Tech Transition workshop looks to find business opportunities

  • Published
  • By Patrick Ary
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Representatives from 40 companies have been invited to Arnold Air Force Base later this month to talk about business opportunities that could be beneficial to both sides.

Dhruti Upender, AEDC's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program manager, invited businesses from Tennessee and all over the country to come to a Tech Transition workshop April 24-25 and see how they can satisfy capability gaps for AEDC and carry those products over to the commercial sector.

The U.S. government's SBIR program encourages domestic small businesses to engage in federal research and development that has the potential for commercialization. Companies are awarded federal funding for their research - meaning an SBIR project at AEDC doesn't cost the center anything. In an SBIR contract, the business retains all data rights created under the SBIR for five years after the completion of the project. The government also gets all data and intellectual property associated with the effort.

"When we build these things, it's a small business doing most of the work with our guidance," Upender said. "It is just like managing any other project on base, but the dollars are not mission dollars. They are SBIR dollars that pay the small business to perform the work with government oversight.

"I think people would be surprised at the number of technology development projects done at AEDC that were initiated through SBIRs," Upender said.

There have been many success stories throughout the years, such as infrared imaging capability, high-speed flow diagnostics and low-cost pressure sensors. One of the most recognizable examples of an SBIR that expanded into a successful commercial product is Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP), a method of determining pressure on surfaces.

The workshop will also focus on taking advantage of the Commercialization Readiness Program (CRP), known until late last year as the Commercialization Pilot Program (CPP). The CRP can help bridge technological gaps between development and actually commercializing the product, an area where Upender said small businesses have difficulty.

In the last year alone, Upender said there have been three efforts at AEDC that have made it to commercialization through CRP, with a total amount of just over $1.8 million awarded for those efforts. Those efforts also have increased the center's capabilities.

The CRP-funded efforts include a new Test Data Aggregation and Analysis System (TDAAS) resulting in a new capability for data mining and data fusion. There is also a new image processing software package working with a threat signature database known as the Enhanced Missile Signature Model (E-MSIG). Another is a new interface to the Milsatcom Atmospheric Scintillation Simulator (MASS) to assist operational test of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite system.

And small businesses have an advantage when working on SBIR projects at AEDC because when the center submits SBIR topics for prospective businesses, those topics look at filling specific capability gaps. Businesses who are awarded those topics know not only where their product will be applied - they have facilities available to them to test it.

"We have a goal in mind of having them prove out their product, basically," Upender said.

And Upender believes there is a lot of untapped potential in the state. In 2010, Tennessee had 18 SBIR/STTR awards through the Department of Defense (DOD), valued at $4.7 million. Alabama received 103 DOD SBIR awards totaling $30.4 million during the same period.

Upender, who has a degree in electrical engineering and a masters in engineering management, was once a small business owner and also has worked for various aerospace companies in different roles. She said growth of Tennessee's innovative businesses goes beyond AEDC acquiring new capabilities - they can benefit both Tennessee and the Air Force.

"SBIR is important not only for the product we receive, but for economic development that product has to offer," Upender said. "It serves one purpose for us as the government and as a facility, but the business sector takes it and turns it into something else entirely. They can commercialize on it and build companies around it and hire people. When you don't do an SBIR you're not only losing out on that one product, but losing out on a stream of businesses that could be spun up around it."

Upender has been working with the Tennessee Department of Economic Development, and the Tennessee Technology Development Center is sponsoring the networking reception on the first day of the Tech Transition workshop.

Representatives from the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, NASA, The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) and the Air Force Research Laboratory will also attend this month's workshop. Upender said she plans to line up meetings with companies that would be of interest to those groups.

"In this atmosphere of reducing funds, we are trying every effort to be able to collaborate and leverage dollars via utilizing other agencies that have common goals in different areas," Upender said. "So when we produce a product, they could become a stakeholder and add additional funding toward that product, and we all benefit."