5 million in 2009 over the previous year's $1 million, and Tonia Irion says the numbers for 2010 could be double that. The comapany counts 15 of the Fortune 20 companies as customers, as well as numerous small businesses and government.

Meanwhile, employment has risen from 29 employees at end of 2009 to 65 today, and e-Cycle wants to hire an additional 20 sales reps in the next three to four months.

That kind of growth placed e-Cycle 14th on the BusinessFirst Fast 50 list for central Ohio and ranked it 8th in its industry on the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies of 2010.

Irion says the growth is due partly to a good partnership with Verizon Wireless and partly to business practices that include investing in strong sales teams and "making sure every decision we're making is going to generate revenue for the company."

Source: Tonia Irion, e-Cycle
Writer: Gene Monteith

Algaeventure Systems believes it has found a better way to separate algae from water and dry it -- a key step in making algae an economical biofuel as well as a lower cost product for industries such as nutrition and pharmaceuticals.

Spun off from packaging company Univenture in 2008, the Marysville company relies on innovations developed by CEO/inventor Ross Youngs that simplify the harvesting, dewatering and drying process while keeping algae's cellular integrity, says Raouf Solaiman, marketing/sales associate.

The Solid Liquid Separation process, or SLS, uses a belt separating and drying system to avoid traditional technologies like centrifuging, which can degrade algae, Solaiman says. The company has licensed more than 10 of its machines and is further refining the technology with a $6-million U.S. Department of Energy grant.

"The SLS dramatically reduces the energy input as opposed to spinning a gigantic drum at very high velocities to do the dewatering," Solaiman explains. "We dewater the same amount of algae to an even dryer state with about 98 percent less energy. That's a big deal."

The company's industrial scale model should be fully commercialized later this year as the technology is advanced, Solaiman says.

Meanwhile, Algaeventure is tackling an environmental problem close to home: toxic algae in Grand Lake St. Marys. The company is using two new processes to learn how to pull algae from the lake using as little energy as possible and to boost the growth of "good" algae to crowd out the bad.

Algaeventure Systems currently has about 30 employees, and Solaiman says the company is growing.

Source: Raouf Solaiman, Algaeventure Systems
Writer: Gene Monteith

Greenwood Fuels has decided to expand from its home base in Green Bay, Wis. First stop? Ohio.

The alternative fuels company has announced plans to build a new fuel pellet fabricating plant near Hamilton in southwestern Ohio.

Rolando Sanz-Guerrero, vice president of sales and marketing, says the company is working on a short-list for a new site. When operational -- no definite timetable has been announced -- the facility will employ 35 to 40, Sanz-Guerrero says.

The move to Ohio effectively doubles the size of Greenwood Fuels, which has been manufacturing fuel pellets from waste paper since 2009.

"Everything we use is paper that would not be able to be recycled for one reason or another," Sanz-Guerrero explains. The resulting fuel pellets can be used in any solid fuel furnace and is a cost-competitive, high-BTU and environmentally friendly alternative to coal, he says.

"Plants don't have to do a lot of capital investments. They can simply take the pellets as they are, use them in their boiler to produce either steam or power, and off they go."

Greenwood currently produces 125,000 tons of pellets a year in Green Bay; the goal is to increase that volume to 150,000 tons a year at each facility as the company expands to other states.

The company's choice of Hamilton was influenced by its relative proximity to Wisconsin, the company's good relationship with customer SMART Papers there, plus "we liked the city of Hamilton, we liked the economic development group, we liked a lot of things about what they could bring."

Source: Rolando Sanz-Guerrero, Greenwood Fuels
Writer: Gene Monteith

Can man mimic nature to improve health?

Maybe. That's what a University of Akron polymer engineering expert is researching at the Ohio Supercomputer Center in Columbus.

