IT : Innovation + Job News

The Emerging Technology Centers at Canton and Johns Hopkins/Eastern enrolled three new companies in July. They are ADASHI, Canterbury Road Partners and Diagnostic Biochips. ADASHI offers a software platform to network emergency management systems. Canterbury Road Partners is a public/private partnership to help research institutions with technology transfer. Diagnostis Biochips is a life sciences company.
 
The ETCs have enrolled 18 companies in total since the beginning of the year and are on track to enroll 30 new tenants, its annual average, by the end of the year. That is according to Fulya Gursel, marketing manager for the Baltimore Development Corp.-led incubators. 
 
There are currently 27 tenants at the Canton incubator and 34 tenants at the Eastern incubator. In addition, the ETCs have 29 affiliates, which don’t occupy a physical space in the facilities but use their services.
 
Gursel says that as a technology incubator, the ETCs attract a variety of entrepreneurs, including software, hardware, mobile apps, life science and medical devices. Lately, the majority have been mobile apps and web solutions, she says. However, the incubators have programs that attract medical device/life science entrepreneurs as well.
 
 “We’re getting a lot of new, young start-ups by talented entrepreneurs who are passionate about their ideas," Gursel says. "It shows the strength of the Baltimore tech scene.”
 
Since 2012, the following new companies have joined the ETCs:
Right Source Marketing
Juxtopia/JUICE Lab
Mobile Tennis Training Tech LLC
Ark Science
Foodem.com
Rowdy Orbit
Graphtrack, Inc
Tame Social Mahem
Hoopla.com
NoBadGift.com
Bolster Labs
Linkletter
Pluck
Cruse Technologies LLC
Unbound Concepts LLC
Solar Systems Express
FUNR Gaming
Amplofi
Canterbury Road Partners
Adashi
Diagnostic Biochips
 

Source: Fulya Gursel, Emerging  Technology Centers Writer: Barbara Pash

The US government has recommended that the detection technology of Baltimore's StormCenter Communications be adopted worldwide.
 
StormCenter CEO says federal agencies have asked the company to expand its collaboration testing to volcanic ash centers around the world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration representatives for the International Volcanic Ash Task Force recommended the company.

The International Civil Aviation Organization created the task force after the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption forced airports in Europe to close and disrupted commercial air traffic. The task force is charged with devising a risk management plan to determine safe levels of operation. 
 
Founded in 2001, StormCenter became a tenant at the UMBC Research & Technology Park three years ago. It has since added three employees and now employs eight. This year, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and TEDCO named it the Incubator Company of the Year in the cyber and homeland security categories. 
 
The company provides real-time collaboration and data-sharing technology to improve situation awareness and decision-making. The company uses multiple data sources – federal, state and local – that have a geographic component.
 
“You can have 50 to 100 people at one time sharing data and visualization on a virtual globe like Google Earth,” says Jones. The technology can be used “for anything you want to share in real time with people who are separated by distance.”

StormCenter currently receives almost $4 million in funding from different government agencies. Its clients include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, NASA, the National Weather Service and state emergency agencies in Maryland, Kansas, Missouri and Alaska.
 
Jones says that he expects to add additional staff within the next year or two, particularly in customer service. “I envision 24/7 situational awareness customer support,” he says.
 
Source: Dave Jones, StormCenter Communications
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 

Baltimore biotech company PathSensors Inc. is hiring a dozen employees in the next 18 months as the company rolls out a new product.

The 12-person company wants to hire new staff who have a biology background and are familiar with lab practices, PathSensors President Ted Olsen says. He says he is also looking for personnel in quality assurance and shipping.

Last year, the company received $200,000 from the Maryland Biotechnology Center to develop a new product that detects harmful bacteria in food products. The environmental and food testing company is working on a product to detect Campylocacter, a genus of bacteria that can cause intestinal infections in humans. It has already developed a product that can detect and test for Salmonella.

