Using Biotechnology to Control Fruit Ripening

Agritope, Inc. (Beaverton, OR)

Develop a genetic engineering approach to control the ripening of bananas and tree fruit such as peaches, pears, and apples. This technology has the potential to improve the efficiency of U.S. agricultural production by increasing quality and marketable yield and reducing post-harvest losses which amount to several billion dollars annually.

Development of TERFENOL-D High-Powered Ultrasonic Transducer Technology for Sonochemistry

ETREMA Products, Inc. (Ames, IA)

Develop the technology for high-power ultrasonic transducers capable of 25 kW of power at a frequency of 20 kHz. Such transducers would enable a broad range of commercial-scale applications, including the devulcanization of rubber for recycling, catalysis of chemical reactions, and ultrasonic treatment of seeds to improve yield and germination efficiency.

Critical Components for Process Control in Microelectronics Manufacturing Joint Venture

On-Line Technologies, Inc. (East Hartford, CT)

Develop closed-loop control systems and reactor-specific control algorithms for epitaxial silicon fabrication to increase yields and lower costs of semiconductor devices and consumer products. The technology impacts the epitaxial growth tools market estimated to be $1.2 billion per year.

New Zeolite Synthesis Technology

Chevron Research and Technology Company (Richmond, CA)

Develop a low-cost, environmentally friendly process for making zeolite materials and zeolite-containing catalysts for petroleum refining and other processes. Success could lead to U.S. economic benefits of $2.5 billion per year, realized both through generating new refining and petrochemical sales as well as opening new markets.

Advanced Transgenic Model Systems for Biomedical Research and Development

Genencor International (Palo Alto, CA)

Put human stem cells into transgenic mice to simulate the human immune system, and to use mouse models to test human immune and allergic reactions to new drugs, enzymes, and gene and transplant therapies. The potential impact (direct and indirect) on the U.S. economy is estimated at almost $7 billion annually.

Fundamental New Strategies to Discover Drugs

Isis Pharmaceuticals (Carlsbad, CA)

Develop new technology to accelerate drug discovery 100-fold over currently available methods, using integrated computational, synthetic and high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques, initially focused on the discovery of compounds to treat drug-resistant bacteria. In this area alone, new compounds could lead to a reduction in U.S. healthcare costs of over $2 billion per year through reduced hospital time and simpler treatment regimens.

Building a Future Database

Continuum Software, Inc. (Woburn, MA)

Develop software tools applying new techniques in machine learning and data mining to give business managers powerful predictive data models represented as common business databases that can be queried with familiar database tools.

A Non-intrusive Method for Intelligent Process Control of the Densification of Powder Preforms During Electroconsolidation

Superior Graphite Company (Chicago, IL)

Develop process models and advanced process monitoring and control technologies to improve the performance of the company's experimental method for near-net-shape forming of advanced engineering materials. Anticipated process improvements could make many advanced materials cost-competitive for larger-volume applications through reduced cycle times and lower capital and production costs.

Simple, Generic, and Low-Cost Genetic-Based Tools for Disease Detection, Monitoring, and Intervention

Third Wave Technologies, Inc. (Madison, WI)

Transform low-cost technologies for genetic research into generic tools appropriate for healthcare applications, such as disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring, which will help shift medical practice from post-symptomatic treatment to cost-effective screening and intervention potentially reducing healthcare costs by billions of dollars annually.

A National Knowledge Infrastructure

Cycorp, Inc. (Austin, TX)

Develop tools and technology to support a large knowledge base of widely-shared "common sense" information, to facilitate a large array of software applications and services, including online information searchers that carry on clarification dialogues to better understand a query posed to them, and then gather and integrate information from numerous sources; spreadsheets that highlight improbable values; and email systems better able to filter, prioritize, summarize, and annotate incoming messages.

High Performance ASIC Technology for Digital Signal Processing

The Athena Group, Inc. (Gainesville, FL)

Develop technology for a new class of digital signal processing (DSP) chips based on the mathematics of residue number system to enable up to a tenfold increase in speed over conventional DSP technology, in a smaller package, at lower cost, with important applications in mobile communications and multimedia markets.

Measurement Technology for Quantitation of the Complete Human Proteome

Large Scale Biology Corporation (Rockville, MD)

Develop the technology required to build a database of all human proteins made according to the instructions from genes, hastening the discovery of effective drugs.

