The MIPS project allowed MeTompkin to expand over a two-year period with a fully automated production line to efficiently handle spat-on-shell, whereas it would have taken the company ten years without the expertise and input from University of Maryland partners to achieve the same level.

In August, 2017, MeTompkin commenced a new MIPS project with Meritt to use and evaluate a combination of new and traditional techniques for oyster bottom rehabilitation.

Aquaculture will allow the year-round production of oysters and expansion of both shellstock and shucked product markets. MeTompkin’s success could lead to the development of other processing operations. Lack of bivalve shellfish is one component of the overall nutrient input problem affecting coastal bays. Significant production of shellfish will benefit water quality.

The CARE-2, which was originally an assessment completed on paper only, can now be administered online and via a mobile phone. There are two CARE-2 screeners for adolescent males and females available for both Apple or Android phones. The online version for teen females in the original CARE-2 has been updated to reflect Tossey’s research findings. A MIPS-funded plan for an email campaign was developed and carried out, raising awareness of the CARE-2. Seifert has appeared on several news outlets, online, on TV and radio explaining the importance of well-researched risk assessments for the identification of risk for violence and the use of preventive services. A trademark for CARE-2 has been applied for and is near approval.

Leveraging data and developments from MIPS, TheraCord was able to secure $500K in follow-up funding to tackle the next stage of development. TheraCord was able to employ two graduates on-site and continue the collaboration with Kingsbury’s lab through sponsored research.

Additional Information:
There are over 670 ongoing clinical trials examining cord blood’s potential use in treating diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, cerebral palsy, and stroke.

Despite its potential therapeutic advantages, cord blood transplants constitute a minor fraction of hematopoietic stem cell transplants, and over 95 percent of cord blood in the U.S. remains uncollected.

Currently, cord blood is banked privately, as a fee-forservice, and publicly, similar to blood donations.

Potomac Photonics is now able to provide designers with a fast, low-cost approach, from prototyping to the mid-volume production of microfluidic flow structures. This provides an attractive alternative to do-it-yourself fabrication of devices in PDMS, or patching together a maze of less-than-optimum subcomponents. Designers are now able to quickly explore new concepts by digitally fabricating custom designs developed on their computers, submit them via the internet, and fabricate in popular polymer materials. The user experience is intended to be similar to purchasing items from a virtual vending machine that delivers customized products. Like any vending machine, this virtual one won’t be a replacement for full-service interactions with an appropriate group of humans. Potomac also continues to offer full-service microfabrication services.

RedShred now offers its product online. The product offers automated RFP discovery, analysis and pre-qualification, with capabilities to optimize the RFP bidding process, rank opportunities to capability profiles, and extract RFP requirements automatically.

These MIPS projects resulted in one academic paper: Zareen Syed, Lushan Han, Muhammad Rahman, Tim Finin, James Kukla and Jeehye Yun, Querying Large Linked Data Resources, 14th Int. Semantic Web Conference, Oct. 2015.

RedShred received a $100,000 Technology Commercialization Fund grant in 2014. In March, 2015, the company was awarded a $150,000 loan through the Anne Arundel County Volt Fund. In May, 2015, RedShred received a $100,000 small business loan from the Baltimore County Boost Fund. In January, 2016, RedShred received a National Science Foundation Phase I and Phase IB STTR.

Additional Mtech/UMD Programs Utilized:
DC I-Corps

Additional Information:
RedShred was formed from lessons learned at SSG, a commercial and government IT contractor owned by Jeehye Yun. Having experienced the pain of RFP matching and shredding during her time running SSG, Jeehye teamed up with Jim Kukla, an experienced software engineer and former computer science researcher, to build RedShred. During the fall, 2013 DC I-Corps workshop, the founding team validated the value proposition with the market.

During Phase 1, researchers demonstrated the feasibility of a disruptive chip-scale gas sensor technology using conventional large-scale microfabrication processes. During Phase 2, they fabricated eight microsensors on a single chip, including a passive sensor for calibration. Researchers designed a library of metal oxide/metal for the said gases and developed a standard deposition method to functionalize those sensors. Lastly, researchers developed an automated measurement system to determine the sensitivity of the sensors in a faster way.

