Biomedical : Featured Stories

A year ago tomorrow, hiVelocity hit the webstand. In this issue, we take a look back -- why we ventured forth, what our goals were and what our readers have found most appealing.

A camera that can read your fingerprints from six feet away. A system that can catch criminals in a 16-square-mile area. Tiny planes that can soar over an urban battlefield and tell friend from foe. All are signs that Ohio is emerging as a major force in 21st century sensor technology.

If home really is special � offering a combination of the personal and professional fulfillment you crave � one day you'll come back. These entrepreneurs did.

The risk of starting a new business is great, the rewards uncertain. But some people enjoy the process. These "serial entrepreneurs" do it over and over again. Lather, rinse and repeat.

Since its formation in 1983, Ohio University's Innovation Center has nurtured more than 80 companies, creating more than 1,000 jobs. The university itself has helped develop nine spinoff companies from university-invented technology. And faculty and staff are responsible for the startup of another 27 companies. Today, the OU Innovation Center -- the state's first university-small business incubator -- is home to 13 startups with big plans for the future. hiVelocity recently caught up with Center Director Jennifer Simon to find out what gives southeastern Ohio its entrepreneurial chemistry.

"I came to Akron because I was quite impressed with the vision of what the BioInnovation Institute could become," says Dr. Frank Douglas. "There is a tremendous desire here to do something that improves the health of the economy in this region � and that's why this will succeed."

Tony Giordano has been around the block. He's started successful companies in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He has a good job as assistant dean of research and business development at Louisiana State University's Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. So why is he moving his new cardiovascular company from Louisiana to Cleveland? Quite simply, he says, there's no place like Ohio.

If you were to walk into Jeffrey Van Buren's physical therapy practice, you might see him working with clients using a self-designed platform that helps muscles react more quickly when presented with unexpected challenges. Van Buren now has dreams of getting his unique apparatus into the marketplace. And while that goal is still a dream, an innovative collaboration between his employer and TechColumbus is making it closer to reality every day.