Emerging Technology : Innovation + Job News

A year after receiving their first certification from the Association of Analytical Communities International (AOAC), Invisible Sentinel -- the "garage" biotech startup -- is growing fast. They’re pulling in enough revenue to break-even on initial investment (over $7 million) by 2014. The company is graduating from the University City Science Center's Port Business Incubator and will remain on the Science Center campus.
 
Invisible Sentinel makes disposable, rapid diagnostic tools that test for food contaminants such as Salmonella, Listeria and Campylobacter. Veriflow, the company's patented technology, cuts down on both time and human error, making testing easier, cheaper and more reliable. Invisible Sentinel has a broad client base -- so far their products have been popular among dairy farms, peanut butter factories, meat manufacturers and third party labs that use their technology to conduct outsourced testing for large processors.
 
"Everybody who makes and produces food is our customer base," says Ben Pascal, cofounder and CBO. "It's really countrywide."
 
That means the company has a lot of work to do. They're currently outfitting and staffing an in-house manufacturing center complete with a robotics system. Open positions include manufacturing technician, quality director, production manager, financial and accounting services, sales and scientist. They will continue to raise capital for this phase.
 
"It's all expansion capital," says Pascal. "A lot of the risk associated with research and development is gone. Our challenge now is scaling to be able to meet demand."
 
Invisible Sentinel -- currently an 18-person team -- will remain in Philly thanks to low-interest government financing and flexible accommodations from the Science Center. They've received FDA approval on two products and expect approval for two more in the near future. The company recently released a video demonstrating how their devices work.
 
Source: Ben Pascal, Invisible Sentinel
Writer: Dana Henry

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 a $745,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and help from an undisclosed partner, Graphene Frontiers is gearing up to produce graphene. This "super material" -- only one atom thick—is ten times stronger than diamonds and the best known conductor of electricity. In the next 18 to 24 months, Graphene Frontiers, which works out of the University City Science Center’s Port Business Incubator, expects to become one of the world first producers.
 
In order to handle the massive manufacturing startup costs, Graphene Frontiers is working with a local corporation. The partners have developed a new type of diagnostic tool -- called a field effect transistor (FET) biosensor -- that use graphene to improve how disease is detected.
 
"We've been so focused on making graphene and proving that it was possible to make it high quality," says CEO Mike Patterson. "We're not going to build a $100 million dollar facility and crank out sheets of graphene. We had to find the right application."
 
Current diagnostic devices rely on silicon wafers. The wafer contains targets for disease indicators including antibodies, antigens and other foreign chemicals. A patient's fluid sample (usually blood or urine) is applied to the microchip and disease markers bind to the targets. To confirm a diagnosis, however, doctors run multiple tests for various indicators. It’s time consuming and costly.
 
Ultra-thin graphene channels give the FET biosensor superior sensitivity. The device can test for several indicators at once and provide an instantaneous diagnosis.
 
Recently, Graphene Frontiers hired two material scientists. The FET biosensors will be created for biochemistry research departments and pharmaceutical developers. In five years, if the new device receives FDA approval, doctors and health practitioners will become the next market. One day, label-free bio-sensors could even be used at home for self-diagnosis.
 
"We can do so much with graphene," says Patterson. "The real question is what are we going to do?"
 
The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia through the "Inventing the Future" series.

Source: Mike Patterson, Graphene Frontiers
Writer: Dana Henry

In the next five years, the market for cloud computing -- the virtual network that maintains web activity -- will reach $40 billion.
 
Cloudamize, a Center City-based company currently partnered with MissionOG, is poised take advantage of that growth. They offer a management tool that helps clients maximize their web performance while minimizing associated costs. The company recently closed its seed round of fundraising with $1.2 million in investment; they are seeking developers and sales associates. 
 
Think of the cloud as a utility with various servers -- or information centers -- communicating to one another. In general, the more complex a web application (and the more traffic it gets), the more it taxes the cloud. That burden can cost companies a lot of money. Most cloud servers are virtual. They exist through specialized software that connects to a larger physical server. This means they can be scaled to fit the required load. Yet, understanding which servers need to be scaled and how can be complicated and costly.
 
"Getting on the cloud is very easy," says Khushboo Shah, founder and CEO of Cloudamize. "But once we get there, we realize we are not getting all the benefits."
 
