Flying Vehicle Gives Lift to the Maryland Economy

Military drone developed with help of university faculty brings millions of dollars of business to the state.

Shown is Navmar's MAKO. This inexpensive military drone, which has a wing span of 12 feet, 8 inches, was developed with assistance from University of Maryland aerospace engineers.

Five University of Maryland aerospace engineering faculty members helped make Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation's unmanned autonomous vehicle, or UAV, fly. The company, in turn, has given wing to the Maryland economy with millions in subcontracts, new companies and new facilities.

Daryll Pines, along with fellow faculty members Ella Atkins, Christopher Cadou, Norman Wereley and Anthony Vizzini, played a key role in developing the Navmar MAKO UAV--a light, inexpensive military drone similar to the Predator flown in Afghanistan. The difference between the MAKO and the Predator is the former is expendable--and costs millions less to make.

The MAKO can travel far distances, carry substantial payloads and serve a variety of missions--including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

"The MIPS project was for developing an airframe that could lift a certain amount of weight, use an off-the-shelf autopilot, and fly autonomously for two to four hours," says Steven Steptoe, the principal investigator on the project for Navmar.

Vizzini developed a low-cost, expendable, composite airframe called Tailwind for the MAKO. Atkins tested low-cost, off-the-shelf autopilots and radio-controlled aircraft technologies to see which might work. The results were incorporated into a new type of drone.

"If that project wasn't successful, we'd still have unanswered questions about stability and the airframe," says Steptoe.

The MAKO is now being flown by an active U.S. Navy operational squadron. Navmar is manufacturing approximately one vehicle per week, with 26 already shipped to the U.S. military.

Navmar awarded $10 million in subcontracts to nine Maryland companies to develop the MAKO, including: Brandebury Tool in Gaithersburg, BAE in Easton, API in Baltimore, Sullivan Products in Baltimore, Ship Point in Patuxent River, Neany Inc. in Patuxent River, Rugged in Patuxent River, Titan in Patuxent River and Patuxent River-based Compass Systems.

Navmar also opened three new facilities in Maryland--in Lexington Park, New Carrollton and Chestertown--and spawned two new companies, Neany Inc. and Rugged, both in the Patuxent River area.

The MAKO research was conducted through a university Maryland Industrial Partnerships award. MIPS funds collaborative research projects between Maryland-based companies and University System of Maryland faculty for developing commercial products.

Detecting Biological Warfare Agents on a Centimeter-Sized Chip

Students work in the Maryland MEMS lab on a polymer biochip (shown above) used in DeVoe's research. The biochip, developed in close collaboration with associate professor Cheng Lee's group in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, contains thousands of microchannels for analyzing protein signatures.

Finding dangerous pathogens is no small task, but if Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Donald DeVoe and Rockville-based Calibrant Biosystems have their way, the device that finds them will be.

Through the University's Maryland Industrial Partnerships program, also known as MIPS, Calibrant and DeVoe are jointly developing a portable, lab-on-a-chip system to detect biological warfare agents.

The chip will be tiny--centimeters in diameter and a millimeter thick--and capable of discovering pathogens extracted from air, water and tissue samples. The chip will be used as a stand-alone detection system, although it could also be integrated into existing or planned systems.

One example is a new U.S. soldier uniform under investigation--which could combine a micro-needle with Calibrant's product to regularly analyze blood samples for exposure to biological agents--including anthrax, botulism and smallpox.

"Our system will be compact and universal," says DeVoe, who directs the university's Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, lab. "We'll ultimately be able to detect nearly every pathogen out there."

Current detection systems often utilize gene chip or protein chip technologies, which require biologically active reagents and tend to be very slow, according to DeVoe. Calibrant's system will separate and identify protein signatures from viruses, bacteria and toxins, often within 15 minutes--in a compact, low-power system.