Four papers were submitted for publication as a result of this project.

In February, 2017, N5 received an NIST Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program (N-STEP) award to further develop its Chip-scale Hybrid Gas Sensors for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring. In 2014, N5 received both a TEDCO MII award and a U.S. Environmental Agency’s Phase I SBIR award related to sensor R&D.

In October, 2017, N5 was added to the Commercial Pilot Readiness Program (CRPP) by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which allows N5 to advance the development and manufacturing of the technology developed under the DHS contract award number HSHQDC-15-C-00075, H-SB014.2-006, Field Detection and Analysis or Fire Gases and Particulates. The CRPP allows agencies to make one additional SBIR Phase II follow-on award to small businesses for the technology development, testing, evaluation and commercialization assistance for SBIR Phase II technologies.

VCalc now offers 12,000 online calculators that are free to the general public and are used in over 100 countries on a regular basis. The company also acquired a $420,000 contract from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.

Over several years and several studies, the Connected Savings solution has outperformed similar, competing energy demand-response products by 15-20 percent. Additionally, homes have seen a 10 percent average HVAC energy saving for participating homes through thermostat efficiency adjustments, often over $100 in savings. Recently, Whisker Labs was ranked as the #2 residential demand response provider in the prestigious Navigant Research Leaderboard: Residential Demand Response report.

Currently, over 100,000 customers across the U.S. are using Whisker Labs’ home energy system, while approximately 20 utility partners are using Connected Savings in Texas, California, New England, and Maryland.

Siemann joined Whisker Labs after graduating, as have an additional four previous UMD engineering graduate students. In addition, the Whisker Labs Connected Savings team has grown from four employees prior to the MIPS grant, to nearly 30 here in Maryland.

Starting in January, 2017, Whisker Labs commenced a new MIPS project with mechanical engineering Professor Steven Gabriel, to study the potential economic benefits of DR for retail energy providers through the use of the Connected Savings solution and advanced setpoint scheduling. The research team also still works closely with Professor Kim on advancing its HVAC Fault Detection and Diagnostics technology.

In addition, Whisker Labs has developed a new product that sits on breaker panels in homes, installs in minutes, can tell what appliances are running based upon their electronic signatures, and provides detailed insights about a home’s energy usage. The company anticipates that with this new technology, combined with connected thermostats, connected homes, proprietary weather data, home energy score cards and thermodynamic analytics developed with the University of Maryland in the Connected Savings solution, it will become the leading provider of demand-response energy savings in the nation.

Over the duration of the second study, 27 storm events were successfully sampled and tested. During this time, the basin system provided statistically significant reductions of sediments, total phosphorus and total nitrogen masses. The total runoff volume reduction exhibited by the system was 56 percent, which was significant (according to the company), given that the basin system was undersized compared to what would be recommended for the drainage area it served. Overall, runoff volume storage and reduction (infiltration and evapotranspiration) and concurrent removal of suspended sediments, phosphorus, and nitrogen appeared to be the main treatment mechanisms.

Additional Notes:
The Chesapeake Bay watershed area consists of 8.5 million acres (25 percent of its total land area) under cultivation, of which 30 percent, or 2.5 million acres, is feasible for the HIE Cascading System of Water Cells. Currently, pollution control on agricultural land consists of planting cover crops and constructing filter strips within 150 feet of a stream or body of tidal water. Neither strategy is effective for storm water flowing from higher elevations or from areas as far as a half-mile to a mile from streams or body of tidal water. Cover crops take-up existing nitrogen nutrients in the soil, but the benefits may not be realized for 20-30 years because ground water flows so slowly into Bay waters. Filter strips utilize agricultural land. Additional tools, such as HIE’s system, are needed to address the agricultural runoff challenge. (Source: High Impact Environmental, Inc.)

Funding for this project was provided by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR).