Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program Wins National SBA “Best Practice” Award for Technology Transfer Programs

The University of Maryland’s Maryland Industrial Partnerships program has won the national “Best Practice” award for technology transfer programs. MIPS was selected as the top national program in its category by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. Awards were presented on March 7 at the Putting It Together: The Role of Entrepreneurship in Economic Development conference held in Washington, D.C. “MIPS was recognized as a well-established program with a proven track record of commercializing technological innovations,” said Dr. Chad Moutray, chief economist for the SBA’s Office of Advocacy. “MIPS has solid market-based outcomes that validate its success." | press release |

Connolly Highlights MIPS as a Novel Model for Linking Business and Academia at World’s Largest Biotechnology Event

Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program Director Dr. Martha Connolly presented MIPS at the world’s largest biotechnology event, the BIO 2005 Annual International Convention, during a session she organized and chaired entitled “New Models for Linking Business and Academia from Around the World.” The session, part of the convention’s Technology Transfer/Licensing Track, featured unique models--highlighting best practices--for linking the business and academic communities. | press release |

MIPS Round 35: 18 Research Projects Team Faculty With Maryland Companies to Develop Commercial Products

The University of Maryland’s Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program started projects amounting to $3.2 million in funding for faculty-led R&D projects to help 17 companies in Maryland develop technology-based products. Participating Round 35 companies include: Advanced BioNutrition Corp.; Advanced Oxidation Systems, Inc.; Alba Therapeutics Corp.; Archivex, Inc.; Atlantic Biomass Conversions, Inc.; Automated Precision, Inc.; Guilford Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; BDS Dental Laboratory; Maritime Applied Physics Corp.; Neany, Inc.; Qovia, Inc.; Rampf Molds Industries, Inc.; Rexahn Corp.; Ruxton Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Techno-Sciences, Inc.; TeleContinuity, Inc.; and Warner Air, LLC. | complete project list |

Innovative Biosensors Raises $3.5 Million in Series A Financing; Launches First Product; Receives Incubator Company of the Year and Frost & Sullivan Awards

TAP company Innovative Biosensors, a company developing rapid, ultra-sensitive tests to detect harmful pathogens, has achieved several noteworthy milestones during 2005:

• Raised $3.5 Million in Series A financing led by Harbert Venture Partners, LLC | press release |

• Launched its first product, the world’s fastest ultra-sensitive test for pathogenic E. coli O157:H7. | press release |

• Received the 2005 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Award for Best Life Science Company; | press release |

• Received the prestigious 2005 Technology Leadership Award from Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting firm. | press release |

TAP Director Testifies Before Congressional Committee on How to Bridge the Gap Between Technology Innovation and Commercial Enterprise

TAP Director Scott Magids testified before a Congressional committee on June 9 on the subject of bridging the gap between technology innovations and viable commercial enterprises in the bio-defense market. The testimony, for the hearing titled "Crossing the Valley of Death: Bringing Promising Medical Countermeasures to BioShield," occurred before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. | press release | full testimony |

Chesapeake PERL and Battelle Announce Alliance

Battelle, a global leader in science and technology, and TAP graduate Chesapeake PERL, Inc. (C-PERL), a manufacturer of recombinant proteins, announced the formation of an alliance to support and service clients. Battelle and C-PERL together will offer seamless and integrated solutions for clients, from protein processing and purification to preclinical animal studies.| press release |

DataStream's Mark Anstey Named Entrepreneur of the Year by Tech Council of Maryland

Mark Anstey, president of TAP company DataStream Content Solutions, was recently recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by the Tech Council of Maryland, at the Council's 16th Annual Awards Dinner on May 5, in Rockville. Anstey was one of six award winners. DataStream provides data conversion, enhancement and management solutions using XML technology. | Tech Council press release |

TAP Company Trufina Poised to Revolutionize Online Interactions with Identity Verification and Management

If you've ever wondered if the person you're interacting with online is really who they say they are, then Trufina has the answer: Verified Identity Credentials. Trufina certifies identities for person-to-person and person-to-business interactions on the Internet. With a management team of successful entrepreneurs, including Peter Bianco, Chris Madsen, Chris Bradley, and Pat Mangiacotti, Trufina is poised to become the de facto standard for verifying and sharing identities over the Internet. | company profile |

ProteinOne Graduates from TAP, Grows to New Facility

ProteinOne continued leading the advancement of protein science by relocating to its new administrative offices and laboratories on March 21, 2005. The move validates ProteinOne's ongoing success with its functional genomic protein bioreagents, Active Protein Array Platforms, and reputable ProPure custom protein services. P1 was a member of TAP since 2001. The company's graduation reinforces TAP's mission of assisting novel technology companies in developing, commercializing, and ultimately becoming viable corporate identities.  | press release |

MTECH Launches VentureAccelerator Program to Assist Faculty and Students in Starting Technology-Based Ventures

