University City : Innovation + Job News

The Navy Yard is fast becoming a national nexus for energy advancements. In addition to the Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) Hub, the formerly derelict warehouse district has gained Viridity Energy, Oxicool, Pace Controls and the Mark Group in recent years.
 
Now the University City Science Center is bringing Quorum programming (Flying Kite, February 19, 2013) to the Navy Yard from March 14 through January 31, 2014. Per EEB Hub’s request, "Satellite" Quorum will focus on Philly's growing clean energy and energy retrofit sectors.
 
"Flagship Quorum really is a broad program open to entrepreneurs in any part of tech-based innovation," explains Jeanne Mell, the Science Center's Vice President of Marketing Communications. "We're taking the principals we learned with flagship and applying them to a much more targeted sector."
 
At Satellite Quorum, "Coffee and Capital," a gateway to the tech investment community, becomes "Coffee and Counsel," in which a selected leader in energy enterprise fields questions from a small audience of entrepreneurs. The Science Center is also developing programming that addresses sector specific issues such as strategies for approaching building managers. Additionally, the series provides ongoing networking, a key component to startup acceleration.
 
As the first member of  Satellite Quorum's Strategic Partner Alliance,  Clean Tech Open, a national incubator, will help promote programming.  According to Laurie Actman of EEB Hub, the recent passage of Philadelphia's Commercial Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Act, will give the retrofit sector even more of a boost, increasing the need for industry-specific programming.
 
The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia through the "Inventing the Future" series.

Source: Jeanne Mell, Kristen Fitch, The University City Science Center; Laurie Actman, EEB Hub
Writer: Dana Henry

One of the hidden advantages of going to college in Philadelphia is accessibility to the local startup community. Practically every other week there’s a startup weekend, hackathon or Philly Startup Leaders (PSL) event.  
 
When Dias Gotama, an International Information Systems major at Drexel, started attending these events he was surprised to find there weren’t many other students. 

"An entrepreneurship ecosystem is growing really fast in Philadelphia," says Gotma. "A lot of events that happen aren’t well targeted to students -- they’re either really expensive or organizations don’t know how to reach students on a granular level."

Nvigor -- a student organization he cofounded with fellow Drexel student Abhiroop Das and Pulak Mittal, a Penn student -- hopes to change that.

Students who sign up with Nvigor receive a list of events culled from the PSL listserv and Philly Startup Digest. Nvigor also helps organize student scholarships for pricey events such as Lean Startup Machine and Startup Weekend Health.
 
The group is working with the City's Office of New Urban Mechanics on a curriculum for students interested in civic-minded startups. In addition, they’re planning a Student Startup Conference for the upcoming Philly Tech Week.
 
Nvigor recently received sponsorship from Smart IMS -- they will pay for the group's membership at Culture Works, an organization that provides management resources and operational support. Eventually, Nvigor hopes to help students get part-time jobs or apprenticeships at emerging companies. They also plan to expand their services to suburban schools.
 
"If students come to these events, and they like them, word will spread about Philadelphia’s startup community," says Gotama. 

Source: Dias Gotama, Abhiroop Das and Pulak Mittal, Nvigor
Writer: Dana Henry

After receiving a final contribution from the University of Pennsylvania, the University City Science Center closed its Open the Doors Campaign. The first fundraiser in the local institution's fifty year history raised over $1 million for Quorum. This "clubhouse for entrepreneurs" has a two-pronged mission: to provide a place where entrepreneurs can meet and present a programming series designed to help those entrepreneurs move forward.
 
Quorum -- equipped with meeting rooms, a lounge and a small auditorium -- is distinguished from traditional coworking spaces through open accessibility. Local entrepreneurs are encouraged to use the space to host meetings or to just drop by to work among their peers. No membership required.
 
"We really want to give people the chance to make informal connections," says Jeanne Mell, VP of marketing and  communications for the Science Center.
 