Evolution of a Murine Model for AIDS: Applications to Discovery of Small Molecule and Vaccine Therapeutics

Maxygen, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA)

Provide a small-animal model for research on AIDS therapies and vaccines by developing a variant of HIV-1 that will replicate in mice. This approach will be less expensive than current practice using primates and has the potential to accelerate discovery and improve the quality of new AIDS therapies and vaccines.

Optical Maximum Entropy Verification (OMEV) Technology for Anti-Counterfeiting

Physical Optics Corporation (Torrance, CA)

Develop a reliable, low-cost technology for counterfeit-resistant labels based on a novel optical technology. This presents the potential to dramatically reduce forgery and product counterfeiting now estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $80 billion annually.

Advanced Magnesium Alloys Production Process (AMAPP) Joint Venture

Ovonic Battery Company (Troy, MI)

Develop new materials technology for a low-cost, high-energy-density nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery, enabling a strong U.S. base in the rapidly growing rechargeable battery market. The technology would have widespread use in sustainable energy systems such as practical electric vehicles.

Ultrathin Silicon Ribbon for High-Efficiency Solar Cells

Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Waltham, MA)

Develop a low-cost technology for producing a novel silicon material for use in making high-efficiency cells for solar-energy systems. If successful, these process improvements would provide environmentally friendly, affordable electricity for rural regions and developing nations while helping to reduce global- warming emissions.

A Long-Term Pressure-Sensing System for Use in the Human Body and Harsh Environments Joint Venture

APEX Medical, Inc. (East Walpole, MA)

Design a miniature, totally implantable system to monitor blood pressure as a component of a durable artificial heart pump. There are broad applications of this technology beyond blood-pressure sensing, ranging from kidney dialysis to semiconductor manufacturing and dairy processing.

Enhanced Manufacturing Technologies for Bioactive Proteins and Peptides in Transgenic Tobacco Joint Venture

CropTech Development Corporation (Blacksburg, VA)

Develop the ability to manufacture therapeutic proteins and peptides by post-harvest expression in genetically engineered tobacco and purification utilizing phage display derived affinity ligand chromatography. This has the potential to reduce costs for therapeutic treatments and the development of new drugs as well as mitigating the adverse impacts of reduced smoking on tobacco-growing regions.

Motor-Vehicle Manufacturing Technology

Technology for Gear Performance Prediction Utilizing High-Speed Precision Measurement

M&M Precision Systems Corporation (West Carrollton, OH)

Develop technologies to measure gear tooth errors and relate them to gear performance in order to reduce vibration and noise. This would improve gear performance in the U.S. automobile industry, increase the speed of quality-assurance measurements, and eliminate the need for expensive processing.

Manufacturing Agility Server

Flavors Technology (Manchester, NH)

Develop a computational system using autonomous software agents to dynamically reassign operations from failed manufacturing devices in automotive assembly lines. The more efficient management of resources could lower the cost, shorten the life-cycle, and improve the quality of U.S. automotive body assembly.

Next Generation Agile Fixturing System

Lamb Technicon (Warren, MI)

Develop an agile fixturing system to hold automotive components during the machining process in high-volume manufacturing systems. Success would lead to a reduction of millions of dollars annually in capital investment costs for auto part machining systems.

Flexible Robotic Assembly for Powertrain Applications (FRAPA) Joint Venture

Automated Powertrain Assembly Consortium (Ann Arbor, MI)

Develop and integrate advanced robotics technologies, including machine vision and touch sensitivity, necessary for automating the assembly of automotive powertrain components. This technology could save the automotive industry more than $120 million a year and could be readily applied to the farm machinery, railroad transportation, and defense industries.

Low Cycle Time Liquid Molding Process for Automotive Structural Components

Stewart Automotive Research, LLC (Houston, TX)

Develop a liquid molding process for manufacturing automotive structural components out of affordable, high-performance composite materials with the potential to bring about a factor-of-ten reduction in equipment, tooling, and design costs.

Sub-Micron Precision Grinding of Advanced Engineering Materials Joint Venture

Cummins Engine Company (Columbus, IN)

Develop cost-effective technologies for grinding advanced ceramic and composite materials to sub-micron tolerances to produce higher performance, more reliable components for engines, while reducing manufacturing costs.

Motor Vehicle Rapid Toolmaker

Sanders Prototype Incorporated (Wilton, NH)

Develop a tool-making machine and associated processes to rapidly produce plastic, ceramic, and metal tools for use in automobile manufacturing, to produce parts with a superior surface finish at a cost far lower than presently possible.

