High Technology : Innovation + Job News

Temple University's summertime app-developing program for underserved and minority students, the Urban Maps and Apps Studios, has been active for three seasons now.

The university-wide initiative kicked off in 2012 as part of the school's bitS (Building Information Technology Skills) program, which aims to "engage high school students to examine the communities where they live," according to its website, and to teach those students technology skills that can be applied to problems in their own neighborhoods.
 
Inside the Urban Apps and Maps Studios, students spend six weeks studying digital design and software application development. The ultimate goal? Design apps that will help tackle community challenges.
 
One team of 11 students involved in the 2014 summer program has created such an application. Known as Gotcha, the mobile crime-watch app allows users to anonymously post the details of petty neighborhood crimes such as shoplifting, without involving authorities.

Thanks to funding from the Knight Foundation, which will bring a portion of the Gotcha team back during the upcoming academic year to continue its work, the app may eventually become available in the iTunes and Google Play stores.

"There's a big gap of content that's related to -- and designed by -- the very youth that [Urban Apps and Maps] engages," says Temple's Michele Masucci. "And so part of what we're trying to do is to take one of the largest blocks of digital content consumers and turn them into digital content producers." 

"[Apps & Maps] is something the kids really love," she adds. "It's a technology they can carry with them into their futures, whether they decide to go to school, or to take more of an entrepreneurial turn. We're trying to address the interest and need that the students have."

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Michele Masucci, Temple University
 

Growth appears to be in the DNA of Biomeme, a Philadelphia startup. In only a year, the company has raised significant funding, tripled its staff and is moving to larger offices. 

Biomeme "enables anyone to do mobile real-time DNA analysis on a smartphone," explains co-founder Max Perelman. The company makes kits, hardware and software allowing users to easily isolate DNA from a variety of sample types (including blood, water and urine) without the need for lab equipment, and to look for unique DNA signatures of specific targets of interest such as Flu A, E. coli 0157 or sexually transmitted infections (STIs). 

Perelman, Jesse vanWestrienen and Marc DeJohn moved to Philadelphia last spring from New Mexico and California to participate in the DreamIt Health accelerator. From there, Biomeme went to Philadelphia’s NextFab to participate in its residency program and ramp up prototyping and low-volume manufacturing; they were the first company to utilize the partnership between Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) and NextFab. 

Now, with a workforce of 14 (including full-timers, interns and co-op students), Biomeme is moving again into a larger facility featuring lab and manufacturing space on North 3rd Street, a burgeoning tech hub officially dubbed N3RD -- pronounced "Nerd" -- Street by the city.

Markets include test developers and consumers, "anyone," explains Perelman, "who wants a DNA lab in the palm of their hand." Biomeme has successfully completed a number of validation studies with third party laboratories and is preparing a number of developer tools for limited release this year with plans to roll out its STI test panel internationally in 2015. 

Biomeme has raised $1.9 million in seed financing, including $400,000 from BFTP/SEP.

Source: Max Perelman, Biomeme
Writer: Elise Vider

The independent workforce in Philadelphia certainly isn't hurting for shared workspaces. In fact, during the TEDxPhiladelphia conference in late-March, a speaker shared a PowerPoint slide featuring the logos of roughly a dozen local co-working spots, a number of which have opened over the last two years.
 
Now the University City Science Center and Drexel University have announced the launch of the city's latest flexible workspace, known as the Innovation Center @3401. In order to differentiate themselves, they've crafted a specific mission.

"We don't think of the Innovation Center strictly as a co-working space," explains the Science Center's Christopher Liang. "It was designed very purposely to house a mix of residents."
 
The Center was also designed to fill a gap in the University City incubation and startup spectrum. The Science Center's Quorum, for instance, is a social gathering place for local entrepreneurs, while its Port incubator is home to offices and labs.
 
