Mtech, NIST Partner for Technology Market Assessment Program

A new technology assessment program launches this semester through a partnership between the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The program, called the NIST Technology Market Assessment Program (NIST T-MAP), was developed to help bring NIST-developed technologies to market.  

Through NIST T-MAP, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP)  student teams are conducting market assessments, competitive analyses, industry forecasts and business strategy from a selection of NIST intellectual property assets. Technologies being investigated include: GeRAM, Spin RAM, Fire Protection Coating, Electrolyte Batteries, and Cybersecurity of Passwords.

EIP, a joint undergraduate education program of the UMD Honors College, A. James Clark School of Engineering and Mtech, received $50,000 to implement the program. Faculty advisors from the Clark School and College of Computer, Math and Natural Sciences are assisting students in each technical subject area.

Throughout the eight-week program, five student teams attend an evening course once each week and hold weekly team meetings. Students come from a diversity of majors on campus, including electrical and computer engineering, finance, information systems, public health, economics, psychology and computer science. 

Students will receive a $1,000 assistantship after successful completion of the project and positive peer-evaluation feedback.

Jay Smith, Director of EIP, is the Principal Investigator of record for the project and oversees the program and relationship with NIST. Serial entrepreneur Mark Komisky, who started and led two cybersecurity software companies and raised over $30 million in early-stage funding, is the program instructor. Jacob Bremerman, EIP program specialist and recent Honors College graduate, provides support for the project.

Teams and technologies for the spring 2018 semester include:

GeRAM 

• Amanda Hobgood, sophomore, aerospace engineering
• Austin Plummer, junior, electrical engineering
• Lance Tinana, senior, finance/information systems
• Faculty Advisor: Bruce Jacob, Keystone Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Spin RAM

• Brendan Parlett, senior, mechanical engineering
• Aleksander Psurek, sophomore, finance/economics/operations management-business analytics
• Anjali Kalavar, senior, information systems/supply chain management
• Faculty Advisor: Bruce Jacob, Keystone Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fire Coating

• Nathan Wagener, sophomore, mechanical engineering/psychology
• Kris Collins, sophomore, finance
• Abdul Ali, sophomore, finance/information systems
• Faculty Advisor: Stanislav Stoliarov, Associate Professor, Department of Fire Protection Engineering

Electrolyte Battery

• Jessica Rosenthal, sophomore, mechanical engineering
• Adam Vinner, senior, mechanical engineering
• Deepti Konduru, junior, computer science
• Faculty Advisor: Ji Chen, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Security Tokens

• Fiona Whitefield, sophomore, economics/public health
• Thomas Liu, junior, finance/information systems
• Rohan Dixit, sophomore, computer science
• Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Katz, Professor, Department of Computer Science

February 21, 2018