850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology Special Issue by Rowland Publishing, Inc.

Info & Reservations Offices NOWCo-workingandAVAILABLE!TechHubatCollins Chemistry Labs Dry Labs Machine Shop COfficesonference Rooms OPENING 2024 innovation-park.com/innovationtlh| 850-575-0343 Innovation CommercializationInnovation CommercializationInnovation Commercialization Biology Labs Flex Labs Maker Spaces Co Working Break Rooms

TALLAHASSEE | CRAWFORDVILLE | LAKELAND | TRYMYBANK.COM | 850-907-2300 NMLS #393620 Chris Jensen EVP/Senior Lender Prime Meridian Bank Tallahassee, Florida “Tallahassee is not just a great place to do business. It’s a great place for businesses like GHOST CONTROLS to grow.”

Millions of gates are installed each year, only to be manually opened or closed and secured with cumbersome locks and chains. GHOST CONTROLS® introduced a new generation of gate openers and accessories that are low voltage as well as solar optimized for environments without access to power. They are easy to install, perfect for the Do-It-Yourself type, and require minimal maintenance. In fact, GHOST CONTROLS® were pioneers in designing the first D-I-Y products.

GHOST CONTROLS® passion lies in offering leading-edge technology, security, convenience and peace of mind to families.

The only thing we needed to further expand our gate automation business was a financial partner that understood us: A partner that took the time to get to know us.

GHOST CONTROLS® designs and manufactures innovative gate automation solutions for the North American market.

Prime Meridian Bank supports that vision every step of the way. STORY OF INNOVATION

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 5

“Prime Meridian Bank helped us open up a world of possibilities for our Tallahassee gate automation company. They are betterandrelationship-focusedwecouldnotaskforafinancialpartner.”

A TALLAHASSEE

THE RIGHT FIT FOR “NEXT GENERATION” GATE AUTOMATION COMPANY Joe Kelley GhostPresident/CEOControls, LLC Tallahassee, www.GhostControls.comFlorida

We discovered that is what Prime Meridian Bank is all about: building relationships that are solutions-based.

It’s hard to find an IT partner you can trust. It’s even harder to find an IT partner who can do things right the first time. Whether you’re outsourcing your entire IT department or scaling your in-house team, you’ll have end-to-end support from our award-winning team located right here in Tallahassee.

World-class IT services with

Find out what Kikoda’s local team of IT professionals can do for your business. Call us at 850-807-9722 to schedule your FREE consultation! a tallahassee touch.

kikoda.com/ TallyTouch / Custom Software / Data Analytics / Cloud Services / Team Scaling / UI/UX Design

6 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

Anyone suffering with a neurological condition traditionally has had only two medical treatment options: pharmaceutical and surgical. Those approaches are often very effective, but may result in unexpected side effects and extended recovery times, among other issues. There is a third option. A neurologist in Tallahassee is making strides in a fast growing field that focuses on natural healing and the human potential to adapt to changes in the brain.

14 MATERIALSHIGH-PERFORMANCEINSTITUTE

Florida State University is a top patent producer in the United States, ranked 84th in the world by 2020 Intellectual Property Owners Association. Faculty and staff submitted 1,375 funding proposals in 2021, winning 1,029 awards totaling over $275 million. Awardwinning research from FSU faculty members resulted in 51 patents last year with 221 being granted in the last five years. Behind the scenes are the Offices of Commercialization and Research, filling the gaps between innovation and commercially viable products.

30 12

MRI, ultrasound, surgical robots — all within the last 50 years. Increasingly, hospitals and private offices are challenged to keep pace and avoid being swamped by a rising tide of advances.

ON THE COVER:

Inventor, entrepreneur and retired Navy diver Rob Moran at ATOR Labs in Panama City Beach. PHOTO BY MIKE FENDER

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare is proving itself a strong swimmer. The hospital is making use of fascinating, life-changing technologies in its efforts to bring about a healthier community.

Walking through the HighPerformance Materials Institute at FSU, a visitor might feel as though he has stepped from reality into a science fiction story. The engineers at HPMI are limited only by their imaginations. They use their advanced computers to create all manner of materials and products for use in industrial equipment, military systems or as consumer products with

Emerald Coast

30 TECHNOLOGYGROWING

TechFarms, a business incubator and shared workspace located next to an outboard engine repair shop not far from the Navy base on Thomas Drive in Panama City Beach, is housed in a metal building, nondescript on the outside and without signage. Here, Mr. Wizard might have found a home. Here is a place where ideas germinate, a lot of high-tech tinkering takes place, computer languages are spoken and marketing minds meet with inventors and visionaries to spring delightfully disruptive businesses upon the world.

22 SWIMMING WITH THE TIDE In the last half century, few fields have undergone the type of technological revolution that has overtaken health care. The industry has seen the advent of antidepressants, antibiotics,

24 SPIN ZONE

34 REBREATHE DEEPLY

applications in aerospace, sports and medical devices. “Imagine going to the beach, and your towel charges your phone. These are the kind of things we are trying to develop at an early stage,” said HPMI’s Dr. Rebekah Sweat.

TRACKING DATA

18 MARKETING TECH

Dan Lucas, the head of the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality’s Division of Research and Business Analytics, monitors the key economic indicators and trends affecting the local economy. While careful to remain objective about that data, he does find that OEV’s monthly and quarterly economic reports appear headed in a positive direction relative to employment, unemployment, sales and tourist tax receipts, average weekly wages and other important measures.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 7 CONTENTS2022 (30)FENDERMIKEBYPHOTOS (12)BARFIELDDAVEAND

12Tallahassee

For Panama City Beach startup ATOR Labs, the autonomic act of breathing is their mainstay. ATOR’s parent company — Mine Survival, Inc. — was started to help coal miners breathe more easily in the event

BASE OF THE FUTURE “We need to build the base we need, not the base that we had,” said Mike Dwyer, referring to the reconstruction of Tyndall Air Force Base in Bay County. While the rebuild is underway, the base must be equipped with temporary installations that allow its fighter wing to stay operational. “It is like building an airplane while in flight,” said Dwyer, the deputy division chief for the Air Force’s Natural Disaster Recovery Program Management Office at Tyndall. “The new base will strike a balance between providing powerful air dominance and a community that takes care of airmen and their families.”

SALES MANAGER, WESTERN DIVISION Rhonda Lynn Murray

OPERATIONS

42 HUMANS AND MACHINES

48 PROBES UNLIMITED Probes

rowlandpublishing.com THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA 850 HEPBURNWILLBYPHOTO

Unlimited produces custom sensors for everything from pellet grills to rockets. The company has been headquartered in the manufacturing stronghold of Lansdale, Pennsylvania since its founding. However, last year, the company’s owners made the decision to site a new manufacturing facility in Bonifay. Now, just months after arriving in Holmes County, the company is on a hiring spree.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lazaro Aleman, Kari C. Barlow, David Ekrut, Ph.D., Al Krulick, Rebecca Padgett Frett, T.S. Strickland, Ethan Tetreault

STAFF BOOKKEEPER Amber Ridgeway

PREVENTING BLINDNESS

BRIAN E. ROWLAND

SENIOR STAFF WRITER Emma Witmer

DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, EASTERN DIVISION Daniel Parisi

INTEGRATED CONTENT MANAGER Don J. Derosier

EDITORIAL

VICE PRESIDENT / PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY Daniel Vitter

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Julie Dorr

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Steve Bornhoft

CREATIVE

CUSTOM PUBLISHING MANAGER Sara Goldfarb CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE/ AD SERVICE COORDINATOR Sarah Coven PRODUCTION EDITOR Paige Aigret

At the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition headquartered in downtown Pensacola, scientists from across the nation are signing on to test the boundaries of human capability. These leading researchers are coming to study healthspan, resilience and performance, a dynamic field of study that has become the IHMC’s latest frontier. “We are looking at not just cognitive performance but also physical performance,” said Dr. Ken Ford, the institute’s CEO.

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER MCKENZIE BURLEIGH

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

8 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

BIT-WIZARDS Bit-Wizards, a software development and IT company, was conceived on a Chuck E. Cheese napkin. At a child’s birthday party, Vince Mayfield and Louis Erickson mapped out a future that would shape their own lives and contribute to the success of countless companies. In 2001, newly incorporated Bit-Wizards became the first technology company in Northwest Florida to offer client catered IT, software development and digital marketing.

ART DIRECTOR Lindsey Masterson

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Michelle Daugherty, Darla Harrison

Innovation & Technology Magazine is published annually by Rowland Publishing, Inc. 1932 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, FL 32308. 850/878-0554. Innovation & Technology Magazine and Rowland Publishing, Inc. are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. Editorial contributions are welcomed and encouraged but will not be returned. Innovation & Technology Magazine reserves the right to publish any letters to the editor. Copyright September 2022 Innovation & Technology Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Member of three Chambers of Commerce throughout the region.

PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION SPECIALIST Melinda Lanigan

ROWLAND PUBLISHING CONTENTS

EDITOR/MARKETING SPECIALIST Alix Black 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE 850businessmagazine.com,

SALES, MARKETING & EVENTS

MANAGING EDITOR Emilee Mae Struss

MARKETING MANAGER Javis Ogden SALES AND MARKETING WRITER Rebecca Padgett Frett

DIGITAL facebook.com/ 850bizmag, twitter.com/850bizmag, linkedin.com/ company/850-business-magazine

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sierra Thomas

PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER

ADMINISTRATIVE & CUSTOMER SERVICE SPECIALIST Renee Johnson

SENIOR PUBLICATION DESIGNERS Sarah Burger, Saige Roberts, Shruti Shah

of a catastrophe. As the pandemic hastened the decline of the United States coal industry, the company’s founders decided to pivot. They spun off ATOR Labs, one in a handful of firms manufacturing machines that are used to test the masks and other respiratory protective devices with which we have become familiar.

Dr. Sunil Gupta is on a mission to end preventable blindness due to diabetic retinopathy. As challenges go, it’s a big one, but he won’t be deterred. At Intelligent Retinal Imaging Systems, a company he founded in 2014, he has created an FDA-cleared, cloudbased imaging tool to provide diabetic patients with retinal evaluations. “The leading cause of blindness in working age patients is diabetic retinopathy — and we’ve known this for 30-something years, but we still see patients coming in who are blind.”

46 2022

Dave Barfield, Michael Booini, Mike Fender, Will Hepburn, Bill Lax, Lindsey Masterson, Carol Wyatt

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jennifer Ekrut

DIGITAL SERVICES

DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, WESTERN DIVISION Dan Parker

ADVERTISING SERVICES SPECIALIST Tracy Mulligan

SALES MANAGER, EASTERN DIVISION Lori Magee Yeaton

Synovus Bank, Member FDIC.