Hendrik Heinz is using advanced modeling and simulation techniques to more precisely understand biomineralization, nature's ability to form complex structures, such as bones, teeth and mollusk shells, from peptides; and organic photovoltaics. The work could advance knowledge of how organic materials bond to inorganic materials. Ultimately, the results of Heinz's efforts could affect the making of materials used for things like bone replacement and sensing systems -- and even disease treatment and energy generation.

Heinz has noted previously that advances in materials science such as in biomedical and energy conversion devices increasingly rely on computational techniques and modeling. In particular, work at the nanoscale level -- such as charge transport mechanisms in solar cells, the formation of biominerals, and self-assembly of polymers in multi-component materials -- is difficult to observe. Model building and simulation are critical, he says.

The Air Force Research Laboratory/Office of Scientific Research in Dayton; Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, the National Science Foundation; and ETH Zurich  and Sika Technology AG , both of Switzerland join UA and the Supercomputer Center in supporting Heinz's activities.

Heinz is "just one of scores of researchers" who are doing "amazing work" on the computational and storage systems of the Supercomputer Center, says spokesman Jamie Abel.

The Ohio Board of Regents established the center in 1987 as a statewide resource. The state's universities, businesses and others use it for an array of educational and business purposes.

Sources: Jamie Abel and Kathryn Kelley, Ohio Supercomputer Center
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Surrounded by fields of corn, soybeans and alfalfa in Northwest Ohio sits a shining example of a global partnership that combines American steel-making tradition, Japanese technical and analytical style, and the strong work ethic and family values of a small town.

That partnership is PRO-TEC Coating Company, established in 1990 near Leipsic, Ohio, by U.S. Steel Corp. and KOBE Steel, Ltd., of Japan, two global giants in steel technology and production.

PRO-TEC began operation in 1993 with a state-of-the-art hot-dip galvanizing line to produce steel for the automotive industry. Its 90 employees quickly exceeded the line's original rated capacity of 600,000 tons per year and set world production records in 1995, 1996 and 1997. In response to increased demand, PRO-TEC built a second galvanizing line in late 1998.

Now PRO-TEC is on the grow again, with plans to produce advanced high-strength steel and ultra high-strength steel, also for the automotive industry. Both are new products for the company and call for the construction of a heavy-industry building to house a new state-of-the-art continuous annealing line. "The additional finishing process of annealing takes the steel to incredibly high temperatures to make it extremely strong," explains Courtney Boone, a U.S. Steel spokeswoman.

U.S. Steel and KOBE Steel are making a capital investment of approximately $400 million in this latest expansion that is expected to create 500 temporary construction jobs and add 80 new full-time jobs to the current 229 employee population. The Ohio Department of Development has awarded PRO-TEC a $500,000 Rapid Outreach Grant toward the purchase of new machinery and equipment.

"This new line will give us more operational flexibility in filling customer orders," Boone notes. Construction of the new facility is anticipated to begin in early 2011, with production start up in early 2013.

Impressive track record and future growth plans for a company surrounded by corn, soybeans and alfalfa.

Source: Courtney Boone, U.S. Steel
Writer: Lynne Meyer

Devicor Medical Products CEO Tom Daulton says his company is striving to be a "big little corporation."

Two years since it's inception, it's been just that -- though it shelled out a quarter billion dollars to buy a well-known product line and spun it into its own company, Devicor hasn't garnered much media attention.

The medical products company earned a spattering of headlines last summer when it purchased the Mammotome breast biopsy product line from Johnson & Johnson for $250 million, then set up its headquarters in the Cincinnati suburb of Sharonville. Already, it's committed to $60 million in research and development spending as the new company expands beyond the current Mammotome product line.

With aid from an Ohio Department of Development grant and state job creation tax credits, it also plans a $250-million expansion, including the construction of an engineering center, product engineering lab and repair center at its Sharonville site, along with an additional 150 high-tech jobs to staff them.

"I think people saw this guy coming in, saying he was going to buy and build a new medical tech company, with maybe 1,000 employees globally, promising a half-billion dollars in revenue... it probably sounded too good to be true," says Daulton. "People are getting excited, finally."

