TechUpdate Newsletter

Issue 1, 2012

	Making the Climb

	IMU Gets a Big Berth in the Sky

	Building Confidence through Collaboration

	Laser Maker on the Move

	Building Large Parts Lighter, Cheaper, and Faster

	Moving Cell Phones Forward

	A Boost for University Researchers

	Shipping Fuels Safely

	Moving Into Position

	Does Your Company Have a Brain?

	Cutting Costs in Planning Process

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Making the Climb

Ascender manufacturer growing in Michigan.

PowerQuick, Inc., (Troy, MI), has partnered with Superior Design Concepts (Sterling Heights, MI) to develop and market powered ascenders—personal lifting devices used for industrial rigging, search-and-rescue, and other applications.

IMU Gets a Big Berth in the Sky

Air navigation system hatches from MDA incubation.

Archangel Systems, Inc. (Auburn, AL), has developed a tiny sensor suite that has made its way into a top-notch avionics system, called an Air Data Attitude Heading Reference System (ADAHRS).
Archangel’s sensor, a type of inertial measurement unit (IMU), is called the IM3™ (“IM Cube”). Its design combines low-cost MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) gyroscopes and accelerometers with advanced signal processing algorithms to drive down size, weight, power, and cost while delivering aviation-level performance.

Building Confidence through Collaboration

Partnering on innovation leads to successful technology commercialization and insertion.

For organizations that develop, manufacture, sell, or provide technology, confidence is critical. Confidence should pervade an organization’s sense of purpose—binding itself to the organization’s mission, the quality of its products, its morale, and its drive to sell. But when it comes to the innovation process, confidence alone does not suffice. True innovation often relies on a trait less akin to confidence and more akin to humility: the realization that you can’t do it all and that you don’t know it all.

Laser Maker on the Move

Sales on growth path at MDA-funded manufacturer.

Physical Sciences, Inc. (PSI; Andover, MA) reports that its subsidiary Maxion Technologies, Inc. (College Park, MD), has achieved significant technical and financial milestones for its 2011 fiscal year. For Maxion, led by co-founder John Bruno, government sales, prototype development, and research activities have increased by 60 percent across a wide range of Federal agencies, according to parent company PSI.

Building Large Parts Lighter, Cheaper, and Faster

MDA-funded company’s pultrusion-based technology pulls ahead.

A proven MDA-funded manufacturing process is leading to lighter and cheaper components for a variety of applications—such as stanchions on ships and parts for airplanes. The process also promises to make the components faster to build.

Moving Cell Phones Forward

Silicon-on-insulator technology promises better performance for next-gen mobile communications.

A partnership based on a technology derived from missile defense R&D may produce the highly anticipated monolithic chip for the next generation of cell phones. Specifically, the innovation, developed by Peregrine Semiconductor (San Diego, CA), could lead to a “tunable” cell-phone chip based on silicon-on-insulator techniques.

A Boost for University Researchers

Contractor teams with Alabama schools for ‘Innovation Marketplace.’

Missile defense prime contractor Lockheed Martin has partnered with three universities to establish a program to support small businesses and universities participating in federal technology programs.
The new initiative will support private-sector and academic-sector technologists participating in Defense Department Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) mentor-protégé programs.

Shipping Fuels Safely

Technology for neutralizing chemical leaks lowers risk of mishaps during transport.

Streamline Automation, LLC (Huntsville, AL), has designed a monitoring/mitigation system that could provide an extra layer of safety for industrial or transportation companies that ship or store chemicals and combustibles. In a commercial setting, Streamline’s technology would allow for quick leak neutralization within large containers, coupled with an alerts/communication feature.

Moving Into Position

nPoint unveils new line of DSP controllers.

nPoint, Inc. (Middleton, WI), has debuted a new series of digital-signal-processor-based controllers. nPoint’s C.400 series made its debut at the 2011 Photonics West/BIOS conference. The controllers feature a digital signal processor (DSP), multiple advanced control profiles, and an easily navigated user interface.

Does Your Company Have a Brain?

Coming up with the right game plan offers the best chance at success.

If innovation is the heart of a technology company, then the game plan is the brain. One cannot succeed without both.
Flaws in innovation are rare in the United States, but game plans are always flawed, and they are usually fatally flawed—which accounts for the high rate of failure for start-up companies.
A dictum originating in the Harvard MBA training program is that “a company that prepares and follows a good game plan has the best chance for success.” Rigorously following the game plan—while continuously searching for the flaws and applying corrective action—offers a small company this best chance to succeed.

Cutting Costs in Planning Process

Agile costing algorithms help estimators explore scenarios.

Software from an MDA-funded company has helped inject more science into the art of cost estimation.
The company, Frontier Technology, Inc. (FTI: Beavercreek, OH), has applied its expertise to address a long-standing challenge in the realm of large acquisition projects: accurately estimating cost for complex projects in which many variables can change rapidly and often.


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