"We've been talking for some time about how we can broaden our offerings to include companies that maybe don't need wet labs," says Liang. "So, the Innovation Center is related to a desire to be more inclusive of the entrepreneurial community -- particularly the tech companies that are starting to become so important to the city."
 
The Center is currently accepting applications from potential residents, which will include a mix of investors, entrepreneurs, startups and stand-alone professionals.

"We're less concerned about the structural format of the residents," adds Liang. "[We're] more concerned with their ability to fit within the general theme of [being] tech and digital creatives."
 
The Innovation Center @3401 plans to open its doors in early June.
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Christopher Liang, University City Science Center

Three craft-beer enthusiasts who work for Bresslergroup, a local product design consultancy, have developed a consumer home-brewing appliance that may one day turn the growing home-brewing industry on its head. The Bresslergroup Brewery, as the team calls its new venture, has created an Arduino-powered automated system that brews computer-assisted beer.

The idea for the appliance was the result of an informal conversation between a small group of employees, all of them home-brewing hobbyists. "One of our partners thought, 'Hey, it'd be pretty cool if we could do this here,'" recalls Todd Sack, a Bresslergroup product design engineer. "Sort of leverage the expertise and talent we have at Bresslergroup to take [home brewing] to the next level.'"
 
And that is exactly what they did.
 
The team's "yearlong quest to innovate … and automate the typical home brew process" -- as it's explained in a company blog post -- has resulted in a setup that still requires a decent level of computer literacy to operate. Should the kit ever make its way to market, however, it would likely include a kettle, a heating element and a thermocouple, as well as an Arduino-operated control box with a user-friendly interface, and an app that could be controlled from a laptop or mobile device. The product would probably come with a retail price-point in the $500 to $600 range. (Similar commercially available units capable of brewing beer are generally priced in the $1,200 to $2,000 range.)
  
As part of this year's upcoming Philly Tech Week, a presentation of the automated system, complete with a beer tasting, will take place at the Bresslergroup offices (6 - 8 p.m. April 9). Reserve your seat here.

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Todd Sack, Bresslergroup

If you're the type of person who keeps a close eye on the gadget-obsessed consumer technology industry -- or if you're simply someone who feels the need to own a tricked-out television -- then there's a decent chance you've recently heard the name Stream TV Networks.

The latest trend in ultra high-definition technology, 4K, is being touted as the next big thing. But just a few years back it was 3DTV being trumpeted by every industry analyst with a magazine column. That prediction, as we now know, never came to pass. Why? The recession certainly didn't help, nor did the functionality issues surrounding those goofy 3D glasses: At upwards of $200 a pair, they were pricey. And they offered no cross-platform functionality -- only Sony's 3D glasses, for example, would work with a Sony 3DTV. To put it plainly, the technology had tons of promise, but too many roadblocks.    

Enter Stream TV Networks, a small Philadelphia-based tech firm. They've been popping up in the national press, thanks to an impressive showing at the 2014 International CES, a massive consumer electronics convention. It was there that Stream TV showed off its most promising new innovation: a fully consumer-adjustable 3D technology that doesn’t require glasses. 

Known as Ultra-D -- the technical term is "autostereo" -- this feature should be available on 4KTV sets sometime this summer. Ultra-D also has the capacity to work on tablets, video game consoles, even Skype. If your device has an HDMI connection, simply plug it into your Ultra-D-enabled TV, and gasp in astonishment as everything from YouTube documentaries to your live chat with grandma pops out of the screen in three surprisingly lifelike and super high-definition dimensions. 

"In the simplest terms, Ultra-D allows any content to be converted in real time into 3D without-glasses,” says Leo Riley, Stream TV's VP of Sales. “It doesn't matter what source it is. It can be internet-based, like YouTube or Netflix. It can be an iPad, an Android tablet, a set-top box, a Blu-ray player, a [Sony PlayStation] -- it doesn't matter." 

