Spring 2019 | Issue: 1
Volume 12
SATOP Insider Inside This Issue: Director’s Letter
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Design by Analysis Assists in Development of Medical Device
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Ampcare’s Medical Device Success Story Continues — Thanks to Jacobs
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Engineer Feature Eric Kuehnel, Jacobs
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Engineer Feature Leonard S. (Len) Discenza Design by Anaylsis, Inc. (DBA)
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SportsStar Credits SATOP as a Valuable Player in its Ongoing Success About SATOP
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“Transforming space technology into commercial products.”
www.spacetechsolutions.com
18045 Saturn Lane Houston, TX 77058
832.536.3255
Director’s Letter The Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP), administered by the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, continues to assist small business owners in the State of Texas to overcome technical challenges and bring new products to market. The State of Texas has funded SATOP since 2000, which has resulted in more than 800 Texas small businesses receiving technical assistance otherwise unavailable to the public sector. Technical challenges are real for many small business owners in the great State of Texas. Many businesses hit the wall with completing the development of their products, and, in some cases, close up shop entirely. However, through community outreach and word-of-mouth, SATOP is able to reach small businesses in need. Over the past year, more than 50 small business owners and entrepreneurs have received technical assistance or critical resource referrals, which led them to the gateway of growth and success. As we continue to expand our outreach in Texas, SATOP success stories illustrate just how pivotal technical assistance is regarding the positive impact it has on a small business. Inside this issue of SATOP Insider, you will find such stories featured.
Design by Analysis Assists in Development of Medical Device Ampcare’s Medical Device Success Story Continues — Thanks to Jacobs SportsStar Credits SATOP as a Valuable Player in its Ongoing Success
These entrepreneurs were matched with engineers who volunteered many hours to provide a feasible technical solution. It is thanks to their dedication that SATOP has become a valuable asset to small businesses all over the State of Texas. Sincerely,
Bob Payne SATOP Director
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Design by Analysis Assists in Development of Medical Device There’s no doubt that medical testing often saves lives. Consistency in these tests is of utmost importance. Anselmo Arratia is an entrepreneur with experience in developing medical device components. One of those devices is a medical fluid manifold used in percutaneous intravascular procedures. In recent years, there has been a push to reduce the occurrences of acute kidney injury during these types of procedures due to the contrast used. More and more physicians have begun to manually mix contrast and saline solution in an attempt to reduce the amount of contrast being administered to each patient during these procedures. Arratia recognized the need for an easier way to do so that would result in a more consistent mixture in half the time. A coronary/peripheral angiography is a test to find out if a patient has a blockage in the arterial system. During this procedure, a contrast dye is injected into a patient’s arteries through a catheter (thin, plastic tube) while the physician watches an X -ray screen to see how blood flows through the blood vessels. This new medical fluid manifold automatically mixes a saline solution with iodine contrast at preselected concentrations. Arratia needed assistance in calculating the approximate diameter openings of his manifold that mixes the saline solution and contrast solution,
which have varying viscosities and pressures. He submitted a Request for Technical Assistance through SATOP and was introduced to Alliance Partner Leonard S. (Len) Discenza, owner of Design by Analysis, Inc. (DBA), Middlebury, Conn., and Mehdi Golafshani, Ph.D., a staff engineer. A teleconference between Arratia and DBA provided a detailed description, scope, and background of the project allowing Discenza and Golafshani to develop a 3-D solid model of the fluid manifold that was used in generating a model for a series of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses. The analyses resulted in DBA modifying Arratia’s original design to achieve the goal of providing stopcock diameters achieving 80:20 and 50:50 mixture ratios of contrast to saline. DBA’s modeling and analyses allowed Arratia to develop prototypes of his fluid manifold and to finalize his patent. He is currently in discussion with several medical device manufacturers to begin production of his medical fluid manifold. Discenza said, “This technical problem was a challenge to solve not just because of the given design constraints of physical size, cost, and material considerations alone, but also because the design needed to match existing equipment fluid inlet and outlet locations. Using CFD was essential to arriving at an optimal solution.”
