Two Tech Transfer Startups That are Taking Off
Early prototype of self-pacing treadmill
UNMC and UNO are bastions of innovation. So much so that for the fourth consecutive year, the University of Nebraska system is ranked among the world's top 100 institutions for securing U.S. patents.
With all this innovation, the university stands to create hundreds of startups with deeply rich intellectual property. The most successful startups include an inventor AND an entrepreneur. Thanks to a partnership with the University, Proven Ventures has recently catalyzed two new startup companies - one from the Biomechanics lab and another from the Peter Kiewit Institute.
Impower Health
Impower Health is building next-generation treadmill technology that is - wait for it! - self-pacing. Step on the treadmill, and as you start to move your feet, the speed of the belt is perfectly tuned to the movement of your body. I’ve tried it myself and it’s game changing.
You may have seen that Peloton was recently in the news for all the wrong reasons. All Peloton treadmills have been recalled because of a recent toddler death. Tragic. And, avoidable with Impower’s technology.
While Impower’s computer-human interface is incredibly intuitive and automatic, the “belt arrest” feature is what I’m most enthused about. When you slow down and stop moving, the belt responds in kind. This technology provides a more fluid experience that is much safer than conventional treadmills.
Doug Miller, CEO of Impower Health, is currently seeking out fitness industry domain expert who might want to learn more about this technology. You can reach Doug at doug.miller@goimpower.com
Cyber Train
Phishing - deceptive methods that attempt to infiltrate secure networks by obtaining usernames and passwords - is very common and the impacts are devastating. According to the FBI, phishing was the most common type of cybercrime in 2020—and phishing incidents nearly doubled in frequency, from 114,702 incidents in 2019, to 241,324 incidents in 2020.
Hackers are getting more and more sophisticated and, sadly, individuals continue to click on links they shouldn’t. Employees are the biggest point of vulnerability. Thanks to CyberTrain, anti-phishing training software, learning to be less vulnerable is fun and interactive.
The software presents a series of simulated interfaces to users, and they have to decide if the content appears credible or fraudulent. Ultimately, each user is presented with a Cyber Train Index (CTI) score which informs the employee and the employer how vulnerable each employee is! Fear not - training is delivered quarterly with the goal of helping everyone raise their preparedness and cyber security acumen.
Troy Cogswell, CEO of CyberTrain, has a v1.0 product available for preview. You can take a test-drive here: http://app.cybrtrain.com/ Feel free to send him an email if you’d like to learn more about pricing. troy@cybrtrain.com