Learn more at synovus.com/GetThere

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 9

When Marc from GreenGasUSA needed a bank that understood the potential of decarbonizing scope 1 emissions into dekatherms of natural gas, we were the bank that helped him get there.

Potential awaits.

A Path of Discovery, Year 2

PHOTOFILEROWLAND/BOOINIMICHAELBYPHOTO FROM THE EDITORWELCOME LETTER

I ndeed, one of the aims of the inaugural edition of the magazine was to bring greater awareness to components of the technology sector, their contributions to the local economy and the advances they bring to the world. Not coincidentally, the publication of the magazine coincided with new and concerted efforts by the Tallahassee/Leon County Office of Economic Vitality to position the Capital City and environs as a technology hub with assets including world-class universities and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.Lastyear, Innovation & Technology focused exclusively on Tallahassee. We wrote about an international player in Danfoss Turbocor and a homegrown manufacturer of gate controls. We explored the future of Innovation Park and detailed the community effort that led a biotech business that was displaced in Indiana to pass on Gainesville and set up shop in the Collins Building on the campus of Florida State University.

In 2021, Rowland Publishing introduced a new title, Innovation & Technology Magazine. For all of us here at RPI who were involved in that project, the work carried us along a path of discovery. We were to learn of and about businesses, researchers and innovators who occupy highly specialized niches, operate beneath the radar and relate to small customer bases, often deliberately acquired, one at a time.

As I listened to the man, a nice enough guy, I thought about polarity and where I had been just minutes earlier versus where it was that I now stood.

STEVE BORNHOFT, EDITOR, 850 sbornhoft@rowlandpublishing.comMAGAZINE

with a chiropractic neurologist who is employing a new tool in the treatment of vertigo; returned to Danfoss to ask how they go about finding the highly skilled employees their operations re quire; stopped by the High-Performance Materials Institute at FSU to gain an ap preciation for the practical application of its work with composite materials; and spoke with Tallahassee International Airport’s director about how the devel opment of Customs facilities there will expedite efforts to bring more high-tech employers to town.

initiatives that will diversify the local economy. Millaway is an engineer by training, a venture capitalist, the head of several businesses, a fine judge of hightech horseflesh and a visionary whose big-picture view is both ambitious and increasingly plausible.

10 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

Along the Emerald Coast, we learned about efforts by a Pensacola physician to combat diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of preventable blindness; examined studies by the Institute of Human & Machine Cognition that test the limits of human endurance; admired the magnitude of projects undertaken by Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City; and captured the story of a retired Navy diver who has designed and taken to market rebreathing equipment for use in mines and other confined environments.Too,wespent time at TechFarm’s business incubator in Panama City Beach, headed by a man, Steve Millaway, who has placed himself at the intersection of economic development

Onward,

The region is changing, and that’s what this magazine is really all about.

In ways and places often unseen, our region advances

In year two, we have expanded the scope of Innovation & Technology to in clude North Florida west from Tallahassee to Pensacola, leading us to make more dis coveries that we are pleased to share with you here. In Tallahassee, we checked in

I left TechFarms following a fascinating meeting with Millaway — one that included discussion of drones in development that will safeguard special forces in one case and wheat farmers in another — and stopped by a nearby convenience store for some caffeine in a can. The store was busy and, in line at the register, I struck up a conversation with a man in a white shirt and white work pants. On his arms were several crudely rendered tattoos. He said he worked for a cleaning service, and we talked about summer tourist traffic, the growing percentage of waking hours that we spend in lines and pedestrian concerns such as that.

Less downtime = more money!

Workstation Monitoring

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 11

MANAGEDENGINEERINGITSERVICES

Help Desk Support

There are aspects of your app you haven’t figured out yet, or maybe you don’t even realize you need! Let us help you with that.

You wouldn’t go a whole day without washing your hands, would you? We can help you keep your equipment healthy.

Mobile App Development

Daily Antivirus Scans

Less work sounds pretty good, right? Software integration can help simplify processes for your business.

IoT (Internet of Things)

SOFT WARE

BitWizards.com

Off-the-shelf software does not fill the needs of an enterprise-level company. The complexities of custom software are profound, but we are experts!

Don’t lose everything just because one thing went wrong.

No one likes to work with a jerk. Our friendly, certified, experienced IT engineers want to help you!

Workstation Backups

You’d be amazed at what we can do with hardware and connectivity. Let us innovate your business using cutting-edge technologies.

Custom Applications

System Software Integration

DAN DIVISIONHEADLUCAS,OFOEV’S

(LUCAS)VITALITYECONOMICOFOFFICEAND(RENDERING)PARKINNOVATIONOFCOURTESYPHOTOS TRACKING DATATALLAHASSEE

coincident indicators affirm patterns already in progress, or occurring in real time, respectively.

Leading indicators, he notes, point toward possible future events, while lagging and

rying to assess Tallahassee’s chances of attracting high-tech businesses by reviewing metrics at the Tallahassee Leon County Office of Economic Vitality (OEV) website is not unlike reading tea leaves.

Other caveats: Annual data provides a broader perspective than monthly/ quarterly updates on long-term strategic objectives, and the seasonality of metrics must be recognized.

What he will not do, however, is validate a layman’s surmise that the economic climate, therefore, appears conducive for attracting businesses, especially in science/innovation and advanced manufacturing, which a 20ı8 study identified as two Tallahassee-Leon County targeted industries.

“And it’s starting to work,” Schneider says. “There’s more collaboration and dialogue among the players. We have in our community an unbelievably good dialogue that is very encouraging, and it’s growing.”

As to the local economy, manufacturing and transportation/logistics are projected to grow about ı4 percent during 202ı–2026, based on federal sources.

12 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

“But keep in mind that projections are an approximation based on various assumptions,” Lucas cautions. “And some assumptions will later turn out to be wrong.”

Rather, he explains that the three categories of economic indicators deal with “a time hori zon, not whether we are doing better or worse.”

The leap from the metrics to prognostications is a risky one, and Lucas is careful to avoid speculation.

An indicator’s importance is audience dependent, he explains. For example, while labor generally values a low unemployment rate and high average wages, the same indicators could make business recruitment and expansion more challenging.

Cautions aside, others are more willing to speculate on the city’s potential.

His advice to the OEV’s marketing arm, he says, is to pursue companies in magnetic sci ence technologies and high-tech manufactur ing, such as Siemens, GE and Mitsubishi.

Tipping Point

Tallahassee’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is coming together

↗ National High Magnetic Field Laboratory director Dr. Greg Boebinger, seen next to a helium liquefier, believes research conducted at the lab will lead to benefits for business. “Virtually any industry whose machinery’s moving parts come into direct contact with each other is considering whether motors made from stronger permanent magnets could help advance their goals,” he said.

OF RESEARCH AND BUSINESS ANALYTICS … explains that the three categories of economic indicators deal with “a time horizon, not whether we are doing better or worse.”

The OEV’s database is dense with analytical and statistical measures that touch on every aspect of the city’s economic life. It’s enough to confound the average person. Best to consult an expert.

“We have something here better than Palo Alto, Boston and Austin,” says Ricardo Schneider, Danfoss Turbocor president and magnetic technologies advocate. “There is no other magnetic ecosystem like this.”

story by LAZARO ALEMAN

Such is Dan Lucas, head of OEV’s Division of Research and Business Analytics, which monitors the key economic indicators and trends affecting the local economy.

Lucas will concede a layperson’s view that the pertinent numbers on the OEV’s monthly and quarterly economic reports appear generally headed in a positive direction relative to employment, unemployment, sales and tourist tax receipts, average weekly wage and other important measures.

The NSF also wants to fund places around the country that already have key elements in place and hence the potential to become regional economic powerhouses.

“There’s a lot happening,” Miller said. He pointed to groundbreakings for the FSU Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building and the North Florida Innovation Labs.

He takes encouragement from the National Science Foundation’s increasing interest in research that demonstrates clear economic benefits. The agency, he notes, has created a new directorate that seeks to spur technology/innovation partnerships and accelerate the marketability of research.

“This is not to make Silicon Valley or the Boston area more effective,” he

“Virtually any industry whose machinery’s moving parts come into direct contact with each other is considering whether motors made from stronger permanent magnets could help advance their goals,” Boebinger said.

MagLab director Dr. Greg Boebinger likewise sees possibilities.

said. “This is to create new innovation engines elsewhere in the country.”

“I think there’s a good climate in Tallahassee for attracting not only magnetic technology companies, but also other companies that can benefit from magnetic development,” Miller said.

↑ Illustration depicts the North Florida Innovation Labs building currently under construction at Innovation Park in Tallahassee. The $25 million incubator will focus on nurturing startup businesses in the hard sciences and high-tech.

Ron Miller, executive director of the Leon County Research and Development Authority that governs Innovation

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 13

“That’s how we know that we got on the right train ı0 years ago,” Boebinger says, referring to the concerted effort to market Tallahassee around magnetics.

Park, sees aspects of the vision to make Tallahassee a technologies ecosystem coming to fruition.

He’s particularly excited about the latter, a $25 million incubator that will focus on helping grow startup businesses in hard science and high-tech.

photography by DAVE BARFIELD

Success, however, will require combining business attraction with the in-house development of early stage companies.“It’seasier to grow your own than compete with other communities based on incentives,” Miller said. “You also need to have an entrepreneurial ecosystem. I believe we’re at the tipping point where things are coming together.” ▪

Tallahassee, he suggested, is a prime candidate for such an initiative.

Another positive he sees is Tallahassee’s plan to create a gateway from the airport to Innovation Park, bringing the latter greater visibility and accessibility.

Another area of research at HPMI is triboluminescence in structural health monitoring, where objects emit light when damaged or scratched. This material will be used in prosthetics to determine points of impact. Sci-fi lovers might visualize a

HIGH-PERFORMANCE MATERIALS INSTITUTE

In creating a useful composite, networks of millimeter-long carbon nanotubes are woven together into networks and aligned into microstructures, which are then treated with an enhancement medium, or unsecured resin, as a load transfer.

This process increases the mechanical properties of the composite material, creating a stronger substance with resins such as polyester or epoxy. The final product is a hightemperature material that can withstand a lot of force and extreme environments, like entering and leaving our atmosphere or withstanding the severe cold and constant radiation of space.

14 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

story by DAVID EKRUT, PH.D.

“It is like a rope. You take a polymer and you stretch it, extrude it through a dye, heat treat it,” Sweat said, explaining the rigorous process required to produce carbon nanotubes.

From Science Fiction to Reality

ENGINEERINGOFCOLLEGEFAMU-FSUOFCOURTESYPHOTOS

One of the primary materials she works with is a carbon fiber composite, which is not very useful on its own.

“Imagine going to the beach, and your towel charges your phone. These are the kind of things we are trying to develop at an early stage,” said Dr. Rebekah Sweat.

