Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Victor, Megan E..
Kennedy Tech Transfer News is the magazine of the Technology Transfer Office at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This magazine seeks to inform and educate civil servant and contractor personnel at Kennedy Space Center about actively participating in achieving NASA's technology transfer and partnership goals.
Kennedy Space Center scientists developed a hydrogen leak sensor utilizing a combination of chemochromic pigment and polymer that can be molded or fiber spun into rigid or flexible shapes such as tape. The sensor turns a dark color when exposed to hydrogen gas. This sensor has proven to be very effective for pinpointing the exact location of leaks in hydrogen gas lines and fittings at launch pads. Kennedy Space Center exclusively licensed this technology to the University of Central Florida (UCF), who also holds patents that are complimentary to KSC's. UCF has bundled the patents and exclusively licensed the portfolio to HySense Technology LLC, a startup company founded by a UCF professor who supports the UCF Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC). HySense has fully developed its product (known as Intellipigment"TM"), and currently has five commercial customers. The company recently won the $100,000 first-place award at the CAT5 innovation competition at the Innovation Concourse of the Southeast: Safety & Manufacturing event in Orlando, FL. Commercial production and sales of this technology by HySense Technology will make this leak sensor widely available for use by NASA, DoD, and industries that utilize hydrogen gas.
On October 28, 2011, the White House released a Presidential Memorandum entitled: Accelerating Technology Transfer and Commercialization of Federal Research in Support of High-Growth Businesses. With this memo, the President challenged all federal agencies conducting R&D to accelerate technology transfer and commercialization of federally developed technology to help stimulate the national economy. The NASA Technology Transfer Program responded by asking the center technology transfer offices to reach out to - and work more closely with - their regional economic development organizations to promote the transfer of NASA technologies to the local private sector for use in the marketplace. Toward that effort, the KSC Technology Transfer Office teamed with the Florida Space Coast Economic Development Commission (EDC) to host a technology transfer forum designed to increase our business community's awareness of available KSC technologies for transfer. In addition, the forum provided opportunities for commercial businesses to collaborate with KSC in technology development. (see article on page 12) The forum, held on September 12, 2013, focused on KSC technology transfer and partnership opportunities within the Robotics, Sustainability, Information Technology and Environmental Remediation technology areas. The event was well attended with over 120 business leaders from the community. KSC Center Director Robert Cabana and the Center Chief Technologist Karen Thompson provided remarks, and several KSC lead researchers presented technical information and answered questions, which were not in short supply. Florida Today and the Orlando Sentinel ran news stories on the forum and both NASA TV and Channel 6 News filmed portions of the event. Given the reaction by the media and local business to the forum, it is evident the community is recognizing the opportunities that NASA-developed technologies can provide to aspiring entrepreneurs and existing companies to bring new technologies to market, as well as the positive impact KSC technology transfer can have on the local economy. We see even more evidence of this in the efforts by several other organizations to develop programs that provide aspiring entrepreneurs with the opportunity and training needed to identify the commercial potential of specific NASA technologies and develop business plans to exploit that potential. Several initiatives include Florida Startup Quest, CareerSource Brevard Energy Launch, Rollins College Entrepreneurial Scholar of Distinction Program, and a new effort led by the University of Central Florida Office of Research and Commercialization to stimulate new business growth in Florida based on NASA technologies. The KSC Technology Transfer Office has stepped up to support each of these programs and is providing them with the NASA technologies they need to help move the economy forward.