Innovation + Job News

The Southern Ohio Agricultural & Community Development Foundation in Hillsboro is considering a venture to help entrepreneurs.

Dubbed "Next Step," the tentative program would give four awards of $25,000 each to applicants with innovative, value-added, technological or agriculture/bioresource projects. Applicants would be people who have operated a farm less than five years and who are based within the Foundation's 22-county area. They will be asked to prove their project would replace tobacco income and that there is a market for their products/services.

The Foundation's board of directors will vote on the Next Step idea in October, said Don Branson, executive director. "It's still in the review process," he said. "No final decision has been made yet."

The Foundation was created with money from Ohio's share of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement Fund, established after a 1998 agreement between numerous states and the tobacco industry. Its purpose is to support replacement of tobacco crops with others, and to assist former tobacco growers.

The Foundation's service area is Adams, Athens, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Gallia, Greene, Highland, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Noble, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton, Warren and Washington counties.

Source: Don Branson
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Pyrograf Products is already the world's third-largest producer of carbon fibers, with a wide range of applications for its products.

If fate smiles on the Dayton company, Pyrograf could soon pick up another key application: material for the lithium ion battery that powers the all-electric Chevy Volt.

Pyrograf was spun off as subsidiary to Applied Sciences Inc. in 1999, and became an independent company in 2002. Since then, with research and development support by ASI, the company has produced carbon nanotubes for growing military and commercial products.

"We have striven throughout the course of our company to develop a low-cost manufacturing technology for this material," says president Max Lake. "The larger the tube the more efficient it is, and we've settled on these larger tubes."

Carbon nanotubes can improve the properties of polymers and act as either an insulator or a conductor -- for both heat and electricity.

The company's 25-year relationship with General Motors resulted in GM's licensing of its carbon fiber patents for use in automotive components. But will Pyrograf's materials ultimately make it into the Volt?

"That's our dream," says Lake. "And another part of the dream is that the Chevy Volt will be accepted in the market."

In the meantime, the company continues to sell its materials for products such as tennis rackets, golf clubs and stereo speakers -- as well as defense applications.

The company has benefited from crucial state funding over the years, including commercialization and research funds through the Ohio Third Frontier.

Together, Pyrograf and ASI -- located across the street from each other -- employ 17.

Source: Max Lake, Pyrograf Products and Applied Sciences Inc.
Writer: Gene Monteith

Cyber spying is the stuff of blockbuster movies, but it is also a very real nightmare for businesses and government agencies trying to keep their information secure in the age of internet communication.

Northrop Grumman subsidiary Xetron, based in Cincinnati, is partnering with the University of Cincinnati School of Computing Sciences and Informatics to offer its employees and graduate students at UC, coursework designed specifically to address some of the skills needed to prevent cyber security breeches. Students completing the coursework can earn a master's degree in computer science with a focus on cyber informatics.

"(Cyber security) issues are one of the most serious threats we face nationally," says Pabir Bhattacharya, director of the School of Computing Sciences and Informatics. "The more we use the Internet, the more we need to make our transactions secure. With mobile communication like cell phones there is an increased risk."

The 29 employees of Xetron enrolled in the coursework and the roughly two dozen graduate students at the UC campus will learn about skills such as encryption, detecting intrusion, maintaining a secure network and preventing viruses, spyware and malware, says Bhattacharya.

Classes will be held at both the UC campus as well as Northrop Grumman's Xetron facility, with live video feeds connecting the two locations. Both UC professors and Northrop Grumman employees working as adjunct professors for the university will teach.

Skills that students learn through the program are critical in today's information climate, says Martin Simoni, site director for Northrop Grumman's Xetron business unit.

"Educating and developing home-grown talent is critical in today's highly competitive job market," says Simoni. Our cyber master's program will allow our technical experts to groom students on the job and in the classroom."

About 20 percent of Xetron's engineering staff are UC graduates, says Bill Martini, director of engineering and operations, Northrop Grumman Xetron facility. "We want to educate (engineering students) so they can be better prepared for the work force," says Martini.

Sources: Pabir Bhattacharya, University of Cincinnati;  Martin Simoni and Bill Martini, Xetron
Writer: Val Prevish

JumpStart, the Cleveland-based non-profit that provides resources to young companies throughout northeast Ohio, has been recognized for its economic development work by the State Science and Technology Institute.

JumpStart was selected by an independent panel of judges as the winner of the "Building Entrepreneurial Capacity" category of SSTI's 2010 Excellence in Technology-Based Economic Development Awards. The award was announced Sept. 15 at SSTI's annual conference in Pittsburgh.

