The Maine Technology Institute (MTI) awarded $141,171 in twelve new Seed Grants to entrepreneurs from Limestone to Eliot to advance new product and process development in aquaculture and marine technology, biotechnology, composite materials technologies, environmental technologies, information technology and precision manufacturing. This round of MTI awards leveraged over $220K of matching contributions from the award recipients. These Seed Grants will support early-stage research and development activities for entrepreneurs to bring new products to market.

“Congratulations to this latest round of Seed Grant award recipients,” said MTI President Betsy Biemann. “These Maine businesses have successfully competed for these highly competitive grants based on the commercial potential of their idea and their plan to move it forward. They have also matched the MTI funding with at least $1 for every $1. We look forward to continuing to work with these entrepreneurs to help them achieve sales and grow good jobs for Maine people. ”

The September Seed Grant Awardees and projects by industry sector are:

Aquaculture and Marine Technology:

Harpswell Oceanic Center, Inc., in Brunswick, in collaboration with RAS Corporation will develop, with the assistance of Baker Design Consultants, a Conceptual Design and Site Plan for use in project presentation and preparation of required federal, state and local permits for Harpswell Oceanic Center and its innovative black sea bass indoor aquafarm.
Award: $12,500 Match: $15,196

Biotechnology:

Sensory Cyber Systems, LLC, in Orono is developing and field testing proprietary software and a hardware device for applications in visual screening, education, and biomedical research. Commercialization of the product would allow optometrists, ophthalmologists, and other health care workers to serve the public better and at lower cost.
Award: $12,500 Match: $40,007

StarFix in Bowdoinham is a Maine medical technology development company that specializes in custom surgical targeting fixtures. StarFix holds nine US patents and was awarded a Medical Design Excellence Award for a deep brain stimulation head frame. StarFix products simplify physician planning and are more comfortable, repeatable, and accurate than traditional metal head frames.
Award: $12,500 Match: $17,028

Signal Insight Inc, in Falmouth provides the first direct detection and assessment of inflammation, injury and tissue physiological status, including staging of severity. iScan™ scanning devices integrate with web analysis/display services to enhance diagnosis, documentation, economics and outcomes through mobile, handheld, and imaging solutions. An equine clinical study will be conducted to validate commercialization.
Award: $12,475 Match: $19,825

Composite Materials Technology:

Salty Boats of Maine, in Eliot will be using MIT Grant funds to develop construction techniques for low speed high torque wind turbine blades using fiberglass reinforced plastics composites.
Award: $12,275 Match: $13,495

Environmental Technology:

Van Keith Herridge, Jr. and L. Darius Jonason, in Spruce Head received the grant to
fund the development and testing of a prototype of a portable shallow stream electric generator that produces up to 600 watts in very shallow streambeds with variable substrates and channel configurations. It may also be used as an accessory to remote renewable energy collection systems.
Award: $7,930 Match: $15,761

Altaeros Energies was founded by MIT alumni to develop a rapid-deployment Airborne Wind Turbine to generate cheap, renewable energy at off-grid and offshore sites. This project will fund testing of a one-third scale prototype of the Airborne Wind Turbine at the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine.
Award: $11,800 Match: $20,000

Applied Thermal Sciences, Inc., in Sanford proposed project is the installation of a hammer mill for processing Ammonium Nitrate based solid rocket. The MTI Seed Grant will be used for improving the processing of Ammonium Nitrate based solid rocket propellant with a hammer mill.
Award: $9,511 Match: $9,630

Information Technology:

Integra Strategic Technologies Consulting, LLC, in Portland will develop a web-based application for small businesses featuring project management, client invoicing, issue tracking and customer relationship management. This proposal will encompass market research, site structuring and preliminary development.
Award: $12,500 Match: $21,940

Peter Snell & Associates, in Gardiner will use the grant for international patent protection and business planning for an advanced form of automated linguistic (test) analysis. Scope of work for this Information Technology project entails filing applications in five key regions and producing a written business plan for commercialization.
Award: $12,500 Match: $21,000

Blue Marble Geographics in Gardiner will develop support for Geospatial PDF in their Desktop and Software Developer Toolkits. Through this project Blue Marble will address market needs for delivering geospatially intelligent business mapping data to the Adobe acrobat suite.
Award: $12,500 Match: $13,954

Precision Manufacturing Technology:

The Karkos Group LLC in Lewiston is developing a new technology commercial kitchen appliance. The MTI funding, through the precision manufacturing sector, will be used to advance the prototype development, competitive analysis and market research with additional testing at the Advanced Manufacturing Center at the University of Maine in Orono.
Award: $12,180 Match: $13,080