Olsen says the company’s agri-food division will expand its products to the food processing industry, with more tests to identify contamination in pork and beef products, for example. The company’s biosecurity division offers products that detect biological threats such as mail screening for Anthrax. “Major high-profile government buildings use our products on a daily basis,” he says.

“In our market segments of food processing, there is a high level of interest in our technology,” Olsen says. He expects the Campylocactor test to be developed this year and available in 2013.
 
Campylocacter is most commonly found in poultry and beef products. Salmonella, another type of bacteria, can cause food poisoning in humans and also is found in poultry products.
 
PathSensors was founded two years ago as an offshoot of Innovative Biosensors, a Rockville company whose focus is clinical diagnostics. Olsen moved PathSensors to the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore because of the availability of office and laboratory space and qualified employees who are trained at Baltimore City Community College and the BioTechnical Institute of Maryland.
 
The company’s products are sold to systems that do the collecting and testing, and the products can deliver results in minutes, versus hours for competitors' tests, says Olsen.
 
In its three years, the Maryland Biotechnology Center has awarded $4.5 million to Maryland biotech companies. For the 2012 awards, 90 companies applied; seven, including PathSensors, were chosen.
 
Source: Ted Olsen, PathSensors, Inc.
Writer: Barbara Pash

Digital marketing firm WebMechanix  is moving from its current headquarters to a larger office next month, and expects to hire additional staff. 

The three-year-old company is leaving a 1,200-square foot townhouse in Ellicott City and moving to a 2,500-square-foot office in Howard County's Columbia, Partner Josh Mechanic says. He runs the company with his brother Chris Mechanic and cousin Arsham Mirshah, who founded the company in 2009; Josh joined a year later.

"We started out at a kitchen table," Mechanic says. Mirshah's father owned the townhouse and Chris and Arsham lived in it until the company began hiring employees and it was turned into the company headquarters in 2010.

 "We've been growing steadily and we have the financial stability to move to larger quarters," Mechanic says. "Our initial focus was on small businesses. But as we got more referrals, we started selling to bigger companies."

Mechanic says he had been looking for awhile for a suitable new home and found a "great deal" on a "great space." The company has a sublease until October 2014 on its new office. In fact, the relatively short sublease was one of its appeals. "We are not locked into a space for three to five years. We're not sure where we will be when the lease is up so this gives us flexibilty to move in the future," he says of a relocation that will cost WebMechanix $35,000 to $40,000.

Mechanic says the company’s sales have doubled every year since its founding, and projects more than $2 million in revenue this year. It has 40 clients for whom it does mobile, web, search, conversion and analytics as well as design development for new websites.
 
The company is also rolling out a new product, a digital marketing package that improves a company's website performance. It is priced so it's affordable to small businesses, from $800 to $2,250 per month, depending on the amount of work required. He says it usually takes three months to optimize the website, which is typically followed by ongoing marketing.

The company currently has 14 full-time employees plus four to five interns. It is moving into an office that accommodates about 25 full-time employees and within the next few months, is looking to fill a sales position, web developer and search engine optimization specialist and add five more interns.
 
He says the company constantly gets inquiries from college graduates about jobs. In response, it has a policy of taking on unpaid interns for 90 days, after which time they may be hired if the work is satisfactory.  
 
Source: Josh Mechanic, WebMechanix
Writer: Barbara Pash
 

Gov. Martin O’Malley may lead a trade mission to Israel and Jordan at the end of this year to encourage trade between Maryland and the Middle Eastern nations.

While in Israel, O’Malley would split his time between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where he would likely meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Minister of Trade and Industry and other officials, according to the Maryland/Israel Development Center (MIDC). He would also tour leading businesses such as Israel Aerospace Industries, whose subsidiary, ELTA North America, opened its American headquarters in Howard County in April. O'Malley could spend three business days each in Israel and in Jordan from Nov. 24 to Dec. 3, MIDC Executive Director Barry Bogage says. 

