MSI-Related Start-Ups

Entrepreneurship at UMCP

Wallace D. Loh, President, University of Maryland: “Maryland is now the #1 entrepreneurial state in the nation, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Maryland is #2 in the nation for the economic impact of its research activities, according to the National Science Foundation.”

The Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) has a list of UMD Start-Up Companies.

In January 2014 the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) selected the University of Maryland Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP) as the first-place winner for an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education award.  More >>

 

 

    Currently Viable Companies
 
Smela and Shapiro group member

M3D LLC

Founded by former graduate student Michael Armani (and others) in 2014.

Web Pages:  Kickstarter page, M3D
Video:  company video showing the printer in action

Products 
Next generation 3D printer for the consumer.  Materials come in spools and include nylon, ABS, and PLA, in multiple colors available.  The printer software is simple, interactive, and touchscreen-capable; there are also expert settings for advanced users.  Sensor and feedback system are built into the print head to provide auto-leveling and auto-calibration.  First products expected in August 2014.  The company raised $1M in 24 hours on Kickstarter (the 5th fastest on that site).

Employees
The team consists of 19 people. They are hiring now: people who would like to work on firmware, electronics, solidworks, and c# programming. 

They are expecting to have internship opportunities this summer (2014).

Buzz
USA Today (click to skip the ad).  Forbes (need to click through some junk to reach the story).  For other stories, google “M3D LLC news.”

 

Ian White’s group members

Diagnostic anSERS Inc.

Founded by graduate students Eric Hoppmann and Sean Virgile in 2012.

Web Pages:  company website

Products 
Affordable ink-jet printed substrates that are flexible, sensitive, and repeatable. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a molecular fingerprinting technique used for detection of chemicals, such as  trace amounts of explosives, toxins and narcotics. The result is a low-cost, portable version of an advanced sensor technology that is typically a high-end investment and confined to a lab.

The company is located in College Park, MD.

Employees
The company currently has 3 employees.

Buzz
News stories are collected here.

 

Shapiro group

Otomagnetics LLC

Founded by Ben Shapiro, Didier Depireux, and David Beylin in 2010.

Web Pages:  Otomagnetics

Products  
A magnetic injection system to non-invasively (without puncturing the ear drum deliver drugs and other therapeutic payloads to the inner and middle ear for treatment of conditions such as infections, tinnitus, and noise-induced hearing loss.

Buzz
The company was recently named one of seven innovative life sciences companies to receive a $200,000 Biotechnology Development Award through the BioMaryland Center to accelerate commercialization.

 

Ichiro Takeuchi’s group

Maryland Energy and Sensor Technologies, LLC

Founded by Prof. Takeuchi and his postdoc Dr. Yiming Wu  in 2009.

Web Pages:  company website

Products 

MEST develops thermoelastic cooling technology for active and passive thermal management systems (HVAC).  The company focuses on functional materials and system integration, through patent filing and product development.  Thermoelastic cooling is a solid-state cooling technology based on the latent heat associated with the reversible martensitic phase transformation.

The company is located in College Park, MD.

Employees
The company currently has 3 employees.

 

Smela and Shapiro group member

Armani Creations, Inc.

Founded by former graduate student Michael Armani in 2012.

Web Pages:  company website

Products 
This is a collective of innovators and entrepreneurs in the fields of engineering, biotech, and software design.  Projects include Cocochino (a café), a 2D edible powdered art printer (to print patterns onto food and drink products), books, and Decapede Electronics, a low-cost 10 stepper motor controller and driver.

 
    Folded...
Don DeVoe’s group

Calibrant Biosystems Inc.

Founded by Don DeVoe and Chemistry professor Chung Lee in 2000, closed in 2008.

Products 
Discovery and development of protein drug targets and markers for the treatment and diagnosis of diseases. It offers therapeutics, protein drug targets, and biomarkers from microdissected human tissue specimens. The company provides therapeutics across a range of cancer indications, including ovarian and primary brain cancer.

Employees
At its peak, the company employed 10 PhDs, 5 technicians, and 5 other staff members.

Buzz
Washington Post 2006 story.

 

Smela and Shapiro

2D Bio, LLC

Founded by Gradimir Georgevich, Elisabeth Smela, and Benjamin Shapiro in 2009, closed in 2012.

Planned Products 
Technology, disposables, and services for creating quantitative spatial maps of nucleic acids (DNA, RNA, methylation) in tissues.  Based on IP created by Dr. M. R. Emmert-Buck  at NIH, E. Smela and B. Shapiro, and by our joint graduate student M. Armani.

Insurmountable Challenge
The company was unable to negotiate an exclusive license of the IP, co-invented by Smela and Shapiro (!), from NIH.

 

Smela group member

Smart Composites, LLC

Founded by former graduated student Mark Kujawski in 2012, closed in 2013.

Planned Products 
QuickHeat, a paintable, electrically conductive material for thermoelectric heating.  Potential applications include melting snow on driveways.  The technology was based on IP created by M. Kujawski, Prof. S. Raghavan, and E. Smela.

Insurmountable Challenge
Various IP issues.

 

Smela and Shapiro group member

CloudSolar, LLC

Founded by former graduate student Michael Armani in 2009, closed in 2013.

Web Pages:  company website

Products 
Custom fluids with enhanced properties for fluid flow, heat transfer, heat collection, and heat storage. The first product improved the efficiency of solar heating panels to 80% absolute efficiency and gave a temperature lift 4x higher than existing panels.  The second product increased the amount of heat stored in solar water heat tanks by approximately 100%.

Insurmountable Challenge
The cost of the product was too high to displace existing technologies, despite the improvements.

 

 

This page was last modified on February 13, 2016