Daulton founded Devicor as a holding company in 2008. With more than 35 years of experience leading other medical companies, he envisioned building his firm through acquisitions and tapping into unused product lines. Devicor immediately set its sights on Mammotome and finalized its purchase in July. Since then, the company been working on regulatory approval in each of the 50 countries where Mammotome has a presence. It's also stepped up development its product line, with major launches planned this year and next.

Then, Daulton says, the company will "catch its breath and look to see what's next."

Source: Tom Daulton, Devicor
Writer: Dave Malaska

InSitu Foods has done well for itself since coming to market last summer. The artisan bread maker is baking 400 loaves a night, 363 days a year, and selling it to northwest Ohio groceries and to one of Toledo's most upscale restaurants.

But President Rick Anderson sees a bigger future for the company. His goal: to enable groceries to make and bake real artisan bread from scratch -- in front of their shoppers -- using his proprietary system.

Anderson is refining just such a system, the prototype of which was developed at Radco Industries after Anderson and his wife Mary purchased the automation equipment company in 2008.

"Essentially, the challenge with bread is consistent high quality and cost," Anderson says. "The people we're talking to, the retailers, are very interested as long as those two things are in place."

The company's current conveyer system, used at an off-site baking facility, faced hurdles in meeting regulations for in-grocery use. InSitu is now developing a machine without belts that can be used as Anderson envisions. He says interest from potential customers is growing, and he believes consumers will pay groceries the extra $2 a loaf for good, home-made artisan breads.

"Most of the artisan bread in the United States is par-baked frozen," he explains. "So, you're shipping frozen, par baked bread all over the country in trucks. In theory, you lock in the quality and -- to some extent that's true -- but the reality is in the supply chain it goes through freeze/ thaw because it's not always handled properly, and frankly the taste is just not there."

Besides that, retailers are intrigued by the entertainment value of making bread in front of shoppers, he says.

The Regional Growth Partnership's Rocket Ventures has assisted InSitu with a $50,000 Ignite! grant that the company used for R&D and market research.

Source: Rick Anderson, InSitu Foods
Writer: Gene Monteith

Students at St. Martin-based Chatfield College  have begun registering for a new, free 15-week course and six-week summer practicum in sustainable energy made possible by the Duke Energy Foundation.

The course will cover current forms of energy used in the U.S. and around the world, as well as what to do on a personal level, according to instructor Eric Davenport.

"We will also be researching specific subjects that involve potential projects to reduce energy consumption at the St. Martin campus. This is important primarily for the follow-up course offered in the summer of 2011," says Davenport, who adds he has been talking to students about sustainability for years.

This course "is important to most of us in a variety of ways from saving money on utility bills to those who follow the 'green movement' to the very letter. It is a wonderful opportunity to be able to inform and assist those who want to know more to improve their own lives and directly/ indirectly improve the health of the environment at the same time," he says.

Chatfield, a private, Catholic, liberal arts college, hopes to expand the course to the Cincinnati campus next year.

The Duke Energy Foundation awards grants for projects that address the environment and energy efficiency, economic development and community vitality. It also gives money to employees and retirees who volunteer in their communities; matches 50 cents on the dollar for all employee and retiree contributions to 501(c)(3) organizations, and matches dollar for dollar for all educational institutions.

Source: Britney Grimmelsman, Chatfield College
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

SOURCE: SOAPBOX

A former University of Cincinnati architecture student may have graduated in the spring, but his idea to link the university's creative talent to help solve real-world business problems lives on.

Adam Treister, who now works for an Over-the-Rhine real estate developer, is in the process of developing StudentDesigned.com. The social networking website would allow design, engineering, architecture and other creative students to showcase their student work in a central place where business could check it out. Businesses could contact individual students they believe could help them with a project.