It's the fourth year of the awards program and the second year JumpStart has received an award. JumpStart won last year for its work in increasing access to capital. Other categories include "expanding the research capacity" and "improving competitiveness of existing industries."

Ray Leach, JumpStart's chief executive officer, notes that "the work we do and the results we've achieved in building a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem is a direct result of the partnerships we've made with private organizations and public entities, especially the Ohio Department of Development and Ohio Third Frontier."

SSTI President and CEO Dan Berglund calls JumpStart "a remarkably effective program by and for entrepreneurs. Their efforts have bolstered the entire region through partnerships and collaborations with other organizations, and through programs that target underrepresented groups such as women and minority entrepreneurs."

JumpStart provides intensive entrepreneurial assistance, including selective investment in high-potential companies. Since its launch in 2004, JumpStart has assisted more than 36,000 entrepreneurs, leading to $17 million invested in 49 companies and a four-year economic impact of $267 million on northeast Ohio.

SSTI is a national nonprofit organization that works to strengthen state and regional economies through science, technology and innovation.

Sources: SSTI and JumpStart staff
Writer: Gene Monteith

A $5-million federal grant is aimed at revving up the skills of Ohio's displaced auto and other workers, training them for jobs in the growing bioscience world.

The grant was awarded to BioOhio, a nonprofit, Columbus-based bioscience accelerator, for its Ohio Bioscience Industry Workforce Preparedness Project. BioOhio doled grants to Cincinnati State Technical and Community College,  Columbus State Community College,  Cuyahoga Community College, Lakeland Community College,  Owens Community College and Sinclair Community College.

The initiative will take place over three years, and more than $2.8 million of grant has been set aside for tuition reimbursement and trainee scholarships

The dollars will be used to create new programs or build on new ones at the colleges, which are partnering with employers and labor, workforce development and non-profit organizations to develop programs to retrain and identify workers in Ohio's auto and other declining industries.

The program is focused not just on education and training but moving people into jobs through the public and private partnerships says Dr. Bill Tacon, Senior Director, Workforce & Education at BioOhio.

"We will help them find a job. We're not simply training and just letting them go. Each has an industry advisory board, and when we got the grant the industry advisory board signed a letter of commitment saying they are looking at new potential hires," Tacon says.

The program has a goal of retraining 660 displaced or underemployed workers in declining industries

Northeast Ohio is leading the charge, because the region's colleges have several programs in place that likely will spread to other campuses, Tacon says. For example, Cuyahoga Community College and partners have a medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing program that could be implemented across the state.

Source: Bill Tacon, BioOhio
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Founded in 1995, Dovetail Solar and Wind began modestly, installing solar systems for rural-Ohio residents seeking to go off-the-grid. Solar panels were incredibly expensive � but still a substantial savings for many who could not afford to have a utility company run power to their homes.

A little federal and state legislation changed everything. For the better.

"Prior to 2006, it was almost all residential," says Dovetail vice president Alan Frasz. "The (Energy Policy Act of 2005) offered a 30 percent tax credit. Businesses took notice."

Then, a second tremendous boost for the company, Frasz says, came from the renewable portfolio standard bill that Ohio approved in 2008, requiring 25 percent of the state's energy to be generated from alternative and renewable sources.

"We doubled our business," he adds. "We've been growing quite a bit in the last in few years."

A member of the University of Toledo Clean and Alternative Energy Incubator, Dovetail now provides energy systems for solar electric, solar thermal and wind � and has installed 175 systems such across Ohio and its neighboring states.

"We expect to finish the year between six and seven millions dollars in sales," Frasz says. "In a worldwide economy, the beauty of renewable energy is that the wind and sun are free. They don't put out any pollution � and renewable energy creates clean, green jobs in Ohio, as opposed to other places."

There are now offices in all corners of Ohio: Athens, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. In 2006, there were just a handful of people employed with the company. There are now 32 full time employees, but Frasz says that number could hit 50 by the end of 2011.

"Rather than having this money going out of the state and burning in a smoke-stack, let's take some of that and put it into renewable energy," Frasz says.

Source: Alan Frasz, Dovetail Solar
Writer: Colin McEwen

Usually, a glance in the rear-view mirror reveals what's in the past. But that's not at all the case for AlphaMirror. The Kent-based liquid crystal spin-off looks at its new, auto-dimming mirror technology, and sees the future.

AlphaMirror CEO and President Yehuda Borenstein says the company is focusing its work on changing the market for rear-view mirrors � one liquid crystal at a time.