The A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute announces a new program, called VentureAccelerator, to help faculty and students start companies based upon innovative, University-created intellectual property. The program will seek out promising technologies and inventors at the University and offer them hands-on assistance with a range of processes vital to the successful launch of new businesses. These processes include market validation, business planning, staffing, and initial funding. | press release |

Biotech Program Offers Two Major Workshops Back-to-Back

The Biotech Industry Program's two annual workshops, the Fermentation Microbiology Workshop and the Downstream Processing & Protein Purification Workshop, were offered back-to-back this year from June 13-14 and June 15-17. Participants were drawn from the National Institutes of Health, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Novartis, Dupont, Battelle, BioPort, Iomai Corporation, InterVet, NPS Pharmaceuticals, and Wyeth. | workshops web site |

Spring 2005 Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF) Clients

The BSF continues to support the bio industry in the conduct of R&D for commercial scale-up applications, as well as downstream processing and purification studies. Recent clients include:

• ID Biomedical, Vancouver (Canada)
• BioFactura, Rockville
• Paragon Bioservices, Baltimore
• NIH, Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics
• ProteinOne, Bethesda
• Neuronascent, Gaithersburg
• Proctor and Gamble, Baltimore
• Naval Medical Research Center, Rockville
• bioMerieux, Durham (North Carolina)
• Athena ES, Baltimore
• MesoScale, Columbia
• Advance Bioscience Laboratories, Kensington

Omnia Biologics and BSF Team to Offer Start-Ups Biopharmaceutical Processing and Manufacturing

Biologics contract manufacturer Omnia Biologics Inc., and the Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility recently agreed to jointly provide services for the manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products. The agreement provides access to the BSF to help refine processes for producing biopharmaceuticals, while Omnia provides Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) manufacturing of preclinical and early stage trial material. | press release |

Brian Hinman Named Winner of 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Hinman CEOs Program founder and Clark School Alumnus Brian Hinman has been named Entrepreneur of the Year in Communications and Networking by Ernst & Young. The award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who are building and leading dynamic and growing businesses. Hinman is president and CEO of 2Wire, provider of broadband service platforms for the DSL market, which he co-founded in 1998. Hinman has an outstanding track record of entrepreneurship; he was also the co-founder, and formerly the CEO, of Polycom, Inc., the world’s leading teleconferencing company. Prior to Polycom, at the age of 22, Hinman co-founded PictureTel Corporation. The Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities (CEOs) program was established at the University of Maryland in 1999, thanks to a $2.5 million donation from Hinman. In receiving the award, Hinman competed against 25 finalists from California. He will be eligible for consideration in the national program, which will announce its winners in November. | 2Wire press release |

Barbe Elected Entrepreneurship Division President for the American Society for Engineering Education

Dr. David Barbe, executive director of MTECH and faculty director for the Hinman CEOs Program, was elected president of the Entrepreneurship Division of the American Society for Engineering Education for 2005. ASEE is a nonprofit member association, comprised of more 12,000 deans, professors, instructors, students and industry representatives, dedicated to promoting and improving engineering and technology education. Barbe will serve as president from June 2005 through June 2006, then as past-president for another year. He served as president elect last year. The ASEE’s Entrepreneurship Division has grown by 200 percent since June 2001, to 633 members. It is the fastest growing division of the organization. | press release |

Squarespace Unveils Version 3 of its Internet Publishing Service

Squarespace, the popular Internet publishing service launched in 2003 by recent Hinman CEOs alumnus Anthony Casalena (May 2005), announced version three of its system on June 13, 2005. The announcement marks the second major release by Squarespace within the past year, giving the service one of the most sophisticated feature sets in its market segment. All told, Squarespace has introduced 93 new features and fixes within the past year. With hundreds of trial memberships every week, Squarespace is quickly gaining popularity as a robust publishing platform on the web. Squarespace is ranked 5th by Google’s open directory on blog hosts by PageRank popularity. | press release |

Hinman Program Announces Four New Student Companies

Arkhon Technology Solutions: high-quality, affordable, out-sourced telecommunications and IT services for small business (profile).
Kurma Group: E-commerce consulting and training facilities for online affiliate marketing (profile).
57th Street Advertising: direct-mail-based advertising company (profile) .
Optimum Productions: complete entertainment solution for planning and executing successful events (profile).

Hinman Students Volunteer as Judges for Montgomery County High School Business Plan Competition

Six Hinman CEOs students volunteered as judges for the Montgomery County Public Schools 2005 business plan competition. The second year of the competition, this was also the second year Hinman students volunteered to act as judges for the county-wide event. Hinman students teamed with professional entrepreneurs from the business community to provide feedback and advice to the fledgling entrepreneurs.| photos |

James V. Green Mentors and Instructs Students as Hinman Program's Associate Director

MTES Has Four-Year, $63.1 Million Impact on Maryland Manufacturers

Based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership surveys of MTES clients from January 2000 through December 2004, MTES has assisted Maryland manufacturers by helping them:

• Increase sales by $12.6 million;
• Retain sales of $28.2 million;
• Save $5.2 million in costs;
• Save on investments made by $1.2 million;
• Avoid $8.7 million in unnecessary investments;
• Increase investments, plants or equipment by $7.2 million; and
• Create or retain jobs for 543 employees.

