_____Audio_____ • APL researcher Albert Muaddi discusses his wireless intrusion detection system. • APL researcher Matt Bevan talks about his wireless intra-satellite communications technology. _____On the Web_____ • Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory • Maryland Technology Development Corp. (Tedco) _____Government IT News_____ • Fliers to Be Rated for Risk Level (The Washington Post, Sep 9, 2003) • SEC Charges Ex-Northrop Official (The Washington Post, Sep 9, 2003) • Boeing Satellite Project Criticized (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2003) • More Government IT News E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Permission to Republish

Scores of new technologies and inventions developed by Maryland scientists are ready for commercialization, and the Maryland Technology Development Corp. and The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory are intent on publicizing them.

Tedco and the APL on Thursday co-hosted a showcase of inventions from the field of communications technology, hoping to attract the interest of entrepreneurs who can take the inventions and improve, market and sell them.

Presentation titles at the event, held at on the APL campus in Laurel, Md., ranged from a Wireless Intrusion Detection System to Wireless Intra-Satellite Communications Project. Researcher Albert Muaddi of APL said the technology is needed because wireless networks are inherently insecure, adding that their use is prohibited at APL. Muaddi said a prototype of the hardware-based WIND system is planned for next month. (Click to hear more)

APL's Matt Bevan said removing traditional hard-wired harnesses with wireless technology makes satellite component integration easier and reduces the weight of a spacecraft. (Click to hear more)

Phillip Singerman, executive director of Tedco, told an audience of entrepreneurs and investors that research and development drives a state's economy, adding that Maryland ranks near the top of the country in funding for research. The showcases are part of an effort to improve the state's performance in commercializing that technology, which ranks in the "middle of the pack," Singerman said.

Wayne Swann, director of the APL's Office of Technology Transfer, said the office, started four years ago, now ranks in the top ten nationwide for patent applications and the top 25 for two other measures of performance.

Swann said the past four years have been marked by continuous growth. With a staff of ten people, the office now sees a new invention disclosure from APL's 1,900 scientists and engineers every other day, Swann said, adding that 30 licensing agreement have been signed so far this year.

Since 1999, APL has started nine companies and signed more than 70 licensing agreements. Swann said his office is now where he had expected it to be in 2006, instead of 2003.

Swann said larger companies "got the message" of tech transfer ten years ago, when they began hiring staff and contractors to mine government-funded research. The "risk of research to companies is minimized," he said.

Now smaller firms can turn to the federally funded Small Business Innovation Research program or obtain a Tedco grant to commercialize technologies, he added.

One Tedco grant recipient, Blake Henke from North Star Science and Technology in Baltimore, licensed APL satellite location technology. He's working to commercialize maps developed by an APL mathematician and "software guru" named Ray Sterner.

Henke said Sterner's maps generate 5,000 hits a day at an APL Web site, fermi.jhuapl.edu/res/, although the content has not been updated since 1996. Henke's company is working to create new content and charge for it though subscriptions and download fees.

Henke said a $20,000 grant from Tedco's Federal Laboratory Partnership Program accelerated the commercialization process. He said it took nine months to complete the effort, instead of the two or three years he thought it would take. His company's Web site, http://www.landforms.biz/, is scheduled to go live next month, offering content like three-dimension and high-resolution maps and maps that can be plugged into GIS/GPS systems.

North Star's Web site is expected to generate sales in excess of $100,000 in its first year. CD-ROMS and posters sales are also planned.

Steven Fritz, Tedco's director of technology transfer, said spin-off firms don't have to be "giants." Remembering the philosophy of the Kansas City Royals baseball team he followed in the 1970s and 1980s, he said if you "hit singles, you will win games."

Tedco and APL officials also used the event to renew and extend their Memorandum of Understanding, originally signed in Aug. 2000, for an additional three years.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who oversaw the agreement's initial signing, said in a statement on Thursday that the agreement serves as a model for bringing "the best and the brightest together from the private and public sectors." Mikulski added that partnerships like Tedco And APL are needed to keep America "strong and safe."

Mikulski last May announced a similar agreement between Tedco and the National Security Agency. An NSA tech transfer showcase is scheduled for Nov. 12 at the Maritime Institute of Technology in Linthicum, Md.