Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Companies selected for new Tech Square-based venture firm

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Eight companies will be part of the inaugural class of Engage Ventures, a new early-stage venture firm created by Georgia Tech and 10 leading global companies.

The selected startups are from across the country and the companies’ leaders include first-time founders and serial entrepreneurs. The startups are:

  • Bee Downtown is working to build healthy, sustainable, honey bee communities around the world.
  • Cyrano is a leadership communications platform using video messaging to help businesses better connect and engage with employees.
  • EmployUs helps companies hire more referrals by automating the employee referral process.
  • Fast Radius enables companies to manage the design, engineering, prototyping and production of end-use parts with digital manufacturing
  • Gauge Insights is a platform for companies to obtain feedback from customers in minutes.
  • Sudu is a technology-based logistics company that offers an end-to-end platform to match shippers and carriers based upon route organization.
  • The Mom Project is a marketplace and community that connects enterprises with diverse female talent.
  • TransRisk creates products and solutions that help transportation industry participants efficiently manage price risk in the North American freight transportation market.

Cyrano and Sudu are part of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), which was established at Georgia Tech by Georgia lawmakers in 1980 to launch and build technology companies. Engage Ventures will offer programming and other services through a contract with ATDC.

Engage Ventures is the largest strategic grouping of major corporations in an independent venture firm. The focus is helping startups develop and execute go-to-market strategies.

“What makes Engage unique is the level of access and interaction with our founding corporate partners at the executive and C-suite level to help streamline partnerships and strategic relationships with these startups and growth companies,” said Thiago Olson, managing director at Engage Ventures.

The 10 founding companies contributing capital, expertise, time and resources in support of Engage include AT&T, Chick-fil-A, Cox Enterprises, Delta Air Lines, Georgia-Pacific, Georgia Power Foundation Inc., Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Invesco Ltd., The Home Depot and UPS. Executives from these firms will serve as mentors to the companies receiving financial support from the venture fund.

Engage is headquartered in Georgia Tech’s Technology Square.

Source: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2017/08/15/companies-selected-new-tech-square-based-venture-firm

Defense logistics official sees potential in 3-D printing parts

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Across the Dept. of Defense (DoD), leaders are looking at technology solutions for complex challenges. For future logistics support, additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing may hold the key.

Brig. Gen. Allan E. Day, commander of Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, a field activity of the Defense Logistics Agency, Richmond, Virginia, visited officials at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at APG Feb. 23 to learn about advances in materials sciences.

Many of today’s weapons systems and platforms are legacy systems that were designed and manufactured decades ago and are maintained through expensive repair or replacement parts.

“Take the B-52 Bomber for instance, it’s a legacy system that’s going to be on the flight line for a long time,” Day said. “Its life is being extended continuously. So, for the logistics community, additive manufacturing is a game-changer.”

Day said he’s optimistic that as the technology matures, 3-D printing may provide a cost effective and efficient path to keeping systems at full readiness.

The general toured ARL’s Rodman Materials Research Laboratory and learned about the Army’s initiatives for unique additive manufacturing technologies like cold spray. Cold spray is a material-deposition process where metal or metal-ceramic mixtures of powders are sprayed to form a coating or even a freestanding structure.

“The particles embed on impact, forming a strong bond with the surface,” explained Victor Champagne, ARL’s Advanced Materials and Processes team leader.

Champagne said the technology has already saved millions of defense dollars by enabling the re-use of previously unusable worn parts.

Day also met with the laboratory’s additive manufacturing team to discuss advanced techniques that will one day enable confidence that critical parts will perform as intended.

“Additive manufacturing gives the unit the advantage to make the part themselves right then and there,” Day said. “They won’t have to outsource to get these parts. That means they’ll get the part sooner.”

Day said he hopes future processes will result in parts that are “just as reliable” as traditionally manufactured parts.

The laboratory is looking to discover new and innovative technology solutions, officials said.