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Ampcare’s Medical Device Success Story Continues — Thanks to Jacobs Ampcare, LLC, a small business that manufactures and sells the Ampcare ESP™ medical device and its training program, received technical assistance from Jacobs, a Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) Alliance Partner several years ago. This device and the Ampcare training program for healthcare professionals is used to rehabilitate patients with swallowing disorders that are commonly caused by a stroke, head and neck cancer, or neurological disease such as Parkinson’s. Russell Campbell, CEO of Ampcare, LLC, said a patient uses the device, similar in appearance to a neck brace, to exercise specific muscles in the head and neck. The company’s goal is “to eliminate pneumonia and feeding tubes due to swallowing problems by improving the options and availability of dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) treatment techniques.” Dysphagia affects 18 million people in the U.S. and 45-87 percent of residents in long-term care. Pneumonia, largely arising from swallowing problems, is a leading cause of death of Americans over 65 years of age. Campbell’s request for help in developing a force
plate/sensor to be placed on the chin pad of the neck brace that would provide quantitative/ objective data to assess the strength of the swallowing musculature was answered by Jacobs Chief Engineer Satish Reddy with assistance from Jacobs Engineer Kwaku Nornoo. Reddy worked with Nornoo to determine the best method of detecting and quantifying the force a patient applied to the Ampcare ESP™ while using the device. They arrived at a solution that uses a pressure sensor, which is almost as thin as a sheet of paper, and is readily available from commercial vendors. The prototype sensor met the requirements of Ampcare and was integrated into the Ampcare ESP™, which paved the path to successful manufacturing of the device. Campbell said, “Over the last three years we have trained healthcare professionals on our product in the U.S., Japan, England, Ireland, and Hong Kong! We will continue to provide live and online trainings on our equipment and philosophy in those countries this year and plan to add Latin/South America later in the year, as we have been invited to speak at the National Swallowing Conference in Argentina.”
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Engineer Feature — Eric Kuehnel
Jacobs Jacobs, a SATOP Alliance Partner for 12 years, has helped small businesses overcome challenges with medical devices (two of which are shown below), construction industry devices, recreational equipment, and waste disposal systems. Jacobs, through its NASA Johnson Space Center Engineering, Test and Science Contract, has a wide-range of engineering skills supporting NASA’s human space exploration missions. These skills and associated knowledge are not readily available in the private sector and have benefited SATOP’s small business owners seeking solutions to unique technological challenges. Eric Kuehnel has over 37 years’ experience in design, manufacturing, and management of spacecraft and spacecraft systems in support of Johnson Space
Center. He began his career as an associate engineer and held positions as lead engineer, project manager, and section manager before becoming a chief engineer. He has designed a wide variety of hardware ranging from Eric Kuehnel packaging of miniature electronic systems to spacecraft docking systems and large scale structural installations. He has also supported the design of numerous innovative medical device components. Kuehnel is very knowledgeable in the areas of stress analysis, thermal analysis, material science, and electromechanical assemblies. He has detailed knowledge and experience in manufacturing and joining techniques, as well. Kuehnel holds a bachelors degree from the University of Houston.
Spine Wizard® Back Stretcher
EasyWheeler™ Accessory for Wheelchairs
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Engineer Feature — Len Discenza
Design by Analysis namics analysis. Discenza has guided DBA as it has grown from a single person consulting firm to a 20-plus person fullservice design company with an impressive cusLeonard S. Discenza tomer base. Prior to founding DBA, Discenza spent 18 years as a structures analyst with leading aerospace companies such as Chandler Evans, a division of Coltec Industries (now Triumph Integrated Systems), TRW (now Northrup Grumman), and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. He also worked in the field on power generating stations with Bechtel Power Corporation as a civil/structural engineer. Discenza holds both a bachelors and masters degree in civil and structural engineering from Villanova University and has completed graduate course work requirements for a Ph.D. in civil and mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware and the University of Maryland.