Gov. O'Malley spokeswoman Raquel Guillory says the trip is "being considered" and his participation is not yet confirmed.  

The Maryland/Israel Development Center, the Baltimore Jewish Council, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the Maryland Department of Economic and Business Development would organize the trip. The first two are both agencies of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.

MIDC Executive Director Barry Bogage is arranging the agenda and recruiting interested Maryland entrepreneurs and executives who want to join the trip at their own cost. He is working with Israeli government officials and business leaders and with the U.S. Embassy to coordinate the Israeli trip while the Baltimore Jewish Council is working with Jordanian officials for that portion.

In Jordan, O’Malley's home base would be Amman, a two hours’ drive from Jerusalem.

Bogage is also arranging “personalized” business tracks. He is working with the U.S. Department of Commerce to assure that the entrepreneurs and business people who would accompany the governor can meet with their counterparts in their field in Israel.

“We want them to fulfill the goals of their going on the trip,” Bogage says.
 
Source: Barry Bogage, Maryland/Israel Development Center
Writer: Barbara Pash

IT firm SITEC Consulting relocated from the cybersecurity incubator at bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park to an office in Anne Arundel County last month.

The minority-owned company moved to Annapolis Junction, a business park, because of its proximity to customers at Fort Meade.
 
SITEC Consulting was founded in 2007 and was acquired in February of 2012 by Kevin Coby, who is president. Since then, he has made changes in management and location "to better serve our customers,” according to Lubna Sher, SITEC’s chief of staff.
 
SITEC Consulting is a business process automation consulting and IT firm for both federal and commercial markets.
 
Since its founding, SITEC Consulting has had a corporate office in Cambridge, a federally Historically Underutilized Business Zone, aka HUBZone, an incentive for federal contractors. Last year, it joined the UMBC incubator and has since grown its staff from 26 to 31, Sher says.
 
Sher says the company is maintaining its Cambridge office, and the two offices will share the staff. She says the company is in a “growth mode” and is looking to increase the number of employees as work progresses. Sher says additional staff would be in IT-related fields like software engineering, visualization, engineering services, and business analytics and support, its core competencies.
 
Source: Lubna Sher, SITEC Consulting
Writer: Barbara Pash

Tactical Network Solutions, a cyber intelligence company in Columbia, recently added three people to its staff of 12, and will hire at least four employees over the next year.

John Harmon, a partner with Terry Dunlap, says the firm is in a “growth stage,” constantly bidding on contracts and looking for experts in low-level coding languages, embedded software engineers, web engineers and vulnerability researchers.
 
Founded in 2007 by a group of ex-National Security Agency (NSA) staffers and NSA contractors, the firm focuses on cyber intelligence, specifically services and training, product development and R&D. Tactical Network Solutions aims to provide quick-response solutions to technical challenges. Last year, it published an open source version of its proprietary software.
 
Harmon says Tactical Network Solutions has contracts with NSA, Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He could not discuss details of the classified contracts. The privately-owned, self-financed firm does $4 to $5 million in annual sales. Besides government contracts, he says the firm is pursuing contracts in the law enforcement community.
 
Last year, the firm graduated from the Howard Technology Council incubator program and moved into a business park in Columbia. This year, it won the Howard County Technology Council’s award for New/Emerging Company of the Year.
 
“This is an exciting time for cybersecurity in general,” he says, pointing to the relocation of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army Cyber Command to Fort Meade within the past year.
 
Harmon says that a “cyber corridor” of companies in that field is developing along Rt. I-95 from Columbia to the outskirts of Washington, D.C. “We’re right in the middle of it,” he says.
 
Source: John Harmon, Tactical Network Solutions
Writer: Barbara Pash

The Chesapeake Regional Tech Council relocated its headquarters this month to a commercial building that it says will help it better reach its members.

The council left its space in the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp., a county agency, to 839 Bestgate Road in Annapolis.
 
