MIPS Round 36 Award Recipients

Projects approved for funding during this round. Some contracts may be pending.

Company: A&G Pharmaceutical, Inc. (Columbia)
Project: Clinical trial of a serum assay for a breast cancer biomarker that is expressed in 80 percent of breast cancer biopsies.  The intended use of the serum assay will be for monitoring a patient’s response to therapy and disease progression.
Total Project Budget: $108,500
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore
Principal Investigators: Ginette Serrero, CEO; Dr. Katherine Tkaczuk, Professor of Medicine and Oncology; Director, Breast Evaluation and Treatment Program

Company: Acceptys, Inc. (Baltimore City)
Project: Pre-clinical study to discover human monoclonal antibody drug candidates to treat Streptococcal Pneumonia. Acceptys is establishing a corporate presence at the university’s BioPark for this study, as well as for continuing collaboration.
Total Project Budget: $439,500
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore
Principal Investigators: Dr. John Abrams, Chief Scientific Officer; Dr. Jan Cerny, Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Company: Agentsmith, Inc. (Baltimore City)
Project: Exploring clustering techniques and algorithms for software to manage one-to-one advertising for video-on-demand, broadband, and Internet television.
Total Project Budget: $293,280
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Principal Investigators: Paul Gorman, Chief Scientist; Dr. Florian Potra, Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Company: Astrox Corporation (College Park)
Project: Testing Astrox’s inward-turning scramjet (supersonic combustion jet with no moving parts), an aerospace-focused engine that could cheaply enable Single-Stage-to-Orbit (space) flights from standard airports.
Total Project Budget: $152,265
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Dr. Ajay P. Kothari, President; Dr. Ashwani K. Gupta, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Company: CI Technologies, LLC (Frederick)
Project: Developing an alternative emergency wireless communication service for commercial users and first responders that enables cell phone carriers to switch calls to work over satellite links during emergencies, using CI Technologies’ gateway protocol software.
Total Project Budget: $406,612
Partner Institution: Kenneth R. White, Chief Technology Officer; Dr. Nelson X. Liu, Assistant Research Scientist, Institute for Systems Research; Dr. John Baras, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Institute for Systems Research

Company: Innovative Biosensors, Inc. (College Park)
Project: Screening of antibodies and optimization of sample preparation procedures for a salmonella- and listeria-based test using the company's core ultra sensitive, rapid detection technology.
Total Project Budget: $171,445
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Thomas Hazel, Senior Director, Research and Development;
Dr. Jianghong Meng, Department of Nutrition and Food Science

Company: InvisiTrack, Inc. (Annapolis)
Project: Developing a system for the prediction and early detection of landslides. InvisiTrack’s wireless sensing technology, which is also applicable to other markets, works through concrete walls, foliage, and dense fog at over 2,000 feet, giving it distinct advantages over GPS and RFID.
Total Project Budget: $116,915
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Principal Investigators: Russ Markhovsky, President; Dr. Tony Farquhar, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Company: LaserLink Technology, LLC (Silver Spring)
Project: Developing high performance Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAAs) and Field Programmable Mixed-Signal Arrays (FPMAs) based on the company’s proprietary, MakeLink™ laser programming technology. Application areas include most areas of analog and mixed signal design, including data acquisition and integrated signal conditioning and processing for industrial, automotive, medical, sensor and communications markets.
Total Project Budget: $164,378
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Dr. Ari Tuckman, CEO; Dr. Martin Peckerar, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Company: Maxion Technologies, Inc. (Hyattsville)
Project: Developing a semiconductor laser for sensing chemicals. The initial target market will be natural gas leak detection from residential lines. Future applications could include medical diagnostics and therapeutics, homeland defense, real-time industrial process controls, environmental monitoring, and combustion monitoring.
Total Project Budget: $94,500
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Dr. John Bruno, President and CTO; Dr. Mario Dagenais, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Company: NetImmune, Inc. (Germantown)
Project: Developing a high-speed prototype platform in a real network environment to detect and prevent Distributed Denial of Service and intrusion attacks. NetImmune’s solution can identify a network attack within seconds to a few minutes; current systems can take more than a half hour. By detecting network attacks at early stages, NetImmune’s technology can prevent substantial damage from occurring.
Total Project Budget: $272,176
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Jason Lu, President and CTO; Dr. Mark Shayman, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute for Systems Research (affiliate)

Company: Pixelligent Technologies, LLC (College Park)
Project: Optimizing and demonstrating Pixelligent's innovations to use nanotechnology to print smaller features on semiconductor wafers. Pixelligent's technologies may extend current lithography equipment to print as small as 22 nanometers. Current lithographers are printing at 90 nanometers.
Total Project Budget: $188,940
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Dr. Gregory Cooper, President; Dr. Daniel Falvey, Department of Chemistry

Company: Sterilex Corporation (Baltimore City)
Project: Optimizing and testing an antimicrobial tablet for daily use in dental unit water that will address the issue of poor municipal water quality (i.e., bacteria levels above the CDC guidelines).
Total Project Budget: $75,000
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore
Principal Investigators: Dr. Melissa Hawkins, Senior Research Scientist;
Dr. Mark Shirtliff, Department of Biomedical Sciences

Company: TestSolvers International, LLC (Bethesda)
Project: Develop an intelligent and user-friendly graphical user interface for the company’s automated tool for testing software. TestSolvers’ tool, which tests have shown outperforms currently available products, could significantly reduce the $60 billion per year U.S. corporations spend to repair software defects. TestSolvers won the University of Maryland's 2005 New Venture Challenge [they were then called Test2Do] in the graduate student category.
Total Project Budget: $96,400
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Jean LaFonta, Chief Operations Officer; Dr. Carol Smidts, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Company: TRX Systems, Inc. (Lanham)
Project: Develop a Fire Safe Locator System that can centrally monitor the location, vital signs, and other situational information of first responders, both indoors and outdoors.
Total Project Budget: $202,762
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Dr. Gilmer Blankenship (Chairman); Dr. Neil Goldsman (President); Dr. Martin Peckerar, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Company: Vorcat, Inc. (Rockville)
Project: Validate Vorcat’s commercial software for predicting fluid flows in the chemical processing and pharmaceutical industries. Vorcat’s fluid flow prediction software is already used in the automotive, aerospace, maritime, and biomedical industries.
Total Project Budget: $106,250
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Principal Investigators: Peter Bernard, Chief Technology Officer; Dr. Richard V. Calabrese, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering