| Outcome/Accomplishment:
The NSF-sponsored Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment
(MIRTHE) Engineering Research Center (ERC) headquartered at Princeton University,
working with regional venture capitalists, has created an Investment Focus
Group (IFG) to introduce investment and industry professionals to emerging
mid-infrared technologies and application opportunities.
Impact/Benefit:
At this pivotal moment in MIRTHE’s growth trajectory, where increasing
efforts are being placed on connecting academic research and the industries
in which the technologies can be deployed, the IFG will provide guidance
during the transition from R&D to realizing new profitable opportunities.
The technology investment community can see the Center’s newest technologies
and expedite the process from testbeds to the marketplace.
Explanation/Background:
In the last four years, MIRTHE has successfully developed its industrial
membership program, integrating strong partnerships across a broad spectrum
of commercial applications. Adding the technology investment community
to the mix reinforces the Center’s commitment to taking its technologies
from testbeds to the marketplace. Representatives from industry,
financing, and entrepreneurship comprise the Investment Focus Group.
A primary purpose of the Group is to provide students and faculty with
insight into how products and systems navigate today’s competitive marketplace.
At the Investment Focus Group’s first conference, the event was opened
with an overview of the current investment climate by the Group’s Co-Chair,
Ralph Taylor-Smith, General Partner at Battelle Ventures L.P. During
the day’s program an audience of investors, business people, professors,
and students heard from NSF about the ERCs as “innovation ecosystems.”
They also heard from MIRTHE researchers, industrial partners, and entrepreneurs
who presented their newest technologies. In addition, the Center
released its “Roadmap,” an outline that includes the center’s most commercially
viable technologies.
The Center’s goal is to develop
mid-infrared (3-30 µm wavelength) optical trace gas sensing systems
based on such new technologies as quantum-cascade (QC) lasers or quartz-enhanced
photo-acoustic spectroscopy, with the ability to detect minute amounts
of chemicals found in the environment or atmosphere, emitted from spills,
combustion, or natural sources, or exhaled. MIRTHE works closely
with industrial partners, academic institutions, and government laboratories
to commercialize affordable tunable-laser sources (especially QC lasers),
detectors, and ultrasensitive sensor systems that are compact, portable,
and reliable. The center operates testbeds and technology demonstrations
in environmental sensing and human health with prototype systems deployed
nationally and internationally. MIRTHE’s work was seen in action
during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where its laser-based sensor systems
measured the air quality in the city center.
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