Chris Valerio, the council’s executive director, says the move was made to better reflect the council’s growing, regional membership and the fact that it is an independent agency and not a government entity. The council’s new office is located in one of its recent members, Annapolis Offices at Bestgate, a flex-office facility. Flex space is a former industrial building that has been converted to office space. 
 
The council has been situated in the county economic development office, a long-time sponsor, because it provided in-kind space and office help. “We have an independent board but there was confusion. People assumed we were a government entity,” Valerio says. “We are proud of that independent, entrepreneurial spirit.”
 
The council was founded in 1992 as the Anne Arundel High Technology Council. In 2008, the name was changed to Chesapeake Regional Tech Council because, at the time, 40 percent of its members were from outside Anne Arundel County.
 
Since then, half of its 280-company members are in Anne Arundel County or do business in the county, typically at the U.S. Army’s Fort Meade, and the other half are located in Baltimore County and City, Howard County, the Washington, D.C., area and the Eastern Shore.
 
Valerio, who runs the council with two full-time employees, says the move also allows her more mobility in meeting with member companies. They range from startups to large, established businesses. Most are in information technology rather than biotechnology, but members also include service providers like law firms and accountants. In the IT field, many are government contractors but there are also commercial firms.
 
 
Source: Chris Valerio, Chesapeake Regional Tech Council
Writer: Barbara Pash

The incubator at University of Maryland Baltimore County is seeing an uptick of new tenants. In the three-month period from March to June, bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park welcomed nine new companies, an increase from previous similar periods but a typical number for the past year to 18 months.

It has also reached a major milestone by welcoming a total of 100 companies to the incubator, of which 85 have leased space.

Of the nine new companies, five are in cybersecurity and the rest are in IT, says Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of [email protected] attributes the interest in cybersecurity to the proximity of the U.S. Army and Department of Defense agencies at Fort Meade and the academic talent at the university. She has also seen a surge in life science startups.

Last year, bwtech@UMBC welcomed a total of 25 new tenants and IT consulting firm RWD Technologies was acquired. Hemmerly says the incubator is currently recruiting early stage to larger companies to fill that now-vacant space as well as space in a newly opened incubator facility.

Here's a rundown of the nine new tenants:

• Assured Information Security Inc., a cyberspace government contractor. The company has 40-plus  employees at its headquarters in Rome, N.Y. Since becoming a tenant, it has hired a dozen people and is looking to hire more, Hemmerly says. It chose UMBC because of its R&D interaction with the intelligence community at Fort Meade.

• Clovis Group, an accounting and finance IT and workforce management company that staffs government services.

• Communication Scientific International, a Glen Burnie-based, minority-owned communications systems and technical provider of defense and commercial communications.

• TechEdge Group, an Italian IT company that is based in Italy that also has an office in Chicago.

• Alpha Omega Technologies, a company that specializes  in secure delivery of data and information.

• NETWAR Defenses, computer systems consultants and designers who specialize in national security and intelligence.

• LightGrid, a telecommunications and delivery solutions federal contractor.

• Companion Data Services, offering data-hosting services and health IT services. 

Source: Ellen Hemmerly, bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park
Writer: Barbara Pash; [email protected] 

By the end of the summer, entrepreneurs in the Baltimore metro area will have another place to call home. Betamore, “technology campus,” in the words of co-founder Mike Brenner, should be open by then. 

Brenner co-founded the privately-financed facility with Greg Cangialosi. They are in the midst of renovating an 8,000-square-foot shell at 1111 Light St., a new building in Federal Hill, into part incubator, part classroom and part co-working space. The facility will serve its members and the community at large. Membership applications will be available online next month.

Brenner says Betamore is the first incubator in the region, as far as he knows, that will also act as a classroom. In addition, the two founders bring a sizeable mentoring network that they have acquired by working in the city.

Both are well known in the Baltimore tech scene. Cangialosi's Blue Sky Factory, an email marketing and service provider, was bought in 2011, and he now serves as managing director of Baltimore Angel's and CEO of Nucleus Ventures, an investment vehicle. 