Nanocomposites New Low-Cost, High-Strength Materials for Automotive Parts Joint Venture

Dow Chemical Company (Midland, MI)

Develop practical synthesis and manufacturing technologies to enable the use of new high-performance, low-weight "nanocomposite" materials in automobiles. Proposed applications would save 1.5 billion liters of gasoline over the life of one year's production of vehicles and reduce related carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5 billion kilograms.

Real-Time Active Balancing for High-Speed Machining

Balance Dynamics Corporation (Ann Arbor, MI)

Develop real-time vibration control technology to enable mass balancing of high-speed machining tools which could enable companies to reduce downtime and safety hazards, extend bearing and machinery life, and increase the quality and precision of parts for automobiles and other products.

Development of the 3D Printing Process for Direct Fabrication of Automotive Tooling for Lost Foam Castings Joint Venture

Extrude Hone Corporation (Irwin, PA)

Develop computer systems and three-dimensional printing process technologies to automatically generate tasking to manufacture Styrofoam patterns of complex engine components from a parts-design database, enabling lower cost production of aluminum engine components with complex shapes.The resulting technologies also could be adapted for the manufacture of turbine components and in the creation of new materials such as metal "foams."

Information Infrastructure for Healthcare

Computer Aided Medical Planning: A New Paradigm in Vascular Intervention

Centric Engineering Systems, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA)

Develop medical planning software to enable physicians to better predict the feasibility of various interventions for vascular disease in individual patients. Planning this treatment is a complex and difficult task, and the market for a computational resource for vascular treatments is estimated to be as high as $25 billion annually.

A Master Patient Index (MPI) for Massively Distributed Records Across a U.S. National Backbone

Sequoia Software Corporation (Columbia, MD)

Develop a Master Patient Index that combines and correlates computerized patient records from different healthcare organizations. Such a system could save lives by providing immediate access to summary medical records in emergencies, increase detection of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid programs, reduce the costly duplication of medical tests, and increase provider productivity.

Physician's Assistant for Continuous Transcription and Structure

Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, a division of Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (Waltham, MA)

Develop speech recognition software that will allow clinicians to dictate records of patient encounters in continuous speech resulting in clinically relevant structured data for use in the computer-based patient record. This could drastically reduce both the $6.6 billion spent annually on medical transcription and the $5.6 billion in malpractice insurance paid by physicians.

RxInfo: Data Mining Tools for Assessing the Impact of Pharmaceutical Therapies on Population Based Healthcare Outcomes

CHIME Inc. (Wallingford, CT)

Develop "intelligent" systems that would enable healthcare practitioners and researchers to evaluate drug therapies based on past clinical experiences at hospitals and healthcare facilities. Such systems could improve clinical decision making and reduce administrative costs and healthcare expenses.

MEDassist: A Generalized Component-Based Technology to Serve as a Foundation for Decision Support Systems

Datamedic (Waltham, MA)

Create a computing infrastructure for real-time decision-support systems that will reduce healthcare providers' deviations from prescribed clinical guidelines and protocols. These systems are expected to lead to an annual savings of hundreds of millions of dollars through improved compliance with guidelines, improved data collection, and increased provider knowledge.

Pre Op The Pre-Operative Decision Support System

HT Medical Systems, Inc. (Rockville, MD)

Design a virtual reality system that will enable physicians to use patient-specific data for diagnosis, practice operations, remote consultations, and other tasks, reducing the invasiveness of surgical procedures, improving the quality of medical decisions, saving costs, and reducing clinical risks.

Digital Data Storage

Multiple Optical Recording Enhancements (MORE) Joint Venture

National Storage Industry Consortium (San Diego, CA)

Develop high-capacity, phase-change optical storage media and high-speed data transfer systems for both desktop digital media systems and low-cost portable devices enabling a competitive position for the United States in a variety of storage markets.

Integrated Vacuum Lubrication System for Hard Disks

Intevac, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA)

Develop a commercially viable technology for vacuum deposition of lubricants on data-storage hard disks to increase data-storage density, reduce manufacturing costs, and provide a critical infrastructure improvement that supports the entire multibillion dollar data-storage industry.

A Novel Flying-Optical-Head Disk Drive Joint Venture

Quinta Corporation (San Jose, CA)

Demonstrate an optical hard drive that stores up to 350 gigabytes at a very competitive data rate, potentially reducing the cost per gigabyte of on-line data storage to a level that will significantly improve U.S. market share.

