Contact:

Kristin Devoe (ESD): kristin.devoe@esd.ny.gov | 518.414.1087

John Mackowiak: jmackowiak@martingroupmarketing.com | 716-785-5475

Will Leverage the Power of Advanced Materials to Promote Greater Environmental Sustainability and Drive Innovation Across the State

Empire State Development (ESD) today announced the New York State Advanced Materials Innovation Challenge is open and accepting applications through September 30. As manufacturers statewide adopt cleaner and greener practices to eliminate waste and emissions, advanced materials have the potential to accelerate the process of making manufacturing more environmentally sustainable. To support these goals, the New York State Advanced Materials Innovation Challenge will award up to $150,000 for projects that will develop new materials or new applications of existing materials.

Empire State Development President, CEO, and Commissioner Hope Knight said, “Advances in materials science are providing groundbreaking opportunities to replace or reduce the use of toxic or excessive materials in manufacturing while also developing new and improved high-performance products. The strongest proposals for the New York State Innovation Challenge will deliver positive change by using or developing advanced materials that are themselves sustainable while creating applications that promote environmental sustainability.”

New York State-based innovators are encouraged to submit projects for the Advanced Materials Innovation Challenge that achieve one or more of these goals:

• Reduce the use of toxic chemicals during manufacturing.
• Shorten the supply chain to use locally-sourced and sustainable materials instead of materials that require long-distance transportation.
• Identify, develop and/or validate alternative sustainable materials.
• Reduce or eliminate the creation of harmful byproducts during manufacturing.
• Reduce landfilling and/or repurpose waste from manufacturing or product end-of-life.

FuzeHub Executive Director Elena Garuc said, “By using advanced materials to conserve natural resources and protect ecosystems now and in the future, New York State manufacturers can lead the way nationally and globally for environmental sustainability within this vital industry. New Yorkers are known for rising to the occasion and tackling big challenges — this is a moment for our state’s innovators and problem-solvers to create positive change by harnessing the power of advanced materials.”

Innovation Challenge organizers expect to award three grants of $50,000 each. More details, including guidelines and the application, are available at fuzehub.com/innovation-challenge.

Advanced materials are new or substantially enhanced materials that have unique properties or provide improved performance relative to conventional materials, facilitating innovation that benefits the industry, consumers, and society. Across the state, advanced materials innovations involving ceramics, chemicals, glass, metals, plastics, and more are enabling high-performance products in sectors ranging from semiconductors and aerospace to medical equipment and consumer products.

The Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund — which will serve as the source of funding for this Innovation Challenge — supports a set of activities designed to spur technology development and commercialization across New York State. Launched in December 2016, the fund is named for Jeff Lawrence, a champion of the New York manufacturing and entrepreneurial communities. Each year, the Innovation Fund provides more than $1 million in direct assistance to the manufacturing, research and development, technology, and entrepreneurial ecosystems. To date, the fund has awarded $6.7 million in funding to support collaborative projects throughout the state.

About Empire State Development

Empire State Development (ESD) is New York’s chief economic development agency. The mission of ESD is to promote a vigorous and growing economy, encourage the creation of new jobs and economic opportunities, increase revenues to the State and its municipalities, and achieve stable and diversified local economies. Through loans, grants, tax credits, and other forms of financial assistance, ESD strives to enhance private business investment and growth to spur job creation and support prosperous communities across New York State. ESD is also the primary administrative agency overseeing the Regional Economic Development Councils and the marketing of “I LOVE NY,” the State’s iconic tourism brand. For more information on Regional Councils and Empire State Development, visit www.regionalcouncils.ny.gov and www.esd.ny.gov.

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Usheco Inc., of Kingston, is a family-owned business that has been manufacturing custom plastic parts, for a variety of markets, for over 60 years.

“Our main business is thermoforming,” said Alethea Schaeffer, Vice President of Sales and Engineering for Usheco. “However, we also do injection molding, CNC routing, die cutting, line bending and assembly work.”

The company also manufactures the Plant Air Purifier, which is sold directly to consumers.

Family & Friends

Schaeffer’s grandfather, Bernarr Schaeffer, founded the company in 1961 as U.S. Health Equipment Co., a metalworking shop. One day, a customer asked if he could make plastic components, so he built a thermoforming machine.

“That was when we got started in plastics,” Alethea Schaeffer said. “Now we are primarily plastics although we do work with other materials such as wood, composites and foam.”
The company incorporated as Usheco in 1985.

Schaeffer has worked for the family business off and on for more than 20 years. During the “off” years, she got an associate degree in Drafting and Design at SUNY Ulster, a bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from RPI, and worked on her master’s at Clarkson. She worked for a time with a lighting manufacturer, managing a custom engineering team. She then moved to a design and build company, first as a project manager and then running the bearing and robotics department.

Then, in October 2017, “it just happened that I came back to work with my parents,” she said.

