More names to know

Some of these College of Engineering startups are barely out of the gate. Others are bringing innovative products to the marketplace and creating jobs. All are taking the research and teaching that goes on in the College and making a local, and even global, impact.

Augment Medical, Inc.

Based on a Joint NC State/UNC Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) design project, engineering graduates Timothy Martin, Richard Daniels and Daniel Bieber are developing an emergency communication platform for patients with disabilities that can be controlled with the flex of a muscle or raise of an eyebrow.

Offline Media

Chemical engineering graduate David Shaner’s Offline Media wants to inspire people to unplug from electronics and connect with their communities. The company’s application uses proprietary technology to collect and curate thousands of things to do in Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte and Nashville with more cities coming soon.

LUMEOVA

LUMEOVA is a start-up company based in the Technology Incubator on Centennial Campus. Founded by Dr. M. Ali Khatibzadeh, a graduate of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and veteran of the wireless semiconductor industry, LUMEOVA is focused on the development of a novel solution for next-generation, ultra-high-speed communication systems. The company is collaborating with ECE’s Dr. Salah M. Bedair, Dr. Robert J. Trew and Dr. Mehmet Ozturk.

HexaTech

Morrisville, NC-based HexaTech is creating next-generation wide bandgap semiconductor devices based on aluminum nitride for use in power conversion devices and ultraviolet LEDs. Dr. Zlatko Sitar, Kobe Steel Distinguished Professor in MSE, and Dr. Raoul Schlesser, a former research assistant professor in the department, are co-founders. MSE alumni Gregory Mills, Dr. Baxter Moody and Dr. Rafael Dalmau also hold senior positions in the company.

CREE

Engineering alumni Calvin Carter Jr., John Palmour, Neal Hunter, John Edmond and Eric Hunter took their idea from an MSE lab and turned it into a Durham, NC-based company with thousands of employees that creates lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting and semiconductors for use in wireless and power applications.

Atmospheric Plasma Solutions

Founded in 2005 by MSE graduate Peter Yancey, Atmospheric Plasma Solutions, Inc. (APS) develops advanced plasma technologies and solutions for environmentally friendly paint removal, surface modification and cleaning and plasma-enhanced deposition for the advanced materials, defense and medical markets. The APS PlasmaFlux technology brings the benefits of plasma processing to industrial processes without the need for expensive vacuum chambers and pumps.

Novocor Medical Systems

Dr. Andrew DiMeo, associate professor of the practice, in BME and five of his students designed a device that instantly cools saline to induce therapeutic hypothermia. Their invention is the lead product of Novocor, a company providing solutions for emergency first responders. Their life-saving product is ready on demand, attaches in-line to standard IV tubing and cools saline for up to 30 minutes without any external power. It is easily stored in ambulances, fire trucks and helicopters and can be carried anywhere EMS personnel go.

WarpSpec Diagnostics

MSE Ph.D. candidate Jordan Moering and Jenkins MBA student Rafael Estevez are using a plasma energy field and advanced optics developed by the US Navy to scan processed food to ensure pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. will not make it to grocery store shelves. The team won first place in the New Venture Challenge at the 2015 Lulu eGames and is a semifinalist for the 43North business plan competition.

ITST-LLC

Dr. Jerry Cuomo is a Distinguished Research Professor in MSE. ITST-LLC is a research and consulting company he founded that has negotiated the exclusive rights to a patent filed by NC State and ITST-LLC on a method and process for the low temperature capture and transformation of CO2, NH3, SO2, H2S, CS22 and Thiophenes as well as the alkylation of hydrocarbons that will improve the octane in fuels. All of these processes are at low temperatures with the renewal of the activating medium.

TriboFilm Research, Inc.

Based in Raleigh, TriboFilm Research is an independent research and development center bringing together materials scientists, chemists and engineers focused on novel medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging. TriboFilm holds multiple worldwide patents licensed to several pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. Vice-Presidents Vinay Sakhrani and Robert A. Mineo have NC State degrees in materials science and engineering and aerospace engineering, respectively, and Dr. Jerry Cuomo, Distinguished Research Professor in MSE, is chairman of the company’s board of directors.

ImagineOptix Corp

ECE professor Dr. Michael Escuti and Dennis Kekas, associate vice chancellor for Centennial Campus partnerships and director of the university’s Institute for Next Generation IT Systems, are co-founders of this Cary, NC company commercializing patented optical thin-films and specialty optical components.

NicoTrax

First called Track2Quit and developed in the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program, Nicotrax has developed a smart cigarette case, mobile application and web dashboard that help smokers quit. The technology analyzes individual triggers for smoking and provides direct support to overcome and replace the addiction. Electrical engineering graduate Suraaj Doshi has stayed on from the senior design team and is the company’s chief technology officer. NC State computer science alumnus Kenneth Jennings runs the company’s software development.

Smart Material Solutions, LLC

This Raleigh-based company specializes in research and development of smart material and precision engineering technology, including optics and structured surfaces. Founder Dr. Stephen Furst, a graduate of the Precision Engineering Center (PEC) under the direction of Distinguished Professor Thomas Dow, works extensively with the PEC on mechanical design, fabrication of optics and basic research on measurement and precision fabrication processes. The company is working on a National Science Foundation-funded project to develop Nanocoining — a novel nano-manufacturing process developed at the PEC that is capable of creating large anti-reflective and self-cleaning surfaces quickly and inexpensively.

Return to contents or download the Fall/Winter 2015 NC State Engineering magazine.