Cloudamize acts as a smart meter for the cloud. They evaluate how the activity of a web application gets distributed between servers and how that distribution can be improved. The platform then recommends direct actions to increase efficiency. If a client anticipates modifications to their site or changes in web traffic, they can also use Cloudamaize to plan the best possible distribution strategy.
 
"The cloud is supposed to be elastic," explains Shah. "Increase infrastructure when you have peak traffic and dial it down when you don't need it. It's essentially marrying the cost and performance together."
 
Source: Khushboo Shah, Cloudamize
Writer: Dana Henry

Imagine knowing how much energy a apartment consumed before you signed the lease. Thanks to the recent enactment of the Building Energy Benchmarking Law -- an energy-use disclosure act -- and the expertise of the Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) Hub, the environmental performance of buildings will soon be public information.

People who own buildings with over 50,000 square feet of space are now required to report property stats, including annual energy and water use, through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's online Portfolio Manager. (The deadline for compliance is October 31, 2013). With help from EEB Hub, those numbers will be analyzed to determine a building's energy efficiency rating. By publishing the results in an open, searchable database, the city hopes to spark a ripple of efficiency improvements.

Energy benchmarking is a new strategy but it's already changing cities across the country. In New York, for example, buildings reduced consumption by 18 to 31 percent after the first year of implementation.

"You can't manage what you don't measure," says Laurie Actman, deputy director of the EEB Hub. "This provides a measurement tool. Hopefully, there will be tenants who seek out more efficient buildings and that will drive more owners to invest in energy efficiency."

Starting August 14, EEB Hub will offer five monthly sessions on the benchmarking process, explaining strategies and resources for increasing building performance. The series compliments a two day "re-tuning" seminar – scheduled for September 23 through a partnership between EEB Hub, Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Philadelphia and the EPA -- that teaches building operators to reduce energy costs through ongoing refinements.

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

Source: Laurie Actman, Energy Efficiency in Buildings Hub
Writer: Dana Henry

Google Glass is coming to market this winter, ushering in an era in which users augment reality by strapping the internet to their faces. Not quite, says Det Ansinn, founder and president of Doylestown-based BrickSimple. The company is busy creating apps for users who truly need to keep their hands free.
 
With BrickSimple's Glass apps, critical care doctors can save invaluable time by virtually accessing medical records while they treat the patient. Construction crews can receive instructions from remote managers while they build. Drivers can anticipate directions without looking down at a GPS screen. The company has even developed GlassBattle, the first game made for Google's new platform.
 
"There are a lot of things that you do that don’t work well while holding a smartphone or tablet," says Ansinn. "We realized we could build a whole new class of apps."
 
The company's ambition is no surprise. In 2002, BrickSimple launched Foundation Suite, one of the first successful app development platforms. In 2008, they were among the first to release products for Apple's app store. This year, they were among the few companies in the world invited to Google Glass Foundry, a top-secret hackathon that first unveiled Glass to developers. Soon after, Google provided BrickSimple with pre-released devices.
 
Since its 2001 inception, the company has been developing apps for a slate of industries, from entertainment to finance. They currently employ 25 people, and plan to hire two more developers this month.
 
With six glass apps ready for release and six more in development, BrickSimple has been spending a lot of their time investigating new needs for a world not yet realized. DrivingGlass for example, will allow drivers to monitor performance and fuel economy as they drive -- and their eyes will never leave the road.

"I'm very excited where mainstream wearable computing will take us in the industry," says Ansinn.
 
Source: Det Ansinn, BrickSimple
Writer: Dana Henry

Old City's Artisan is changing the way companies connect to mobile customers. The company -- creators of Artisan Optimize and Mobile Experience Management (MEM), a combined self-publishing and analytics platform for app-builders -- is releasing new features that turn app design into a science. 
 
Through Optimize, businesses can perform "advanced targeting," a practice that used to be exclusive to websites. When testing out new design changes, this option allows clients to curate their audience according to demographics and location. Additionally, they can use "confidence scoring" to track when these tests have grown large enough to yield trustworthy results.
 
"We want to give users the ability to really understand what's happening on their app," says CEO Bob Moul. "Small changes can really make a big difference in click-through rates."
 