Using technology developed at nearby Kent State University, the mirror will automatically adjust, depending how much light is available, using a liquid crystal display. Unlike a computer, there is only one pixel. And the panel is made of plastic, not glass.

"The tricks are in the details � how well you get the clear state and how well you get the dark state," Borenstein says, adding that auto-dimming mirrors have been around for a while."Our advantages are lower cost, a lighter weight and less power consumption."

AlphaMirror has teamed up with its parent company, AlphaMicron, and Michigan-based Magna Mirrors to develop Digital Mirror. The collaboration netted a $1 million grant from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative to develop and test the special dimming mirror. Borenstein expects the technology to reshape the entire industry.

"That's why we've had such success � people are very interested," he says.

AlphaMirror currently employs two people, but "soon we will grow to three or four" employees, says Borenstein. More employees will be added when the product goes to market within the next few years.

"We've teamed with Magna, the largest rear-view mirror manufacturer in the world," he says. "The potential is good, now the question is can we make it. I think we can. And I think we will."

Source: Yehuda Borenstein
Writer: hiVelocity staff

The events of September 11, 2001 spawned an Akron-based business that protects clients from disaster by warning large groups of people within minutes of a threat.

"Post-911, I saw the need for a robust form of emergency communication for the masses," says Scott Dettling, company president.

Established 2003 in Washington, D.C. and later moved to Ohio, Dettling's home state, Inspiron Logistics' original focus was telecom consulting. The system was designed for emergency notification of federal agencies and contractors.

Today, universities, fire and police departments, municipalities, and others rely on WENS (Wireless Emergency Notification System) from Inspiron Logistics to get critical information to those who need to know as quickly as possible

"From day one, our system had to be turnkey; it had to be simple to use. At the height of an emergency, complexity has no place. Alerts can be issued in two steps. Other systems may have four pages of options, and if you check the wrong box, the alert is never going out," Dettling explains.

Unlike 9-1-1, which is intended for individuals to report a problem to emergency services, WENS is a hosted Web site.

"We are an inversion of (9-1-1), designed for use by emergency services or a county emergency management director who needs to alert hundreds of thousands or even millions of people very quickly," Dettling says. Within minutes, WENS can notify huge numbers of people through voice calls, sirens, digital signage, or text messages, he says.

Inspiron's client base has consistently grown by 100 percent annually, says Dettling, while the company's renewal rate is an exceptional 96 percent. The company has 15 employees, including contractors, and plans to expand to more than 80 employees within the next two to three years.

Source: Scott Dettling, Inspiron Logistics
Writer: Patrick Mahoney

ZIN Technologies traces its roots back to 1957, the days of the Cold War and the great "Space Race" between the U.S. and the former USSR. Back then, the company provided aerospace design and fabrication services to NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), the forerunner of NASA. Then, in 1961, ZIN received its first NASA contracts -- and has never looked back.

Today, the Cleveland company specializes in man-rated, space-flight hardware design, development, fabrication and operations. The company has developed more than 133 payloads, which have logged thousands of hours in-orbit. Zin also transfers its advanced engineering service and products, developed for space flight, to other specialized markets such as aeronautics and medicine.

"We are one of a few small businesses with the expertise and core competencies to provide space flight hardware from development through operations," says Carlos Grodsinsky, vice president of technology.

While ZIN made its name in outer space, the company recently has gone where it had not gone before: the biomedical industry. ZIN partnered with the Cleveland Clinic to form ZIN Medical, a remote patient management company. Ohio Third Frontier funding helped the company commercialize its services and ZIN is currently seeking venture capital financing.

"We are commercializing remote physiologic health-monitoring technology that we jointly developed for the tracking and management of astronaut crews in-orbit," says Grodsinsky.

Over the past few years the company has boasted double-digit growth and increased its headcount to about 200. ZIN expects continued growth in 2011.

Source: Carlos Grodsinsky, ZIN Technologies.
Writer: Patrick Mahoney

The NASA Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky already is a big deal when it comes to testing satellite components before launch. It could become an even bigger deal if the federal government agrees to provide $60 million in stimulus money to fund roads and a 9,000-foot runway there.

The new landing strip is proposed as a way to give satellite and aerospace companies better access to Plum Brook's space chamber, a 100-foot wide, 122-foot high facility that mimics the vacuum and cold temperatures of space. But proponents say the runway would have lasting economic benefits for the entire northeast Ohio region by enticing aerospace companies to set down roots there.