After receiving her doctorate in industrial engineering at FSU, Sweat worked at the Office of Economic Vitality in Tallahassee for a short time before becoming an assistant professor and principal investigator at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She heads many projects at the HPMI, working with doctoral students to produce the materials of the future by innovating products and services with widereaching impacts.

— DR. REBEKAH SWEAT, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND INVESTIGATORPRINCIPALAT THE FAMU-FSU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING IN THE DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERINGMANUFACTURINGAND

alking through the HighPerformance Materials Institute at FSU, a visitor might feel as though he has stepped from re ality into a science fiction story. The engineers at HPMI are limited only by their imagina tions. They use their advanced computers to create all manner of materials and products for use in industrial equipment, military systems or as consumer products with applications in aerospace, sports and medical devices.

FSU institute develops materials of the future

Sweat’s team has discovered — publication pending — that boron nitride nanotubes can withstand temperatures of up to 2,200 degrees Celsius. Applications for this will include heat shields for use in hypersonics or aerospace.

TALLAHASSEE consumption.”andcomputingustransfer,ofconductivearenanotubesCarbonhighlyandcapableefficientthermalwhichwillallowtotransformourcapabilitiesreduceenergy

“Carbon nanotubes are highly conductive and capable of efficient thermal transfer, which will allow us to transform our computing capabilities and reduce energy consumption,” Sweat said. “Shape-memory alloy could be used to manufacture vehicles that cannot be dented. We have the potential to build fireproof homes resistant to damage from hail or extreme weather. Imagine a building with perfect insulation, capable of maintaining

materials could have on consumers at every level of life.

For example, these materials could be used to make clothing that is bulletproof and flame retardant, providing improved levels of safety for first responders.

multifunctional material capable of determining where structures such as bridges or high-rise buildings and vehicles prone to wear and tear are overstressed or in need of repair.

Teams at HPMI are constantly looking for new applications for their composites, pushing sci-fi closer to reality. Sweat discussed her excitement about the impact these

↑ Dr. Changchun Zeng, above and inset, a professor and chair of engineering at the High-Performance Materials Institute at FSU, has developed an auxetic foam. Unlike most substances, auxetic material becomes more dense in response to an applied force, expanding rather than shrinking at the point of impact. The HPMI does work for government entities including NASA.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 15

With a $6 million contract from the Air Force to study the multifunctionality of materials and also given the work it does for NASA, much of HPMI’s focus is on finding military applications, but they also conduct manufacturing and aerospace research for companies such as Northrop Grumman, Solvay and Lockheed Martin.

expands where it is struck, making it ideal padding in sports equipment, as casts and protective braces, or as packing material.

And though our shirts are not bulletproof and phones cannot charge via kinetic energy generated from our pockets, even science fiction writer Philip K. Dick would look at the possibility of these materials with awe and wonder. ▪

16 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

Most of HPMI’s work is performed on behalf of businesses and government, but there is some product development on the

A major first step to getting more technologies into homes is scalability of materials.“Wework with a lot of expensive material, but material costs typically go down over time,” Sweat said. “You will typically see the newest materials in military aircraft, then it trickles down to commercial aircraft and then consumer automotives.”Beginning with small samples of expensive materials often on loan from companies, they work to scale up production, creating panels or parts. These costly endeavors are mostly performed via simulations with mathematical modeling software.

Despite increasing demand for them, composite materials are currently expen sive to produce and require extensive ex perimentation to create useful products and services.

↑ A furnace at the High-Performing Materials Institute is used to temper materials including the super-conducting tape in the lower photo. Despite increasing demand for them, composite materials are currently expensive to produce and require extensive experimentation to create useful products.

ideal temperatures with minimal energy expenditure that lights up when in need of repair.”Innovative materials from HPMI could make these concepts from science fiction a reality. But, they aren’t quite there yet.

BARFIELDDAVEBYPHOTOS

The institute approaches projects as an engineering design problem first, simulating conditions that would test a proposed material structure before burning up resources in its hightemperature furnace, capable of reaching 2,500 degrees Celsius, or slamming the objects with a ramrod capable of ı0 tons of “pressure.Wewant to find out what the optimal configuration or structure is first and match a model to it. Some of these materials can be up to $ı,000 per gram,” Sweat said, “so we try to do virtual design as much as we can.”

HIGH-PERFORMANCE MATERIALS INSTITUTE

TALLAHASSEE

In other words, rather than shrinking at the point of impact, this material

consumer level. Recently, Dr. Changchun Zeng, professor and chair of engineering at HPMI, developed an auxetic foam. Unlike most substances, auxetic material has a negative Poisson’s ratio, meaning it becomes denser orthogonally in response to an applied force.

“We are 50 percent making stuff and 50 percent on the computer,” Sweat admitted.

Cyber Security Data Integration Data Science To public health

Public health is inherently interdisciplinary--and requires technology that is, too. Since 2004, Tallahassee-based Ruvos has nationally led in health technology, integrating cloud computing, interoperability, data science, and cybersecurity to build and maintain much of the country’s public health infrastructure. Ruvos’ global team nearing 100 professionals has wide-ranging expertise in health technology, public health, informatics, data security, integration, and strategic management, with core oﬀerings including cloud computing, data integration, interoperability, data science and business intelligence, cybersecurity, compliance, technical assistance, project management, strategic consulting, and service desk support.

We’re on a mission to deliver clever and efﬁcient solutions so that the world is a better place for the communities we serve.

Got Data?

Learn more aboutBringingRuvos

← At the FSU Offices of Commercialization and Research, Dr. Brent Eddington bridges the gap between innovation and the marketing of a commercially viable product.

story by DAVID EKRUT, PH.D.

in, filling the gaps between an innovation and a commercialized product.

“We try to be in at the beginning or at any stage to know about what’s going on,” Eddington said. “Some professors will know what they are doing for a couple of years before it’s to the point where they are going to submit an invention.”

“I will get a list of all the grants in the university,” he explained. “We’ll go talk to the people with money. It’s a good start to find out and understand what’s going on. I encourage the licensing managers to go to seminars to know who the researchers are and to know what’s going on in their departments.”Theuniversity is divided among four licensing managers, who work within their departments to assess which proposed innovations to pursue.

“We have two clients: the university professors because we are selling our services to them and then selling their inventions to industry.”

There are two reasons for this. First, it’s a great advertisement for the professor, helping to increase the prestige of the

FSU offices help researchers monetize inventions

Taking Tech to Market

“We want to be involved,” Eddington said, explaining that there are multiple approaches the Office of Commercialization takes to find and commercialize research across FSU.

lorida State University is a top patent producer in the United States, ranked 84th in the world by the 2020 Intellectual Property Owners Association. Faculty and staff submitted ı,375 funding proposals in 202ı, winning ı,029 awards totaling over $275 million. Award-winning research

MASTERSONLINDSEYBYPHOTO MARKETING TECHTALLAHASSEE

“Our attitude is we are going to license everything we can,” Eddington said.

18 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

Dr. Eddington earned his doctorate in molecular genetics from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Colorado, Denver. He also has postdoctoral research experience in plant genetics and gene expression at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. Before joining the Office of Commercialization in 20ı3, Eddington was involved in six startups and was a founding member in four of them.

Behind the scenes are the Offices of Commercialization and Research. Not every scientist sees the commercial capabilities of his efforts. That’s where Dr. Brent Eddington and his team come

from FSU faculty members resulted in 5ı patents last year with 22ı being granted in the last five years.

But not all of them will. That’s why Eddington’s team is proactive in the campus community, looking for departments with promising ideas.

When Danfoss Turbocor decided to build a $40 million expansion of their Tallahassee Campus, they turned to the same construction partner they’ve trusted since DAY ONE

. . . Find out why at SperryConstruction.com/sperry-and-danfoss No Matter the Size of Your Dream, Can Help You Build It. SPERRY.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 19

20 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

university. It also provides financial support to FSU and the inventors.

After an invention disclosure arrives at Eddington’s office, it is assessed for commercial viability. Not all ideas can become commercial products or licenses, but some of them can be copyrighted. Of course, the work of the Office of Commercialization does not stop there. They work closely with inventors to help monetize products and services.

↑ Dr. Micheal Blaber from the FSU College of Medicine, in conjunction with Dr. Jihun Lee, has been developing a human fibroblast growth factor, which is currently in phase two clinical trials. The project relates to the use of therapeutic applications to treat corneal disease.

MARKETING TECHTALLAHASSEE TallahasseeWebDesign.com | 850-391-8742 MANAGED SERVICES FOR YOUR WEB PRESENCE • Tier-one cloud hosting • Robust security protocols • 24x7 monitoring and restoration • Daily oﬀ-server backups • HTML, CSS, PHP, JS, WordPress, ACF Coding • Ticketing system for content updates • Responsive site designs Check ‘web’ oﬀ your list for just a few dollars per day.

“We are a service organization,” Eddington said of his office. “We have two clients: the university professors because we are selling our services to them and then selling their inventions to industry.”

The best advertisement to potential en trepreneurial clients is to get the inventors published in a high-impact journal, where industries find innovations in their fields. When businesses wish to use algorithms and ideas that come from FSU, they have to apply for a license. That’s where the Office of Commercialization comes in.

In the biomedical arena, a device was patented and developed to aid patients with peripheral arterial disease.

FSU’s Office of Commercialization developed a relationship with the Mayo Clinic to further develop this technology and is collaborating with physicians to conduct ongoing clinical trials.

Current projects include advanced materials auxetic from the High-Performance Materials Institute at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. Another invention uses a low-voltage gallium nitride device to facilitate a modular structure for applications in renewable energy.

As important as it is to find and protect intellectual property, it’s equally important to get innovations to the right industry. And while Office of Commercialization personnel do not market products directly to consumers, they work with the inventors and industries to bring the right people together, like an online dating service.

That level of confidence in FSU’s faculty is well-founded. World-changing research has come from there.

Physicist Paul Dirac, recipient of the ı933 Nobel Prize in physics, taught at FSU. His work contributed to the reconcili ation of quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Other Nobel laureates include Sir Harold W. Kroto, Robert S. Mulliken, John R. Schrieffer, Konrad E. Bloch and James Buchanan, all honored for their work produced as FSU faculty members. In 20ı6, Dr. Alan Marshall was inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame for synthesizing paclitaxel, an anti-mitotic used in cancer treatment.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 21 SERVICESPHOTOGRAPHYFSUOFCOURTESYLAXBILLBYPHOTO

The Offices of Research and Commercialization work at all levels to take embryonic ideas to viable innovations, protecting intellectual property as a new technology develops into a viable product to take to market. ▪

“The best therapy is walking, but it’s too painful to walk,” Eddington explained, especially for elderly patients. The dorsiflexion splint developed by Professor Judy Delp from the College of Medicine improves blood flow and oxygenation to the legs while at rest, allowing for improved ability to walk without a high level of pain, thus improving overall health.