The roster of investment and advising opportunities includes Coffee and Capital, an educational meeting between an investor and 20 entrepreneurs; Office Hours, where local business experts -- including Jeff Libson from Pepper Hamilton, Jeff Bodle from Morgan Lewis and Allison Deflorio from Exude -- meet individual entrepreneurs to answer pre-submitted questions; Angel Education, which hosts a panel of entrepreneurs to educate angel investors about opportunities in emerging industries;  and How to Talk to Money, a new series by BizClarity's Steve Bowman on approaching investors.  
 
The concept emerged from recommendations made by Select Greater Philadelphia's CEO Council for Growth. Since opening in 2011, the facility has serviced 12,000 individuals and hosted 250 events. The Science Center has also partnered with the Navy Yard's EEB Hub on Satellite Quorum, to offer programing on energy-related ventures.
 
Open the Doors received support from 34 private companies and institutions, including Morgan Lewis, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Energy Plus. Moving forward, the Science Center expects to provide opportunities for ongoing sponsorship.
 
"As the money has rolled in, it's been used to support Quorum's programing," says Mell. "This is really the first step in our fundraising journey."
 
Source: Jeanne Mell, University City Science Center
Writer: Dana Henry

Our partner for the "Inventing the Future" series is the University City Science Center.

Drexel University has been making headlines as a leading innovator in higher education. In addition to launching the Center for Visual and Decision Informatics, the school spearheaded the ExCITe Center (featured in the December 4 issue of Flying Kite). Now they’re taking it a step further, announcing the foundation of the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, slated to open in fall 2013. 

The curriculum has not been officially announced, but founding dean Dr. Donna DeCarolis says Close will put less emphasis on traditional business programing. Instead, the new school will stress actionable skills such as teamwork and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Students will develop expertise in a particular discipline -- whether it's engineering, science or the arts -- while building business know-how.

"It’s important in a very broad way that we teach our students how to be entrepreneurial in their personal and professional lives," says DeCarolis.

The Close School was founded with a $12.5 million endowment from the Charles and Barbara Close Foundation. It is one of the first freestanding schools devoted to entrepreneurship in the country. Close will offer incoming freshman a "living and learning community" where students dorm together and engage in venture-related activities. Sophomores and juniors can opt for an "entrepreneurship co-op," and receive funding and mentorship to work exclusively on their new enterprise.

Entrepreneurship, explains DeCarolis, is not just about starting a business. The ability to develop an idea and follow it through is increasingly valuable. Even within the corporate structure, today’s executives look to their employees for new ideas and a demonstrated ability to innovate.

It's also about flexibility. "Students that graduate today, by the time they're in their forties, will have had ten or so jobs," says DeCarolis. "Many of those jobs will be self-employment."

Source: Donna DeCarolis, Drexel's Close School of Entrepreneurship
Writer: Dana Henry

Most everyday objects, particularly mobile devices, could benefit from an added solar panel. That was the original hypothesis of "Team Spore," winners of this weekend’s Lean Startup Machine Philly 3.0, held at Drexel University's Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship.

The team of Drexel undergrads -- Mark Brandon, Dylan Kenny and Jason Browne -- walked away with an AWeber account, a month-long membership at Seed Philly and web development through the Venturepact X incubator .

Lean Startup Machine (often incorrectly lumped in with Startup Weekend) focuses on building the concept rather than a working product. Participants spent three days testing their assumptions and interviewing potential customers.
 
Half of the 55 participants were students. To lure those students, organizer Kert Heinecke moved the event from VentureF0rth to University City. The Baiada Institute, the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at University of the Arts and AWebber provided several student scholarships. Dan Shipper, a Penn junior who cofounded Airtime for Email and Firefly, was a guest speaker.
  
Browne -- who met Brandon and Kenny at the event -- admits his concept was simple, but says the team benefited from rigorous testing. "Usually, if I have an idea, I jump right in," he says. "Taking a step back and thinking about [our concept] from a market -- not a marketing -- perspective was helpful."

Session mentors included Chris Cera from Arcweb, Ted Mann from SnipSnap, Brad Denenberg from Seed Philly, Jake Stein from RJ Metrics and Yasmine Mustafa, cofounder of 123Links and Girl Develop IT Philly.
 