For every NASA job created by the runway, an estimated five non-NASA jobs would be created -- nearly 2,000 in all, according to an economic impact study conducted last year by Bowling Green State University's Center for Regional Development. And that doesn't count almost 800 temporary construction jobs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is now considering Ohio's application for $60 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery money. Submitted by the Ohio Department of Transportation at the request of the Erie County Board of Commissioners, that total represents $31 million for the runway and $29 million for road improvements, says David Stringer, Plum Brook's director.

The runway is needed, Stringer says, to allow soft, slow landings of sensitive instruments aboard large aircraft.

"If you don't 'gentle' satellites in and out, they can break," Stringer says.

Currently, instruments destined for Plum Brook have come via airports in Mansfield and Cleveland. But those instruments have been of a more rugged variety, Stringer says -- for example, the air bags that bounced across the Mars landscape before releasing rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

A new runway would allow fragile components like optics to be tested in Ohio prior to launch -- a vital concern for sensitive systems like the Hubble Space Telescope.

Source: David Stringer, NASA, and Bowling Green State University
Writer: Gene Monteith

The Dayton region may be known as Ohio's sensors corridor, but northeast Ohio's capabilities in sensor technology just got a boost -- and a big one at that.

Last week the Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering at Cleveland State University, allocating funds from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative, awarded six grants totaling more than $17 million to universities and other organizations for development and commercialization of sensors and sensor technologies.

The largest of the six grants -- 25 percent of which will be matched by recipients -- went to Lorain County Community College, which will receive $5.5 million to work with R.W. Beckett Corp., Acence and Greenfield Solar Corp., to create a center for sensor commercialization.

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation's Learner Research Institute will receive $2.67 million to lead establishment a new center for sensor and microdevices for biomedical applications, and the Austen BioInnovation Institute is getting $2.6 million to lead development of an advanced instrumentation platform for product development in biomedical areas.

Meanwhile, the Ohio State University is slated to receive $3 million to lead commercialization of terahertz sensors for applications such as medical imaging and homeland security, and the University of Akron will receive $1.66 million to lead commercialization of sensor technologies for clean energy products.

Youngstown State University will also receive $1.66 million, for a collaboration with the Youngstown Business Incubator and M-7 Technologies to create systems for next generation manufacturing and inspection systems.

Some recipients are already predicting new jobs due to the awards.

"Our principal commercial partner, M-7 technologies, is looking to hire an additional 70 employees over five years," says Julie Michael Smith, the Youngstown incubator's chief development officer. "That is the direct employment, and then of course there will hopefully be downstream employment by companies employing this technologies."

She says the grants are good for northeast Ohio and for the Youngstown area, where old-line industries like steel have been battered in recent years.

Sources: The Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering and Julie Michael Smith, Youngstown Business Incubator
Writer: Gene Monteith

Wendell Turner is no newcomer to the food service business, starting in 1981 in supplies and equipment and, later, as a packager and distributor of foods. In 1990, he discovered a gap in the ethnic foods arena and founded Heritage Fare, a successful, Atlanta-based packager and distributor of down-home Southern cooking.

Despite his previous successes, Turner was always looking for more volume.

"That's what led us to the Garrett Morgan program through NASA," he says. And that's how Cleveland-based HF Food Technologies was born.

The NASA program, which helps small businesses identify new technologies for commercialization, alerted him to a US Department of Agriculture-developed product that replaces existing fats with a substitute called Fantesk -- a mixture of starch, water, and one or more oily substances.

The value? The substitute can replace unhealthy fats in meats, pastries and other foods while preserving flavor, mouthfeel and reducing fat for consumers.

Now licensed by Turner's HF Food Technologies under the name Nutrigras, the substitute has made its way into the marketplace. Assisted with an initial $250,000 investment from JumpStart, HF Food Technologies is working "primarily with beef, pork and more recently bakery products," Turner says.

"If you could take a ground sirloin steak, you could take 15 percent of the meat block out and replace it with 15 percent of the Nutrigras," Turner explains. "And in bakery products, we've shown reductions of up to 80 percent in butterfat."

Turner, who is CEO of both HF Food Technologies and Heritage Fare, says the product is being sold through distributors and "we have a number of restaurants that are using the product. And we just received one of the most important certifications for us -- the Ohio Department of Agriculture."

HF Food Technologies is located in mid-town Cleveland, was formed in 2005 and currently has five employees.

Source: Wendell Turner, HF Food Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith

Maverick Corp. lives up to its motto "Where Innovation Runs Wild" by developing and producing high-temperature polymer materials for the aerospace and other industries.