The response to this new information has been dramatic. One Optimize client improved their app's click-through rate by 50 percent simply by changing the location of a button. Another discovered that using red instead of green increased their app's engagement by 30 percent.
 
"Part of this is taking the guess work out," says Moul. "It's not always about what aesthetically looks right."
 
Of course, higher click-through rates mean more revenue -- over 40 of the top 100 retail sites are experimenting with Optimize and MEM. In its first quarter since releasing Optimize, Artisan (formerly known as AppRenaissance) has hired 10 new employees -- rounding out a team of 25 -- and expects to add up to 15 more within two years. They have also received a total of $7 million from FirstMark Capital and angel investors.
 
Source: Bob Moul, Artisan
Writer: Dana Henry

Seeds, chemical drops, pharmaceutical drugs, nuts and bolts -- much of the world's economy relies on tiny objects. Thanks to the Ball-Coleman Seed Counter, created by Newtown-based Coleman Technologies, keeping track of those pieces just got a lot easier.
 
Coleman Technologies specializes in hardware and software for vision systems -- camera-enabled machines that rapidly translate visual images into data. It's a key resource for quality control. Because the camera has a single viewpoint, the typical vision system can only "see" objects that pass by in a flat or two-dimensional stream (think conveyer belt).  

The Ball-Coleman, however, bounces the camera's viewpoint off a mirror angled at 90 degrees. This allows the machine to capture and compare different sides of the same image, and to count objects in a thick or three-dimensional stream. With a Ball-Coleman, a long flat Marigold seed, for example, can't hide behind another. While the typical seed counter averages 100 seeds per second, the Ball-Coleman can recognize up to 2,000 objects per second.  
 
"Seed counters look at the seeds straight on," explains Paul Falkenstein, vice president of Automated Inspection Systems. "We're looking at seeds dropping in two directions instead of one, and can count in much higher volume."
  
Coleman Technologies spent four years developing the machine in partnership with Chicago-based Ball Horticultural, a company that now owns exclusive sales and distribution rights to the product. Coleman is currently investigating additional partnerships and wants to apply their technology to a range of industries. With the enhanced machine, the mining industry, for example, wouldn't have to sift through their findings -- in addition to counting, the Ball-Coleman can also identify different types of objects or materials.
 
The company has grown from two to eight employees in the past four years. They are hiring LabView Developers with software engineering experience.
 
"There's a lot of possibilities out there," says Falkenstein. "We already have one partner who loves it."
 
Source: Paul Falkenstein, Coleman Technologies
Writer: Dana Henry

Sometimes a product is so compelling that it's worthy of its own brand. Take Slate, an online portal for high schools, for example. The platform, which centralizes data and digital tools, was created by Northern Liberties-based software company Jarvus Innovations and has garnered more demand than the company can keep up with. As a result, Jarvus is developing Slate into a separate company, with the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) and the Sustainability Workshop as clients.

Slate was created by Chris Alfano, Jarvus’s CTO and SLA's Director of IT. The product has been developed through partnership with SLA for three years. The students, teachers and administrators at SLA had been using multiple networks including Google Apps, Moodle and SchoolNet -- and had separate accounts for each. Jarvus links those networks into a single database which users access through their Google account.

"Schools usually have four or five different systems that they use," says John Fazio, CEO of Jarvus. "Slate offers central access to connect different systems."

The program streamlines communication for both students and staff. In the past, when a teacher tried out a new digital grading book, for example, those numbers had to be exported to an Excel spreadsheet. With Slate, administrators can access information as the teacher adds it, regardless of what app the teacher uses. Likewise, teachers can maintain a history of their lesson content as they experiment with new digital programs.   

"There's this flood of education technology tools," says Fazio. "Trying out new tools has a big adoption factor. Slate acts as that underlying dashboard system because we have their data centralized."

Jarvus recently enrolled Slate in Good Company Ventures. They are hiring developers and senior software engineers, and will consider adding product managers with development backgrounds.

Source: John Fazio, Jarvus
Writer: Dana Henry

For venture capitalists, good investing is all about assessing risk versus potential. MissionOG, a Berwyn-based investment firm, has found a smarter way: Identify the opportunity and then join the team.