These are just a small sample of the inventions in the works at FSU. In all sectors of industry, several patentpending innovations are being developed across the campus from an artificial intelligence-powered lie detector to medicine and advanced materials.

Also in the college of medicine, Drs. Micheal Blaber and Jihun Lee have been developing a human fibroblast growth factor, currently in phase two clinical trials, which is used to stabilize disulfide bond mutants for therapeutic applications in corneal disease.

“We are going to make somebody’s career at a company,” Eddington claimed. “If we can get a technology to the right person, he or she is going to look like a hero if he or she brings that technology in.”

Davis is a neurosurgeon at TMH who specializes in movement disorders. He moved to Tallahassee from Birmingham,

The technology goes further than video chatting. Faison-Clark said that TMH is preparing to launch an extension to their existing service that will allow patients and physicians to monitor vital signs with great accuracy. A doctor could monitor a patient’s heart rate from miles away and instantly be alerted when an abnormality appears. Faison-Clark calls this technol ogy remote patient monitoring, and it is just one tool to help close the accessibility gap in health care.

In a world where most everyone can go to work, get their degree and get dinner, all without leaving their couch, many admin istrators in the health care field recognize the need for virtual medicine.

TMH is keeping pace with medical advances

“People living in rural areas deserve the same access to world-class health care as anyone living in Tallahassee,” said Lauren Faison-Clark, an administrator and expert in telemedicine at TMH. “We, as care pro viders, need to meet these people where they are.”

While Faison-Clark and her team continue to make health care more accessible and revolutionize the doctor-patient relation ship, Dr. Matthew Davis is using cuttingedge technology to help heal the brain.

not remain physically close to health care providers. Telehealth was able to alleviate the pain caused by both issues.

TALLAHASSEE

n the last half century, few fields have undergone the type of technological revolution that has overtaken health care. The industry has seen the advent of antidepressants, antibiotics, MRI, ultra sound, surgical robots — all within the last 50 years. Increasingly, hospitals and private offices are challenged to keep pace and avoid being swamped by a rising tide of advances.Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare is proving itself a strong swimmer. The hospital is making use of fascinating, lifechanging technologies in its efforts to bring about a healthier community.

SWIMMING WITH THE TIDE

Toward CommunityHealthiera

an internet connection. In its current form, it works almost like a FaceTime or Skype call, allowing physicians to check in with and monitor their patients with out leaving the office. In turn, patients are blessed with peace of mind — even though they may be in the comfort of their own home, their doctor or nurse is always within reach.

B RAIN THERAPY

story by ETHAN TETREAULT

The answer to this need, at least in Tallahassee, has been the advent of tele health. This web-based service can be ac cessed from anywhere by anyone with

Adoption of technological advances tends to move slowly, but the coronavi rus pandemic turbocharged the use of telehealth options. The disease is both very dangerous and extremely infectious, making face-to-face visits with doctors and nurses inherently risky for all parties; furthermore, the lack of available space in hospitals during the early stages of the outbreak meant that some people could

22 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

Beyond the applications for physicians, telehealth services can also help a pa tient’s family feel better connected and in formed. With the rollout of remote patient monitoring, for instance, relatives can re main informed about the status of loved ones from any distance. Additionally, Faison-Clark said that the video chatting capabilities of telehealth have fostered “life-changing moments, connectedness and love, even when family members are states apart.”

HEALTHCAREMEMORIALTALLAHASSEEOFCOURTESYPHOTS

These currents stimulate neu rons in the brain with the ut most precision. Davis is able to modulate the current’s direction, power and other variables in or der to give the patient the exact treatment needed for his condi tion. DBS is considered very safe because of this customizability.

↑ Dr. Matthew Davis, a neurosurgeon, displays equipment used in deep brain stimulation. By modulating tiny electrical currents sent to particular areas within the brain, Matthews treats movement disorders.

Beyond this, Davis is also able to integrate telehealth

— LAUREN FAISON-CLARK, AN TELEMEDICINEANDADMINISTRATOREXPERTINATTMH

services into his DBS treatment. If he needs to alter the electrical current being discharged, the patient doesn’t even need to go into the office. He can simply adjust the DBS system remotely.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 23

Alabama, just over two years ago and brought with him a special ization in deep brain stimula tion, or DBS, in which tiny elec trical currents are sent to certain parts of the brain.

Davis said this capability is game-changing. Since he often treats people who have limited mobility, asking them to drive great distances for treatment can be impractical. This way, neither he nor his patients have to make compromises.Fromremote treatment to brain-stimulating electrodes, TMH is making use of ground breaking technology. The ad vancements that people like Faison-Clark and Davis are em ploying will serve to transform the health care field, make care more accessible and ultimately, save more lives. ▪

In order to make sure the electrodes are placed correctly in the brain, Davis makes use of advanced neuro-navigation technology. The surgeon is able to use scanners in the operat ing room to make a map of a pa tient’s brain on the fly.

People living in rural deserveareas the same access to world-class health care as anyone living in Tallahassee. We, as care providers, need to meet these people where they are.”

There is, however, a third option. A neurologist in Tallahassee is making strides in a fast growing field that focuses on natural healing and the human potential to adapt to new circumstances in the brain.

Enter the Spin Zone

Dr. Bill Heyser goes high-tech to treat the brain

In order to effectively construct new neural highways in the brain, physicians including Heyser start with “scaffolding” — patients exercise their brains by completing tasks and challenges related to their condition. Functional neurology has been based on simple and noninvasive treatment, but

↑ The Gyrostim resembles simulators used by fighter pilots, and even operates much like one. It is used to treat conditions ranging from vertigo to severe concussions. Above, Dr. Bill Heyser.

SPIN ZONETALLAHASSEE

by DAVE BARFIELD

photography

Dr. Bill Heyser has been practicing functional neurology since he first found out about its possible applications for his patients. Its central principle, according to Heyser, is “building up the parts of the brain that work to compensate for whatever the patient is lacking.”

story by ETHAN TETREAULT

24 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

nyone suffering with a neu rological condition tradi tionally has had only two medical treatment options: pharmaceutical and surgical. Those ap proaches are often very effective but may result in unexpected side effects and extended recovery times, among other issues.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 25 BUSINESS COMES FIRST IN “BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY.” CONNECT WITH US (850) 386-6184 | TECHNOLOGY.JMCO.COM When your technology fails, your business will follow. So we offer a broad range of services to cover your IT needs and keep you running, from day-to-day operations and management to special projects. » Security » Data Protection » Cloud Solutions » Managed IT Services » Technology Planning » Microsoft Exchange Services We’ll take care of your tech… so you can take care of your business.

▪

Additionally, the FDA has designated the machine a Breakthrough Device, laud ing it as a quantum leap in neurological treatment. As more neurologists catch on to the potential of this machine, it will cer tainly become more popular and available around the country, but for now, Heyser’s practice is home to the only GyroStim in the Big Bend.

→ If RightEye.toolkitmachineemployvision,weaknessdetectsHeyserainhemayanotherinhiscalled

unquestionably the GyroStim. This contraption resembles a simulator used by fighter pilots, and even operates like one, but is used to treat maladies from vertigo to severe concussions.

26 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

advancements in technology have led to a small revolution in the field. Heyser and others are now making use of high-tech equipment to make these brain exercises more effective and more fun.

Treatment on the GyroStim shifts to the next dimension with a process that Heyser calls “stacking.” The doctor adds tasks for the patient to complete while taking a ride on the machine.

coordination; furthermore, they could add to that a cognitive challenge, like calling out the name of a state on every target hit. Heyser believes that stacking challenges on top of each other helps to safely prepare the patient for real-world situations which require multitasking, like driving a car.

A pioneer, Heyser is working to make Tallahassee a destination for people seeking remedies other than drugs and surgeries.

←↗ Using a process he calls stacking, Dr. Bill Heyser theawhiletopatientsgivestaskscompletegoingforspinaboardGyroStim.

→ GET IN TOUCH Dr. Bill Heyser practices medicine at Heyser Jordan Chiropractic Neurology at The Brain Center, 2457 Care Drive, Tallahassee; (850) 668-0444; BillHeyserDCMD.com.

Heyser is a trailblazer in the use of the GyroStim. He was among the first to make clinical use of the technology and is thrilled to see his work pay off. Recently, the GyroStim was fully approved by the FDA, which has concluded that the machine is safe and effective.

photography by DAVE BARFIELD

Heyser has the patient sit in an elevat ed seat, strapped in with a snug five-point harness. From there, Heyser can have the chair spin along a horizontal and vertical axis, meaning the patient will move both head over heels and in a circle.

At times, the patient may feel like he is ı0 years old again, rolling down a hill in an old rubber tire, moving with the motion of an ocean wave, or just spinning gently on a lazy Susan, depending on what they can handle. Through every step of the process, the patient is totally secure.

For example, the patient may be asked to hit targets situated around the room with a laser pointer while spinning, which would help with hand-eye

One of the most important tools in the doctor’s arsenal is also one of the more unas suming pieces of equipment: an electronic balance board connected to a monitor. Using it, Heyser has patients try to remain balanced while hitting marks on the screen. The setup allows Heyser to check for weaknesses in balance, focus and vision, all in a format that feels more like a game than a test.

SPIN ZONETALLAHASSEE

The most eye-catching piece of machinery within Heyser’s office is

If Heyser notices a weakness in vision, he might have a patient play on another machine in his toolkit called RightEye. This iPad-like device is capable of precisely track ing a person’s eyes and pinpointing the de ficiency. For instance, a patient might excel at tracking a ball moving slowly across the screen, but that same patient may struggle with rapid eye movement. As Heyser strikes possible issues off the list, the treatment be comes more specific and helpful.

built

DUSTIN RIVEST,

technology

and global industry leaders, our diverse team has

Founder & CEO Managed Services Unlimited IT Support Cybersecurity Solutions Cloud Solutions Hardware Procurement Aegis is launching a Security Operations Center to provide more in-depth cybersecurity tools including Network Vulnerability Scans “It has been a pleasure to watch the team at Aegis transform from a small startup to an industry powerhouse in the Southeast area, all while keeping that hometown customer service feel that knows you by name. Aegis works quietly behind the scenes to ensure that our business runs smoothly and stays up to date with the latest technology.” – Stephanie Chapman, Controller, Coastal Forest Resources Co.2018-2022 sales@Aegisbiztech.comAegisBizTech.com

223

The Agency team has been dedicated to growing and supporting North Florida’s sector and over a decade. addition to working alongside numerous local, regional, national, also and

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 27 223Agency.com • 833-850-8324 Digital Solutions for Dynamic Problems

through collaboration

grown multiple, innovative SaaS companies after finding gaps within the digital marketplace. “The growth of our local market is driven on innovation and small business development and we are proud to live at the intersection of these two areas. At 223, our goal is to guide you through this fast paced digital world.”

innovation for

ARE YOU HAVING TROUBLE STAFFING YOUR BUSINESS?

