Sea & Reef Aquaculture receives awards

Orono, Me- Sea & Reef Aquaculture, LLC has been awarded an $80K SBIR Phase I award from the USDA. The award was given to support research leading towards commercial culture of difficult-to-raise marine ornamental fish species. The successful outcome of the research could give Sea & Reef Aquaculture the opportunity to be the first company in the world to offer these capitive breed species of reef fish.

Sea & Reef Aquaculture also has received a $12.5K MTI Seed grant to develop a detailed blueprint for scale-up commercial fish culture and coral propagnation systems. It is anticipated that Sea & Reef Aquaculture will expand its production by relocating into a large business incubator located at the Center for Corporative Research (CCAR) in Franklin, Maine.

IST Takes AT&T Prize!

Intelligent Spatial Technologies (iST) takes prize at the AT&T devCentral Fast-Pitch Platinum Awards

Las Vegas, Nevada- "iST's iPointer was presented an AT&T devCentral Fast Pitch Platinum Award at this year's competition, which took place at CTIA in Las Vegas on April 4, 2009. iST was selected to present from over 350 applications from mobile software developers from around the globe. iST presented their mobile application to a panel of judges, including business leaders from AT&T, industry experts, and venture capitalists, in a five-minute "fast-pitch" format. All applications were judged on innovation and orginality, marketability, ease of use and user interface design. As a result, iST will be promoted as an AT&T premier wireless application, giving the company exposure to AT&T's more than 70 million customers.

"Fast Pitch continues to be a very successful program in helping us find new and innovative wireless applications," said Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Data, AT&T's Wireless Unit. "We extend our congratulations to all winners and thanks to this year's participants."

"Competing in the Fast Pitch was a great experience. Being selected by one of the largest wireless operators -- at one of the largest wireless shows -- is an honor in itself, as it validates the unique capabilities provided by iST. We look forward to potentially making iST's pointing-based search technology available to AT&T's customer base," said Chris Frank, CEO of iST.

About the iPointer:  Imagine walking through a city, one that is familiar or unfamiliar to you, and seeing a Point of Interest (POI) about which you would like more information, such as an historical site, landmark, restaurant, or other business - just take out your iPointer-enabled cell phone and point and click.  In milliseconds your cell phone returns an overview - image, audio, or text - of the point of interest.  If it was a restaurant, then you could get a restaurant review, the menu, as well as the day's special.  This is possible with iST’s iPointer “pointing-based” mobile search and content delivery platform. The iPointer mobile search and content delivery platform is network and carrier agnostic and will run on any mobile communication devices with a GPS, Digital Compass, and a wireless data connection.  Our customers benefit from the dynamic content retrieval and update capabilities of our Web-based geospatial search engine and content delivery architecture.

About Intelligent Spatial Technologies, Inc. Founded in 2003 and privately held, Portland, Maine- based iST develops Location-based Services and technologies for mobile users.  iST has developed the iPointer® system, a pointing technology that enables specific content about selected landmarks to be delivered to a mobile user, based on geographic location and direction. iPointer® answers the mobile user’s question “what's that?”  For more information on iST, its technology and products, visit the company’s website www.i-spatialtech.com.

About AT&T:
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company.  Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world.  Among their offerings are the world’s most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation’s leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations. The AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates are available at http://www.att.com.

About AT&T:
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world’s most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation’s leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations. The AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates are available at http://www.att.com."

http://www.i-spatialtech.com/content/view/156/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANhDORcl16Y

Mainely Sensors Receives SBIR Phase I grant from NSF

Mainely Sensors, LLC has been awarded a $100,000 National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I grant for a project titled, "Non-Invasive Lobster Vitality Sensor."  Jason Bolton, Research Engineer for Mainely Sensors, is the Prinicipal Investigator for the project.  Mainely Sensors is collaborating with The Lobster Institute, the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences Aquaculture Research Center (ARC) and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Maine Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory (MAAHL) on the project.

This research project will investigate the feasibility of a new optical sensing paradigm complete with field-deployable, non-invasive, automated, sensors for routine assessment of lobster vitality.  In the lobster business, lobsters must be delivered live to the end user while maintaining their health during long and sometimes harsh shipments.  The current industry lobster vitality standard is both invasive and cumbersome requiring a direct hemolymph (blood), extraction with an external analysis, usually a refractive index or total hemolymph protein measurement. The technique is neither inexpensive nor simple and actually contributes to losses by subjecting the lobster to unnecessary physiological stresses and potential infections.  The specific research objectives for this project are: 1) analyze lobster hemolymph in vivo using a non-invasive, optical sensor; 2) compare these measurements to those obtained with extracted hemolymph from the same lobsters; and 3) determine the feasibility of the proposed method and the design specifications for a portable, non-invasive, lobster vitality sensor.

The proposed development of a non-invasive lobster vitality sensor will enable the transition of this sensor research to a fully commercialized product in the lobster markets while promoting teaching and learning for University of Maine undergraduate and graduate students.  The project will provide real world experience in the lobstering industry, which has local importance.  A non-invasive lobster vitality sensor will positively impact the economic strength of the local Maine lobster industry by improving the quality control of its product in worldwide markets.  It will benefit the national and international American lobster industry, including lobstermen, lobster dealers, holding facilities, and commercial shippers, and research community. It is also anticipated that the proposed sensor will be applicable to other lobster and crustacean species.

Zeomatrix Receives Two Awards

Orono, Me. Zeomatrix, LLC has recently received two Phase I SBIR awards from the National Institute of Health on water purification technology and the other from the National Science Foundation on woody biomass separation membrane technology. They have successfully field tested their landfill odor control product as well as have filed two patents through the Maine Patent Program. 

Global Relief Technologies Receives 1.9M Grant

Orono, Me. Global Relief Technologies has received a 1.9M grant from the Maine National Guard to provide their Rapid Data Management System and related services to the State. This project includes support from the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMaine. They also have hired, Jeremy Onnysko, a recent MS graduate from the Dept. of Spatial Information Science and Engineering at UMaine, as an Implementation Project Manager and Ben Weber, who is currently working on his MS in Spatial Information Science and Engineering, as a GIS Intern.

Deb Neuman Featured in Communities and Banking Magazine

The Director of the Target Technology Incubator, Deb Neuman, is featured in the latest issue of Communities and Banking Magazine published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. A full pdf version of the article can be found here:

http://www.bizbuzzradio.com/assets/First_Person_Neuman_Maine_incubator.pdf