Her responsibilities include troubleshooting on the manufacturing floor, speaking with customers and using her engineering background to help them design for manufacturing. With a repeat business rate of 93%, most customers become good friends.

“The relationships Grandpa built over the years were key in that, and then my father (Wayne Schaeffer) continuing those and now me,” she said.

The pandemic pivot

When COVID hit, Usheco cut workers’ hours to avoid layoffs. But that was short-lived.

“That was a Wednesday,” Schaeffer recalled. “On Thursday, I said ‘dad, we’re going to design a face shield.’ We did and I put them online that day and by Friday we had sales. Monday, I told everyone we were coming back to work full time.”

The work required a die cutter, so on Friday, Usheco applied for a grant from the Workforce Development Institute. The funds were approved on Monday and the equipment was installed within a few weeks.

“That never happens,” Schaeffer said.

The pivot not only enabled Usheco to retain workers but to hire—including two student interns at Hudson Valley Pathways Academy, who assembled face shields from home. Employees also were added when a competitor reached out about a large order for face shields it could not complete on its own.

“Then we contacted one of our customers and they started doing assembly work, so we were kind of the center of this little triangle of collaboration,” Schaeffer said. “It was one of those highlights I never want to forget from the pandemic because we found ways to get things done that were definitely out of the box and collaborations that never would have happened.”

Looking forward

Today, Usheco employs 12 and is looking for more people. The shop is busy and “I am quoting some jobs that I think mean we are going to be even busier,” Schaeffer said. “I see us moving from one shift to two in the next year, possibly the next six months.”

Like most manufacturers, the company is dealing with a workforce shortage, supply chain issues and rising materials prices. But Schaeffer sees a bright future ahead. Plans call for the purchase of new, faster thermoforming technology as well as ultrasonic equipment to enable Usheco to pick up work returning from China.

Usheco also is in the early stages of working with FuzeHub and SUNY New Paltz on new material for thermoforming.

Five years and one pandemic later, Schaeffer has no regrets about rejoining the family business.

“I get to carry on my grandfather’s legacy and really honor his memory in what I’m doing,” she said.

JelikaLite is a New York City-based startup engaged in the development of an innovative, home-based solution for young children on the autism spectrum. Called Cognilium, it combines a wearable therapeutic device that uses near infrared light to safely stimulate the brain together with software that personalizes treatment and provides key data to parents and therapists.
“Autism rates are rising,” said Kayta Sverdlov, co-founder and CEO of JelikaLite. “There is no cure, and the cause remains unknown. Parents are looking for a solution. Our goal is to demystify autism by providing both parents and therapists with precise measurements of the child’s symptoms and with personalized treatment to permanently improve those symptoms.”

“We have to do it.”

Sverdlov never imagined herself in the medical device industry. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in economics and went to work on Wall Street. Then the financial crisis of 2008 hit, and she decided she wanted to do something more with her life.

“I wanted to do something good for humanity,” she said. “So, I became a lawyer. I help families organize their lives.”
Many of her clients have children with autism or other special needs that must be addressed through estate planning, giving her an insight into the struggles of such families.

Meanwhile, Sverdlov’s longtime friend, child psychologist Dr. Eugenia Steingold, was becoming frustrated with the lack of treatment options for her autistic patients. Behavioral therapy and medications did nothing to address the underlying causes of the condition. She did some research into transcranial (“through the head”) photobiomodulation (PBM), a noninvasive treatment used for neurological conditions such as traumatic brain injury, depression, and dementia. PBM therapy stimulates the brain with near infrared light, increasing cerebral blood flow and reducing inflammation. The brain receives more oxygen and nutrition, increasing its ability to heal. With continued use, cellular mitochondria activate and energy molecule production increases, enhancing connections between neurons.

Steingold found two university-based studies testing PBM with autistic people. Both showed promising results, with language skills and anxiety symptoms improving by as much as one-third. That is enough to separate moderate autism from severe autism, and this can mean the difference between institutionalization and independent living. What Steingold could not find were any commercial products designed for this purpose.

“I said, ‘if there is nothing available, we have to do it,” Sverdlov said.

Phase One

In 2019, Sverdlov and Steingold, CSO of JelikaLite, went to work developing Cognilium.

“We didn’t know much,” Sverdlov said. “We did not know what a medical device was or what it would take to develop one. But we have been learning through the process.”

The young company got assistance from the Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator, which provided both education and valuable connections. It raised money from several angel investors based solely on its concept and set about building a prototype and filing for patents.

One big, early decision for Sverdlov and Steingold was whether Cognilium would even be a medical device, or a “wellness” device they could bring to market much sooner. After speaking with both parents and therapists, they decided an FDA-approved medical device would have more credibility and enable them to work with physicians.

They knew this would mean a longer, more expensive road but didn’t realize how much longer until they applied to an Institutional Review Board (IRB) for permission to conduct their first clinical study. Under FDA regulations, an Institutional Review Board is a group that has been formally designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects. In accordance with FDA regulations, an IRB has the authority to approve, require modifications in (to secure approval), or disapprove research.