Let Us Help

Let us do

we are

The team at TRS has four decades of recruiting experience helping many organizations, just like yours, succeed through tough markets. Our point of contact works closely with you to understand your business and staffing needs to find that right fit the first time. As a WomanOwned Small Business (WOSB) that is flexible and reliable, able to meet your needs quickly. the work for

you! WE HELP FIND Engineers IT Accounting/FinanceProfessionalsProfessionalsOperationsSupportPersonnel HOW WE CAN HELP ContractPermanentContracttoPermanentPayrollServices Want to work with the best? We can’t wait to help. Call us today and let us help you find what you're looking for. GOTRSINC.com

story by STEVE BORNHOFT

few steps inside the entrance to TechFarms, Steve Millaway points to a project on a work table. It’s a drone in progress, and if you give him a chance, Millaway will explain that it has implications for the world’s food supply.

When additional interior work is com plete, the new two-story, ı5,000-squarefoot building will house offices and also apartments so that resident entrepreneurs can truly be residents. The elevated spirit of the place is ı80 degrees removed from stasis or complacency. It’s a Possibility Palace at the center of the increasingly robust entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northwest Florida.

A Palace Possibilityof

Millaway explained that up to 20% of Russian ordnance fails to detonate.

To date, Millaway explained, the available technology for finding unexploded ordnance or land mines requires using a handheld device or walking behind a pushcart loaded with metal-detecting gear. It is little different than the devices used by snowbirds walking beaches and hoping to find coins or a class ring. The work is horribly slow, expensive and dangerous.

Here is a place where ideas germinate, a lot of high-tech tinkering takes place, computer languages are spoken and marketing minds meet with inventors and visionaries to spring delightfully disruptive businesses upon the world.

TechFarms provides advice, capital and inspiration

← TechFarms founder Steve Millaway finds that the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northwest Florida has grown increasingly robust in recent years. In that, Millaway has been a factor as the developer of a business incubation space, a venture capitalist and the creator of companies. “Now, graduates of the new engineering programs at FSU PC can find jobs with new businesses in their hometown,” he said.

The product, capable of flying over areas of concern at 5 mph, would represent a game-changing advance, one that could help restore Ukrainian agricultural production and exports and help rid the world of millions of unexploded land mines.

The drone, which looks as aerodynamically improbable as a bumblebee, is being developed and programmed so that it can autonomously fly a search pattern over a war zone, identifying and precisely locating unexploded ordnance, a particular problem in Ukraine, which in peacetime, supplied 9% of the world’s wheat and ı2% of its corn. Africa relies heavily on that production.

GROWING TECHNOLOGYPANAMA CITY BEACH

Wheat and corn fields in Ukraine, following months of shelling, have been laced with countless booby traps. Farmers are killed when their machinery makes contact with live weapons of war.

30 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

campus president of Broward College and formerly was the dean of what is now the Charles Hilton Center for Advanced Technology and Hospitality Management at Gulf Coast State College, to serve as TechFarms’ director of new business development. Dunnivant’s first task will be to lead the drone project as it moves from development to production and sales/distribution.

Millaway has established ArroTech Corp. as his drone company, one of several companies that he heads. Of late, he hired Dr. Stephen Dunnivant, who was most recently the central

“Finally, we had to make a pivotal decision,” Millaway said. “Are we going to keep waiting for someone to find a way to provide capital, or do we solve that problem?”

O’Sullivan III, a CPA who for years was the managing member of the Gulf Coast division of Warren Averett.

“When Rob was a Navy diver, he came into TechFarms, and he didn’t know the first thing about business,” Millaway recalled. “He scribbled on a whiteboard for two hours, and I was saying to myself, ‘What the hell is he talking about, and what’s the market for it?’”

Millaway founded TechFarms Capital, an early stage tech fund. He brought on board Kelly Reeser, an economic developer and public policy mind from Pensacola as a managing director, and went about collecting partners, mentors and advisors — among them, managing director Mort

“At TechFarms Capital, we see two to three companies every week,” Millaway said. “And we could have many more if we searched for them on our own, but right now we are kept busy with the businesses that are coming to us.”

Basically, Moran and his co-founder, David Cowgill, wanted to provide reliable, safe land-based rebreathers for mines and other confined environments.

photography by MIKE FENDER

↑ From left: Frank Eastham, COO, Teknika, a software development company; Dr. Stephen Dunnivant, director of business development, TechFarms; Megan Howell, administrative assistant; and TechFarms CEO Steve Millaway gather around a work table at the business incubator. Millaway has established a company, ArroTech, whose focus is drones.

The pivotal decision to add a capital arm is paying off.

O’Sullivan, along with TechFarms Capital CFO Diana Tuzhanskiy, give the fund “a really close look” at a company’s financials whenever it considers investing in a startup, Millaway said with a smile. The fund’s senior analyst and partner Justin Kingsbury resides in Atlanta and helps evaluate prospective investments using the firm’s proprietary decision analysis modeling tools.

“For years, we had issues with the ecosystem trying to grow without capital,” Millaway said. “That never works well. What we found was that startups would get some early funding from friends and family — five, ı0, ı5, 20 thousand — but then they reached a point where they needed hundreds of thousands. Unless they could find an angel investor, which is kinda hard, they wound up leaving and going to big cities where capital was available. We saw that over and over again.”

The pattern was frustrating. Northwest Florida was an instructional minor league graduating players to the bigs.

The first business to enter the TechFarms incubator was Mine Survival Inc., a Panama City Beach developer of rebreathers called self-escape respirators that was founded by Rob Moran. (See story on page 34.)

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 31

“We took a leap of faith with him and brought him in. I was his first investor. Today, MSI and its sister company, ATOR Labs, are doing very well and they have products in all kinds of countries. Here was a case where a Navy diver was retir ing with a huge amount of experience that would have gone to waste unless he

“His parents came in here several years ago and said, ‘You’ve got to have my son come down. He’s in his room and he’s doing all this stuff with computers and circuit boards, and we don’t even know what he’s doing.’”

Millaway has seen the boy — he asked that his name not be published since he’s still a minor — learn programming lan guages in days. He is at work debugging sophisticated chips used in drones and their cameras and navigational systems. In meetings with top-flight engineers, he more than holds his own.

That forecast is proving true. Sign companies and advertisers big and little are paying to participate on the

“While out-of-home advertising is a successful industry and the only tradi tional ad medium that is still growing, we believe the industry is currently op erating at a fraction of its full potential,” Millaway said. “Buying and selling a billboard or a wrapped car is far from a simple process and is one plagued by in efficiencies, gated information, multiple touchpoints and manual processes.”

Such collaboration leads to ecosystem development, which leads to economic development.“Now,startups in Northwest Florida can find technical and business expertise right here, and graduates of the new engineering programs at FSU PC can find jobs with new businesses in their hometown,” Millaway said. “We’ve got four of them working right here.” ▪

↑ Often noisy work continues on offices at TechFarms. Meanwhile, the facility has been equipped with nearly soundproof rooms, above, to minimize distractions.

was able to find a place where he could collaborate, get funding, get access to equipment and get started.”

32 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

In the midst of the COVID-ı9 pandemic, Sam Mallikarjunan, a onetime professor at Harvard University and the head of growth at software giant HubSpot Labs in Boston, grew weary of the stringent lockdowns in the Northeast. He and his wife headed south and landed in Panama City Beach.

“Sam found TechFarms on the internet and was in here the next day,” Millaway said. “He sat in the back with his headset on for two months. He was nice and sociable but wasn’t talking about what he was doing.”

Millaway noted that the availability of thousands of billboards is touted only with a printed phone number or an appeal to “RENT THIS SPACE.”

“What if all those boards were on one online platform where brands and mar keters could freely access real-world ad vertising opportunities, and media own ers and vendors could seamlessly manage and sell their inventory?” Millaway said. “After spending a couple of months studying the out-of-home industry and learning about OneScreen.ai’s vision for the future, we concluded that Sam and his team had a billion-dollar idea.”

OneScreen.ai platform, and a few months ago, a venture capitalist called Millaway with congratulations. In the caller’s estimation, OneScreen.ai was a mini-corn, that is, a startup on its way to becoming a unicorn, a term applied to companies with a valuation of $ı billion or Tmore.alent, too, comes knocking on TechFarms’ door.

MOh?illaway described a ı6-year-old, selftaught savant.

That meeting occurred. Millaway asked the boy a few technical questions and “he started talking over my head at ı3. Remember the movie Rain Man? He’s like that. When he first came in here, he was afraid of people and wouldn’t say much. But we teamed him up with one

Finally, Millaway had to ask.

Mallikarjunan, aware that there existed no nationwide online inventory of out-of-home advertising spaces, was working to build one.

GROWING TECHNOLOGY

TechFarms is a place unusual enough to attract uniquely talented people.

PANAMA CITY BEACH

“Engineers pepper him with questions, and he’s right back at them — boom, boom, boom,” Millaway said.

photography by MIKE

As something of an aside, Millaway mentioned that he has a “one in ı0 million” child genius working on his drone development team.

FENDER

“That’s the No. ı advantage of this place. It’s not the equipment or the facilities. It is that talented, enterprising people have a place to go where they can collaborate. Collaboration is the key. Before we had this, people were going to Starbucks.”

of our top guys and they immediately bonded, and now he has completely come out of his shell.”

BUSINESS + CONFERENCELEADERSHIP NOV. 16 + PENSACOLA17 RESERVE YOUR 2-DAY PASS AT ENTRECONPENSACOLA.COM For questions, please contact Morgan Tufto at MTufto@studeri.org. Studer Community Institute is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. People thrive when they come together. Join us for a front-row seat to both local and national speakers, practical knowledge, useful tools and first-class networking! OVERWHELMED? ANXIOUS? UNCERTAIN?

34 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

lot of business owners have struggled to catch their breath these last few years. The pandemic and its aftermath forced many to shut their doors and even more to shift their business models to survive.

For Panama City startup ATOR Labs, the problem of breathing is more than a metaphor though. It’s their mainstay.

BreathWork

Like many Gulf Coast companies, ATOR Labs has military roots.

REBREATHE DEEPLYPANAMA CITY BEACH

story by T.S. STRICKLAND

ATOR’s parent company — Mine Survival, Inc. — was started in 20ı4 to help coal miners breathe more easily in the event of a catastrophe. As the pandemic hastened the decline of the

Now, ATOR Labs is one in a handful of firms manufacturing machines that are used to test the masks and other re spiratory protective devices with which we’ve all become so familiar. The com pany’s founders are hoping that the newfound rigor with which these de vices are regulated post-pandemic will propel their company to new heights.

A MINEFIELD

United States coal industry, though, the company’s founders decided to pivot.