The "OG" stands for "Operating Group," an ode to the team's background and company model. Previous to founding MissionOG, all four members were high-level operations managers (three worked together at Ecount). Since launching in September 2012, they've helped fast-track three of Philly's rapidly growing business-to-business companies: Cloudmine, Cloudamize and PeopleLinx.

"Our roots are in executing in early-stage companies and helping build them from the ground up," says Drew Kese, managing partner at MissionOG. "We wanted to take that to the venture community."

As the software revolution continues to build -- and produce cheaper and cheaper backend web solutions -- the cost of starting a company has steadily dropped. This presents a new challenge: How do you maximize know-how in a market that's rapidly changing? MissionOG works directly with clients. They help manage the logistical side, allowing companies to spend 80 percent of their time "pointing at the market," or probing the market problem as it evolves.

"It's almost too easy from the money side," says Kese. "We're trying to inject some expertise so the money people raise goes further."

The firm is closely connected to DreamIt Ventures. Three of four partners are mentors at the incubator, and two of the three initial companies are DreamIt grads. As they grow, MissionOG hopes to serve three or four companies at a time.

"The time we invest is a differentiator," Says Kese. "The only way to understand the market problem is to roll your sleeves up and understand it intimately."
 
Source: Drew Kese, MissionOG
Writer: Dana Henry

As Philadelphia prepares to close dozens of schools, afterschool enrichment -- a lifeline to arts, athletics and academics -- is also in peril. That’s why Chris Alfano, CTO of JarvUs and brigade leader of Code for Philly, and Faye Anderson, founder of Tracking Change, are building a wiki-based platform that identifies available programs. The team's project, What’s Going On?, won Philly’s fifth Random Hacks of Kindness (RHOK) this past weekend at Drexel’s ExCiTe Center.

This year's RHOK joined forces with hackathons around the globe under the umbrella of National Day of Civic Hacking. The event was organized by Technically Philly through partnerships with Azavea, Code for America, Drexel and the City of Philadelphia. There were five final projects and over 20 participants.

When the Alfano and Anderson first investigated the afterschool issue, they noticed that the data is often incomplete or outdated. Some programs, like the Free Library's Literacy Enrichment Afterschool Program, are burried in individual branch sites. For families with limited internet access and know-how, the lack of an accurate, central resource is a major barrier.

"They need to find things in the community and there's no directory," says Alfano. "Someone who's researching is going to have to be making phone calls and checking up on everything they find."

Instead of creating a static app, which relies on a developer for updates, What’s Going On? is a search engine built on public wiki pages. Users and program directors can submit program pages or update existing ones, creating a more comprehensive repository.

The winning app was first conceived during February’s Tech Camp, which addressed challenges in public education. According to Brian Kirk, co-founder of Technically Philly, relationships between hackers and hackathons have become increasingly common in the civic engagement space. For example, Sheltr, the second place finisher at RHOK, was first created during a hackathon several years ago. The team that worked on it during this recent event was a completely new group.

"There's a community that has an understanding of the data ecosystem and what's being built," says Kirk. "Without any big leadership change, we've seen it coalesce and get pushed further down the road."

Source: Faye Anderson, Chris Alfano, What’s Going On?; Brian Kirk, Technically Philly
Writer: Dana Henry 

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

Filling out applications -- for a loan, for a job, for a college -- can be tedious and often fruitless work. ApplyRapid is changing that. Their two-way mobile search engine connects recruiters and applicants based on shared data points.
 
A college basketball coach, for example, might be looking for a point guard (with an admissable GPA and SAT score). Meanwhile, a student-athlete and their family might be seeking a certain athletic division, academic program or scholarship. With iMatchAthletes.com, created using the ApplyRapid platform, both parties can leave Google behind and search for their "best fit" by setting criteria in selected fields. The system ranks resulting matches, and aggregates game footage and sports news according to user specifications.
 
"The students are playing, practicing and studying in the dark," says Donta’ Bell, founder and CEO of ApplyRapid. "They have no idea what the coaches are looking for, so how do they prepare?"
 
ApplyRapid -- which is based in the Waterfront Technology Center in Camden -- has also leased their platform to iMatchTalent.com, a human resources site, and iMatchBizOpps.com, a site that connects businesses and vendors. All three sites have been alpha tested and anticipate beta release in the coming months. The company is currently working with the Camden County Department of Economic Development on a local business-to-business purchasing program using iMatchBizOpps.
 
