ECE Faculty Involved in New MIPS Grants

The University of Maryland announced 17 high-tech, collaborative research projects between Maryland companies and university faculty to develop technology-based commercial products through the university's Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program (MIPS). ECE faculty were involved in two of the research projects.

Almost half (seven) of the MIPS projects are energy-related, from new wind turbines to energy-scavenging batteries to green roof materials and wireless energy monitoring systems. Five are biotechnology projects, including therapeutics for malaria, West Nile Virus, hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency virus, cancer, and staph infections.

Worth $3.7 million, the projects combine $2.3 million from participating companies and $1.4 million from MIPS. Funding supports research in the laboratories of participating university faculty, who work closely with partner companies to advance their products. All funding goes to the project faculty and often supports the work of graduate students.

ECE faculty are involved in the following MIPS projects:

Takoma Park-based CoolCAD Electronics (www.coolcadelectronics.com) and Shuvra Bhattacharyya, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($144,100): developing a cost-efficient, wireless sensor network for monitoring residential and commercial energy use.

College Park-based FlexEl LLC (www.flexelinc.com) and Patrick O'Shea, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($141,025): developing an integrated circuit chip that draws power from the environment and converts it into electric energy suitable for driving real systems such as FlexEl's high-capacity, thin film, rechargeable batteries.

MIPS, an initiative of the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, or Mtech, brings university innovation to the commercial sector by supporting university-based research projects to help Maryland companies develop technology-based products.

The MIPS program has supported research projects with more than 400 different Maryland companies since 1987. Commercial products benefitting from MIPS projects have generated more than $16.9 billion in revenue, added jobs to the region, and contributed to successes such as Martek Biosciences’ nutritional oils, Hughes Network Systems’ HughesNet™, MedImmune Inc.’s Synagis®, and Black & Decker’s Bullet® Speed Tip Masonry Drill Bit.

Learn more at www.mips.umd.edu.

Published July 23, 2009