 The Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program of the Clark
School’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) awarded $4.1 million to 16 teams
of Maryland companies and faculty members developing commercially promising technology
products. Funding supports research in the laboratories of participating University
System of Maryland faculty, who work closely with partner companies to advance their
products. All funding goes to the faculty members conducting research on and development
of company products. The projects, which span the state of Maryland, include floating islands
to clean the Chesapeake Bay, a hyper-local and responsive climate control system for residential
and commercial applications, a system to remove CO2 and other harmful nutrients from
industrial flue gas, a mobile facility for processing fresh heirloom tomatoes from Maryland
farmers, an electronic baseball home plate, pest-resistant soybeans, monitoring devices for
freeze-sensitive biopharmaceutical and food products, a vertical-axis wind turbine,
low-inertia running shoes, and a synthetic filtration system for stormwater runoff.
Therapeutics or treatments are being developed for anthrax, esophageal cancer, stress
and autoimmune disease.
 Clark School spin-off company TRX Systems, Inc., received a
Tibbetts Award. This award is presented to participating companies in the Small Business
Administration’s Small Business Innovation Research Program that represent “beacons
of promise and models of excellence in high technology.”
 Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Min Wu, along with fellow
researchers Ravi Garg and Avinash L. Varna, won in the
Information Science Category at the UMD
Invention of the Year Awards with “Environmental Signatures for Forensic Analysis
and Alignment of Media Recordings.”
zeroK Nanotech, a company developing ion source technologies that enable precise machining, analysis, and imaging of materials on nanometer-length scales, led by NanoCenter postdoctoral researchers Brenton Knuffman and Adam V. Steele, won the Graduate Student, Faculty and Researchers Category of the UMD $75K Business Plan Competition, administered by Mtech. Alumni Susan Thompson (B.S. ’06, mechanical engineering [ME]) and Andrew Thompson (B.S. ’06, ME) and their fellow team members won in the alumni category with their company Discreet Secrete Solutions, which is developing an effective, hands-free, concealable, and quiet breast pump.
RedOx, a company co-founded by Eric Wachsman, director, University of Maryland Energy Research Center, and professor of materials science and engineering and chemical engineering, won a Warren Citrin Social Impact Award for work to develop power generation technologies for a variety of applications. Discreet Secrete Solutions (see above) also won a Warren Citrin Social Impact Award. The awards were announced at the UMD $75K Business Plan Competition.
Mtech hosted UMD’s first statewide high school business plan competition. The Maryland High School Business Plan Competition gives entrepreneurial high school students the chance to win up to $10,000 in cash and prizes for the best ideas for new ventures.
Two Mtech programs were named national finalists for the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Awards in the Outstanding Specialty Entrepreneurship Program category. The Hillman Entrepreneurs Program is an innovative educational initiative that supports and fosters entrepreneurship in students transferring from Prince George's County Community College, and now Montgomery College, to UMD. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program provides UMD Honors College freshmen and sophomores with an interdisciplinary, living and learning education. The program helps build the entrepreneurial mindsets, skill sets, and relationships that are invaluable to developing innovative, impactful solutions to today's problems.
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