Twelve teams made it to the finals. Second place was awarded to Paper Wool, a home goods design company and graduate of the Corzo Incubator and Good Company Ventures. Washington, D.C. team Busted, which helps customers find shop for bras online, finished third.
 
Source: Kert Heinecke, Lean Startup Machine Philly; Jason Browne, Team Spore
Writer: Dana Henry

Students can make great entrepreneurs, but VenturePact—founded by Penn students Randy Rayess and Pratham Mittal—is proving they can also be wise investors. The emerging firm is releasing its first class of startups.
 
A few months ago, First Round Capital launched student investors with The Dorm Room Fund (featured in a December issue of Flying Kite), entrusting $500,000 worth of capital to undergrads. VenturePact, on the other hand, didn’t begin with major cash. The group invests technical handiwork -- building out the startup’s product -- in exchange for a fee and partial equity.
 
Development can be outsourced, but it’s tough for non-techies to evaluate quality: A product riddled with bugs can still look great on a screen. VenturePact’s "partnership" model changes the incentives.
 
"Now that we have equity stakes, we want to build the best possible businesses," explains Rayess. "We want to keep them and nurture them."
 
VenturePact received over fifty applications at inception, but accepted only three: Accompliss, an app that helps hotels connect with guests; AirCare, a video-based professional coordination app tailored to the healthcare industry; and Boupp, an app that helps the fashion industry consult with customers on emerging trends.
 
The new platforms will be maintained by Penn students, who will receive school credit through VenturePact’s fellowship program. Rayess expects to eventually offer incubation services to startups, connecting them to mentors, publicists and venture capitalists.
 
VenturePact received a significant publicity boost in September 2012, when First Round Capital CEO Josh Kopelman tweeted about them. They’ve since connected with the venture arms of IBM and General Electric, who expressed interest in sending incubated companies their way.

Source: Randy Rayess, VenturePact
Writer: Dana Henry

Here's a 21st century riddle: Why, in an age of endless instant media, are coffee shop corkboards and telephone poles still cluttered with printed flyers?

According to HootBoard founder Satyajeet Shahade, the answer is our ever-shrinking attention spans. Everyday, a torrent of Twitter headlines, Pinterest pictures and Facebook updates stand between timely messages and their target audience. HootBoard, which operates out of the University City Science Center’s Quorum, pushes messages to the front of the line with a virtual "flyer" combining social media channels and design elements. The company completed Novotorium’s business launch program and will release the beta version of its product this week.

Back in 2011, Shahade was working on Raspee, a platform for scholarly work. In a broad attempt to reach students and professors, he spent hundreds of dollars and endless hours covering local campuses with pieces of paper. "It was painful," says Shahade. "And worst part was that we didn’t even know if anyone was looking at these flyers."

The flyer needed a 21st century makeover. HootBoard takes advantage of recent advancements in front end web design technology to integrate multiple channels -- including videos, music, maps and meetup invites -- into a fully customizable posting. HootBoard also provides private bulletin boards for communities that share a physical address, school or workplace.  

"Everyone has a need to announce or promote something," says Shahade.

Source: Satyajeet Shahade, HootBoard
Writer: Dana Henry

Curalate launched its groundbreaking visual analytics platform in 2011 and began accruing an impressive client base, including The Gap, Michael Kors, Campbell's and Saks Fifth Avenue. Now the University City-based company has broadened its focus to include customer engagement strategy.
 
The investment community has gotten behind the decision. Curalate’s seed round funders—New Enterprise Associates, MentorTech Ventures and First Round Capital—have reinvested $3 million in their Series A. The company has grown from four to 14 employees in the past year and now seeks web developers.
 
Visual analytics, the foundation of Curalate’s subscription plan, enables large companies to track images on platforms like Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr. "Increasingly, consumers are talking about brands using pictures instead of words," explains founder and CEO Apu Gupta. "We make it possible for brands to understand who’s talking about them, what they’re talking about and what’s important to customers."
 
Graphics, more than text, reveal specifics about consumer preferences. Someone might "like" The Gap on Facebook, but posting a blue sweater explains why. With visual information, businesses can better determine what to include on their homepage, email blasts and billboards, as well as which products to use for social media promotions.
 