Amid pivots and a pandemic, Panama City startup ATOR Labs finds its rhythm

Mine workers often use a device called a “self-rescuer” that contains an emergency oxygen supply they can tap should the surrounding atmosphere become inhospitable. The devices, though potentially lifesaving, tend to run very hot and can burn miners’ mouths and throats.

Initially, the pair intended to market the product for military use. Cowgill had heard soldiers returning from the Middle East complain that their standard-issue gas masks made it difficult to breathe. His idea was to use the closed-circuit design common in diving to improve on existing military technology.

While Cowgill and Moran were perfecting their design, however, a

Cowgill’s lighter, cooler device had an edge over competing products. The technology was promising enough that he and Moran were able to secure seed funding from the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research. This progress was halted, however, when the market for coal began to erode.

“Come to find out we were the only folks in the world to have built such a machine,” Moran said.

“We shelved the Mine Survivor during the certification process simply because coal crashed,” Moran said.

Cowgill had sat previously on the International Standards Organization board that develops design guidelines for respiratory protective devices globally. This background made him uniquely qualified to understand the ISO requirements.

← Co-founder Rob Moran, left, pictured with staff member Jake Corman, established ATOR Labs to address a need, accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, for respiratory protective device certification machines. ATOR’s parent company, Mine Survival Inc., pioneered rebreathing equipment capable of saving miners in the event of life-threatening accidents. ↑ Dummies are used in Automatic Breathing Metabolic Simulator machines to test breathability.

photography by MIKE FENDER

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 35

Seeing an opportunity, Moran and Cowgill settled on a new strategy. They set up ATOR Labs as a subsidiary of

researcher at the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration learned of their work and asked if they might be interested in repurposing the technology for miners, instead.

Founders Dave Cowgill and Rob Moran both trained at the U.S. Navy Dive School. It was there that Cowgill developed the wearable rebreather device that would become the focus of their partnership.

Though their early efforts in the mining sector were thwarted, Cowgill and Moran quickly identified a pivot strategy.

In the course of preparing the Mine Survivor for testing and certification, Cowgill had built a breathing and meta bolic simulator — a device that simulates the human respiratory system — that was fully compliant with these rules.

The company recently received a $ı.5 million contract from the Department of Defense to develop a specialized rebreather for military use.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Mine Survival, with the goal of making the company the world’s leading provider of respiratory protective device certification machines.

“We’d much rather be the testing and certification guys than just another player in a crowded marketplace,” Moran said.

photography by MIKE FENDER

They’ve made steady progress toward this goal in the intervening months.

“We’re coming up on our first delivery of product to them in September,” Moran said. “Our expectation is that they will sign the follow-on contract in October, which would take us into soldier testing. After that, hopefully, we would become a program of record for the DOD.”

PANAMA

CITY BEACH

While ATOR Labs and the testing and certification business have become the team’s main focus in recent years, Moran said they planned to continue their research and development work through Mine Survival, Inc., as well.

“We have interest coming out of Australia, Germany and France, as well,” heTsaid.he market for the machines themselves is not huge. Moran said he hoped to build 50 in the next 20 years at a unit cost of $250,000 to $450,000. This manufacturing revenue is supplemented, though, by consulting and testing fees, which can be ample.

“In another year, we’ll push it out to the European market and see what kind of traction we get there,” Moran said. “The Germans are starting to consume coal again, and we expect that trend to

↑ While at the U.S. Navy Dive School in Panama City Beach, Dave Cowgill, top, developed a wearable rebreather device, which adapted for use by miners provides an alternative to self-rescuers that tended to run very hot and burn users.

One of their machines is currently being used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moran said they were in the process of building another for the South African government.

REBREATHE DEEPLY

They also hope to revive their miningfocused product line in the future.

36 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

spread throughout Europe. It will take a while for them to spin back up, but we expect there to be a buying spree of safety equipment within a couple of years.” ▪

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 37 PRESENTED BY POWERED BY PROCEEDS OCTOBERSATURDAYBENEFIT 22, 2022 11 AM - 2 PM $60 IN ADVANCE $75 AT THE DOOR TO PURCHASE TICKETS, THEMARKETSHOPS.COMVISIT 9375 EMERALD COAST PARKWAY, MIRAMAR BEACH, FLORIDA | Located at the Entrance to Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | themarketshops.com DESTIN JOIN US EVERY OCTOBER FOR THIS MUCH ANTICIPATED ANNUAL EVENT!

As time went on, Tyndall kept adding new titles and more missions. Under the auspices of the Tactical Air Command,

Making landfall at Mexico Beach, just east of the base, with winds up to ı60 mph,

Coming Out of the Ground

It was named in honor of ıst Lt. Frank Benjamin Tyndall (ı894–ı930), a fighter pilot during World War I, a Silver Star recipient and commander of the 22nd Aero Squadron.

↑ Drones and other equipment with 3D imaging capabilities were to be used in constructing a virtual- and augmented-reality version of Tyndall AFB that will enable enhanced maintenance, modeling and simulations while conserving manpower and resources.

38 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

A new Tyndall Air Force base plants trees and seeds the future

which took over in ı979, the base eventually became responsible for the air defense of huge swatches of U.S. territory, including the Southeast, the upper Midwest and the south-central parts of theBcountry.ythearrival of the 2ıst century, Tyndall had become the home of the newest and most capable jet fighter on the planet — the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor — the first operational aircraft to combine supercruise, supermaneu verability, stealth and sensor fusion in a single weapons platform.

Located about ı2 miles southeast of Panama City, the Tyndall site was made up of swamps, scrub brush, pines and palmettos. In order to create the base, bulldozer operators worked around the clock to transform the landscape. But while man can alter or make over certain

yndall Air Force Base, originally known as Tyndall Field, was established in ı94ı as the home of Flexible Gunnery School #9, which trained thousands of artillery troops through the end of World War II.

story by AL KRULICK

natural elements for his own needs and uses, the forces of nature are not forever dormant, and Mother Nature can be a formidable adversary. That part of the story comes later.

Rechristened and repurposed by the newly formed U.S. Air Force in ı947, Tyndall became an Air Training Command (ATC) installation and flight instructor school. By the ı950s, pilots, crews and ground control operators were pioneering the jet age, flying and servicing the new generation of sleek jet fighters with quixotic names like Mustang, Shooting Star, Starfire and Scorpion.

PICKJOSEPHAIRMANSENIOR(DRONE),ANDALVAREZSTEFANSGT.STAFFBYPHOTOS SCHOOL)GUNNERY(FLEXIBLEFORCEAIRU.S.OFCOURTESYAND(HURRICANE) BASE OF THE FUTUREBAY COUNTY

Yet however high man flies and whichever mortal enemies he believes he can defeat, there are some antagonists that can’t be denied. And in 20ı8, Mother Nature struck Tyndall’s 29,000 acres with fury in the form of a Category 5 hurricane.

Within several years, the broken installation at Tyndall will become the Air Force’s “Base of the Future,” with enhanced ability to prepare for, and recover from, future weather events and other disruptions that can impact mission assurance.Tyndall’s rebuilding efforts incorporate design strategies that address flood and storm surge risk, harden the base’s infrastructure against future hurricanes, and provide for efficient use of land and any recoverable assets that Michael spared, while also supporting operational readiness and efficiency, and creating a secure, resilient human environment.

“If you had told me that we were going to be able to create a complete digital version of a reconstructed Tyndall that we can use for very practical day-to-day design and construction applications, I would have said, ‘No way; that’s not possible,’” Dwyer admits. “And I’m glad to be wrong. The Digital Twin has probably been one of the most amazing innovation efforts we’ve done so far.”

But just as nature has a way of derailing man’s best-laid plans, there is also a human tendency to respond to calamity by bouncing back and devising ways to better contend with future storms.

“We have to build in full compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act,” Dwyer explains. “Respect for the environment goes into all our infrastructure planning, and we’re very proud of many of the efforts that we are exploring and implementing to be in harmony with the environment. For example, we partnered with the State of Florida to replant many of the lost acres.”

Mike Dwyer is the deputy division chief of the Air Force’s Natural Disaster Recovery Program Management Office at Tyndall.

The years-long project will include 44 new military construction projects and 260 facilities, sustainment, restoration and upgrading projects. Eleven of those projects will help support ongoing F-35 operations, the Air Force’s fifth-generation jet fighter wing.

Of course, an undertaking of this magnitude has obstacles, not the least of which is having to provide temporary installations while planning the permanent buildout, as well as repairing

and rebuilding the base while allowing what was left of the fighter wing to stay operational.“Itislikebuilding an airplane while in flight,” Dwyer noted. “The new base will strike a balance between providing pow erful air dominance and a community that takes care of airmen and their fami lies. Tyndall will consolidate facilities and locate functions into ‘mission campuses’ to improve efficiency and use of space throughout the installation. It will be a walkable campus by connecting working, living and community areas.”

protecting her more benign characteristics is also part of the plan.

▪

Motorists used to drive through the base via U.S. 98 and could not see the Gulf of Mexico because the forest was so thick.

And while the reconstruction of Tyndall is being carefully carried out to help withstand the harsh and devastating aspects of Mother Nature, preserving and

← In October 2018, John W. Henderson, left, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Energy, and Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson surveyed the aftermath of Hurricane Michael from a CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft assigned to the 8th Special Operations Squadron. Aircrew members with the 8th SOS transported Air Force senior leaders from Hurlburt Field to Tyndall Air Force Base to assess damage.

Will the reconstructed Tyndall become a prototype for rebuilds and upgrades elsewhere?“Ithink our policymakers are very closely observing and studying what we’re doing,” Dwyer said. “I think they are keen to know the applicability of the lessons learned from the innovations here to influence potential changes to policy that could possibly be replicated across other installations that face the same climatic threats.”

Hurricane Michael’s devastation of the area was dubbed “catastrophic” by Air Force officials. The damage to the base was estimated at $4.9 billion in lost buildings, facilities and hobbled jets.

Aiding the reconstruction work has been the utilization of Digital Twin, a technology imported from NASA that originally was used to improve the physical-model simulation of spacecraft.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 39

At Tyndall, teams with drones, scanners and advanced imaging technology created a virtual 3D replica of the base as it existed post-hurricane. Then, as each new or reconstructed building got designed, its own 3D digital model was uploaded into the Digital Twin and, according to Dwyer, “dropped into our new world.”

The Tyndall reconstruction project should be complete “somewhere between 2024 and 2025,” Dwyer said. “Building in a COVID environment has not made things easy. And we are going to have to use workarounds for temporary facilities to support our F-35 mission until the permanent facilities are complete. But our Army Corps of Engineers partners are crack professionals, and it is so gratifying to start to see new Tyndall come out of the ground.”

↑ Tyndall Field first opened its doors on Dec. 7, 1941, the same day that the Japanese heavily damaged the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor.

“We need to build the base we need, not the base that we had,” he said.

