posted March 30, 2007
Eight Chattanooga area companies have been selected as Kruesi Award honorees and four Early Innovator Award finalists have been named. All of the companies will be recognized at the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce Spirit of Innovation Awards Luncheon on April 18.
Along with the Kruesi Award winner, the recipients of the Early Innovator Award and the Great Ideas Competition Award will be announced at the annual event.
Jim Hackett, president and CEO of Steelcase, Inc., will deliver the keynote address on the topic, "Is There a Difference Between Thinking and Doing in Business Today?" The Convention Center event begins with networking at 11 a.m. The program starts at 11:30 a.m.
The Kruesi Award recognizes companies for innovative products, services and business practices that have been created and implemented by businesses in the Chattanooga area.
The honorees are Accurate Automation Corporation; Blue Mountain Avionics, Inc.; Brake Tech Tools; Clarity, a Division of Plantronics, Inc.; Cleveland Tubing, Inc.; eSpin Technologies, Inc.; Glenveigh Pharmaceuticals, Inc; and Ten Cate Grass North America. Each of these companies will exhibit their innovative products at the luncheon.
The Early Innovator Award finalists are Fire Eye Productions, Inc.; Floodbloc, LLC; MiniTennisCourt.com; and Triton Technologies. The recipient will be announced by the award sponsor, the Chattanooga Technology Council.
The Early Innovator Award honors emerging technology-based companies that have produced a groundbreaking prototype product or beta-stage software application that represents the potential for a significant competitive advantage.
Mayor Ron Littlefield will present the Great Ideas Competition Award to three high school students, who have come up with a great idea for a business, product or invention. Scholarships totaling $7,500 will be given to the winning students.
Accurate Automation Corporation will be recognized for designing and implementing Sentinel, an unmanned ocean racer equipped with artificial intelligence that protects water-based assets such as ships and oil-drilling platforms. Sentinel is the first and only artificially intelligent boat that can perform in a variety of high-demand, real life situations -- such as during storms and at night -- without human risk or intervention.
Blue Mountain Avionics, Inc. developed the EFIS/One system for the private aviation market to display all aircraft instruments, engine data and map information, thus reducing the pilot's workload and improving overall safety and efficiency. EFIS/One is fast becoming the standard choice of sport pilots from RV drivers to L-30 jet jockeys. The system, with a starting price of under $4,000, includes all the features expected in commercial systems costing over $50,000. The innovation makes flying affordable for more people, and its systems make it safe and practical for low-time pilots to find their way in any weather.
Brake Tech Tools will be honored for inventing a line of brake measuring gauges. These tools provide a better, more efficient way of measuring brake wear, saving trucking fleets time and money, while improving safety. The Technician Gauge, which allows an in-depth evaluation of the brake linings without having to remove the backing plates or drums, reduces the time it takes to make a sound assessment of brake wear from nearly an hour to just a few seconds.
Clarity, a Division of Plantronics, Inc., became an honoree for Digital Clarity Power (DCP), the first and only audio processing engine for telephone systems developed to replace standard simplistic linear amplification with a digital signal processor, thus improving telephonic communications for people with a hearing loss. Without the high costs of a hearing aid, the DCP multi-band compression system makes soft sounds audible and loud sounds bearable.
Cleveland Tubing will be recognized for inventing Flex-Drain®, a patent-pending flexible, expandable plastic pipe, usable in most drainage applications. It offers an alternative to bulky, traditional plastic drainage pipe. The product collapses to 6 feet and expands to 25 feet which makes it easy to transport and to store. The product's flexibility allows tight turns and eliminates the need for elbows, and the pipe’s integrated, built-in connectors allow users to connect one pipe with the next for longer runs.
In 1999 eSpin Technologies began its journey to become the first company in the world to develop a process and fiber spinning machinery for the mass production of nanofibers (polymeric fibers 1,000 times finer than a single human hair). This quantum leap in the technology of synthetic fibers offers new-to-the-world products and delivers superior performance in a wide range of existing products including apparel, energy storage and medical applications.
Glenveigh Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has discovered a new use for an existing drug (digoxin immune FAB ovine) to treat preeclampsia, a pregnancy disease that complicates five to eight percent of all pregnancies and is one of the leading causes of maternal and fetal death worldwide. The innovation includes the creation of a specialty medical company, Glenveigh, providing innovative healthcare for pregnant women and their babies.
Ten Cate Grass North America has developed the next level of synthetic grass fiber, Thiolon XP Pro. The product not only closely resembles natural grass but dramatically increases the durability and therefore the constant playability during the life of the field over conventional synthetic grass surfaces. At the same time, grass fiber maintains key attributes such as softness, ball roll and bounce, footing and ability to slide on the surface. The Ten Cate fiber's attributes are removing barriers to switching to synthetic turf and have bolstered the belief that its characteristics may improve the quality of play.
In the Early Innovator competition, Fire Eye Productions Inc. is a finalist for LocalWebcastNetwork.com, a newly launched website for high-quality streaming videos that provide comprehensive coverage of important civic events. The service, which is free for registered users, includes programs on business, technology, government, education, healthcare, sports and the arts.
Floodbloc LLC is a finalist for two products, FloodblocT bags for flood
control and SAP750T, a petroleum clean-up product. The bags absorb to full capacity in less than two and one-half minutes to allow for the building of flood control embankments, while requiring one-third less product and two-thirds less labor than is required with the use of traditional methods.
Floodbloc bags are re-usable up to five times and are fully recyclable.
SAP750T allows for the absorption, clean-up, retrieval and reconstitution of any liquid chemical while returning in excess of 85 percent of the lost chemical at grade. When used to remove chemicals from a body of water, SAP750T releases the absorbed water at or better than water treatment facility level. The product is fully recyclable and bio-degradable.
Ned Caswell, head tennis pro at Manker Patten Tennis Club, developed MiniTennisCourt.com, a scaled-down practice game kit, with the same geometries as a full tennis court but with portability and easy assembly. With maximum dimensions of 16 feet by 54 feet, the Mini Tennis Court duplicates the feel of an actual tennis game since the ratio between a real tennis ball and court is the same as the ration between the mini-tennis court ball and court. At $150 a kit, the Mini Tennis Court makes tennis accessible for families, schools, camps and churches.
Triton Technologies has patented a new class of textiles, called Smart Textiles. They are made from Reactive Fiber, a new elastic fiber form that elongates to over 600 times its initial length but does not spring back. A Smart Textile used in safety harnesses for OSHA fall protection compliance, rescue applications, seat belts and cargo safety systems, to name a few uses, will stop dangerous movement softly and safely, preventing damage or death. In a military application, a soldier, wearing a harness tethered to a helicopter with Smart Textile, can freefall from heights of up to 200 feet and arrive on the ground with the same force as if stepping off a one-foot stair.
To register for the Spirit of Innovation Awards Luncheon, log on to www.chattanoogachamber.com, click on Chamber Events and go to April 18 and then to Spirit of Innovation Awards Luncheon. Reservations may also be made by calling 423-763-4366 or emailing msenn@chattanoogachamber.com.
The Spirit of Innovation Awards Luncheon is sponsored by EPB, Steelcase, Tandus, AirNet Group, Chambliss Bahner & Stophel PC, Chattanooga Technology Council, Chattem, Inc., Electric Motor Sales, Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough, PLLC, Miller Martin PLLC, Northwest Georgia Bank, TVA, Unum Group, WAWL at Chattanooga State, WSMC and WTCI 45.
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