Winners of UMass Technology Challenge, Sponsored by Wolf Greenfield, Propose Warning System to Avert Katrina-Like Floods
BOSTON, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 15, 2007 -- Future New Orleans-style floods could be averted
by a high-tech early-warning system for earthen structures proposed by the
winners of the 2007 University of Massachusetts Amherst Technology
Innovation Challenge, a business plan competition based on technology
conceived by UMass Amherst faculty, students, and alumni.
The winners, UMass engineering doctoral student Alaina Hanlon and alumnus
Rick Bradshaw, Ph.D., received a $20,000 cash prize. They will be given an
additional $25,000 in stages if they turn their proposed company, called
Condition Engineering, into a corporation and file for patents.
The competition's primary financial sponsor was Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks,
P.C., a top Boston-based intellectual property law firm. Two of its senior
attorneys, Edmund J. Walsh and Robert E. Hunt, served as judges for the
competition.
"Wolf Greenfield has been the major sponsor of this competition for two
years now," said Timothy J. Oyer, Wolf Greenfield's managing partner, "and
we continue to find the caliber of teams and technology involved to be
outstanding."
Condition Engineering would deliver a novel set of thousands of sensor
units embedded in the ground, providing a widespread monitoring and
early-failure warning system. This technology would be versatile across
many markets and applications, including construction sites, railroad beds,
flood control systems, landfills and bridges.
Teams are composed of students and consulting faculty members who are
experts in technology. Each team conceptualizes a product with regard to
its scientific and technological design and then creates a business plan
for the product's commercialization.
Wolf Greenfield is the largest law firm in New England devoted exclusively
to intellectual property law. The firm counsels clients in the areas of
patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs, trade secrets, and related
licensing and litigation. Wolf Greenfield clients include companies that
make everything from pharmaceuticals to software to polymers to electronics
to snowboards, as well as universities and research centers. In 2006, the
firm filed 2266 patent applications and 883 trademark applications in over
130 countries. Web: www.wolfgreenfield.com