Calibrant's MIPS project has already yielded benefits for the company. "We've leveraged the MIPS award for an $850,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to expand upon this work," DeVoe explains, "so the immediate impact of this project cannot be overstated."

Startups CAN Find Investors

The university's Robert H. Smith School of Business is providing entrepreneurs with a new network that enables them to connect with angel investors who can help them grow their businesses. In November of 2003, the school's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship started operating the Capital Access Network, or CAN. The network helps startup companies in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware connect with active, accredited, private equity investors in the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

After receiving business plan submissions from entrepreneurs, the Dingman Center electronically sends batches of executive summaries to the network on angel investors. The center follows up to facilitate meetings between investors and the entrepreneurs. Angel investors and entrepreneurs benefit from the process because the investors are able to review and respond to several plans at once.

The CAN investors are looking for quality equity investment opportunities in promising emerging growth companies that are typically seeking between $250,000 and $1,500,000 in equity financing. In addition to providing access to capital, CAN members collectively provide entrepreneurs with professional advice and management expertise. More information about CAN can be found at www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman.

Biotech Program Trains Staff at MedImmune

The Clark School of Engineering's Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (MTECH) will train staff members of MedImmune in the fundamentals of the entire bio-production process under a new contract the company has signed with the MTECH Biotechnology Program.

MedImmune is one of the world's largest biotech firms, and the most successful biotech entity in the state of Maryland.

According to Dan Pappas, MedImmune's director of cell culture operations, the goal of developing and implementing a technical training program is "to help MedImmune's staff understand the science and engineering fundamentals underlying the actions and decisions we make in everyday operations."

Employees will also gain insight into their role within the larger production process. "We're teaching the process from inside the cell to inside the bottle," said Ed Sybert, co-director of the MTECH Biotechnology Program. "We're thrilled to support one of Maryland's premier bio firms by bringing our knowledge to their employees. It's one more way the university serves companies through the transfer of knowledge."

The MedImmune trainings consist of eight three-day workshops with 10-12 employees in each training session. The workshops are funded by MedImmune and by the Partnership for Workforce Quality, a program of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

People Power

University Movers and Shapers

President Bush has appointed assistant professor Allison Druin to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS). The commission, which was established in 1970, advises the president and Congress on national library and information issues and policies.

Druin, who holds a joint appointment in the university's College of Information Studies and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, is an expert in human-computer interaction and children's use of information technology. She directs the International Children's Digital Library, a joint project of the University of Maryland and the Internet Archive. The ICDL digitizes children's books and makes them freely available through a specially designed Web site. The ICDL project is an outgrowth of earlier NSF-supported research into the needs of children in digital library environments conducted by Druin and her unique design team of children and adults.

A new study on prolific authors in accounting literature cites Lawrence A. Gordon, Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Managerial Accounting and Information Assurance and director of the Ph.D. Program at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, as the world's 35th most prolific author in the field of accounting, placing him among the top one percent.

Two-time Emmy winner and Maryland English lecturer Michael Olmert has won a "Gold World Medal" from the New York Festivals organization as the screenwriter for the Discovery Channel's "Walking with Cavemen" documentary. When it premiered last June, the program was the most-watched documentary on basic cable for 2003, with 14.7 million viewers. "Walking with Cavemen" is a co-production of the Discovery Channel and the BBC. Olmert, a frequent contributor to Smithsonian magazine and the Washington Post, is a specialist in English literature with a strong interest in the connections between literature and history.

In February, the number of Maryland faculty in the National Academy of Engineering jumped from nine to 12, when the academy announced that new members include Jeong H. Kim, professor of practice in electrical and computer engineering, G.W. (Pete) Stewart, professor of computer science and new faculty member Gerald E. Galloway, research professor of civil and environmental engineering. The NAE lauded Kim for his contributions to national defense and security through improved battlefield communication; Galloway for his distinguished leadership in the management of sustainable water resources and education in environmental engineering; and Stewart for his development of numerical algorithms and software widely used in engineering computation.