Trainable Digital Logic A New Approach to Increasing Data Storage Density on Magnetic Media

Neural Systems Corporation (Los Altos Hills, CA)

Demonstrate an innovative signal processing technique that will significantly increase the magnetic disk digital data storage density as well as the data transfer rate, potentially increasing the U.S. market share by providing increased performance at comparable cost to current technology.

Continuous Low-Cost Manufacturing System for DVD

Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (Troy, MI)

Demonstrate a new optical disk manufacturing technology to increase the throughput of DVD production lines by an order of magnitude and reduce the cost of DVD-RAM media by a factor of ten. The goal is to greatly accelerate DVD market growth and enable its extension to new, large-market applications.

Enabling Technology for a Digital Video Optical Tape Recorder of High-Resolution Motion Imagery Joint Venture

LOTS Technology, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA)

Demonstrate innovative technologies for digital optical tape recorders and reusable optical tape, that are suitable for compressed and uncompressed HDTV, and that could be significantly more affordable than alternative magnetic recorders.

Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications

Virtual Reality Telecollaborative Integrated Manufacturing Environment (VRTIME)

Searle (Skokie, IL)

Create and demonstrate virtual reality technologies for use in collaborative, realistic studies of manufacturing operations and processes, potentially saving an estimated $166 million per year in plant design and modification.

Process Integration Using Model-Driven Engines

Vitria Technology, Inc. (Mountain View, CA)

Develop a new class of software tools to manage complex supply chains and other business systems both within and across companies, based on models that capture and integrate basic relationships between business entities, to enable agile, "rapid response" supply chain management while reducing software maintenance costs by up to 50 percent.

Agent-Enhanced Manufacturing System Initiative Joint Venture

Advanced Micro Devices (Austin, TX)

Design and validate a distributed computer infrastructure for defining and deploying software agents to improve the productivity of semiconductor factories by 5 to 10 percent, an impact worth an estimated $300 million to $400 million per year per factory.

EECOMS: Extended Enterprise Coalition for Integrated Collaborative Manufacturing Systems Joint Venture

IBM Corporation, CIIMPLEX (Charlotte, NC)

Develop a new framework for people, applications and software agents to collaborate on supply chain logistics, resulting in faster delivery of products to customers, reduction of costly inventories, and an overall increase of U.S. manufacturers' competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Distributed Factory System Framework

Consilium, Inc. (Mt. View, CA)

Develop software and protocols to coordinate the actions of multiple manufacturing software applications within a factory, resulting in greater factory output, improved customer service, and reduced rework.

ANTS Scheduling and Execution System

Deneb Robotics, Inc. (Auburn Hills, MI)

Validate a distributed computer system for factory scheduling that will increase the flexibility, responsiveness, and international competitiveness of U.S. shipyards, resulting in annual savings of $100 million.

Component-Based Software

Certifying Security in Electronic Commerce Components

Reliable Software Technologies (Sterling, VA)

Design a rigorous process and core testing technologies for assuring the security of software components, a key enabling technology for Internet-based electronic commerce.

Business Object Component Specification, Generation and Assembly

Data Access Technologies, Inc. (Miami, FL)

Create an architecture, infrastructure and tools for the specification, automatic generation and assembly of business software components to enable business users to easily develop open, interoperable enterprise-wide business applications deployable across the Internet.

A Programmable Framework Based on Semantic Modeling Components

Synquiry Technologies, Ltd. (Belmont, MA)

Develop the tools and basic architecture for a commerce in software components based on an innovative combination of semantic models and generic processing "applets," enabling application users to handle for themselves many tasks now requiring trained programmers in tailoring applications to their specific business needs, with dramatic improvements in productivity and quality.

Component-Based Commerce: The Interoperable Future Joint Venture

CN Group (Palo Alto, CA)

Build tools and infrastructure to enable the incorporation of Web-based information and resources as components in semantic-based frameworks for composing new services and resources, enabling U.S. leadership in an open, extensible market for Internet-based commerce estimated to grow to $50 billion to $100 billion by the turn of the century.

MirrorBall: A Component Infrastructure Initiative

Sterling Software, Inc. (Plano, TX)

Create tools and languages for capturing design patterns and generating code from those patterns which could greatly increase the ability of large corporations to rapidly reengineer their business processes and integrate their applications at an enterprise level.