“We conduct the fundamental interdisciplinary research in materials and manufacturing science that will ensure rapid and affordable development of materials, from discovery to delivery, critical to the Army of the future,” said Dr. Jeff Zabinski, director of ARL’s Weapons and Materials Research Directorate. “Our goal is to create a science base that is the foundation for making in-line certified parts that will reduce logistics burden and enable rapid response to unknown threats.

Day oversees more than $3.8 billion in annual sales in the DoD’s aviation demand chain. His organization, DLA Aviation, supports more than 1,800 weapon systems and is the DoD’s integrated materiel manager for more than 1.1 million national stock number items, industrial retail supply and depot-level repairable acquisitions.

“The work that is being done at ARL is extremely important,” Day said. “We need to press the envelope and continue moving forward, finding different ways of creating new parts that will help the supply chain.”

Source: https://www.army.mil/article/183446/

DoD finalizes rule expanding contractor rights in technical data

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US DoD logoThe Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a Final Rule that gives added protections to the technical data of privately developed commercial items incorporated into major systems, including major weapon systems.

This rule implements Section 813(a) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2016 and modifies 10 U.S.C.§ 2321(f).

In general, a defense contractor’s assertion that a commercial item was developed exclusively at private expense is presumed to be valid, even if the contractor does not respond to a challenge notice from the Contracting Officer.  Prior to the Final Rule, however, this presumption (known as the “Commercial Rule”) did not apply to DoD’s procurement of “major systems” or “subsystems or components of major systems,” unless the technical data related to commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) items. Thus, without the benefit of the presumption in connection with the procurement of a “major system,” contractors were required to justify their assertion that an item was developed exclusively at private expense if they wanted to restrict the Government’s rights in the underlying technical data.

This exception to the Commercial Rule is known as the “Major Systems Exception.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2016/09/dod-finalizes-rule-expanding-contractor-rights-in-technical-data-used-in-major-systems/

Contractor associations rally behind framework to improve federal IT acquisition

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Professional Services Council - PSCThe federal government should leverage all of the flexibilities currently provided by the Federal Acquisition Regulation and engage in continuous and open communication with industry, according to four technology associations that jointly issued a whitepaper on Dec. 8, 2015.

The groups lay out six guiding principles that should be embraced across the federal government to ensure government applies the latest and greatest technology to its mission and enhances the performance of federal technology programs, according to a joint press release from the Professional Services Council, Technology Councils of North America, Northern Virginia Technology Council and the California Technology Council.

“Regardless of where or how a company may approach the federal market, these principles form the core of a sound, competitive, open and effective acquisition process. Our collective goal is to enable the government to reach, directly or indirectly, the full array of capabilities and solutions that exist in the private sector to deliver effective mission results,” said the whitepaper.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/associations-rally-behind-framework-improve-federal-it-acquisition/2015-12-09

Tech industry offers six ways for feds to buy better IT

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A group of public and private sector technology councils are suggesting ways the federal government could get better at buying IT.

PSC white paperA white paper published this week highlights six areas where the government can modernize or update the way in which it purchases services and technologies from private companies, crafting a number of ways feds could amend acquisition regulations.

“Our collective goal is to enable the government to reach, directly or indirectly, the full array of capabilities and solutions that exist in the private sector to deliver effective mission results,” the paper reads.

Among the suggestions are integrating an “innovation template” and “emerging technology provision” into contracts to give agencies flexibility when it comes to acquiring rapidly evolving tools.

The paper also calls for best value/cost-technical tradeoff to be the default evaluation technique used for services acquisitions except for the most basic, commoditized requirements, as well as to include “an alternative solution or strategy” that differs from RFP requirements as long as the solution meets the contract’s desired outcome.