“Now, you’ve got a line of sight, which is a testament to the level of damage from that hurricane,” Dwyer said. “We’re replanting with a species of pine that’s native to the state and very resilient to high wind. So, that’s a great example of how we’re rebuilding smart, strong and in harmony with nature.”

40 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com NORTHWEST FLORIDA YOU ARE INVITED TO ATTEND October 17-18, 2022 Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center PRESENTINGSPONSOR THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA 850

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 41 NEW TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES • NORTHWEST FLORIDA AS THE CYBER COAST REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS • REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE PRIORITIES REGIONAL ENERGY RESILIENCY • MILITARY BASE CONSTRUCTION • MILITARY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS STRATEGIES FOR WINNING NEW BUSINESS CONTRACTS • PUBLIC/PRIVATE FINANCING SOURCES AND NORTHWESTFLORIDALEADERSHIPFORUM.ORGMORE!

“I call it a molecule-to-whole-human research program,” said Bamman, who spent 25 years as a professor and center director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham prior to joining IHMC. “If you think about someone who lives to be 80 years old, what we’re trying to do is extend or expand their healthy lifetime, so they don’t spend the last 20 years of those 80 years being compromised.”

Ford envisioned such an expansion roughly a decade ago and has since secured private and public funding to build a new Healthspan, Resilience and Performance research complex. IHMC also was awarded more than $6 million in Triumph Gulf Coast funds to jumpstart recruitment of new talent to Pensacola and to purchase some of the cutting-edge research equipment to be used in the new facility. Scheduled to open in January 2024, the multimillion-dollar complex will expand IHMC’S downtown campus to three main buildings.

The work is what drew Bamman — a researcher known globally for his contributions to the biology of human skeletal muscle and medical rehabilitation — to IHMC in 2020. Thus far, the team has recruited exceptional talent from a variety of states, including Alabama, Georgia, Utah, California, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

“Originally our work was strictly cognitive because IHMC was started mostly by artificial intelligence people,” said Dr. Ken Ford, co-founder and CEO. “Then we moved to broaden that to include robotics. And then next we started looking at not just cognitive performance but also physical performance, exoskeletons and several other related fields.”

t the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition headquartered in downtown Pensacola, scientists from across the nation are signing on to test the boundaries of human capability.

“We are recruiting scientists who are motivated and who can pose the next set of important scientific questions,” Bamman said. “It’s a very competitive world, and we all thrive on competition.”

“That ranges from an older person dealing with a chronic disease to a military pilot who experiences numerous environmental, physical and cognitive stressors in the cockpit,” he said.

The vision for the fromMarcasplaceexpertiseandthecomputationalcanacomplexperformancehumanistohaveplacewhereyoucombinetheexpertise,biologicalexpertisethetranslationalallinonesothatwecan,assays,doresearchmoleculetoman.”

And while these researchers might represent vastly different disciplines — biochemistry, psychology, neuroscience — they will all focus on the greater study of healthspan, resilience and performance.

To find those answers, Bamman’s team spends a great deal of time studying how a human body stands up to stress and how long it takes that same body to bounce back.

BY KARI C. BARLOW

42 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

These leading researchers are coming to study healthspan, resilience and performance, a dynamic field of study that has become the IHMC’s latest frontier.

IHMC ExpansionEyes

Pensacola institute looks to enlarge the human ‘healthspan’

IHMCOFCOURTESYPHOTOS HUMANS AND MACHINESPENSACOLA

— DR. KEN CO-FOUNDERFORD,AND CEO

↗ IHMC’s Atlas robot was part of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a multi-year international robotics competition sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. ↘ IHMC research associate Mark Daniel was part of the team that competed in the 2017 Cybathlon challenge in Zurich, Switzerland, a global competition for disabled athletes aided by wearable robotic devices.

“I’m very confident this new research complex is going to attract new talent to Pensacola and Northwest Florida,” said Marcas Bamman, director of HRP research at IHMC. “We’ve already done this with some recruitment just on the promise that the facility is coming.”

The Triumph Gulf Coast funds, which were awarded in the legal settlement following the 20ı0 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, were earmarked to stimulate economic development in eight Northwest Florida counties that were significantly impacted by the spill. Bamman predicts the new HRP complex will more than meet Triumph’s challenge.

“The vision for the human performance complex is to have a place where you can combine the computational expertise, the biological expertise and the translational expertise all in one place so that we can, as Marcas says, do research from molecule to man,” Ford said. “This facility really will be one of a kind.”

Bamman is excited about what the future holds for IHMC, but he’s not surprised by the ground it’s breaking.

“We’re excited about bringing new people to Pensacola,” he said. “We’ve got a great group of people here, and I think we’re in the early stages of something really important.” ▪

↑ The IHMC Healthspan, Resilience and Performance team’s research includes studies in hypoxic (low oxygen) and hypercapnia (excessive carbon dioxide) environments.

When the new HRP complex is up and running, the HRP team will be able expand its internal collaborations, which have long been a hallmark of the IHMC culture. It will also be able to conduct more studies simultaneously.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 43

“We plan to expand in several important areas, do innovative research that is military relevant, whether it’s Navy divers or Air Force pilots, but also perform leading-edge research to help those who are injured or disabled,” Bamman said. “The new research complex is going to help us succeed in all focus areas.”

In addition to its ongoing research for the Department of Defense, NASA and other federal departments and agencies, IHMC also wants to tackle research that has the potential to improve the lives of average people.

be devoted to office space, and the third floor will be used for wet labs where samples of blood, tissue and saliva can be analyzed. Scientists will conduct clinical trials and applied research studies with a wide range of research cores to evaluate physiological and cognitive performance as well as intervention studies to improve health, resilience and performance.

“I fully expected it to grow into this because the leadership at IHMC has been forward thinking,” he added. “Dr. Ken Ford had this as a vision, and I certainly share that vision.”

The building’s first floor will house clinical labs, while the second floor will

story by REBECCA PADGETT FRETT

“What we do is unique because we address a lot of diverse industries, which allows us to learn new techniques with technology in order to cross-pollinate with other companies and use those skills in new, innovative ways,” said Mayfield, the Bit-Wizards CEO. “Because we are not choosy on the types of companies we work with, we don’t have our blinders on.”

inStirringMagicSmoke

44 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

BIT-WIZARDSFORT WALTON BEACH

employees to more than 65 — and it’s still growing in size and reputation.Thecompany is consistently ranked in the Top ı0 in Florida Trend’s Best Places to Work and is among Inc. magazine’s Top 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies.Bit-Wizards prizes teamwork. It likes to think of its employees as triple threats who are highly specialized within their roles, but possess the soft skills necessary for successful client interactions and possess leadership qualities that make them valuable team members. The company has landed diverse clients including the Okaloosa Economic Development Council, the Studer Group, Anheuser-Busch and more.

Bit-Wizards quickly proved its proficiency in providing tech solutions and grew from ı2

Bit-Wizards tailor technology to individual clients

it-Wizards, a software development and IT company, was conceived on a Chuck E. Cheese napkin. At a child’s birthday party, Vince Mayfield and Louis Erickson mapped out a future that would shape their own lives and contribute to the success of countless companies.

In 200ı, newly incorporated Bit-Wizards became the first technology company in Northwest Florida to offer clientcatered IT, software development and digital marketing.

↑ Talking Parents, a service for improving and archiving communication between co-parents, benefitted by an improved website and the addition of an Android and iOS-friendly smartphone app developed by Bit-Wizards.

The two have been friends since childhood. Both joined the military and share an inclination toward math and science. As veterans, they wanted to employ their computer backgrounds in entrepreneurial pursuits.

The company name stemmed from chief operating officer Erickson’s time at the University of West Florida where one of his professors would say, “Then you stir in the magic smoke,” in describing the work of tech whizzes.

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 45

Bit-Wizards adheres to its client-first mentality in assessing the latest technology trends. They will not install software for customers before testdriving it themselves.

Mayfield and Erickson partnered with Stephen Nixon, founder of Talking Parents, to create custom software for an already flourishing company. Talking Parents, a service for improving and archiving communication between coparents, benefitted from an improved website

Erickson respects clients as subject matter experts. He listens carefully to answers they offer in response to questions he asks in getting to know them. “How does your company make money?” he is likely to ask. “How do you serve your customers?”

Bit-Wizards learns all that it can about a company so that it can better assess its goals and challenges. Rather than offer one-size-fitsall solutions, Erickson and Mayfield reason that because each business’s trajectory is unique, technology should be tailor-made.

Mayfield agrees.

Florida Panhandle-based Rex Lumber turned to Bit-Wizards to help them more efficiently track their lumber inventory by creating a system using cameras, motion detection and scale integration software.

What we do is unique because we address a lot of diverse industries, which allows us to learn new techniques with technology in order to cross-pollinate with other companies and use those skills in new, innovative ways.”

↑ Anheuser-Busch’s Stella Artois Chalice engraving kiosk is supported by Bit-Wizards’ custom software and hardware solution.

Bit-Wizards helped another Northwest Florida company, Go Southern, by providing a software solution that uses scanners and trackers to reduce product loss.

In its work with Anheuser-Busch, Bit-Wizards developed software that uses laser engraving and 3D controllers to create custom Stella Artois glasses.

“Tech companies that adopt bleeding edge too early often get burned,” he said. “Knowing when to apply the latest technology and when to use the proven method is the very nature of being a truly innovative company.” ▪

and the addition of an Android and iOS-friendly smartphone app.

— VINCE MAYFIELD, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER OF BIT-WIZARDS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, INC.

“We are bleeding edge for ourselves in order to be leading edge for our clients,” Erickson said. “We wouldn’t let our partners use a software that we don’t fully believe in.”

← Director of Software Engineering Jason Graves and software engineers Lulu Colvin and Russ Davis work on a database diagram to solve a datarelated issue for a custom software application.

BIT-WIZARDSOFCOURTESYPHOTOS

story by KARI C. BARLOW

“I grew up with some very big-thinking, innovative people,” he said. “My father was a geohydrologist, and back in the ı970s, he came up with a software system to track groundwater in three dimensions for impurities like nuclear waste and chemicals in drinking water.”

46 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

When Gupta, a nationally recognized retinal surgeon based in Pensacola, encounters a problem, he rarely backs down until it’s solved. It’s just the way he’s built.

“I was always around him and the Ph.D. colleagues that he was with in academic centers,” Gupta recalls. “There were many times I was in the computer lab with my father at midnight, even as a kid. … The idea is when there is a problem to be solved, you put your head down and you doTit.”oday, Gupta is applying that same focus to his work at Intelligent Retinal Imaging Systems, a company he founded in 20ı4 to promote earlier diagnoses of sight-threatening retina pathologies.

Saving Sight with IRIS

That software secured his family a sponsorship from the Department of

Energy for U.S. citizenship. In the years that followed, he learned valuable lessons from his father’s curiosity, determination and work ethic.