Stream TV found its footing back in 2009, after CEO Mathu Rajan purchased a small Silicon Valley-based company that had been dabbling in 3D technology. During an overseas trip, Rajan met four former Phillips technologists who were all looking for work. (Phillips had recently disbanded its own glasses-free 3D division "after dumping almost a billion dollars into it," explains Riley.) Rajan brought all four of them onboard, putting them to work at Stream TV's R&D lab SeeCubic in the Netherlands. 

Almost every member of Stream TV's Center City-based executive team is a native of the Greater Philadelphia area. And while doing more hiring locally isn’t in the immediate future, the company continues to innovate. Recently, they were was one of six Philadelphia firms to win a Marcum Innovator of the Year award, which honors "the contribution of innovation to the Philadelphia area economy." 

Perhaps most promising for the future of the company is the fact that their technology can be imbedded or integrated into anything from a mobile phone to an entire digital city wall system. 

"We have a reach into a lot of different areas of the consumer electronics channel," says Riley. "Basically, anything that has a display, we have a play."

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Leo Riley, Stream TV Networks

Two new biotechnology companies have moved to the University City Science Center's Port Business Incubator. They join the 45 other life science, healthcare IT, and emerging technologies startups currently working there. 

Targeted Therapeutic Solutions and Innolign Biomedical both launched as part of the University of Pennsylvania's UPstart Program, which develops Penn's intellectual property by helping faculty form new companies. The initiative provides participants with access to business planning, advice and support resources through collaborative relationships with entities such as the Science Center.

Targeted Therapeutic Solutions is currently developing a unique agent to reduce the incidence of stroke and bleeding for patients at risk for pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and certain types of heart attacks. Innolign Biomedical is utilizing its microfabrication technologies and tissue engineering to develop assessment platforms for the pharmaceutical industry and biomaterials to promote therapeutic tissue regeneration.

"These two new companies complement the diverse composition of the Science Center's Port incubator," says Christopher J. Laing, MRCVS, Ph.D., the Science Center’s vice president of Science and Technology. "The UPstart Program is creating an exciting pipeline of startups in biotech and emerging technologies. We are delighted to provide an ecosystem that will allow these companies to continue to grow." 

Both startups will use laboratory and office space at the Science Center for product research and development. They have each received Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Laing points out that with 198 hospitals and six major medical schools in the region, Philadelphia is the largest market for healthcare in the country -- which makes it a great city for startups in the field. 

"Greater Philadelphia is also home to 15 leading life science companies, and 78 have headquarters in the region," he says. "That is very important for health companies looking to establish relationships with industry."

Writer: Nicole Woods
Source: Christopher J. Laing, University City Science Center

Imagine gathering all your emails, Facebook posts, tweets, blog posts, documents -- anything you’ve ever added to the internet -- in one place. The stack would be pretty high, right?

Now multiply that by every employee in a Fortune 500 company. That’s exactly what companies do when managing legal disputes. Nuix, an Australian company with a user-experience branch in Jenkintown, allows companies to sift through the glut of "unstructured information" -- including e-communications and other documents -- and pinpoint useable evidence.

The Jenkintown office has helped build Nuix Director, a new product that streamlines the workflow for investigations. The office currently has 25 employees and is hiring user-experience designers and developers.

During a legal investigation, collected documents are pared down by external legal services before landing on an attorney's desk. That process creates potential for miscommunication and human error. Nuix Director allows users to create a template to standardize the process and minimize mistakes.

"Organizations have big piles of unstructured information," says Stephen Stewart, Nuix's global CTO. "You can push a button and be confident that all steps happen the same way every time. You feed data in the front and it out comes a nice, reviewable, organized set of documents."

Of course, it's not just legal disputes that are drowning in documentation. Nuix Jenkintown is currently developing user-experience software to serve other Nuix markets, including criminal investigation and internal business operations. Their products are used in over 35 countries and revenue has consistently grown over the last five years.

"There's no lack of requirements or opportunities," says Stewart. "Every organization is creating new information every day, and we’re innovating every day at a hurried pace."