Keep reading this article at: http://fedscoop.com/tech-councils-offer-ways-for-feds-to-upgrade-acquisition-process

Download white paper here: Delivering-Results-A-Framework-for-Federal-Government-Technology-Access-Acquisition

NASA makes its technology available to startup companies at zero cost

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In late December, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin managed to do what most refer to as the ‘Holy Grail of Rocketry’ — successfully send a rocket 62 miles into space and then, in a carefully controlled descent, land it upright just four-and-a-half feet from the center of its Launchpad.

NASAWhile Bezos and Blue Origin are being talked about and heavily discussed, one name that made all of this possible is lurking in the backdrop – NASA.

Blue Origin has been collaborating with NASA since 2009 through the Space Act Agreement to make commercial space travel accessible. But NASA’s technology touches more than the celestial spheres.

The space administration recently announced its Startup initiative by opening up around 1,200 patented technologies to U.S. startups to commercialize at no upfront costs.

Keep reading this article at: http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/30/nasa-entrepreneur-space-race/

Link to NASA’s Technology Transfer Program: http://technology.nasa.gov/ 

White House wants agencies to prioritize emerging tech in next year’s budget

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The White House plans to prioritize emerging technology and big data in the fiscal year 2017 budget, according to a memorandum published last week.

ombWhen submitting budget requests to the Office of Management and Budget, federal agencies should “prioritize investments in enabling technologies that benefit multiple sectors of the economy, such as nanotechnology, robotics, the Materials Genome Initiative, and cyber-physical systems and their application to smart cities,” the memo said.

General topics mentioned in the memo include “advanced manufacturing and industries of the future,” and “information technology and high-performance computing,” in addition to other science-related subjects such as climate change.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2015/07/white-house-memo-fy-2017-budget-prioritize-big-data-emerging-tech/118075

Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center is a startup powerhouse

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When he enrolled as a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech’s College of Computing five years ago, Vijay Balasubramaniyan never expected to become the CEO of one of Atlanta’s hottest young information security companies.

Today, the phone call fingerprinting technique he developed provides the foundation for Pindrop Security. The three-year-old company has attracted $12 million in investment from Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious venture capital firms. Pindrop already has customers among the top U.S. companies, including two of the nation’s five largest banks.

As CEO, Balasubramaniyan handles duties that are vastly different from his Ph.D. days, such as meeting with marketing and engineering staff and dashing off to customer meetings on the West Coast. In addition, he regularly checks a large computer screen that monitors potentially fraudulent calls going into call centers of the company’s customers.

From an office in Georgia Tech’s Technology Square, the company is building a business to help battle the multi-billion dollar problem of fraud committed using the telephone.

On March 27, Pindrop will be one of three companies celebrating their success with “graduation” from the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), Georgia Tech’s startup incubator. The ATDC was started 33 years ago to create technology jobs and economic growth for the state of Georgia.

Three companies show the technology diversity of ATDC

  • Pindrop Security​
    Pindrop Security provides solutions to protect enterprise call centers and phone users from fraud.
  • SalesLoft
    Headed by Georgia Tech graduate Kyle Porter, SalesLoft helps companies find prospective customers using information available on the Internet.
  • MessageGears
    MessageGears helps clients customize their email marketing messages while keeping customer data securely behind firewalls.

“These three companies demonstrate the kind of diversity that we have in the ATDC,” said K.P. Reddy, an entrepreneur, author, and Georgia Tech graduate who serves as the incubator’s interim general manager. “If you look at any ecosystem – and we are part of a larger technology ecosystem – diversity like this is what drives its health.”

Making a difference for startups

ATDC assists companies spinning out of Georgia Tech, those headed up by Georgia Tech alumni, and companies that have no direct Georgia Tech connection. The common denominator is fit with the ATDC program.

ATDC emphasizes coaching, support from a community of entrepreneurs, and connections to a broad range of resources. The companies receive access to Georgia Tech resources – students, faculty, and research facilities. Additionally, they can connect to industry giants such as AT&T, which recently located one of its Foundries in Technology Square to be close to the startup community there.