"In a social context, [brands] have never known, specifically, which products were driving their engagement," says Gupta. "What brands can do with that is pretty powerful."
 
In September 2012, Curalate launched their "dashboard," allowing clients to manage customer social engagement on visual platforms and administer promotional campaigns. They’ve partnered with several established public relations agencies and helped The Gap effectively promote across nine countries.
 
Source: Apu Gupta, Curalate
Writer: Dana Henry

The seventh PennApps -- held January 18 through January 20 -- was the largest student-organized hackathon to date worldwide. Over 450 students from universities across the United States, Switzerland, Canada and Germany competed for cash prizes during the 40-hour app building session. On the final afternoon, Irvine Auditorium at 34th and Spruce Streets was packed, as the top twenty teams presented demos to students and national talent scouts.

"Team after team, for twenty straight teams, just killed it," says Pulak Mittal, a PennApps organizer and Penn junior studying computer science and business. "One of our goals as organizers is to put Penn on the map as a top ten technology school. The feedback and the experience of everyone at [the hackathon] indicate that that’s actually happening."

Amongst international contenders, Nop Jiarathanakul, a Penn graduate student in computer graphics engineering who worked solo during the hackathon, placed third for his project Web Tube. The hack is a lightning-speed web browser with an old-school TV monitor graphic interface.

Representatives from many of this year’s sponsors -- which included Microsoft, Yahoo, Venmo, Dropbox, Ebay, Facebook, First Round Capital, Kayak, The New York Times, Twillo, AppNexus, RedHat and Tumblr -- awarded their own prizes to Challenge teams. Winners from Penn were WebTube, Social Development and Urban Sustainability, Uncloseted, Enligne, OnShift, Skynet Command, and Beets.

Mittal says this semester’s PennApps broke the "mobile or web dichotomy" inherent to software hacks -- many teams produced hardware aimed at enhancing everyday objects including backpacks and bikes.

With several listings on Hacker League each week, hackathons have become a phenomenon. As Mittal points out, some hacks even go on to become startups--Firefly,Snapsite, and PayTango came from past PennApps. Traditional computer science education is valuable, he believes, but so is building.

"You see all these other ways technology is changing education," he says. "But I think education in the technology space might be changing dramatically as [hackatons] become something people go to consistently. It will be interesting to see what hackathons contribute in terms of people going into the industry. I’m glad to see PennApps at the forefront."

Source: Pulak Mittal, PennApps
Writer: Dana Henry

In late 2011, Aaron Frazin, future co-founder and CEO of Charlie, was a college senior frustrated with the job application process. To prepare for an interview, he’d spend hours combing the web for information on the company and the interviewer.

"I found myself doing the same research over and over," says Frazin. "I asked, 'Why isn’t there anything out there that can do this for me?'"

A year later, Frazin's mobile tool to help professionals "get up to date"--which he co-founded with Junaid Kalmadi--graduated from DreamIt Ventures. Charlie is also completing its first round of financing with significant investment from angel investors and DreamIt. The company is split between Philadelphia and Chicago; the tech arm is based in University City. On the cusp of launching in beta, they are seeking a VP of Engineering and plan to hire software engineers.

Charlie could be described as a cheat sheet for meetings, but Frazin likens it to a personal assistant or butler on your mobile device. (The bowtie insignia is a nod to that inspiration.) Before a critical first impression, the app fetches commonalities, life events, social updates and company news on the client or contact. It also provides news updates on the subject’s specific interests for elegant icebreakers and syncs the virtual briefing with appointments stored in your mobile calendar.  

Frazin, a 2012 Kauffman Global Scholar who studied business economics at Indiana University and moved to Philly to attend DreamIt, made an animated short he considers his Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The video went viral six months ago and the budding entrepreneur says he’s been inundated with emails asking for the product. "I really wanted this kind of app," says Frazin."We realized other people want it that bad too."

Source: Aaron Frazin, Charlie
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

We've all been there: You pass by a trash-strewn lot or hear an account of school violence and, suddenly, you have an idea. Philadelphians are great at creating opportunity from seemingly hopeless situations. The road to implantation, however, can be littered with naysayers and fundraising bureaucracy. So how do you know your stroke of genius has merit?
 