"The idea started from a lot of studio projects we'd done. There is a lot of student and professor time, money and resources that go into creating a fictitious product like a building or a clothing line. It's basically an exercise where we practice our skills," and those skills could be put to real life use, Treister said. "The creative studios and companies or government agencies could team up and collaborate on projects."

Treister entered the idea in a couple of entrepreneur-oriented contests, including Cincinnati Innovates, where he came in fourth place just shy of a monetary award. But the publicity that came along with promoting his idea helped move it forward. He's been profiled by several news sites including his hometown paper the Charleston (W.V) Gazette.

He's now working with a well-known software developer, who he asked not be named, to get the site live. He expects it to be off the ground in six to eight months.

"I've already received notices from different companies requesting the help of student architects," Treister said.

In fact, before the site is up Treister may pair up UC students with a West Virginia company looking for a green renovation of an 80,000 sq. ft. building. Such collaboration is a win-win for those involved.

"It's providing a really good opportunity to work on real-world projects and to enhance the education experience," Treister said. "The companies will get an unparallel creative product for an affordable price."

Source: Adam Treister, Student Designed.com
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on twitter @feoshiawrites

SOURCE: Fresh Water Cleveland

In a laboratory at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine, Zhenghe John Wang and a team of researchers developed a panel of new human isogenic cell models, which look much like mutated cancer cells. Through these cell models, researchers can get a handle on how cancer takes shape in the human body.

"We actually created a technology where we can add tags into cancer cells so we can track them," says Wang, assistant professor of genetics at Case's School of Medicine. Not only can this technology help researchers to better understand how cancer cells evolve, it can also provide assistance with cancer treatment programs, Wang says.

Now this process has an even greater chance of affecting cancer treatments, as medical research company Horizon Discovery has obtained exclusive rights to the panel of new human isogenic cell models. This means that the British medical research company will be able to add this technology to its existing models, which are used to predict patient response to current and future drug treatments.

Horizon Discovery has licensed the new cell models for ten years and will pay Case an initial fee, with rights to royalties from future product sales.

"We really wanted to work with someone interested in this technology," Wang says, adding that the agreement with Horizon Discovery will allow for research on a grander scale. Meanwhile, Wang and his team will continue to advance use of human isogenic cell models at Case. "Hopefully, we can make a big impact on cancer research," he says.

Source: Case Western Reserve University
Writer: Diane DiPiero

Cincinnati entrepreneur Anisha Bradley is coupling business acumen and the convenience of the web to launch a virtual business incubator that will help busy, far-flung professionals.

Bradley, who runs her own financial services firm, just launched Engaged 360, an online company offering easy access to courses designed to help new and established businesses thrive. The company, which went online in November, offers classes in everything from business plan writing to marketing and strategic planning.

Engaged 360 is designed to reach people across Ohio and beyond.

"This saves people a lot of time and money. By being online we can service people worldwide without them having to travel. This is also eco-friendly and helps clients to be eco-friendly as well," says Bradley, who previously worked as a tax consultant for Deloitte and Touche and Ethicon Endo-Surgery. She founded Capital Logic, a financial management company, in 2008.

Engaged 360 charges users an annual fee based on company size and the level of services they require. Membership is open to students, individuals and any sized company. Services offered include live-web based classes, online member forums, complementary marketing, accounting and legal services (at an extra, but discounted rate) and more.

The top membership level features a facilitated in-person networking group that matches members with potential business partners and resources.

"What I find is a lot of businesses don't have a solid foundation on which to build their businesses, whether that's marketing or customer service. So we decided to put this together. It's not just the classes that are beneficial, but it's also getting a chance to network with other members," says Bradley.

Source: Anisha Bradley, Engaged 360
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

A Dayton company is testing a new sensor that will help utilities in their quest to work smarter with technology that enables them to monitor power lines round the clock and keep energy flowing efficiently.

Tom McCann, president of Grid Sentry, says that the company's sensor products, Line Sentry and PQ Sentry, are attached to power lines and help a utility company to identify inefficiencies that might cause it to use secondary generation sources to meet peak demand loads.