Source: Stephen Stewart, Nuix
Writer: Dana Henry

Thanks to the power of Google Analytics and online databases, businesses now have volumes of precious data about their customers. The hard part is figuring out what all those numbers mean. 

Enter RJMetrics, a company that creates custom business intelligence software for large e-commerce sites, translating obtuse numbers into real-time metrics. Now, with the beta launch of their "dashboard," RJMetrics is going a step further, handing the metrics back to the clients so they can use the generated charts and tables to inform timely marketing agendas.
 
Typically, if an e-commerce site wants to know the value of a customer over time or how much revenue their Facebook campaign is generating, the answers require complex calculations.

"The kind of analysis that people want to do or have been doing takes a painstakingly long amount of time," says Matt Monihan, UX designer for RJMetrics. "We take that workflow away -- you have a chart that's constantly updated with new data that you don't have to manage."
  
Founders Bob Moore and Jake Stein developed RJMetrics while working for the VC firm Insight Venture Partners where their jobs included gathering metrics on potential investments. After creating countless Powerpoint decks, they realized their process could be automated and that the findings would be invaluable to businesses.
 
Their signature offering, cohort analysis, identifies consumer behavior among groups. Customers who purchase on a certain date, for example, might have a projected lifetime value. Illustrating and responding to these patterns is increasingly critical as online businesses focus on longterm customer relationships.
 
"People care more about customer lifetime value because that data is now available," says Monihan. "There's been a ton of data for as long as e-commerce companies have existed and it's been dormant. Now people can unlock the data."

The company launched in Camden in 2009, but moved to Center City last year to make room for new growth -- their workforce grew from 15 to 26, and their client base has doubled to 130. They are currently hiring for positions in software engineering, programing, marketing and sales, and product management.
 
Source: Matt Monihan, RJMetrics
Writer: Dana Henry

The University City Science Center is now seeking nominations for their Innovators Walk of Fame. The inaugural members will be revealed during the organization's 50th anniversary celebration in October. In preparation, the Science Center is asking Greater Philadelphia to recommend regional candidates who have made an impact in science, technology, engineering, art or math (STEAM). There is also a category for innovative companies.
 
"We're not doing this prescriptively," says Stephen Tang, president and CEO of the Science Center. "We want to hear from the community."
 
Final selections will be made by a committee comprised of Science Center affiliates and members of the regional innovation and entrepreneurial communities. By opening in conjunction with Philly Tech Week and the Science Festival, the call for nominations is expected to draw on the city's growing enthusiasm for discovery and invention.
 
Not yet officially decided, the location of the walk -- think the musical stars on Avenue of the Arts -- will likely be on the Science Center's campus. The monument aims to draw public attention (particularly from local K-12 students) to these individuals and their accomplishments.

With leaders like Buckminster Fuller, biotech pioneer Hubert Schoemaker and radar technologist Britton Chance, Philadelphia has a powerful history to pull from. Tang is looking forward to nominations that reach beyond traditional science hubs.
 
"Innovation is kind of an ethereal concept," he says. "I think we will surprise people because they'll recognize that we've had geniuses in our midst for some time." 
 
Nominations can be submitted here through June 15.

The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia through the "Inventing the Future" series.
 
Source: Stephen Tang, The University City Science Center
Writer: Dana Henry

For health care companies completing arduous clinical trials, there's a saying that every day is worth $1 million. Completing the paperwork required to meet regulations and pay doctors can cost pharmaceutical and biotech companies quite a few extra days.
 
CFS Clinical, based in Audubon, Pa., reduces the time and money spent on forms by automating the process. Using internal proprietary software called InSite, CFS reduces "study startup" -- the time spent signing up patients and proving a site's FDA compliance -- by 20 percent. The platform also works with a global banking network to manage payments to physicians, reducing wait time from up to four months to one month.  
 
