April 24, 2007

CEROS Awards over $4.5 Million Awarded to Ocean Technology Companies

(Kailua-Kona, HI) The National Defense Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences (CEROS) announced the selection of projects for its 2006 technology development program. Fourteen companies will receive over $4.5 million in FY06 funding. Four additional contracts are still being negotiated.

With funding through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), CEROS supports research and technical development projects which are intended to produce measurable results in 6 to 12 months. CEROS selects projects for funding based on priorities issued in the research solicitations, emphasizing: (1) a focus on near-term results; (2) tangible deliverables linked to quantifiable metrics; (3) meeting military requirements; and, (4) having the ability to transition to a real military capability.

Because CEROS is funded through annual appropriations, funding for successive years is not assured so optional or successive phases of funded projects must repeat the competitive evaluation cycle accordingly. Since 1993, the CEROS research programs have funded a total of 203 projects at a value of over $76.6 million. Hawaii's Senator Daniel K. Inouye was instrumental in the creation of CEROS and securing the federal funding to give Hawaii's businesses a chance to compete in high technology market.

CEROS initiated the 2006 program with a publicly advertised solicitation and an annual fall industry day. CEROS technical priorities are identified in the legislation that originally funded CEROS. The five technical priorities are:

o Shallow Water Surveillance Technologies

o Ocean Environmental Preservation

o New Ocean Platform and Ship Concepts

o Ocean Measurement Instrumentation and Ocean Engineering Tools, and,

o Unique Properties of the Deep Ocean Environment.

CEROS Technical Director Richard Hess believes, "the projects in the 2006 Core demonstrate a range of technical development from fundamental concept demonstration to test and evaluation for operational commands. The technical sophistication of the projects is remarkable. I sincerely regret that CEROS cannot fund more of the excellent work considered this year."

Companies which have completed negotiations under the 2006 CEROS technology development program and their project titles are:

o BBN Technologies Corporation, "Airborne-Enabled Wireless Network Demonstration for Littoral Net-Centric ASW", $372,855

o Creative Technology Applications, Inc., "Soft Rail Launch and Recovery System", $260,000

o HR Biopetroleum, Inc., "Genetic Adaptation and Screening of Marine Algae to Increase Lipid Yield and Photosynthetic Efficiency for Biodiesel Production", $375,000

o Innovative Technical Solutions, Inc. "Customer and Requirements Delineation for the Miniature Reconnaissance & Surveillance System (MRSS)", $25,000

o Knapp Engineering, Inc. dba Structural Solutions, "Experimental Validation of Cable Design Software", $440,000

o Lockheed Martin Orincon Defense, "Contact Detector and Follower for Naval Classification", $504,942

o Makai Ocean Engineering, Inc., "Modeling and Evaluation of DADS Deployment Approaches", $355,186

o MIKEL, "Hybrid Hyperbolic Multilateration and Doppler Measurement Model for UUV Navigation", $367,612

o Navatek, Ltd.," A New Device for the Control of High Speed (100 KT) Underwater Vehicles and Surface Craft", $427,195

o Neptune Technologies, Inc., "Signal Processing Methods for Highly Mobile Underwater Acoustic Communications Networking", $540,000

o Oceantek, Inc., "Development of an Advanced, PC-Based Interactive 3D/4D Visualization Environment with Applications in Data Fusion", $334,013

o Science Applications International Corporation, "Portable Vector Sensor System for Acoustic Measurements", $233,541

o Science Applications International Corporation, "Use of Acoustic Signals for Tsunami Warnings", $171,550

o Scientific Solutions, Inc., "Development and Validation of Ocean Acoustic Data Assimilation Technology with Implementation at the Pacific Missile Range Facility", $99, 255