"There are so many silos of information that are all over the place," says Bell. "Right now, everybody has their own database. We universally globalize information collection so that there’s a standard format."
 
Source: Donta’ Bell, Apply Rapid
Writer: Dana Henry

For Philly's burgeoning community of indie game makers and enthusiasts, GameLoop is a chance to swap ideas, learn techniques and make new contacts in a growing industry. Philly's second incarnation of this event takes place at University of the Arts' Terra Hall on Saturday, May 18.

Dubbed an "unconference," GameLoop has no set agenda. Participants propose and decide on talks and roundtables at the beginning of the day during an open floor discussion.

"[The local gaming community] has brought together programmers, artists, musicians, designers, modelers -- you name it," says organizer Ray Merkler. "A rapidly growing indie game scene needs events like this to share ideas and create new relationships."

GameLoop originated in Boston in 2008. Merkler brought the concept to Philly in 2011, after meeting founder Scott Macmillan at the PAX East gaming show in Boston. Philly's first GameLoop drew 80 people, including leaders from Boston, New York and Baltimore. Topics covered included 2-D and 3-D design, prototyping, and business models, but Merkler says GameLoop isn't just about development or the industry. For example, someone looking to build a new narrative into a classic game, such as Dungeons and Dragons, is welcome to share.

"You can attract new talent into your city, or you can take the talent you already have and let it interact in new ways," says Merkler. "GameLoop tries to do the latter."

Source: Ray Merkler, GameLoop Philly
Writer: Dana Henry

In an innovative effort to help neighborhood arts thrive, the City of Philadelphia has launched CultureBlocks, a GIS-enabled mapping tool that helps agencies and grant providers link cultural assets to place.

CultureBlocks was created in partnership with the Social Impact of the Arts Project at Penn and the Reinvestment Fund, which provided PolicyMap, a GIS mapping tool that became the foundation for the site.
 
"We're trying to showcase what's happening in Philadelphia," says Moira Baylson, deputy cultural officer at the City's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. "It's not just about what's happening downtown -- it's exploring the ecosystem of arts and culture. We say on a neighborhood level, but we're really talking about Philadelphia in its entirety."

By typing in a zipcode, neighborhood or council district, users can identify cultural work, events, resources and related information. They can create a profile of an area or match their specific interests to locale. The tool includes more than formal institutions -- with over 50 data sets, it also features collectives, daycares and churches across all neighborhoods.

Ultimately, the app is intended to encourage longterm growth in the creative sector by helping funders and policymakers -- including Parks and Recreation, the Planning Commission, and the Commerce Department -- view arts and culture as an asset for neighborhood development.

The tool is free to the public and expected to serve relocating businesses, community development corporations, organizations looking to build an audience and residents who want to check out the arts in their neighborhood.

"A lot of people understand the role of arts and culture in economy and in creating vibrant neighborhoods," says Baylson. "CultureBlocks is how we demonstrate it."
 
Source: Moira Baylson, Deputy Cultural Officer at the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy
Writer: Dana Henry

Working with clients can be a challenge. For example, every time DMi Partners, a Center City-based internet marketing firm, launched a new campaign, they had to rely on the client to provide a decent landing page -- the final juncture in converting a surfer into a customer. Prism, the company's new content management system, lets DMi handle that critical component internally.

DMi mainly serves large corporations in consumer packaged goods, insurance and continuing education who are looking to add thousands to tens of thousands of new customers per month. With Prism, they can seamlessly integrate preconfigured forms into any of their webpages, turning a static advertisement into customer engagement.

"When we configure a new offer or a new campaign in our system, it's very easy for us to turn that campaign into a landing page," says James Delaney, COO of DMi Partners.

DMi is ten years old and has 80 employees. They are currently hiring marketing specialists, junior developers and business development reps. As the company expanded, they moved from a 8,000-square-foot space on South Broad Street to 16,000 square feet closer to City Hall.

Ultimately, Prism is expected to get more customers onto landing pages, which translates into greater likelihood for success. "It helps the speed that the end consumer perceives when they arrive at one of the sites," says Delaney. "The faster you can serve those pages to the consumer, the more likely you are to get a conversion, because they’re not waiting around."

Source: James Delaney, DMi Partners
Writer: Dana Henry