Design by Analysis, Inc., (DBA), is a small, privately held business that has worked with NASA on aerospace applications, providing engineering solutions to some of the most challenging projects. DBA is a highly specialized design and analyses firm located in Middlebury, Conn., led by its founder and president, Leonard S. (Len) Discenza. DBA has helped a wide-range of small businesses and startups, including those in transportation, medical, manufacturing, industrial, energy, and consumer products, two of which are shown below. Solutions that have benefited SATOP’s small businesses include structural stress analyses, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), thermal analysis, system modeling, and dimensioning and tolerance studies. The angiogram fluid mixing manifold story on page 3 is an excellent example of DBA’s capabilities in system modeling and computational fluid dy-
Bicep Bike The Ultimate Lock—Millennium Lock, Inc.
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SportStar Credits SATOP as a Valuable Player in its Ongoing Success Football helmets are critical to protect players from head injury, and the chinstrap is an essential part of any helmet. The chinstrap has got to stay in place and be ready for any impact to keep the player’s helmet firmly in place and provide maximum protection. This is easier said than done. SportStar Athletics, based in Houston, Texas, was founded in 1991 and has been supplying helmet accessories to football players at all levels ever since. SportStar is now the leader in football chinstrap technology. Paul Schiebl, SportStar’s founder and CEO, states, “We make the world’s best and most protective chinstraps, and SATOP has played a valuable role in our success.” Every Saturday and Sunday football fans can see SportStar chinstraps on TV. SportStar chinstraps are on over one-third of the helmets worn by NFL players and many of the game’s top players including Super Bowl MVPs and Heisman
Trophy winners. Most recently, Clemson University’s Tigers won college football’s national championship wearing SportStar chinstraps. Over the last 15 years, SATOP has helped SportStar with three different projects, all of which have been embraced by the game’s top players and equipment managers. Most recently, SportStar contacted SATOP for technical assistance that was provided by Alliance Partner Leonard (Len) Discenza, owner of Design by Analysis, Inc. (DBA), and Mehdi Golafshani, Ph.D., a staff engineer. Early this year, SportStar reached out to SATOP to “express our appreciation to SATOP and its partners for their contributions not only to our company but also to the game of football. SATOP has helped us grow our business and, more importantly, contributed to making football safer for players at all levels from Pop Warner to the pros. Thank you, SATOP.” – Paul Schiebl, SportStar.
SportStar Chinstraps SportStar Headquarters, Houston, Texas
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About SATOP What is SATOP? The Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) is a State of Texas-funded program that helps small businesses faced with technical challenges by providing up to 40 hours of FREE technical assistance for qualified requests. This is accomplished by utilizing the vast engineering expertise of NASA and participating Alliance Partners (NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA contractors, subcontractors, and colleges/universities). SATOP is designed to speed the transfer of the U.S. Space Program’s knowledge and technology to the private sector, to provide economic benefits to the community, and to raise public awareness of the Space Program.
For more information, visit SATOP’s website at www.spacetechsolutions.com
SATOP Alliance Partners
How to Submit a Request: 1) Go to www.SpaceTechSolutions.com and click on the icon. 2) Begin the process for a Request for Technical Assistance application by filling out the short inquiry form.
3) A SATOP project engineer will contact you to discuss your application and how to proceed.
The consortium of Alliance Partners is the driving force behind the success of the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program. SATOP Alliance Partners include NASA Johnson Space Center, aerospace firms, and colleges/universities. Alpha Space Test & Research Alliance Barrios Technology The Boeing Company College of the Mainland Design by Analysis GeoControl Systems Jacobs KBRwyle MEI Technologies MRI Technologies
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NASA Alumni League—JSC Chapter NASA Johnson Space Center New Mexico State University Oceaneering Space Systems San Jacinto College District Texas A&M University at Galveston TMAC—Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center