The Philadelphia Social Innovations Lab—an outgrowth of the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal (PSIJ)— aims to help instigators test their vision against respective markets before fully committing. This may sound like private sector incubation, and that’s exactly the point. The 15-week program will provide mentorship, strategy development and return on investment modeling—opportunities not generally afforded to nonprofit and government organizations. They launch mid-January and will support up to 40 projects per semester.
 
With a combined 40 years of experience in social programming, Lab cofounders and PSIJ editors Tine Hansen-Turton and Nick Torres consider public sector innovations critical to a developed society. These services not only build our quality of life, Hansen-Turton explains, they also provide an essential step in workforce development via volunteer positions and help foster a regional culture that’s attractive to outside businesses and talent. "Connecting people and companies to the missions of these organizations makes not only social sense, but can translate into economic outcomes," she says.
 
Despite the economic setbacks of recent years, social innovations continue to thrive. The Nonprofit Almanac of 2011 acknowledges 1.5 million tax-exempt organizations in the United States—they are responsible for as much as five percent of GDP (source: National Center for Charitable Statistics). The Philadelphia region alone has over 15,000 nonprofit organizations employing 242,000 people and furnishing $11 billion in annual wages (Source: Philadelphia Foundation).
 
It was passionate PSIJ readers that inspired Hansen-Turton and Torres. In three years of quarterly publication, the pair has taken hundreds of phone calls from social innovation enthusiasts seeking input on their ideas. The pair partnered with Penn’s Fels Institute of Government (where they are adjunct faculty), PennDesign and PennPraxis. The first batch of accepted proposals were largely from Penn students, faculty and staff, and focused on health, education, and arts and culture.
 
In 2010, 26 percent of Americans over age 16 volunteered for a nonprofit (Source: National Center for Charitable Statistics). Locally, a new generation of visionaries—including Young Involved Philly and Philly Stake—prove our will is stronger than ever. "[Social innovation] is the foundation of America and our future," says Hansen-Turton. "We need to support [their leaders] with the tools and techniques that is afforded the private sector."

Source: Tine Hansen-Turton, Philadelphia Social Innovations Lab
Writer: Dana Henry

Twenty years of research and clinical trials led to the recent announcement that 7-year-old Emma Whitehead's luekemia was in remission. It was the moment that T-cell immunotherapy technology burst from the laboratories of Penn Medicine into the national headlines. Now a commitment from Novartis to build a $20 million Center for Advanced Cellular Therapy (slated for 2013) will speed up FDA approval and enable treatment in greater numbers.

For something as large and complex as cancer research, philanthropic and federal funding only goes so far. "We’re so fortunate to have the opportunity, with this alliance with Novartis, to hand off what we’ve developed in an academic medical center," says Bruce Levine, director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility at Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

Just how big is the breakthrough?

The Penn team is already building t-cell programs to treat pancreatic cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer. Eventually, this treatment could affect tens of thousands of lives.

Understandably, Penn medicine has been deluged with calls from patients worldwide. In an effort to coordinate a response, the Ambrason Cancer Center has launched a separate section on their website for access to detailed trial information, physicians and additional clinical trials.
 
It’s hard to measure the full impact T-cell immunotherapy will have on economic growth for our region, but Levine anticipates a "ripple effect." In addition to the construction, staffing and management jobs necessary for a $20 million facility, a greater number of clinical trials leads to more opportunities for care providers and researchers. For now, Penn Medicine’s technical groups are offering highly skilled positions while Novartis builds up their expertise.

"It’s huge," says Levine. "We’ve seen from [Penn] University and Penn Medicine a great commitment to facilitating this research." 

Source: Bruce Levine, Penn Medicine
Writer: Dana Henry

It’s not every day a plainclothes professional opera singer performs to the hum of industrial knitting machines. Nonetheless, it was the perfect display of synergy for the opening ceremony of Drexel’s Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center at the University City Science Center. Held on Wednesday, November 28, the celebration showcased surprising STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) combinations and permutations.