Because the sensors can help reduce peak demand loads, they can help the utility save money and more quickly adapt to changing power needs, he says.

"We have talked with 25 utilities, and all but one said they were interested in our product," says McCann. "There are tremendous inefficiencies in the distribution grid. This helps them manage those so they can avoid using secondary generating capacity, which is expensive."

Peak demand for electricity is expected to grow by 19 percent in the next 10 years, he added. Capacity, however, is only expected to grow by six percent. Maximizing current capacity is essential, says McCann.

Grid Sentry was founded about a year ago to commercialize technology developed by Defense Research Associates of Dayton.

Prototypes of the products are now in use at Dayton Power & Light Company and are being planned for more major utilities. McCann says Grid Sentry is hoping to start wide scale sales of its products in the U.S. in May next year.

They currently have six employees and could hire as many as 40 more by the end of 2011, he says.

Source: Tom McCann, Grid Sentry
Writer: Val Prevish

As a former high school and college anatomy and physiology teacher, Jason Barkeloo was fascinated by the possibility of synthetically recreating the energy production process within living cells.

His company, Pilus Energy, based in Cincinnati, has found a way to create this process in a "reactor" that can be used to harness energy from organic matter using bacteria to create DC current. In a partnership with Dan Hassett at the University of Cincinnati, the two have pioneered this new green energy that can take organic waste from farms, plant pulps and sewage and make it into electricity.

"We're unlocking another grid," says Barkeloo. "We're providing a de-centralized energy solution that is untapped."

Pilot programs using Pilus' new Pilus Cell "reactor" are taking place at Pacific Gas & Electric in Northern California and at a large agri-business operation, he says. More pilots are in the planning phases as well.

"Our solution is harnessing our genetically engineered bacteria in a microbial fuel cell reactor and harvesting the direct current and hydrogen gas from their metabolism of organic molecules like those found in sewage, farm wastes, river water and plant pulps," says Barkeloo.

Pilus was one of a select group of start-up companies chosen to present their ideas and products at Launch: Silicon Valley 2010 international launch event last June. It was the only Midwest company chosen from among roughly 400 applicants from around the world.

In the next year, Barkeloo says he plans on adding more employees to the four full-time and six part-time consultants he now has, although he declined to project future sales or revenue.

Source: Jason Barkeloo, Pilus Energy
Writer: Val Prevish

By the fall of 2004, it was clear to Vince Broerman that mobile phone owners were beginning to use their devices for things other than voice services. At the same time, it was also clear that a sea change was taking place within print media as newspapers gained online readership and continued to lose print subscribers.

By the spring of 2005, he had formed a new company: ZebraMobile.

Housed in the Hamilton County Development Center, ZebraMobile today provides a service that has allowed hundreds of newspapers to push content out to readers through its Just For Me application.

"It beautifully renders content on more than 11,000 different mobile devices," says Broerman. "And that is the foundation of any other products that we have since built."

While Broerman built the business around Just For Me, he's most excited these days about the potential of Ferg.it, a direct mail application that allows mobile device users to receive promotional offers tailored to their specific interests.

"As a consumer, you get all this crap in the mail," Broerman explains. "How much do you look at? What if you could receive a coupon book which is totally personalized, based on your interest, that is based on businesses you've tagged as favorites, and so it's filled exclusively with coupon offers and promotions from your favorite retailers, restaurants, so forth?"

The company has steadily grown, Broerman says, with a ten-fold growth in revenues since coming the Hamilton incubator. It employs six to 10, depending on product needs, he says.

Along the way, the company has benefited from investments by North Coast Angel Fund, Ohio TechAngels and the CoreNetwork in Toledo. ZebraMobile also has been awarded up to $1.25 million through the Ohio Third Frontier's Innovation Loan Fund.

Source: Vince Broerman, ZebraMobile
Writer: Gene Monteith