Battelle Partners with
Central State University
to Incubate Clean, Green Products

The need to move “green” technologies into the marketplace more quickly inspired a partnership between Battelle's Environmental Technology Commercial ization Center and Ohio's Central State University (CSU) to launch the National Environmental Technology (NET) Incubator in January, 2001. The Incubator provides start-up firms and entrepreneurs access to laboratories and equipment, discounted office space, business support, and advanced information to help them bring new technologies to market, and offers CSU students valuable experience. AMR Technologies, the NET Incubator's first tenant, has “graduated” and expects to move into the National Composite Center in Kettering, Ohio to complete development of a thermoplastic piece using waste fly ash as a filler material. Fly ash produces plastic products of light weight, high strength and impact resistance—characteristics desired by, for example, the recreational vehicle market. Technologies like AMR’s that improve efficiencies in the use of materials or energy are in demand because they increase competitiveness.

Another tenant, Global Neighbor, is developing a batteryoperated, environmentally friendly lawnmower. Their innovative design dramatically lowers energy requirements, which inspired four students in CSU’s Manufacturing Engineering Department to create plans for a manual push version of the mower. The Incubator and the Department applied to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance for a grant to file for patents on intellectual property developed by the students as well as for funding to develop the mower prototype.

CSU students in the College of Business and Industry, under the direction of Professor Ted Sampson, will perform market research studies for the three incubator companies: Global Neighbor, Welco and New Concept Solutions. These partnerships among CSU and the Incubator tenant companies provide real-world experience for students and assist the entrepreneurs. Funding from the Delphi Foundation in Dayton supports these practical educational experiences.

In 2002, the Incubator held its first National Business Plan Competition. The third place winner, Crystal IS, recently received $1.16 million from the Department of Defense to further develop their aluminum nitride semiconductor, which could be used to make blue-light emitting diodes (LEDs), high-density optical data storage, as well as high-power and hightemperature devices. Jerry Mahone, Executive Director of the NET Incubator, stated that, “This year’s Business Plan Competition was bigger and better than last year’s inaugural event. Business plans were received from a larger geographic area and the quality rivaled the quality of those evauluated last year. The diversity of technologies this year also exceeded those we received last year.” The business plan competition was cosponsored by the Miami Valley Economic Development Coalition and the Ohio Department of Development, Office of Energy Efficiency. Global Neighbor was the winner of the competition which was held at Central State University on April 14, 2003.

For further information, please contact Mr. Harry Stone at (513) 362-2602, stoneh@battelle.org.