According to Kevin Williams, VP of Corporate Development, CFS is the first company to focus exclusively on the business and financial management of clinical trials. The niche has proved lucrative. CFS currently works with seven of the top 20 international pharmaceutical companies and this past year the company (founded in 2001) has grown their revenue and employee base by 50 percent. They now have 75 employees and expect to hire 10 to 15 more within the next year. Positions are available in accounting, software development and project management. 
 
CFS continues to innovate. The company recently added a "Business Intelligence" service that shows clients all their InSite transactions. Starting next year, The Sunshine Act mandates healthcare providers disclose all payment information to the federal government.

"The process of actually making payments in the clinical research world is a bit backwards," says Williams. "We make the payments on the pharmaceutical company's behalf, then we aggregate that data and provide it back to them so they can report it."
 
The payments clinical trials make to physicians -- collectively dubbed "clinical grant spend" -- cover recruiting patients, screening patients, conducting trials and collecting clinical data. Williams says this portion accounts for 40 to 60 percent of a trial's entire budget. According to the February 2011 issue of Focus, clinical grant spend leads to $13 billion in worldwide clinical trial spending. By amassing data from thousands of trials, CFS can predict this cost for individual trials.
 
"Trials, in terms of their timelines, are very volatile," says Williams. "They speed up, they slow down, they're behind, they change timelines. That has significant financial impact. We’re basically empowering our clients to control their finances much better."

Source: Kevin Williams, CFS Clinical
Writer: Dana Henry

Last Tuesday, local university research in healthcare technology got a big boost. As a third component in the StartUp PHL portfolio, the University City Science Center's QED Proof-of-Concept program -- which invests exclusively in medical research from Greater Philadelphia’s academic sector -- was awarded a $500,000 loan from Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PICD) Penn Venture Fund program.
 
QED -- the abbreviated Latin phrase Quod Erat Demonstrandum (proven as demonstrated) -- provides grant money and private sector guidance to help promising studies establish early stage proof-of-concept for commercial application, a cumbersome phase of the research-to-product process. Since 2009, the program has awarded $600,000 annually, divided into $200,000 grants for life science projects and $100,000 grants for research in digital healthcare, a growing field where life science meets information technology. 

According to Stephen Tang, President and CEO of the Science Center, university settings are ideal spaces for developing broad-scope medical science, thanks to their insulation from commercial interests. A diagnostic company, for example, might build a device to detect Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, a university has the freedom to research the molecular identity of the disease which can inform a range of diagnostics and treatments.
 
"The theory on innovation is you have to have very divergent thinking before you have convergent thinking," says Tang. "It's that very divergent thinking that [the Science Center] is trying to tap into and help to converge on commercial opportunities."
  
Past QED participants -- representing 22 regional institutions including Penn, Drexel and the Wistar Institute -- have gone on to launch promising companies. Vascular Magnetics, producers of a drug delivery apparatus created by Dr. Robert Levy, a professor of pediatric cardiology from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and his QED business advisor Richard Woodward, recently raised $7 million in their first round of financing. UE LifeSciences Inc., a medical device company that commercialized research in breast cancer detection by  Dr. Wan Shih of Drexel's School of Biomedical Engineering, eventually received a $878,422 grant from the Pennsylvania Department Of Health's Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) program.
 
While the "Eds and Meds" capital has long been hailed for life science achievements, Tang sees digital healthcare as the next frontier. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, massive amounts of medical records have to be digitized. Furthermore, the bourgeoning field of Genomics -- the science of transcribing an individual's genome to detect genetic disease -- will require terabyte-sized data transfer and manipulation. 
 
Accordingly, the 2012 QED program made awards to mobile healthcare apps developed at Rutgers University. The $500,000 PICD loan -- which is repaid via licensing royalties and revenue from successful projects -- will expand QED within city limits, boosting Philly's role in the health IT industry. 
 