MTES' total four-year impact: $63.1 million

Maryland ISO 9000 Consortium Joins MTES

The Maryland ISO 9000 Consortium Program, formerly a part of the University of Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity, is now a part of MTES, complementing MTES' existing ISO 14000 Consortium. ISO 9000 specifies requirements for a Quality Management System overseeing the production of a product or service. MTES' ISO 9000 Consortium, led by manager Gene Ritz, is a sponsored effort by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development to assist Maryland companies in implementing the ISO 9000 quality standard in their organizations. Approximately 30 percent of all ISO-registered companies in the State have utilized the Maryland ISO 9000 Consortium. The program is designed for all types of organizations--including manufacturing, technology, service, education and retail. | Maryland ISO Consortium Web site |

MTES Helps Tanglewood Conservatories Transition
From Builder to Global Manufacturer

Tanglewood Conservatories Inc.'s glass conservatories are in such demand that the company is being forced to transition from a builder to a manufacturer, with the help of the University of Maryland's Maryland Technology Extension Service. Based in Denton, Md., Tanglewood designs and builds elegant, 19th-century-style conservatories, resembling complex, sun parlor-like additions for homes, ranging in cost from $50,000 to several millions. With several hundred structures in the U.S.--in cities such as Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Baton Rouge--the company recently exported two conservatories to Shanghai, China. Five MTES consultations -- including John Songster, Barry Frey, Robert Barazotto, David Rizzardo, and Charles Carr -- have assisted Tanglewood in transitioning to a high-tech manufacturer. | press release |

Rizzardo Gives Lean Manufacturing Talk at Society of Manufacturing Engineers Annual Meeting

MTES' Manager of Lean Services David Rizzardo presented a talk entitled "Lean Manufacturing -- What is it All About?" at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, Md., from June 1 - 5, 2005. The talk, part of the meeting's Professional Development Conference, covered various aspects of lean manufacturing, including a discussion on how to introduce lean concepts into an organization. Rizzardo's talk was part of the Managing Resources and Technology track, sponsored by Maryland Thermoform.

ASPIRE Supports 10 Faculty/Undergraduate, Industry-Relevant Research Projects During Spring 2005 Semester

The ASPIRE Program, short for "A Scholars Program for Industry-Oriented Research in Engineering," awarded the following research projects during the Spring 2005 semester. Each project teamed undergraduates with faculty for research relevant to industry. Students received a stipend of $1,000 during the semester, which was jointly funded by both MTECH and sponsoring faculty members.

1. Characterization of Near and Far-Infrared Semiconductor Lasers; Chetan Bansal (student); Mario Dagenais (faculty).

2. Clay Modification for Use in Fire-Retardant Materials; George Chacko (student); Srinivasa Raghavan (faculty).

3. Ultrasonic Sensor-Based Robotic Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance; Arnab Choudhury (student); P.S. Krishnaprasad (faculty).

4. Remediation of Contaminated Soils Using Maryland Fly Ash; Hiruy Dafla (student); Ahmet Aydilek (faculty).

5. Surface Roughness of Asphalt Pavements; Hormoz Hematian-Boroojeni (student); Ahmet Aydilek (faculty).

6. Preparation of Nanocrystalline Materials for Fuel Cells; Sicong Hou (student); Sheryl Ehrman and Jogesh Pati (faculty).

7. Microvalve and Micropump Project; Kuangwen Hsieh (student); Elisabeth Smela (faculty).

8. Smart Dust; William Lee (student); Gilmer Blankenship (faculty).

9. Acoustic Analysis of Speech Data Recorded in Supine and Upright Positions; Jia Lin (student); Carol Espy-Wilson (faculty).

10. Cytoxicity of a Novel Hydrogel Polymer for Cartilage Tissue Engineering; Parth Modi (student); John Fisher (faculty).

MTECH Offers New Summer Entrepreneurship Course for High School Students

MTECH's James V. Green is teaching a new course for high school students this summer entitled "ENES 140: Discovering New Ventures – Foundations of Entrepreneurship." The course, taught through the University of Maryland's Young Scholars Program, enables high school students to explore dynamic business and technology topics by working in teams to design a new business. The multi-disciplinary course helps students to learn the basic business, strategy, and leadership skills needed to launch new ventures. | course web page |

Test2do, ARTKIA Take First Place in University of Maryland $35,000 New Venture Challenge

| University of Maryland | A. James Clark School of Engineering | Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute |