Ground-Breaking Innovation Honored at Northeast Ohio's Premier Technology Networking Celebration

NorTech, Crain's Cleveland Business Announce 2012 Innovation Award Winners

CLEVELAND, March 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NorTech, in partnership with Crain's Cleveland Business, is pleased to announce the winners of its annual NorTech Innovation Awards program, which honors new, leading-edge technologies transforming Northeast Ohio's economy.

This year, nine winners have been selected to receive awards, representing innovations from a broad range of technology industries including advanced energy; advanced materials; biosciences; flexible electronics; and instrumentation, controls and electronics.

"This year's honorees are developing and commercializing exciting innovations that are helping to revitalize Northeast Ohio's economy," said Rebecca O. Bagley, President and Chief Executive Officer of NorTech. "It is important to recognize organizations that are creating jobs, attracting capital and having a positive impact on our region.  Their stories are inspiring and worth celebrating with the Northeast Ohio community."

Award winners were recognized last night during an evening ceremony at LaCentre Conference and Banquet Facility in Westlake, Ohio.  Stephen Spoonamore, CEO of ABSMaterials, an advanced materials startup in Wooster, Ohio, was the keynote speaker for the evening. Mr. Spoonamore was also the recipient of the 2012 Regional Impact Award, which recognizes a previous NorTech Innovation Award winner who has successfully grown their technology business and received regional and national recognition for their work.

Below is a list of 2012 NorTech Innovation Award winners and descriptions of their innovation.

BrainMaster Technologies, Inc.

BrainAvatar Brain Imaging and Biofeedback System

BrainAvatar is an innovative new electroencephalographic (EEG) brain imaging system that provides high-resolution, 3-dimensional animations of brain activity in real time.  It has a resolution comparable to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and is up to a thousand times faster, and over one hundred times less costly. This is the first low-cost, high-accuracy brain functional imaging system of its type in the world, and promises to open new doors in psychology, psychiatry, brain research, and clinical sciences. www.brainm.com

eQED

250 Watt HIKARI Solar Microinverter

eQED's 250 Watt HIKARI is a solar microinverter that converts direct current into alternating current at a modular level. HIKARI, with the latest in power handling capabilities and broad range mounting compatibility with industry leading photovoltaic (PV) racking systems, offers a cost effective, renewable energy system design that maximizes energy harvest, enhances reliability, decreases installation time and lowers maintenance costs.

GrafTech International Holdings Inc.

SS1500

GrafTech International has successfully developed and commercialized the world's thinnest graphite heat spreaders to provide cooling and shielding in ultra-slim consumer electronic devices, such as smart phones. By providing effective cooling in the smallest possible form factor, consumer electronic device manufacturers can offer sleek, lightweight designs that still provide the "mobile-computing, blindingly-fast" performance demanded by consumers for 3G & 4G data streaming. www.graftech.com

LineStream Technologies

Advanced Controls Software

LineStream Technologies' software will dramatically improve control over the automated processes underlying everything from household appliances to state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. The current industry standard requires extensive initial calibration and, once in place, reacts slowly to errors. LineStream's software solves both problems by drastically reducing set-up time and minimizing system errors. Shorter design cycles, consistent performance, and significant energy savings result. www.linestream.com  

MesoCoat Inc.

CermaClad™

CermaClad™ technology utilizes a high-intensity light source (mini-sun) to rapidly fuse protective cladding material on steel pipes and tubes (both internal and external surfaces), plates, sheets, and bars. CermaClad™ offers high-speed fusion cladding that is faster, better, and cheaper than other processes used to clad metal surfaces with corrosion resistant alloy (CRA), wear resistant alloy, cermet, ceramic, and metal powders. www.mesocoat.com

NASA Glenn Research Center with collaborative partners Ohio Aerospace Institute and Sest Inc.

Large Tapered Crystal (LTC)

LTC is an innovative method for growing semiconductor grade boules of silicon carbide (SiC), which greatly reduces the number of crystal defects from millions per wafer, to as few as one defect per wafer. This enabling technology would allow SiC power devices to operate closer to its theoretical potential vastly increasing SiC market penetration in the power semiconductor market while enabling many new applications that could potentially revolutionize the power industry. www.nasa.gov/glenn, www.oai.org

Polyflow

Waste-to-Energy Conversion Technology

Polyflow has developed a technology for the conversion of mixed and dirty polymer waste into transportation fuels and valuable petrochemicals. The technology enables the use of a waste stream that is available locally in abundance to be converted into a high value product that has unlimited local demand. Conversion of all polymer waste would divert 30% of the volume flowing into our landfills and reduce our dependency on foreign oil by up to 13%. It is a technology that makes a solid profit while creating jobs and positively impacting the environment. www.polyflow.co

Powdermet, Inc.

McomP™ Micro/Nanocomposite metals

McomP™ (Micro/Nanocomposite) hierarchically-structured super metals offer high strength-to-weight materials for light-weighting a wide variety of applications where weight reduction is critical and volumetric properties cannot be sacrificed. By controlling the microstructure at the nano-scale, Powdermet's innovative composites have properties that can be catered to specific applications and are ideal for use in stiffness/strength-driven designs with many of the same benefits of beryllium and without the negative health and safety problems. www.powdermetinc.com  

Tesla NanoCoatings Ltd.

Teslan® Carbon Nanocoating

The Tesla Carbon Nanocoatings are the toughest, most resilient, and most effective corrosion-resistant organic barrier coatings developed. However, if damaged, the coatings provide a secondary, sacrificial or cathodic protection of the substrate. The use of fullerene nanotubes, also called buckytubes, results in a network of carbon nanotube ropes which strengthens and stiffens the coating film while building an electron pathway. The unique physical and cathodic properties of these coatings lend themselves to increased life-cycles and reduced costs.

2012 NorTech Innovation finalists include: Kent Displays; NASA Glenn Research Center- Shape Memory Alloy Team with collaborative partners Ohio Aerospace Institute and University of Toledo; NuVention Solutions; Spectre Sensors Inc.; and Thermalin Diabetes.

A panel of distinguished judges, representing academia, venture capital, private industry and economic development, selected this year's winners. Judges include: Dennis Cocco, Co-Director, GLIDE (The Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise); Sarah Coffin, most recently served as CEO of Aspen Growth Strategies, a family investment firm; Malcolm Cooke, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University; Brian Davis, Ph.D., Vice President, Medical Device Development Center, Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA); John Gannon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Blue Spark Technologies; Mike Hripko, Director, STEM Research and Technology-based Economic Development, Youngstown State University; Jim Jaffe, President and CEO, National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF); Ajay Mahajan, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Research/Professor, Mechanical Engineering, The University of Akron; and Grant McGimpsey, Ph.D., Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs, Kent State University.

For more information about the 2012 NorTech Innovation Award winners, please visit www.crainscleveland.com or www.nortech.org. NorTech is a regional nonprofit technology-based economic development organization serving 21 counties in Northeast Ohio.  As a catalyst for growing Northeast Ohio's emerging technology industries, NorTech is leading efforts to develop regional innovation clusters that create jobs, attract capital and have a long-term, positive economic impact. www.nortech.org

Media Contact:
Kelly South
Sr. Director, Communications
(216) 241-8458
[email protected]

SOURCE NorTech