Mtech Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2006

University of Maryland Research Program Teaming Faculty, Companies Gets $1 Million State Boost
Up to 22 More Md. Companies, Faculty Could Benefit Annually

COLLEGE PARK, Md. —The state of Maryland is backing a high-yield economic development initiative, the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program, with a $1 million funding increase.

The increase, proposed by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in his Fiscal Year 2007 budget and approved by the Maryland General Assembly, extends the reach of a program with a $10 billion economic impact on the Maryland economy almost twofold.

“MIPS has a successful track record of leveraging university expertise to help Maryland companies innovate and bring technologies to market,” said Governor Ehrlich. “Increasing the funding for this program is one step towards positioning the state as an innovation leader in the 21st century.”

MIPS supports about 32 research projects each year teaming university faculty with Maryland companies to develop commercial products. The approved increase nearly doubles the program’s $1.3 million annual budget, enabling the support of up to 22 additional projects yearly.

Martek Biosciences, Hughes Network Systems, MedImmune Inc., and Black & Decker—each have products that benefited from MIPS projects with Maryland faculty.

“MIPS helped develop not just a new product, but a new industry standard,” said Hughes senior vice president of engineering, John Kenyon. Hughes is the world leader in providing broadband satellite solutions and services, and its products are based on the IPoS (IP over Satellite) technology standard, developed under a MIPS-assisted project.

“Working with University of Maryland Professor John Baras and graduate student Aaron Falk, and led by Hughes engineer Douglas Dillon, we proved you could operate the Internet protocol over satellite channels more efficiently and at higher speeds. The IPoS standard resulted from this work and is the first to be approved by the world’s major standards organizations: TIA in North America, ETSI in Europe and the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) globally. To date Hughes has shipped over 900,000 IPoS-compliant systems to over 100 countries, and many of our employee base of 1,500 in Maryland continue to develop new products and services based on the IPoS standard.”

MIPS also supported Martek during its early stages, before the company generated over $500 million in revenue from its patented Omega-3 oils, which appear in nearly every major infant formula product in the U.S.

“When we were developing the organism that made our primary product, we didn’t know anything about fermentation, and we didn’t have the necessary equipment,” said Henry Linsert Jr., Martek’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Through MIPS, we were able to work with Ed Sybert in the university’s Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility and develop the early, small-scale fermentation that we later scaled up for making hundreds and millions of dollars of this stuff.”

MIPS-developed technologies have contributed, large and small, to products generating over $9.8 billion in revenue, including Hughes’ and Martek’s products, MedImmune’s Synagis, a line of Black & Decker’s masonry drill bits, and Navmar Applied Sciences’ unmanned aerial vehicles.
Annapolis-based Quantum Sail Design Group, the number two sail maker in the world, uses MIPS-developed technologies in nearly all of its sails.

MIPS has supported 512 different research projects teaming faculty with 345 different Maryland companies since 1987. The program has funded just under half of all proposals submitted.

MIPS’ $26 million in funding over that time period was matched by $110 million in cash and in-kind contributions from Maryland companies—leveraging the program’s resources by a 5.2:1 ratio.

Companies of all sizes from many parts of the state have participated, as have faculty from nearly all of the University System of Maryland’s 13 institutions.

MIPS projects are funded twice yearly, in May and October.

About MIPS (www.mips.umd.edu)
The Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program, an initiative of the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, brings university innovation to the commercial sector by supporting university-based research projects to help Maryland companies develop technology-based products. MIPS funds are matched by participating companies based upon their size.

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