SBIR workshop at AEDC considered a sucess

  • Published
  • By Patrick Ary
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Organizers of AEDC's first Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Transition Workshop say they garnered positive feedback about the event, and that it may lead to several new capabilities being developed at the center.

"Everyone thought it was very productive," said Dhruti Upender, AEDC's SBIR program manager. "I think a lot of people made usable connections."

The two-day workshop held at the Arnold Lakeside Center April 24-25 brought together representatives from 40 companies to meet with representatives from AEDC, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center and the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.

The government's SBIR program allows businesses with fewer than 500 employees to compete for federal research funding on specific needs government agencies have. The business retains all data rights for five years after a project's completion, while the government also gets all data and intellectual property associated with the effort. In other words, the government defines a need for a capability, small businesses agree to take on the challenge and the government foots the bill for developing the technology.

One of the workshop's main focuses was the Commercialization Readiness Program (CRP), a program designed to help small businesses bridge technological gaps between development and commercialization of projects.

Several businesses and government agencies also were there to explore potential business opportunities. According to Upender, AEDC representatives met with representatives from 24 companies in one-on-one sessions to talk about technologies which could benefit the center. Out of those, Upender said they are moving forward to create SBIR Tech Transition Plans for 19 of them.

Starr Ginn, the chief engineer for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., attended the workshop to gather some information and see if some of the work being done at other agencies could be used for NASA Dryden's wind tunnel, engine testing and flight test technique facilities.

"I would love it if NASA would sit down and pull all their small businesses together and invite some industry and DOD partners to come out and see if there are some partnering opportunities," Ginn said. "This is a wonderful event."

The event drew praise from small business owners as well. Sivaram Gogineni, president of Spectral Energies LLC, is familiar with SBIR work as well as CRP. He was looking for new opportunities to demonstrate the work his company does in laser and optical-based diagnostics for propulsion systems and large-scale wind tunnel facilities.

"It's beneficial in terms of networking," Gogineni said. "It's beneficial in terms of making them aware of our company's technologies and to learn about new opportunities from the sponsors - and also more about the technologies other companies are developing."

Gogineni, whose company is based in Dayton, Ohio, and employs 20 people - 13 of them with doctorates - said the SBIR program helps everyone involved.

"Organizations like AEDC benefit because innovative ideas come from small businesses," he said. "Large corporations, their rules are different. Small businesses are agile. They're adaptable and flexible and not afraid of tackling the problem, merely because of their survival needs and because they like the technologies. It's mutually beneficial."

Ginn agreed that both sides benefit.

"It's huge," she said. "It allows us to work on a big problem, and SBIRs create a more efficient process to being able to have work done in parallel that's essential for us to develop our new technologies."