"[Philadelphia] has one of the largest concentrations of healthcare facilities, hospitals and doctors, as well as academic research," says Tang. "We're betting big that that domain will distinguish Philadelphia from other metropolitan areas in the world."

The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia through the "Inventing the Future" series.

Source: Stephen Tang, University City Science Center
Writer: Dana Henry

Most know Christine Knapp as a sustainability ambassador via her outreach roles with Penn Future, the Next Great City Intiative, the Passyunk Square Civic Association and, most recently, the Philadelphia Water Department. But during Ignite Philly 11 (held last Thursday at Johnny Brenda's), Knapp gained a new title: karaoke master.

After sharing best practices from her 15 years of experience, Knapp inspired Indy Hall's Alex Hillman and Flying Kite’s Michelle Freeman to join her onstage for a rendition of Journey's "Don’t Stop Believing."
 
Such is the spirit of Ignite Philly, where local leaders put their titles aside to share their passions. Spoken word artist Erica Hawthorne gave a lively pitch for Small But Mighty Arts Grant, her mission to recover the 72 percent of art in Philly that’s gone "missing" due to lack of funding. Brett Hart of the Wooden Boat Factory explained how wood and the Delaware River are transforming the youth of his native Frankford ("This wood is like my life -- it's hard, but I’m trying to shape it into something," a student once told him). Hive76’s Jordan Miller, a Penn scientist, demonstrated how he generates living vascular structures via 3-D printing -- in sugar.
 
Ignite 11 also reflected Philly’s burgeoning love for open data. Mark Headd, the city's chief data officer, opened the evening by making a compelling analogy between Athenian Democracy and urban open data usage, warning that many Philadelphians still can't participate due to the digital divide (a problem he’s addressing with GetYourToga.org). Dave Zega and Jake Wells of ElectNext revealed their method for using data to verify the claims of politicians. Ben Garvey showed Ignite how data can be made visual -- and more digestible. And Stephanie Alarcon, Amy Gutherie and Georgia Gutherie of the Hacktory shared "Hacking the Gender Gap," a database that tracks causal experiences leading to the gender disparity in tech.
 
Other notable speakers included Amanda Feifer-O'Brien, the force behind a local movement to save beneficial micro-organisms via fermentation; Drew Beecher, president of Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and leader of a national tree-planting campaign; and Ashvika Dhir, the Pennsbury High School Senior behind CauseHub.com, a meta-blog for teenage change-makers. 
 
Ignite 11 was hosted by P'unk Ave's Geoff DiMasi, Indy Hall's Adam Teterus and Breadboard's David Clayton. They also awarded Girl Develop It Philly -- presenters at Ignite 10 -- $1000 to provide tech class scholarships for 50 local women.
 
Source: Ignite Philly 11
Writer: Dana Henry

WordPress launched in 1998, creating a world in which even your grandma’s cookie business could maintain a web presence. On February 21, Apprenaissance -- mobile app creators located in Old City -- relaunched as Artisan. Their flagship product is Artisan Optimize, an app builder at the forefront of a WordPress-style revolution in the mobile sphere. 
 
"In the '90s, everyone had to have a website, but they weren't exactly sure why," says Bob Moul, CEO of Artisan. "To some extent we’re seeing that on apps. People are starting to go to the next level and say, 'Hey, this is actually a really cool way I can engage my customers in ways that I couldn’t do with a website.'"
 
Accessibility, however, is still an issue for app writers. Once an app goes to App Store, Apple controls it. A simple change in wording, color or image goes through the builder's IT department, and is then resubmitted to Apple. At least a week goes by before Apple releases the update. The process can often take a month or longer.
 
Artisan Optimize shifts the power dynamic with Mobile Experience Management, a platform that enables point-click style revisions for mobile apps. Artisan’s patent-pending technology allows their cloud to update Apple's system, creating an uninterrupted pathway from app author to the App Store.
 
