With an economic impact of $255 million to the Gainesville/Alachua County community, the Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center (GTEC) has a lot to celebrate! February 11, 2009 marked 10 years since the very first announcement, and the GTEC program opened its doors to technology startups in 2001. Opening its doors once again, more than 60 members from the local business community attended the GTEC Open House last week (on February 12) including City Commissioner Lauren Poe and Joe Cirulli, 2009 Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce Chairman and owner of Gainesville Health and Fitness. Guests enjoyed a tour of the GTEC facility and demonstrations of the newest technologies being developed at GTEC.
Grow-Your-Own Success—Evolugate has developed an economical process for manufacturing biodiesel, which is currently in a miniature pilot plant. It is currently exploring ways to expand use of biodiesel and create a larger scale plant to manufacture it through various funding sources. Evolugate has expanded its space in the GTEC facility to encompass three spaces, totaling 1,825 square feet. (Evolugate uses its proprietary machines to help beneficial microorganisms evolve at a more rapid pace.)Firebird Biomolecular Sciences and other members of Dr. Steven Benner’s scientific team are one of seven teams competing internationally for the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics by the X PRIZE Foundation. The prize is a multi-million dollar incentive to create technology that can successfully map 100 human genomes in 10 days.Psigenics Corporation, through its subsidiary, The Quantum World Corporation, is selling several products for true random number generation like those that are required by lotteries or for software and data encryption. With sufficient funding, Psigenics Corporation hired three new employees and anticipates receiving additional investment capital in the first part of 2009. In 2008, the company relocated from New Mexico to Gainesville to participate in the GTEC program.Innovative Automation Technologies (IATech), partnering with UF, is developing components and modules for unmanned vehicles (UVs) such as ?xed-winged aircraft (UAV) and robots (UGV). IATech is currently selling their products and was recently awarded a $100,000 STTR grant. IATech plans to develop a UAV targeted to law enforcement for search, surveillance and other functions, and it plans to partner with the Alachua County Sheriff to begin joint testing in 2009.WiPower finished developing its first-generation of a charging product for portable devices—including industrial products, notebooks, cell phones and PDAs—and it made its first sales of this product in 2008. In January 2009, WiPower was featured nationally on the NBC TODAY Show and in Fast Company magazine. WiPower’s UF-developed technology uses induction to wirelessly transfer power from a base to a portable device.Innovative Scheduling (IS), the largest GTEC startup, currently employs 18 people and occupies 3,726 square feet in the GTEC facility. IS is currently selling two software products and is developing six others for major corporations such as Norfolk Southern Corporation, CSX, BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. In 2007, IS significantly increased its revenues and posted its first year of profitability. In 2008, IS increased its revenues by more than 30 percent.