FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 25, 2006
For more information contact:

Eugene (Gene) Watson, Program Manager
Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative
Phone: 307-742-7162, 307-760-0456 cell

Lichen Research Center
922 South Summit; Newcastle, Wyoming 82701
Contact: Kip Dopp
Phone: 307-746-3544

Trader Trainer
P.O. Box 7395; Jackson, Wyoming 83002
Contact: Chris Bruner
Phone: 307.459.1027

Wyoming Business Council awards grants to Newcastle and Jackson firms

CHEYENNE – Firms from Newcastle and Jackson are the latest winners of the Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative’s (WSSI) Phase 0 grant awards program. Lichen Research Center of Newcastle earned a $5,000 award for its proposal to develop a new heliostat, while Trader Trainer of Jackson was also given $5,000 to use towards preparation for a Naval Phase I grant.

The SBIR Phase 0 Program helps Wyoming companies develop competitive proposals for the federal SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The SBIR Phase 0 program is a project of the Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative (WSSI). The WSSI initiative is funded by the Wyoming Business Council and gives out $120,000 in Phase 0 grants each year.

Lichen Research Center has a new heliostat design that may be used in the
production of ethanol and biodiesel. A Heliostat is an array of reflective surfaces that focus energy from the sun to a collector. The heliostat design that Lichen Research proposes makes the cost per square foot of reflective surface very competitive. If hundreds of square feet of reflected sunlight are concentrated on a collector, then, tremendously hot temperatures can be obtained and it is possible an installation could provide a clean, renewable source of energy. That could help reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment.

The proposed heliostat design is simple enough that banks of reflective surfaces could be controlled with a couple of drive motors instead of larger motors which cost more to produce and maintain. As the sun moves, the mirrors also have to move to reflect sunlight to a stationary point.

The proposed heliostat will hopefully make the utilization of solar energy competitive in price to other forms of energy and with environmental benefits.

Trader Trainer Inc. of Jackson was awarded a $5,000 grant through the WSSI Phase 0 program for their proposal for a program which would use computer skill and artificial intelligence to correlate, and decipher intelligence information for military purposes.

Currently there is a blizzard of intelligence information which is delivered to command and control centers for the military. Recently, a decision support tool called Decision Making Constructs in a Distributed Environment (DCODE) has been previously prototyped in collaboration with Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) and the MIT eWall Project. This project, along with Trader Trainer’s enhancement, will provide a mathematical framework for ranking and filtering different pieces of information coming into command and control and cut down on the information overload.

For example, if a member of Special Forces on the ground sees a plane flying above him, he can input his location and description of the plane through a radio or laptop on-site. That information is given a mathematical value for its importance and other sources (radar, other planes) can also collaborate with the information to raise the value of the intelligence garnered. That mathematical value is then listed as a higher priority for command and control.

The correlated data can then be used to decide weapons allocations, use of intelligence and help command and control maker better decisions.

The federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs provide more than $2 billion annually in Research and Development (R&D) grants and contracts to qualified small businesses.

Eleven federal agencies are required by law to provide these funds by setting aside 2.5 percent of their annual extra-mural R&D budgets for use exclusively by U.S. small businesses for new product R&D. Hence, these programs provide a unique source of start-up and seed capital for small businesses to develop new innovative product concepts.

The mission of the Wyoming Business Council is to facilitate the economic growth of Wyoming. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.wyomingbusiness.org.

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