Wireless Data Collection : Innovation + Job News

Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs has collaborated with the Ohio Development Service Agency Office of Energy on a new solar energy supply chain database to promote Ohio companies.
 
Scott Miller, Director of Energy and Environmental Programs at the Voinovich School, says technological innovators as well as Ohio manufacturers stand to benefit “by knowing first and foremost who else applies to their specific niche.” For example, if a company is looking for specific grades of material or wiring harness, the database will provide a list of options to select from. “It’s folks who are in the material processing industry who make silica wafers or make unique applications for solar panels who will find this very useful,” explains Miller.
 
The project was financed by the development agency to capture and catalogue all the different companies and individuals that are involved in the solar supply chain within the state of Ohio. Miller says an existing database recorded only 50-75 companies. “We’ve come up with 275 companies.” An online mapping program highlighting the new database is available at ohiosolarenergy.org.
 
Not only does the database aim to assist those in existing technological fields, but aid in the discovery of something new. “Folks may find there are opportunities that aren’t being met, and they can use this database to identify what those unmet needs are and grow new services or new techniques, new materials that may help advance the industry,” says Miller, noting there’s still much to be done.
 
“I think we’ve only begun to scratch the service in terms of using tools like this for identifying unique applications in the state and nation.”
 
 
Source: Scott Miller
Writer: Joe Baur

Tell us if you’ve heard this one before. You’re sitting in your car. Alone. While your friends are frantically texting you to find out just where, exactly, are you because you are now, officially, 15 minutes late to the party.

The lateness has earned you a reputation. Dublin-based software company Ripple Mobile might be able to help. They’re making friendships and relationships stronger by offering OnTime, a GPS-powered app that pulls meeting information from your web-based and mobile calendars and ties it to current weather and traffic patterns to give you the quickest route to your destination. The $1.99 mobile app, available now for the iPhone and Blackberry, will also alert you when it's time to leave and then text or email the people waiting for you as to whether you will be on-time or late. An Android version is under development.

"I think a lot of times busy people fill their calendars with events and aren’t always aware of how long it's going to take them to get them some place,” says Ripple Mobile co-founder Kevin Miller. “That can happen especially if you're in a new location that you're not familiar with. OnTime provides them with a little less required planning and allows them to be more productive.”

It’s one of two mobile apps Ripple Mobile has developed. The other, Ripple Tag, allows friends with Smart Phones to find each other's locations in real time and setup a place to meet.

Ripple Mobile was founded in 2002 and is housed in the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center. The company has three employees and earlier this year received a TechGenesis Grant through Tech Columbus.