FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 18, 2006
For more information contact:

Eugene (Gene) Watson, Program Manager
Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative
Phone: 307.742.7162, 307.760.0456 cell

Robert Viola, Square One System and Design, Inc.
Jackson, Wyoming
Phone: 307.739.0946

Jackson firm wins Phase 0 award thanks to proposal for stealth aircraft automation

CHEYENNE – Few ski instructors can teach their pupils to snowplow one minute and talk supercolliders the next, but then again, Bob Viola was never really your stereotypical ski bum.

A graduate of Colorado University and Stanford University where he got undergraduate and graduate degrees respectively, Viola has worked in the oil field of Evanston, the slopes of Jackson Hole and managed to fit in time working at the super conducting supercollider in Dallas and the Stanford linear accelerator. In 2001, he founded Square One Designs, a Jackson firm which this month received its eighth Phase 0 award through the Wyoming Business Council and the WSSI (Wyoming Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer) program thanks to its proposal to modify small robotic work cells for aircraft assembly.

Square One System and Design is working with Northrop Grumman, which is building F-35 Fighter aircraft. The F-35 features stealth-like qualities and graphite epoxy composite panels. Drilling holes in the sides of the air inlets in the aircraft robotically has proven impossible thus far requiring the drilling to be done by hand an enclosed area. The Air Force is looking for a way to automate the process. Square One has proposed a series of robotic modifications for a computerized drilling process.

“In a traditional application, you can use a robot that is commercially available,” said Viola. “Because of the shape of an air intake duct, the robot arms can’t maneuver inside the enclosed space. Robotic design is pretty much our specialty. We think this application is a pretty good fit with what it is we think we do best.”

Since getting involved in the SBIR program, Square One has received four Phase I awards from the Department of Energy, one from the National Institute of Health and another from the Navy. Three of those projects have resulted in Phase II awards for a total of nearly $3 million in federal research funding.

“The really great thing about our work is we have the opportunity to work on topics that are really of importance to the country and scientific community,” Viola said.

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.

The federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs make up the WSSI alliance and 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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