"In academia, it’s hard to collaborate outside your department," says Dr. Youngmoo Kim, director of the ExCITe center and professor of computer engineering at Drexel. "The whole purpose [of ExCITe] is to create multidisciplinary projects at this nexus between technology and the arts. There’s so much synergy there."

The 11,000-square-foot facility features conference rooms, countless desktops, sound equipment and a knit lab, all available to Drexel faculty, staff and students, regional partner institutions and other universities. The space will host hackathons and other tech and arts related events.

Opening demos included an app for understanding live classical music and a digitally-enhanced grand piano. ExCITe also houses and provides seed funds to three startup projects: a Microsoft Kinect therapy game for people with cerebral palsy; a virtual reality opera project made in partnership with the Philadelphia Opera Company; and Sonic City, a Breadboard project incorporating city sounds into musical pieces.

The Shima Seiki Haute Technology Knit Lab houses four top grade fabric machines, a donation from Shima Seiki Manufacturing in Japan worth $1 millon. The facility is unheard of in academia and, according to Kim, rivals Nike’s Design Lab. Each apparatus prints items designed on CAD software; during the grand opening event, the machines produced knit kitchen gloves, custom seamless dresses and three-ply blankets.  

A knit-bot machine prints three-dimensional fabrics complete with electronic sensors. At the opening, a staff member hooked a spiraled piece of fabric into a control system and rolled it across the table remotely. Observers seemed impressed by the novelty, but Kim says knit-bot technology has implications for the future: One day you might be able to change the color and cut of your shirt with the press of a button, and sensors-enhanced fabrics could help individuals monitor health and weight. In addition, skins from these textiles could make plastic robots more resilient, while external sensors could help disaster-relief androids respond immediately to challenging environments.

Kim runs Drexel's Music Entertainment Technology Labratory, home to robots that dance and play music. He conceived of the center nearly two years ago while holding cross-departmental faculty meetings as a solution to academic silos. It wasn’t long before other key local institutions, including the Science Center, the Philadelphia Opera Company and the Franklin Institute, joined the planning.

"We can do great things here with Drexel folks, but there’s great people with ideas at Penn, UArts, Philadelphia University, Temple and Swarthmore," says  Kim. “They’re people that we know. A lot of people throughout the region, not just in academia, helped shape this."

Source: Youngmoo Kim, Drexel ExCITe
Writer: Dana Henry

In November 2010, police in rural Escondido, California discovered a house with over nine pounds of explosives and several industrial chemicals. It was a challenging situation: Authorities needed to obtain evidence while guaranteeing the safety of the neighbors and their own personnel.

The presence of such materials, along with radiological and biological hazards, constitutes an “unconventional threat” for homeland security. The Research, Development, Test and Evaluation Program (RDTEP) of Gettysburg-based Tripwire Operations Group are experts in products and training methods used to navigate this complex terrain. They’ve moved to the Science Center and plan to hire entry-level positions—including field work logicians, labratory technicians and scientists—in early 2013.

"Most of our focus is on helping first responders and war fighters safely identify and handle those other materials that are dangerous but aren’t typical," explains Jesse Taylor, lead chemist for Tripwire RDTEP.

According to Taylor, homeland security doesn’t just protect us from the "underwear bomber," the man who caused a 2009 plane fire while carrying explosives inside his pants. Public safety officials at sporting events and political rallies do "sweeps" of personal belongings using the same products and services. A natural disaster can pose threats similar to an intentional attack. Those involved in preserving public safety—including firefighters, local police and medical technicians—need to handle unconventional threats safely.

Currently, Tripwire’s RDTEP is working on independent sensor verification tools and Render Safe Procedures [RSP], including remote handling of materials. Their move to University City provides better access to client agencies including the Federal Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, as well as municipal police and firefighter divisions.

"After 9/11, [homeland security] has become much more of a public issue," says Taylor. “It’s more prominent in the public eye and in popular culture. Beyond what we provide to war fighters, there are a lot of similar issues that come up for state, local and regional emergency response teams. There certainly is a bigger picture to homeland security than terrorism."

Source: Jesse Taylor, Tripwire
Writer: Dana Henry