Football Season May Be Coming to an End, But Orlando’s D-D-D Defense is Heating Up

• The Army’s simulation unit based in Orlando announced plans to establish a federally-funded Center of Excellence to develop advanced training systems in health care with the University of Central Florida’s new medical school.

• Big contracts are not only going to noted sports figures … as Congress approved an increased 2008 defense budget, Orlando continues to be one of the nation’s largest centers of defense work with local contractors netting major deals, anchored by Lockheed Martin’s Orlando operations (missiles, weapons-guidance and simulation training systems).
  

Start of the New Year Brings Focus to Hot Start-Ups in Orlando

While Orlando might not have the ‘start up’ reputation of other usual suspects, some of the most promising companies in the fueled up sectors of alternative energy, biotech, digital media and homeland security are taking shape here:

• Petra Solar – recently raised $14 million and is working with the University of Central Florida to develop affordable solar energy products. www.petrasolar.com
• Welnia – offers a comprehensive software platform for disease management and wellness. They have partnered with top-ranked Florida Hospital and are targeting physicians and corporate clients to support employee wellness – a key issue in the corporate world these days. www.welnia.com
• Revelations Training – offers a multi-media interactive web-based sales training product that’s attracting national companies. (Several companies wanted to buy them already.) www.revtrain.com
• Knockout Digital Media – offers digital, multimedia broadcasting products (live video streaming, etc.). Clients already include some big guns: ESPN Radio, Disney, ABC. www.kodigital.com
• Rini Technologies – provides a cooling technology- and chemical/biological-protection-suits for military personnel, and cooling tech for missile defense systems. www.rinitech.com
  

Orlando Makes Big News on the Alternative Energy Front

Everyone’s going green … office buildings, hotels, etc. Orlando, however, just made an announcement that’s turning out to be the largest one in the Southeast. The Orange County Convention Center, the second largest convention center in the nation, announced that it will undergo a $7.3 million transformation to blanket its roof with solar panels – becoming the largest solar project in the Southeast. In more news:

• Energy-tech start-up Planar Energy Devices established its headquarters in Orlando – fueled by $4 million in venture capital. The company is developing commercial applications for advanced micro-batteries that can be used in medicine, alternative energy and consumer electronics.
• Another recent start-up, Green Skies Inc. (an aviation consulting company) will help airports, airlines and aviation-related firms become more environmentally friendly. Founder Michael Miller is a noted aviation expert, having served as editor of Aviation Daily and frequently appearing on national TV.
  

It Takes A Village … and Orlando’s is on the Way
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer’s vision of a Downtown Creative Village filled with creative digital media companies and creative class workers is starting to come alive. In January, House of Moves – a motion capture studio whose work has been in movies such as Titanic, The Polar Express and Spider-Man 2 – opened its studio in Downtown Orlando. This is the only facility of its kind on the entire east coast. The company is located inside the University of Central Florida’s graduate-level digital media school – the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (one of a few facilities of its kind). FIEA is the anchor of the Creative Village plans, which involves transforming the 90-acre site of the Amway Arena (which is being re-built in another location) into a mixed-use office, residential and retail development.

Topping the Charts

• Expansion Management Magazine recognized Orlando as the #4 economic development hotspot in America.
• Site Selection Magazine ranked Florida #9 for business – moving up two notches from last year.
• Forbes ranked Orlando as the 5th “most wired” city in the nation.
  

Orlando Pilot Site for Innovative Math/Science Learning Initiative
With math and science being a hot national topic of importance in the U.S., Orlando (which eWeek calls a blooming U.S. city for tech) was a pliot site for a new related initiative called ‘My Sports Pulse’ that piques student interest in the subjects via the things students are most interested in – sports and cell phones. With a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the University of Central Florida’s acclaimed Institute for Simulation & Training developed a game using sports-themed scenarios and had students answer questions via text messages, voice mails and video clips. Sprint donated more than 80 cell phones for the project. With 39 percent of youth owning cell phones, there is a new trend to use mobile devices for gaming programs specifically focused on learning.

$530 Million Dollar Office, Retail, Mixed Use Projects Planned for Area Around Orlando’s New Biotech Hub
Three development projects announced in Southeast Orlando are riding the wave of the growing biotech hub that’s emerging here and that is expected to attract more companies and residents as the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the University of Central Florida Medical College and the VA Hospital get off the ground in the next year. The projects are:

• A $500 million, 120-acre mixed-use project dubbed Orlando Gateway that would include two hotels, up to 1,200 apartments, 200,000 square feet of office space and 140,000 square feet of retail space
• A $24 million, six-acre, 80,000-square-foot office project geared for simulation and pharmaceutical research firms
• A $9.1 million, 26-acre parcel that will be used for 330,000 square feet of retail space.