Debugging Component-Based Software for Enterprise Systems

Intermetrics, Inc. (Burlington, MA)

Develop a customizable tools for debugging applications built from component software. This tool will be used by application developers and system integrators, greatly increasing the productivity and the quality and reliability of their work.

Tissue Engineering

Combinatorial Cell Culture: Tool Development and Application to Human Stem Cell Growth

Automated Cell Technologies, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA)

Develop and apply automated cell culturing tools on the growth of human hematopoietic stem cells for research and clinical use in bone marrow transplants, currently a $4.5 billion market.

Ex Vivo Production of Universal Red Blood Cells and Platelets in a Biocompatible 3-D Tissue Scaffold

Cytomatrix (Cambridge, MA)

Develop technology to produce universal red blood cells and platelets derived from hematopoietic stem cells in a biocompatible three-dimensional scaffold to provide an alternative source of red blood cells with an expected savings to the nation's economy of over $1 billion.

Three Dimensional Fibrous Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

Johnson & Johnson Corporate Biomaterials Center (Somerville, NJ)

Develop absorbable polymeric materials and manufacturing capability that will allow for the fabrication of a family of three-dimensional fibrous scaffolds with varying architectures for use in bone and cartilage regeneration.

Development of Tissue-Engineered Vascular Grafts Based on Quantitative Cell and Tissue Biomechanics

Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc. (La Jolla, CA)

Develop tissue-engineered vascular grafts produced from cells grown on a biocompatible scaffold to produce a small diameter vessel useful in coronary artery bypass, potentially significantly reducing costs in one of the most expensive areas of healthcare for a procedure performed over 600,000 times a year in the United States.

Synthetic Nerve Fiber Guides Using Novel Biopolymers and Cellular Adhesion Molecules

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (New York, NY)

Blend polymer technology and protein chemistry to develop a technology capable of directing nerve growth through scar tissue for spinal cord regeneration, making it possible to restore neurological function to spinal cord injury victims.

Development of Immortalized Human Hepatocytes for Therapeutic Purposes

MultiCell Associates, Inc. (Providence, RI)

Using genetic engineering techniques to create a line of human liver cells that replicate and function, but do not stimulate host immune response, thus providing a renewable source of cells to treat liver failure without immune-system side effects. The cells are expected to function within an extracorporeal perfusion device to treat acute and chronic liver failure which, excluding alcohol-related causes, currently affects 76,000 people annually in the United States and now is only treatable through transplantation.

Molecular Approaches to Ice Control for Engineered Tissue Storage

Life Resuscitation Technologies, Inc. (Chicago, IL)

Develop molecular approaches to control ice formation for tissue engineered products and donor organs, leading to better storage methods and reasonable shelf life. The technology will impact a growing, billion-dollar industry.

High-Throughput Screening of Hardy Cells for Encapsulation and Implantation Therapies

CytoTherapeutics, Inc. (Lincoln, RI)

Design strategies for rapidly screening and engineering cell lines that can survive and produce therapeutic agents when implanted in the central nervous system, potentially enabling effective therapies for a range of conditions including Parkinson's disease and diabetic retinopathy, which are currently untreatable.

Generation of Neural Stem Cell Implants for Neurodegenerative Disease Therapies

CytoTherapeutics, Inc. (Lincoln, RI)

Generate banks of human neural stem cells and identify the factors essential to cell growth and differentiation as a basis for repairing the central nervous system, potentially enabling new, restorative treatments for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases and other diseases of the central nervous system.

Xenogeneic Cartilage Transplantation Joint Venture

Alexion Pharmaceutical, Inc. (New Haven, CT)

Design a system for repairing human cartilage defects using precursor cells from transgenic pigs combined with a polymeric implant in which the cells can grow, enabling an important new therapy for damaged cartilage. The initial market potential for cartilage repair products is estimated at $300 million to $500 million annually in the United States.

Cardiac Muscle Regeneration Using Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (Baltimore, MD)

Demonstrate that mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow can differentiate into cardiac muscle and restore function to damaged heart tissue, potentially enabling a significant new cell-replacement therapy for heart patients. Coronary disease is the number one killer in the United States and costs the economy over $150 billion annually.

Biocompatible Resorbable Polymers Designed for Tissue Engineering

Integra LifeSciences Corporation (Plainsboro, NJ)

Synthesize and characterize biocompatible polymeric implant materials with the structural, chemical, and biological properties needed to support cartilage repair, potentially a billion dollar market in the U.S.