“We are not trying move the needle 5 percent or 10 percent,” Reddy explained. “We are trying to make orders of magnitude differences for startup companies. We are able to help companies do much more than they could on their own.”

Everything an entrepreneur needs

Each of the 2014 graduates cites a different benefit from ATDC, which isn’t surprising, said Reddy.

“We are all about supporting entrepreneurs,” he explained. “It isn’t just about space. It isn’t just about coaching or mentoring. It isn’t just about investors or customers. We have all the things that an entrepreneur needs at ATDC.”

Among the newest programs are Industry Connect and Campus Connect. Industry Connect brings in representatives from Atlanta’s largest corporations to learn about startups that may have solutions to the challenges they face. In 2013, ATDC’s Industry Connect program facilitated more than 20 contracts between ATDC startups and Global 1000 companies.

Campus Connect helps ATDC companies leverage Georgia Tech resources, connecting them to one of the nation’s top ten 10 publicly-supported universities, with a science and engineering research program that is among the largest in the United States.

“There is a lot of brain power and a lot of talent at Georgia Tech, and we are leveraging that,” said Reddy. “Being connected to a top university really makes a difference.”

Beyond faculty and research assistance, the Georgia Tech connections also lead to great students. A recent career fair held with the Georgia Tech College of Computing and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering attracted 150 students, who learned about opportunities at 25 startups. Internships and new hires will likely result, Reddy said.

ATDC companies tend to fall into two categories: those with high market risk and low technical risk – such as social media companies, and those with high technical risk and low market risk, including many of the science-based startups spinning out of Georgia Tech. Those two groups help one another, and build a robust ecosystem.

“Our scientists have to learn how to market, and our marketers have to learn about science,” Reddy noted. “That’s where the ecosystem gets really strong.”

Reddy believes ATDC has a great reputation, one that should make it top of mind for any technology entrepreneur in Georgia.

“If I’m looking for hash browns, I go to Waffle House,” he added. “If I’m going to start a company, I go to ATDC.”

Click here to view video about ATDC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0KUcUJE4LSQ

Advanced Technology Development Center strengthens support to technology startups

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To help meet the growing demand for support to Georgia technology entrepreneurs and startup companies, Georgia Tech is strengthening and realigning resources in its Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a technology accelerator that has assisted entrepreneurs for more than 30 years.

ATDC will expand its staff of technology catalysts and entrepreneurs-in-residence, add new facilities to support specialized startups, and expand office and incubator space at its headquarters in midtown Atlanta’s Technology Square. The expansion will involve hiring new personnel and refocusing responsibilities for some existing positions.

“Entrepreneurial companies are the largest source of new jobs and new economic activity in today’s changing economy,” said Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. “As part of our historic economic development mission, Georgia Tech has focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, and new business startups. We’re pleased to respond to the growing need for services that will help boost the economy and create jobs in our city, state, region, and nation.”

ATDC helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful technology companies by providing coaching, connection and community-building services. Founded in 1980, ATDC has helped create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues by graduating more than 140 companies, which together have raised more than a billion dollars in outside financing. During 2012, ATDC assisted 322 technology companies, currently houses more than 40 startup companies in its incubator facilities, and plans to graduate five additional companies in at its annual Startup Showcase in April.

“Entrepreneurs and the fast-growth companies they create are vitally important to the future of Atlanta’s economy,” said Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. “For decades, Georgia Tech has been the focal point for launching and building technology-based companies in Atlanta, and we’re pleased to see this renewed emphasis on growing startups based on science and technology innovation.”

ATDC currently has three facilities: two in Atlanta – its headquarters plus a satellite life-sciences facility on the Georgia Tech campus – and one as part of Georgia Tech facilities in Savannah. Multiple new satellite facilities are planned in Atlanta to provide space for startups with specialized needs, such as microelectronics fabrication, medical device development, advanced manufacturing and sustainable energy.