Brenner closed out his other ventures to focus on Betamore. These included Sunrise Design, a web consulting and design studio, and Startup Baltimore, a blog that was acquired in March of 2012 by a company in Philadelphia that plans to transform it into Technically Baltimore, an online publication covering technology. The company also puts out Technically Philly.

Brenner declined to discuss financing for the facility except to say that while it was private, the founders are actively looking for public support as well. He says they are not ready to announce the fees that will be charged for memberships at the incubator and community space. 

The facility will have two classrooms. It will offer classes on entrepreneurship and technology for people in the community at large who are interested in the topic. It will also offer six- to eight-week-long courses for people who are career-oriented and want more in-depth study. Brenner says fees for both classes and courses will be charged, the amounts still to be decided.  
 
In the dedicated incubator space, desks can be rented by the month. Brenner says that renters will have access to Betamore's mentor network, events and weekly happy hours. From early indications, he expects renters to be two- to eight-person teams, and to have 50 teams and “really early stage” companies in that space at any given time. He also expects many renters to be programmers.
 
Betamore will not take an equity stake in its renter-companies. Moreover, it will put a time limit, as yet undetermined, on how long they can rent, "to get a fire under their feet," he says.
 
The third space is a community space that, like a typical co-working space, is a social environment. It will be available for people who want to drop by the facility on an occasional basis, whether once a week or once a month. There will be a fee for the community space. 

"So far, we've gotten a lot of interest. Everyone wants to know when the doors open," says Brenner. "I'm hesitant to reveal too many details. We want to do a proper rollout when we're ready to open."

Source: Michael Brenner, Betamore
Writer: Barbara Pash

Web Ad.vantage is growing, adding new clients and new staff. The digital marketing and online advertising agency also saw the return of a former client.
 
New clients are Oriel Stat A Matrix, a New Jersey-based global leader in consulting and training for performance improvement and regulatory compliance; HR Acuity, a New Jersey-based human resources, employee relations and workplace investigation solutions firm; and Marianna Goldenberg, a certified divorce and financial analyst in Pennsylvania who specializes in divorce settlements. The returning client was Connecticut Plastics, a precision plastics fabricator.
 
Hollis Thomases, president and CEO, says Web Ad.vantage also recently filled positions at the 13-person firm. Founded in 1998, the privately-held, women-owned, Minority Business Enterprise-certified firm is located in Havre de Grace.
 
Thomases says the market for strategic digital services is growing because the business space for web and social media is so complex, companies don’t know how or where to begin.
 
Web Ad.vantage starts with a strategic approach, and then uses anything connected -- search, email, social media, mobile and video – to provide practical services, personalized for each client.
 
“We really help [clients] life-cycle through this process of analysis and planning, so companies can make better decisions how to use their money,” says Thomases, who was recently named to the board of directors of tech industry group GBTC.
 
Source: Hollis Thomases, Web Ad.vantage
Writer: Barbara Pash

Audacious Inquiry has landed a new client, conducting market research on behalf of the federal government.

The Baltimore technology services company will perform research on special topics, then report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology with the results. The company cannot go into details about the topics, which are considered sensitive, according to Barbara Koch, analyst at Audacious Inquiry.   

Based on a federal act, the Office of National Coordinator seeks to improve America's health care delivery system and patient care through information technology. It runs several different programs that assist and support providers, coordinate within and among states, connect to public health resource, and train and equip workers.

Christopher Brandt, managing director of Audacious Inquiry, says the office identified the company for its market tracking and advisory services and sought it out for the $247,000 contract.

Audacious Inquiry deals primarily in health care and government, providing systems integration support, software development and technical project management. The company worked behind-the-scenes on the CRISP initiative that resulted in Maryland being the first state in the country to connect all of its 46 acute care hospitals and two specialty hospitals to the Maryland Health Information Exchange.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown made the official announcement last February. CRISP (Chesapeake Regional Information System For Our Patients is a partnership of Erickson Retirement Communities, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, University of Maryland Medical System and MedStar Health.