By eliminating the need for code, Artisan allows non-developers to make changes. A marketing department using Artisan can also observe resulting traffic -- down to the specific actions of individual users -- with Optimize’s Experimental Analytics.
 
The relaunch closed its seed round of fundraising with $3 million from First Mark Capital and angel investors. They are hiring developer, sales and technical writing postions.

Moul said Artisan expected their product to be a hit with mid-level retail corporations but was surprised to find that conglomerates the size of Disney (which owns 600 mobile apps) are expressing interest. Artisan is demonstrating the new product this week at Etail West 2013, a national e-retailers trade show in Palm Springs, California.

Source: Bob Moul, Artisan
Writer: Dana Henry

In 2010, a Cornell University-led research team made a technological breakthrough: Tiny beams of light reached into a microscope slide and grabbed a cellular protein without significantly altering the protein’s environment. Scientists were already capable of grasping a whole cell using optical tweezers, but a protein is up to 5,000 times smaller and in constant rapid motion—it’s also critical to our understanding of physiology and disease.
 
Thanks to Optofluidics, research labs will finally be able to pin down this elusive element. The company, a tenant of the University City Science Center, licenses Cornell’s technology and is currently marketing the "Molecular NanoTweezer." They will launch their product within six months, and are hiring a nanobiotech applications engineer.
 
According to Rob Hart, co-founder and chief technical officer at Optofluidics, commercializing a new technology is a "heck of a lot of work." In the confines of the academic laboratory, a ten percent success rate is considered an achievement. The real world, however, is a far messier place, and a marketable product needs to work consistently.
 
Optofluidics partnered with NextFab Studio on a range of custom parts and developed their system design in conjunction with Horsham-based Avo Photonics. They’ve accumulated $580,000 in private investment from the Ben Franklin Nanotechnology Institute and BioAdvance, along with $1.5 million in federal and foundation grants.
 
Nanotechnology has broad implications for the spectrum of scientific research--it can be used to make new medicines, create more efficient solar panels or build better bike frames. For health sciences, the Molecular NanoTweezer enables the increasingly popular field of single-molecule research. "It sounds advanced because it is," says Hart. "It’s a really cutting edge way of moving things around."
 
According to Hart, pharmaceutical companies and several large universities, including Drexel, Penn, Princeton and Cornell, have expressed interest in purchasing the product upon it’s release.

Source: Rob Hart, Optofluidics
Writer: Dana Henry

South Philly’s “light” industrial core—a.k.a. Washington Avenue West—just got a lot heavier. NextFab is expanding their stable of high-tech gear and community of inventors to a 21,000-square-foot warehouse at Washington Avenue and 21st Street. The grand opening party is scheduled for January 17.

The doors open wide enough for an onsite forklift. They guard cutting-edge equipment, including a five-axis waterjet cutter and a computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine. Additional room allows for private member offices, a sizeable woodshop, conference and class rooms, and a walk-in booth for painting hefty objects. The new site also includes a television lounge and satellite Cafe L'Aube.

“There is enough space for all of us to think and work in comfort,” says founder and president Evan Malone.

Three years ago, NextFab made news, pioneering a space where emerging makers could access 3D printers, laser cutters, textile machines and other advanced technologies for a monthly fee. Their short legacy of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) achievement for Philadelphia at large includes work with Optofluidics, UE Life Sciences, Philadelphia Futures and Atomic Robotics.  

Although an impressive list of creative enterprises—including Pocket Grill, Master of None and Maria Eife Jewelry & Design—has hatched under their roof, most do not come to NextFab with know-how. "We helped hundreds of people with no technical background understand and learn to use digital fabrication technology," says Malone.

He adds that anyone with an affinity for technology and creativity is welcome to check out the space. Co-making, after all, is about sharing. "[The grand opening party] is our chance to show off the amazing new capabilities our members and clients now have access to," says Malone, "and to entice other curious Philadelphians inside."

Source: Evan Malone, NextFab
Writer: Dana Henry