WSU Ventures at Wichita State University has awarded seven innovators with more than $100,000 in funding through the Competitive Innovation Accelerator Shock Tank competition. The projects receiving funding expect to add a combined 90-plus jobs to the Kansas economy by 2018. Winners are:
ABI Chemicals’ Peelable Maskant System led by James Havers-Strong: $20,000
Advance Guard Conservation’s water conservation reactor, led by Jeff Turner: $20,000
iNOv8v Health Technologies’ non-invasive physiological assessment and biofeedback fitness systems, led by Jeremy Patterson, WSU associate professor and director of the Human Performance Lab: $20,000
Leachrod’s blade removal tool, led by Rodney Leach: $15,000
GoodFlight’s Flight-Tracking, led by Georg Schirmer, WSU graduate student: $14,600
WSU Software Usability Lab’s Usability Evaluation Toolkit for Mobile Devices, led by Jibo He, WSU assistant professor of psychology: $10,000
NMotion’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Public Safety Agencies, led by John Martens: $10,000
The competition, which began in October, sought innovations with commercial applications and a market-ready timeline of 18 months. Winners were chosen based on several criteria including innovation, technical merit, stage of development, commercialization timeline, job growth forecast, collaboration with Wichita State, student involvement and investments.
“The competition has not only helped raise awareness for WSU Ventures,” said Cindy Claycomb, executive director, “but it is a direct reflection of and a tool for carrying out WSU’s mission to be an economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good.”
Three of the seven projects are led by Wichita State faculty, and three are using additional university resources including hiring students and performing research and testing at WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research.
The goal of the Competitive Innovation Accelerator is to identify and fund technologies that will create and retain jobs in Kansas. Funding for the competition was provided by the Kansas Department of Commerce.
“This competition is a great showcase for the innovative talent developing at our universities and is an aim of the Innovation Growth Program that supports economic development opportunities at Kansas universities as part of the governor’s strategic plan for the state,” said Kansas Commerce Secretary Pat George.
WSU Ventures assists Wichita State faculty, staff and students in applying and commercializing their collective ideas, intellectual properties, know-how, talents, capabilities, ambitions and energies in ways that benefit the university community, industry and the public. WSU Ventures is part of WSU’s Office of Research and Technology Transfer. It protects and licenses university inventions and innovations, connects industry partners with WSU researchers, and links entrepreneurs and investors with WSU researchers and technologies.
Additional project information
ABI Chemicals’ Peelable Maskant System is a next-generation, EPA-friendly alternative protective chemical maskant product used in the aerospace manufacturing industry, replacing the archaic technology that has been used for 25-plus years.
Advanced Guard Concepts (AGC) is developing and implementing advanced water conservation solutions for manufacturing organizations. These solutions deliver value by reducing overall gallons of water used as well as waste-treatment costs. AGC will deliver these measurable savings through the implementation of a patent-pending “reactor” and proprietary chemical formulation.
GoodFlight LLC is developing a smartphone and tablet application and the associated technology (i.e. sensor system etc.) that will serve as an affordable flight tracking and recoding device to individual flight instructors and flight schools. In its initial form, the application will gather and record flight data for review and debriefing. Further development will allow flight instructors to conduct remote supervision of solo students while they are flying the aircraft.
iNOv8v Health Technologies’ Non-invasive physiological assessment and biofeedback fitness systems provides an application programming interface (API) to control and adjust cardiovascular fitness equipment based on physiological biofeedback (i.e., control and adjust fitness equipment according to physiological measures and personal fitness goals). Heart R8, a non-invasive system, uses a webcam, smartphone or tablet-based physiological monitoring system to capture physiological measures (e.g., heart rate, respiration rate, lactate threshold) for physiological-based image analysis and physiological biofeedback fitness training services.
Leachrod blade removal tool is a working product that will be examined by Wichita State University to determine the best materials and manufacturing processes for its mass production.
The WSU Software Usability Lab will refine and promote a Usability Evaluation Toolkit that can be used with desktop, mobile and the latest wearable computing devices.
NMotion’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Public Safety Agencies will enhance the public safety market by revolutionizing the dull, dirty and dangerous tasks that first responders face.
via WSU Ventures announces winners of innovation funding – Wichita State News.
