Phoenix Workshop Promotes Commercial Opportunities for NASA Technologies

NASA First Contact: Communicating in the 21st Century is the title of a daylong workshop being held on the campus of Arizona State University West in Glendale, Arizona on March 28. The event, sponsored by the NASA Far West RTTC, Arizona Technology Incubator, Pinnacle Management Group and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, will showcase several technologies that are available from NASA for commercial use by the private sector.

The program provides an opportunity for Arizona companies to learn about NASA technologies that are available for commercial exploitation in two broad areas: Information Technologies/Telecommunications and Biomedicine. The audience will hear details on the development, potential commercial uses, benefits and how to acquire commercial rights to at least nine technologies from four different NASA research centers: Ames Research Center, Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center and Goddard Space Flight Center. Some of the technologies include a novel rehydration beverage, a suite of digital imaging tools and a contextual data mining tool, all from NASA Ames and a video stabilization technology from NASA Marshall.

In addition, the program will feature a keynote address by Joseph Loeb, founder and President of BreakAway Technologies, a Los Angeles company that has licensed technology from NASA and is proceeding with development of that technology to enhance its commercial viability.

Finally, small businesses in the audience will have a chance to learn more about NASA’s Small Business Innovation (SBIR) program. NASA SBIR is a competitive program that funds small businesses to do innovative research that will lead to commercial products that are needed by NASA and the private sector. The SBIR portion of the workshop will be presented in the form of a comedy skit that drives home key points about what to do and what not to do to compete successfully for SBIR funds from NASA.

The workshop will be held March 28, 2002 at ASU West from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM. For more information and to register, please contact Larry or Rebecca Lacy of Pinnacle Management Group at 602-850-4260 or Louann Phillips of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce at 602-495-2193.