GPS Robot Wins Grand Prize at PennVention Competition
Written by LBSzone
Tuesday, 10 April 2007
PHILADELPHIA-- A robot that could assist climate-change researchers has won the grand prize at the third annual PennVention competition for student inventors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weiss Tech House.
Warren Jackson and his team of engineering students won $5,000 cash to develop Radiosonde Recovery, an autonomous, GPS-based robot that retrieves equipment at near orbital levels.
The PennVention competition teaches students to develop their ideas into innovative, problem-solving technologies and awards thousands of dollars and in-kind business services to help launch them to market.
“Each day thousands of radiosonde devices are attached to weather balloons, but less than 20 percent are recovered,” Jackson said. “Our robot would guide radiosondes back, allowing researchers to use higher quality devices and collect better data.”
Second place went to Innovative Protein Technologies to develop a fully automated solution for western blot protein analysis, the procedure used to confirm diseases like HIV and lyme disease. Penn’s varsity football kicker, Derek Zoch, won third place for the Quicker Kicker mechanical football holder, which allows kickers to incorporate speed and movement into practice.
Other prizes awarded were:
$2,500 in cash and a meeting with a QVC Inc. buyer to Ultra Slim Card & Key Holder, a device that allows for one-handed access to cards and keys.
$2,500 in product-development services from Bresslergroup to Radiosonde Recovery and Quicker Kicker.
$1,000 in Selective Laser Sintering services from Paramount PDS to Ultra Slim Card & Key Holder.
Legal services from Lowenstein Sandler PC to Radiosonde Recovery, Quicker Kicker and Fodius, a beneficiary-notification service that alerts people to entitled financial assets upon someone’s death.
Communications consultation from Tierney Communications to Fodius.
During the past year, PennVention participants received consultation and guidance from more than 40 industry mentors and learned about patenting, product design and manufacturing.
Last year’s winner, MuscleMorph, also won the Wharton Business Plan Competition and Fortune Small Business Magazine’s Battle of the Business Plans. Past winners have incorporated businesses and launched products to market.
The Weiss Tech House is an extracurricular hub of technological innovation at the University of Pennsylvania that helps students create, develop and commercialize innovative technologies. Photos available at www.tech-house.upenn.edu.
Mobile Technology Feature - Top 10 Business Apps for Android - Android has become one of the most popular mobile operating systems
in the world due to advanced software, competitive manufacturers, and an
app market that is filled with exciting and useful applications. Read
on for this fine Top 10 List compiled by tech writer, Blake Sanders
The Really Big List of Mapping, Geo location Mobile developer resources, APIs and Tools - The Mobile Ecosystem... no question that mobile is huge and
the opportunity for developers, in particular, geo developers! There's
loads of developer resources on the web so to help the developer,
here's a listing of just some of the fine dev resources, blogs,
toolsets and more to consider when developing or porting your app to a
smartphone or Tablet.
ArcGIS.com Mashup Tutorial with Flickr and Foursquare data-
Here's a simple "how to" tutorial on working with the free ArcGIS.com
to easily import KML or RSS data from Flickr and foursquare into ArcGIS
to create your own custom map mashup. ArcGIS.com has some recent
updates including support for KML, be sure to check it out!
Most Users of Free Photo Apps Say Adding Cool Effects is Most Useful - Adding cool effects
to photos was rated as the most useful thing by more than halfof
consumers surveyed using free online photography services, according to
CatchFree a free
online service that helps people find the best free mobile and web applications
to perform useful tasks.
Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet Up Close - No Replacement for the iPad But Pretty Darned Sweet - As could be
expected, speculation and blogging is rampant with many stories and
pseudo "reviews" coming out, many of them touting the next "iPad
killer".
Mobile Developer Resource - MapQuest & The Mobile Worker - Facility management companies, surveyors, multi-level marketing,
insurance claims, pipeline companies, water utilities; all have field
workers who would benefit from mobile applications. Not only checking in
to work sites, but keeping a record of the work done
Flickr GPS Photo Tag Tip - Here's a tip for Flickr users who want to share their GPS information
with their photos. note, in order to do this you'll need to be
capturing photos using a GPS-enabled or GPS-aware camera (see you're
smartphone hardware settings to ensure that GPS or location sharing is
turned "ON)".
Mobile data usage in Canada to triple between 2010 and 2012 - Some interesting, yet not terribly surprising, numbers on mobile
usage coming out of Canada. According to a report summarized on
Techvibes, mobile usage is soaring, in particular, the smartphone
segment
Social Location Directory
Do you have a location-aware application, social location service or other location-sensitive service that you'd like to share with us? Please browse this growing directory of Social location Services and feel free to leave a link to your favorite service! See the Directory HERE
Suggested Reading
The Underground Guide To The iPhone:
The iPhone is – if I may say so – one of the greatest mobile
revolutions of the past decade. More and more, mobile phones seem to
materialize out of our wildest dreams. Because of the tight integration
of third-party applications, you can do nearly everything with your
device — be it gaming, working, fooling around, and of course phoning.
Good Mobile Messaging: Executives and professional field forces spend an increasing amount of time on the road tending to business.
Mobile Apps - Native or Web?:
You probably have a plan to build a mobile app, but you've struggled
with the basic question - Should I build it using open web standards
such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or should I build it as a native app
for the devices I want to target?
iBike Coach App- a new “Always On” feature always gathers data
Nike+ GPS App- for sports tracking, recording and sharing
Featured Events
Content & Apps for Automotive Europe 2012 (18-19 April, Germany)
will give you key insights on how in-vehicle connectivity is being
revolutionised as OEMs integrate dynamic content to stay relevant
throughout the vehicle life cycle.
Location Intelligence for Enterprise - Europe 2012, January 16-17, London Hear from Google, Jones Lang LaSalle, Tesco, Willis, Oracle,
ESRI, Microsoft, PBBI and many more as they debate the best strategies
for business models and integration.
Consumer Telematics Show 2012 (Jan 9, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, USA) is the most prestigious and
dynamic consumer telematics focused meeting for the automotive industry.
Held in Las Vegas on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES),
this year's senior-level speakers will include General Motors, Audi,
Toyota, Panasonic, Continental, Hughes Telematics, Gartner, KIA,
Mercedes-Benz and many more
Esri Dev Summit - The
Esri Developer Summit (DevSummit) brings together developers and GIS
professionals from all over the globe. March 26-29, 2012, Palm Springs,
CA