Brandt called the project "a major milestone for us." Audacious Inquiry is a contractor to CRISP, and the project allows approved doctors' offices, hospitals and other health organizations to instantly and securely share clinical health data. The state has invested $10 million along with $10.9 million in federal funds in the Health Information Exchange. 
 
Audacious Inquiry was founded in 2004. In 2010, the 30-employee company relocated from the Howard County NeoTech Incubator to the BW Tech @UMBC, the research park at University of Maryland Baltimore County. In 2012, it won the Howard County Technology Council award for life sciences company of the year.
 
Source: Christopher Brandt and Barbara Koch, Audacious Inquiry
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 

Geeks get their day once again at Baltimore's 2^nd annual Hackathon. The event promises to be bigger, better and, most importantly, more lucrative than the first hackathon, held in 2010.

Described as a "high-tech science fair," the original hackathon attracted hobbyists, students and professional programmers who, in a couple of days, were supposed to take their tech idea from concept to creation. Ideas ranged from software handling organizational systems to transcription service. 

The same format applies to the 2^nd Hackathon, which runs from June 8 at 6 p.m. through June 10 at 6 p.m. at the headquarters of Advertising.com, located at 1020 Hull St. in the Locust Point neighborhood. 

"We're trying to make it an annual event. The idea is for people to come together and [during those three days] work on projects that are technical in nature, either software or hardware,” says organizer Jason Denney, a member of Baltimore Node, a member-run space for hacker space.

There are hackathons all over the country. Since the first Baltimore hackathon, says Denney, two more sponsors have been added to the original five. This has enabled the organizers to add more prize money. This year's sponsors are Northrop Grumman, Looking Glass, Advertising.com, Paypal, Code for America, smart logic and Thunderbolt Labs. 

At the first event, a prize was given for best overall hardware or software project, team or individual. This year, there will still be a best overall hardware or software prize. But, in addition, there will be prizes for smart design, most difficult technology, aesthetics and public service project. Winners in each category will receive a $600 cash prize.

Organizers are hoping to increase attendance from the original event's 70 people to 100. Denney says anyone can register and compete for the prizes. Registration and tickets are online. A nominal fee covers entrance, food and a T-shirt. 

Source: Jason Denney, 2^nd annual Hackathon
Writer: Barbara Pash
 

The incubator at University of Maryland, Baltimore County has gotten an influx of new tenants, the majority of whom are responding to the increased demand for cyber security. 

bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park currently hosts 86 incubator and early-stage tenants and 14 affiliated companies and organizations, according to Gregory Simmons, the park's vice president for institutional advancement.

Of the tenants, nearly 20 have joined the park in the past 18 months alone. They include Fearless Solutions, Rogue Technology, AIS (Assured Information Security) Inc., all of which are in the cyber security field.  Simmons says that most of the new tenants are also in that field, often in the area of securing data and networks, in medical, defense and financial services, among others.
 
“They offer a broad array of services," Simmons says.
 
He attributes the interest in cyber security at the park to a number of factors, from the Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) process going on at nearby Fort Meade to the number of federal agencies in the area.
 
Other factors are the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), whose computer science department is well known in the field, and the state of Maryland, which for the past two years has been establishing itself as a cyber-hub for companies and jobs.

"UMBC is excited about supporting the cyber Maryland initiative by preparing the workforce of tomorrow, supporting entrepreneurs and working to strengthen the Maryland economy," says Simons. 
 
Of the new tenants, the few that are not in cyber security are in fields that mirror the strengths of UMBC for life sciences, clean energy and IT.
 
Located on a 71-acre campus in Baltimore County’s Catonsville community, the park consists of eight buildings with 500,000-square feet of office and lab space.
 

Source: Gregory Simmons, bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park
Writer: Barbara Pash