The Blue Ash-based company was founded in 1993 by Eric Collins and Dr. Robert Gray, both former GE Aircraft engine engineers. The pair operates 40,000 sq. ft. of research and manufacturing space where the company's high-tech workers develop advanced materials and transition those technologies to the automotive, chemical, medical and aerospace industries.

"Maverick caters mostly to aerospace customers who desire to replace metal parts with lighter weight polymer composites for high temperature applications typically in the range of 400 degrees Fahrenheit to over 700 degrees Fahrenheit, and industrial and aerospace customers who need to solve high temperature friction and wear problems," Collins says.

Some of the company's clients include, Boeing Company, Chromalloy, Cytec, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Fiber Innovations, GE Transportation, GKN Aerospace, Pratt and Whitney and Raytheon. The company manufactures resin in lot quantities from 10 to 10,000 pounds.

The company has steadily grown over its lifetime, and Collins expects big gains in the near future. It was founded in the Hamilton County Business Center incubator in Norwood with a 2,000-square-foot facility. In 2006 Maverick bought a small division of Goodrich Corporation in Akron.

"Maverick currently has over 30 employees. We have grown from less than 10 employees four years ago and we expect to grow employment another 15 to 25 percent by the end of 2011," he says.

Source: Maverick Corporation founder Eric Collins
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

A Youngstown-based startup medical device company is changing the way critically ill patients are cared for � and tossing out the notion of a painfully difficult startup process � one innovative feeding tube at a time.

The entire process of starting up Syncro Medical Innovations was made a whole lot easier because of the simple design of the BlueTube, the company's staple product, says Syncro CEO Gary Wakeford. Instead of relying solely on lots of X-rays to guide a feeding tube into the stomach, two powerful magnets do the job. And they do it a lot faster.

One of the magnets is at the tip of the feeding tube, and the other is placed near the patient's belly button, and voil�. "We solve a real problem," Wakeford says. "It's very difficult to insert a feeding tube. We turn a difficult procedure with a low success rate, into an easy procedure with a very high success rate."

People are taking notice. Prestigious customers, including Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore and the Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, have placed orders. The Ohio Third Frontier recently OK'd $490,000 for Syncro through its Innovation Ohio Loan fund.

The BlueTube is currently manufactured in Germany, but plans are in the works to manufacture the product in Ohio by the end of 2010. "Depending on our success, our long-term goal is to do our manufacturing in-house, which could add 30 jobs within three to five years," Wakeford says, adding that there are currently four full-time, two part-time and one intern employed with the company.

"We've really been welcomed here," he adds, noting the company moved to the Buckeye State from Macon, Ga. "This is our headquarters and we plan on always having our base rooted in the Youngstown area."

Source: Gary Wakeford, Syncro
Writer: Colin McEwen

From the spark of an idea, Noel Gauthier hopes to release a firestorm in the fight against world poverty and its risks.

Gauthier, a graduate student in the University of Cincinnati's industrial design program, took a homework assignment a step further, resulting in FireStop, a low-cost, environmentally responsible fire extinguisher to fight fires in urban slums around the world.

"Our assignment was to create a more ergonomic fire extinguisher," Gauthier says, "but as I looked into it, in most places these days there are sprinkler systems and fire retardant materials. In those places, you don't need a fire extinguisher. So I started to look at where extinguishers are needed."

He soon figured out that low-income housing with dense populations, especially in poorer countries, is where they needed extinguishers the most and set about developing a low-cost solution instead.

FireStop is a one-button system that is made of easily manufactured plastic parts and a cardboard tube, filled with a simple fire retardant compound. Gauthier figures each extinguisher would take $1 to make.

Along with being affordable, Gauthier says he wanted to make FireStop so simple that populations protected by it could also manufacture the extinguisher, eventually turning it into an exportable product and helping fight poverty that's part of the problem to start with.

Others soon saw the value of Gauthier's idea. Last year, FireStop took the $5,000 third prize in the commercialization category of Cincinnati Innovates, a contest to recognize entrepreneurial ideas. Also, the local law firm of Taft, Stettinius and Hollister aided Gauthier by filing FireStop's patent application on a pro bono basis.

Gauthier and his team are working on the final engineering specs for FireStop, which he hopes will be ready to start production by spring. In the meantime, while he's finishing his degree, he's also launched his own design firm, UMi Design and Development. And he's set his sights on FireStop's successor � similarly simple-design alternatives to expensive medical devices.

Source: Noel L. Gauthier, UMi Design and Development
Writer: Dave Malaska