ATDC serves Georgia technology entrepreneurs, regardless of whether they have a connection to Georgia Tech. However, intellectual property arising from Georgia Tech’s $655 million-per-year research program has driven many recent startup companies, including photovoltaic manufacturer Suniva and medical device developer CardioMEMS.

Georgia Tech’s nationally-recognized VentureLab program focuses on commercializing the results of research activities, and will benefit from the expansion of the ATDC. Related programs for startups include Flashpoint, a program that educates company leaders in startup discovery, and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) I-Corps, which teaches NSF-supported researchers to identify commercial opportunities and test their viability using scientific principles.

“Georgia Tech wants to see that our research with clear market potential gets to companies that will commercialize it,” said Stephen E. Cross, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for research. “We want to fully support the creation of spinoff companies based on our research results as well as companies originating in Georgia’s growing community of entrepreneurs. Altogether, VentureLab, Flashpoint and I-Corps provide a comprehensive commercialization assistance program that is the best in the nation and already launches more than 20 startups per year into ATDC.”

The ATDC expansion will be accomplished by reallocating existing Georgia Tech resources without additional state funding, and will be completed by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, said Stephen Fleming, a Georgia Tech vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), the parent organization to both ATDC and VentureLab.

“This revitalization and expansion of ATDC will allow us to play an even larger role in catalyzing the innovation and creativity of Georgia entrepreneurs as they build new companies, new jobs and new economic activity,” said Fleming. “The new economy is demanding a different type of support for entrepreneurs, and we’re proud to respond to this challenge.”

In all, ATDC expects to hire six additional entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs) and catalysts who will be focused on supporting the growth of technology entrepreneurs and startup companies. ATDC catalysts are full-time staff members who support companies and manage the programs of the incubator. ATDC EIRs are experienced entrepreneurs who work part-time for limited periods of time assisting startup companies by sharing their long-term experience.

In addition, five existing EI2 employees will be reassigned to support the development of startup companies. ATDC is currently interviewing candidates for its general manager, who will oversee the planned growth. Fleming expects to name the new general manager during the second quarter of 2013. EI2 also recently hired a new principal for VentureLab.

“ATDC has been the center of Georgia’s technology community for more than three decades, and it has served as a model for what states and universities can do to help grow a dynamic community of startups,” said Fleming. “We’re confident that this expansion will position ATDC to help move Georgia forward, building on the strong community of technology entrepreneurs we already have.”

New NASA priorities open billions in new opportunities

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NASA might be cutting $1 billion from its space operations budget but a new study claims there are billions in opportunities in science and technology areas.

“As NASA shifts priorities for human spaceflight from shuttle operations to human exploration capabilities and commercial spaceflight, the budget will be redirected to a range of technology development programs,” said Steve Bochinger, president of Euroconsult North America.

The firm and its partner Omnis Inc. have released a new study, NASA Spending Outlook: Trends to 2016, which analyzes NASA’s budget.

As space operations shrink, the science budget will be redistributed among NASA centers, Bochinger said.

Among the findings:

  • The Science Mission Directorate saw an 11 percent bump in 2011 and will have a $5 billion through 2016. Goddard Space Flight Center and Langley Research Center will benefit because of the work on Earth science projects.
  • The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate will hold steady at about $3.9 billion but funds will shift away from human exploration activities.
  • The new Space Technology Directorate will get $1 billion a year from 2012 to 2016. Langley, Glenn and Ames research centers will benefit because of their work on new technologies for exploration and robotic spaceflight.
  • NASA is restructuring the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to focus on fundamental aeronautics and development of technologies for the Next Generation Air Transportation System.

The study also predicts that NASA’s business practices will have to change with a shift from cost-plus contracting to more fixed-price contracting.

About the Author: Nick Wakeman is the editor of Washington Technology. Article appeared June 8, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/06/08/nasa-budget-priorities-shift.aspx?s=wtdaily_090611

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