“The leading cause of blindness in working-age patients is diabetic

r. Sunil Gupta is on a mission to end preventable blindness due to diabetic retinopathy. As challenges go, it’s a big one, but he won’t be deterred.

retinopathy — and we’ve known this for 30-something years,” he said. “We have a lot of very innovative treatments today, yet even now we see patients coming in who are blind.”

“Ideally, diabetic patients should be seeing an ophthalmologist or optometrist once a year,” said Gupta, who also operates the Retina Specialty Institute in Pensacola. “We’ve known that for 30 years, but only 30%–40% of patients actually get their retinas dilated. With IRIS, the idea was to take the solution

PREVENTING BLINDNESSPENSACOLA

Gupta channeled that frustration into creating IRIS, an FDA-cleared, cloud-based imaging tool to provide diabetic patients with retinal evaluations.

Dr. Sunil Gupta scales retinal imaging tool across the nation and beyond

That expanded access to retinal imaging allows physicians to raise awareness of diabetic retinopathy and start preventive

And the need to identify those warning signs as early as possible is greater than ever, he said.

become a society where food is readily available … and the overall BMI of the country has increased significantly since theWı970s.”hile the numbers can be overwhelming, Gupta and his team keep their eyes on the goal of conducting more retinal screenings each year.

All it takes, Gupta said, is an authentic vision and grit.

“If you see a problem worth solving, and if you can get buy-in from your partner-employees, there are great people everywhere who will come and join you to help you do that,” he said. “Innovators along the Gulf Coast should not be afraid to take on a challenge.”

▪

← Frustrated by his encounters with preventable cases of blindness, Dr. Sunil Gupta created IRIS, an FDA-cleared, cloudbased imaging tool, to provide diabetic patients with retinal evaluations.

to primary care clinics or even to the patient’s home for underserved patients.”

Gupta attributes his success with IRIS to determination, hard work and effective collaboration.“Youdon’ttake no for an answer,” he said. “The second thing is that it’s not an eight-hour day. It’s a 24-hour day, and there are seven days in a week.”

You also can’t do it alone, Gupta added.

Gupta, who arrived in Pensacola in ı994, has enjoyed building IRIS and the Retina Specialty Institute on the Gulf Coast and believes this area is the perfect place to grow innovative companies.

“The retina gives you a lot of data on what’s going on in the rest of the body,” Gupta said. “It’s the one organ that can tell you about diabetes, hypertension and neurological diseases. There are a lot of biomarkers in the retina for many different disease states in the body.”

Today, IRIS is being used in primary care settings across the Gulf Coast and the nation, including several federally qualified health clinics in Atlanta, Houston and Chicago, for the assessment of retinal eye diseases. Additionally, some outpatient labs such as Quest are offering it in their centers. The IRIS system was recently launched in the United Arab Emirates.

“You have to surround yourself with people who think the same way,” he said. “I was lucky enough that the right people came on board.”

“Some people think all the innovation has to come out of Silicon Valley or Boston, but I really feel, especially in health care, we can create these entities where we are,” he said. “The Gulf Coast has the workforce and the ability to do whatever we want to do. I think we have a great quality of life, and we can attract some amazing people.”

photography by WILL HEPBURN

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 47

“We are doing ı7,000 to ı8,000 exams on a monthly basis,” Gupta said.

care earlier in a patient’s diabetic journey.

“You always have to think globally and act locally,” he said.

“Diabetes is an epidemic in that there are 30 to 35 million patients in the United States who are known diabetics, and that number is growing with three times as many pre-diabetics,” he added. “Unfortunately, at this point, we have

48 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

Wooing the company to Bonifay was a big coup for the little town, where the few jobs available are mostly depen dent on agriculture or the Holmes County Correctional Institution, a state prison.

As much as it was a boon for the town, though, the move has also been one for Probes Unlimited, which had struggled

“All we’re doing at this point is stealing employees from each other,” DeLany said, “and now there’s a wage spiral going on. Some

“We had a lot of orders and not enough people to fill the orders,” CEO Ernie DeLany said in June, “and we didn’t see that coming to an end at our current location.”

a regional industry council that includes about 300 other manufac turing firms. Combined, council members recorded roughly ı20,000 unfilled jobs this year.

to find employees in Pennsylvania since the pandemic began in 2020.

HOLMES COUNTY

photography by CAROL WYATT

THE GREAT RESIGNATION

HolmesSweetHome

Probes Unlimited is not alone in this struggle. DeLany serves on

Probes Unlimited produces custom sensors for every thing from pellet grills to rockets. The company has been headquartered in the manufacturing stronghold of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, since its founding. However, just last year, the company’s owners made the decision to site a new manufacturing facility in Bonifay.

story by T.S. STRICKLAND

The enormous demand for labor has led some manu facturers to take the dramatic step of uprooting their operations entirely and moving them to communities where there is an eager workforce.

The tiny community of Bonifay in Holmes County offers a case study of these larger economic trends and, perhaps, a blueprint for how to cultivate manufacturing jobs in similar communities across the region.

PROBES UNLIMITED

lot of ink has been spilled in recent months on the idea of the “Great Resignation” — a pandem ic-induced staffing shortage that has roiled in dustries across the United States. The manufac turing industry has been among those hardest hit.

↑ Brittany Byrd lives up to efficiency.provideweretechniques,manufacturingemployeesByrdaestheticinspectingfunctionalitytestingqualitycommitmentUnlimited’sProbestocontrolbypartsforandthemfordefects.andherfellowlearnwhichdevelopedtoforgreater

Now, just one year after first arriving here, the compa ny is on a hiring spree with plans to employ as many as 60 local residents by year’s end.

Rural county woos manufacturers with friendly climate, willing workforce

850 Business Magazine: Innovation & Technology | 2022 | 49 October 5-7, 2022 Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front The Southeast’s premier cybersecurity and IT conference! The Southeast’s premier cybersecurity and IT conference by IT Gulf Coast to connect, collaborate and build community with industry leaders, entrepreneurs, students & educators. Join us on Pensacola Beach, Florida to discuss topics such as: • Career Evolution • Cyber • Finance • Government • Healthcare • AI Machine Learning The three-day event highlights the region’s cybersecurity, information technology and entrepreneurial communities, and explores emerging technology and innovators in startup tech, artificial intelligence, robotics, and advancements in technology on the national level. GATHER GROWEXCHANGEINSIGHTS.IDEAS.RELATIONSHIPS. #ITENWIRED #ITGulfCoast #CyberCoast #Geeksonthebeach Register today at ITENWIRED.COM STAY CONNECTED

DeLany toured several other locations in the region before settling on Bonifay, where Holmes County had recently purchased an old middle school building to convert it into an advanced manufacturing campus.

photography by CAROL WYATT

“We started talking about how Florida is treating the whole pandemic differently,” executive director Jennifer Conoley said. “He was just shocked that we said we could find people who wanted to go to work.”

“The multiplier effect for a manufac turing job is huge,” she said. “Your return on investment for bringing those jobs to a community is bigger than the direct jobs alone. It’s also the indirect jobs and induced jobs: your dry cleaners, your res taurants, your grocery stores.”

DeLany had already started to consider a change in geography when Florida’s Great Northwest reached out to see if he might consider doing business here.

A MODEL FOR THE REGION

Even more compelling than this, news of the company’s success has already resulted in interest from other manufacturers who are grappling with sim ilar labor shortages.

50 | 2022 | 850BusinessMagazine.com

Conoley pointed out that manufactur ing jobs are particularly valuable because of their impact on the wider economy.

Joe Rone, who heads the Holmes County company.asHolmessaidlevels.terparts’PennsylvaniawereBonifayofthebeforeemployeescouldn’tdownemployees’shockedDeLanyCommission,Developmentsaidhadbeenbyhisnewworkethic.“Whenhecametovisit,hebelievetheweretheretheyopeneddoor,”hesaid.Withintwoweeksopening,theworkersoutpacingtheircounproductionNow,DeLanyheseestheCountysitethefutureofthe

Rone said one man ufacturer was already looking to make a site visit to Bonifay. Separately, DeLany has been working with state and local officials to arrange a Pennsylvania trip this fall to meet with more interested employers.

↑ Operations manager Kyle Hudson offers training for optimal production of Probes Unlimited’s latest product line to team leader Dee Thomas. The company places a strong emphasis on the professional development of its employees and providing a clean, climatecontrolled work environment where its team members can excel.

(CONOLEY)FEDNERMIKEBYPHOTO

AN UNLIKELY MATCH

job is huge. Your return on investment for bringing those jobs to a community is bigger than the direct jobs alone. It’s also the indirect jobs and induced jobs: your dry cleaners, your restaurants, your grocery stores.”

As a point of reference, minimum wage in Pennsylvania is just $8.75 per hour.

“I think there’s a possibility to have a little advanced man ufacturing cluster there in Bonifay and then try to repeat it in other parts of the Panhandle,” DeLany said. ▪

DeLany was at first no exception but was quickly won over by the work ethic of the townspeople and state, regional and local stakeholders’ willingness to work to gether to make the move feasible.

Economic development officials hope Holmes County’s success will prove to be a model for how to grow the advanced manufacturing sector in similar commu nities across the region.

The manufacturingeffectmultiplierfora

PROBES UNLIMITED

The decision has proven to be a good one for the company. When they first opened their doors in July of 202ı, Probes Unlimited received nearly ı00 applica tions for just ı8 positions.

“This place went from not having a car here to now it’s got probably ı50 cars a day,” he said.

manufacturers are starting people at $22 an hour just to get them in the door.”

DeLany said. “They would just knock down every objection.”

“I don’t think I can emphasize enough how well everybody worked together,”

These secondary effects are already vis ible in Bonifay. Rone said that the middle school campus had seen an influx of new non-manufacturing tenants since Probes Unlimited set up shop. He added that a number of local machine shops had re ceived work from the company.

— JENNIFER CONOLEY DIRECTOR,EXECUTIVEFLORIDA’S GREAT NORTHWEST

“A lot of companies we speak with are a little hesitant to consider moving to a small rural community,” Conoley said.

HOLMES COUNTY

As an IT leader, you know your team can solve almost anything. But when it comes to solving everything, even your experts could use more experts in their corner. Cox Business has a complete portfolio of cloud solutions to help you overcome any challenge, all supported by a provider you already trust.

Get started www.coxbusiness.com/cloudat

Where IT goes for IT support.

www.OEVforBusiness.or g info@oevforbus iness.org | (850) 219-1080

Photo Courtesy

of the National High Ma gne tic Field Labo rat ory Nationally recognized research universities - Cutting edge job training programsIndustry leading Centers of Excellence – The world’s largest and highest powered magnet lab - Forefront of technology research - Pioneer of the world’s ﬁrst oil-free magnetic bearing compressor