More In-Depth Industry Trend Profile…

Orlando Companies Voice & Touch Their Way to Top of Trendy ‘Human Factors’ Tech Innovations
Human Factors-Related R&D Takes Off – Leading Work Being Done at UCF

Our voice and hands are doing much more these days than chit-chatting with friends and typing on the computer. Through new technologies being developed by companies in the eWeek-designated “blooming tech community” of Orlando, interactive voice systems are operating military aircraft and allowing soldiers to easily communicate in Iraq, while fingerprint ID software is providing security measures for our nation’s port workers and to average citizens. And, these tech innovations point to an even bigger picture … human factors research & development (that is, studying how humans relate to and interact with technology) has taken off in the past few years. Leading work in this field is happening at the University of Central Florida, now the sixth largest university in the country.

From A to V
Four Orlando-area companies are leading the voice and touch tech charge:

Adacel. The company established its North American headquarters in Orlando and is an industry leader in aviation speech recognition technology, software integration and simulation. In October, Adacel was selected by Boeing to provide a Voice Activated Cockpit interface to be used in human factors R&D studies for the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. This system will provide the pilot and weapons system operator with the capability to interact with avionics functions using voice commands as an alternative to manual input. And, it has the potential to significantly optimize the work load of the Apache crew, allowing more focus on the mission and less time on aircraft administration. www.adacel.com

ID Solutions. Earlier this year, four-year-old ID Solutions was awarded a contract from the Transportation Security Agency to supply sophisticated fingerprint ID software to help the agency eliminate fraudulent or duplicate credentials among the nation’s 850,000 port workers. The company provides highly accurate, scalable, and cost-effective credentialing solutions including secure access, voter registration, registered traveler, and border and immigration programs in the US and around the world. www.id-sol.com

Sequiam. If Sequiam CEO Nick VandenBrekel isn’t at your front door yet, he will be soon. The company is a major player in biometric security and has designed a biometric lock for your front door. Just swipe your finger over the sensor and you’re in. A partnership between Sequiam and lock company Kwikset, a division of Black & Decker, will put biometric security — once the province of Homeland Security applications — literally in the hands of the average consumer. “We think about it not just from the security standpoint, but also about convenience,” VandenBrekel emphasizes. “Think about not having to carry keys. At some point in the near future most, if not all, of human transactional behavior will be authenticated through biology.” Sequiam is not only on the ground floor of a growing industry that’s projected to reach $8 billion by 2009, it built a big piece of that floor. www.sequiam.com

Vcom3D. The VCommunicator Mobile LC is the latest tech gadget aiding our military. Through a recent contract awarded by the Army’s PEO STRI office, hundreds of these iPod-based tools are already in the hands of our soldiers, allowing them to communicate in Iraqi Arabic and Kurdish on mission-specific issues. And the timing couldn’t be better as there is a severe shortage of translators in Iraq. Soldiers can either use it to learn the languages themselves or to project the recorded voice phrases. It also includes virtual characters speaking the phrases and video animations of culturally appropriate gestures. Not bad for a company that started exclusively to assist the deaf and hard of hearing. www.vcom3d.com

Let’s Not Forget the U – University of Central Florida Leads Human Factors R&D Work
The University of Central Florida, now the sixth largest university in the country, has noted researchers and scientists, maintains a dozen applied experimental and human factors research laboratories, and boasts recognized masters and PhD degree programs in clinical, industrial/organizational psychology and human factors. Among its most prominent and industry-leading human factors labs are:

• the Center for Applied Human Factors in Aviation
• Team Performance Lab
• the Institute for Simulation and Training’s Media Convergence Lab
• Center for Advanced Transportation Systems Simulation, and
• Minds in Technology/Machines in Thought.

Focus areas of human factors research include visual information processing, spatial awareness, performance measurement, judgement and prediction, and communications.

Noted UCF research scientists, psychologists, engineers and students are currently involved in research dealing with: improving pilot training; enhancing the design, operation and safety of transportation systems; reviewing the dynamics of a complex visual search task such as screening luggage; examining the relationships between soldiers and robots; and looking at stress and soldier performance. UCF is also a strong partner to Lockheed Martin’s Orlando-based Simulation & Training Division, which utilizes simulation technology to enhance human performance and team building for the military.

Playing off of the region’s international reputation as a hub for the simulation industry, UCF also took the lead in another research area. An interactive simulator known as the ‘StoryBox’ is being developed at UCF. This project, which will allow students to experience ethical and critical thinking dilemmas, is part of a national initiative to instill personal and social responsibility among college students. UCF is leading the first phase of this Association of American Colleges and Universities initiative. It is one of only 18 universities in the country selected to participate. For more, visit http://psychology.cos.ucf.edu/labs_index.php.