COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program, an initiative of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, has approved research projects worth $4.1 million to teams combining Maryland companies with state university researchers to bring technology products closer to market, program officials announced.
A technology acceleration program, MIPS provides funding — matched with company funds — to faculty engaged in each project.
For this round of funding, companies are contributing $2.8 million and MIPS $1.3 million to the jointly funded projects. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency provided additional funding.
“MIPS is a great value for the state of Maryland and serves as a national model of how to leverage the intellectual power of our universities to drive innovation and the economy,” said Joseph Naft, MIPS director. “The program attracts Maryland’s entrepreneurs, enabling them to multiply their R&D efforts by engaging world-class faculty and graduate students to do real-world research.”
Two of the winning projects are:
• $1,109,320 for Jungho Kim, professor, department of mechanical engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, to work with Germantown-based Earth Networks (www.earthnetworks.com) to extend the company’s WeatherBug® Home residential energy efficiency product, which integrates key weather variables into home energy management and demand response programs.
• $241,980 for Reinhard Radermacher, professor, department of mechanical engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, to work with Annapolis-based XChanger Companies Inc. (http://xcoinc.net) to evaluate the energy-saving potential and thermal comfort of the company’s air delivery unit, which initial studies have shown yield potential HVAC operating savings of between 18-31 percent.
Projects are subject to final contract negotiations.
Publication date: 3/10/2014
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