“It took almost a year to get the OK,” Sverdlov said. “We are working with young children using an experimental, interventional treatment. The IRB required us to go to the FDA first and get classification for our study.”

Once the FDA had designated Cognilium as a “non-significant risk device,” the company returned to the IRB and received approval for its trial, which began in March 2021.

The double-blind placebo controlled clinical study saw “spectacular results,” Sverdlov said. Children aged 2 through 6 weregiven PBM therapy for eight weeks, coming to a clinician’s office twice a week, for 30 minutes at a time. Among the success stories: a two-year-old boy who was completely non-responsive began playing with toys, and interacting with other children and saying his first words. His therapist changed his classification to “alert” and his mother was able to put him into daycare and return to work.

“It changed her life,” Sverdlov said.

Leveraging New York State assets

Like most startups, JelikaLite has been challenged by both time and money. To date it has raised about $1 million but will need more to commercialize its product. Sverdlov and Steingold do not pay themselves salaries, and instead continue to work full time in their respective law and psychology practices.

“It is difficult to build a company and develop technology and figure out patents and regulatory pathways all on a part-time basis,” Sverdlov said.

Not that the partners have been alone in their endeavor. In addition to the Biosciences Accelerator, they have received mentoring from the Long Island Business Institute and participated in the Central New York Biotech Accelerator (CNYBAC) Medical Device Innovation Challenge. They also have a strong relationship with FuzeHub, which began when they entered, and won, the 2020 FuzeHub Commercialization Competition, receiving a $50,000 prize. FuzeHub then introduced the company to the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) Sensor CAT, a NYSTAR-funded Center of Advanced Technology at CUNY. Sensor CAT, in turn, connected JelikaLite to an industry partner that has helped it perfect its measurements and light dosages.

“FuzeHub introduced us to as many people in New York as they could,” Sverdlov said. “We had periodic calls and they would ask how they could help, and I would tell them and that’s what they did.”

But Sverdlov said one of the biggest things FuzeHub did for JelikaLite was to feature it in a June 2021 podcast with Steve Melito.

“That gave us huge visibility,” she said. “That is how we were found by The BRAIN Foundation, a large nonprofit in California which invited us to present at their conference in December (2021). That gave us introductions to professors, key opinion leaders and other companies in the industry—and all of that came because Steve did a podcast with me.”

Breaking through

In January 2022, the FDA granted Cognilium its Breakthrough Device Designation, which is given to products that hold the potential for more effective treatment of a life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating human disease or condition.

With that key designation in hand, it submitted to the FDA the protocol for a second, larger clinical trial using an improved prototype. The results from that upcoming study will be used to get final FDA de-novo approval “so that we can get the device into the hands of the parents,” Sverdlov said.

Meanwhile, she is working on getting insurance reimbursement coverage for Cognilium device so parents of all means can have access to it. The ultimate goal is to make the device available to parents all over the world—many of whom have already called JelikaLite after hearing the results of the first study.

Although the focus has been on autism, Sverdlov said Cognilium has potential with other pediatric neurological disorders including anxiety, ADHD, depression, and sleep disorders.

Electroskip™ LLC is a Buffalo-based, FDA-registered manufacturer of patented technology for gait training and neuromuscular reeducation. The company’s flagship product, Eskiptrainer™, utilizes wireless, wearable footwear electronics that generate auditory biofeedback and instantaneous gait analytics to assist patients with walking disabilities such as Parkinson’s Disease and other debilitating conditions.

“We made something simple-to-use that brought the world of gait analytics into the clinic and made them immediately available to the clinician, while at the same time providing this overwhelmingly engaging experience for the patient,” said Jamie O’Neil, co-inventor and CEO of Electroskip.

First steps

Electroskip technology got its start about a decade ago as a project at Canisius College, where O’Neil is a professor of digital media arts. Prior to his tenure there, he had worked with professional dance companies to trigger video scenic effects in real-time based on input from the dancer’s movements. At Canisius, he joined a research group with physics student Jon Mrowczynski and music professor Dr. Bill Sack, developing electronics that made music from sensors. The footwear electronics were intended to create beats so “break dancers and electronic musicians could jam out together,” O’Neil explained.

It was in 2015 that things became serious. O’Neil and his research partners began working with Coleman Fellows, a Chicago group that provides entrepreneurship training to professors. This led O’Neil and his colleagues to attend a Buffalo workshop about pre-seed funding. When they applied to present their technology publicly, the application asked if they had a patent. They did not, but quickly filed for a provisional one.

The company’s first patent was issued in 2019. At this point, O’Neil came to a realization that would change the company’s direction.

“At the time, we thought we would be selling to dancers and musicians, but while they were great to work with, they didn’t have the money to buy our custom-made electronics,” he said.

One of the dancers he was working with was also a physical therapist, who recognized the value the technology could have for patients with movement disorders.

“We realized that if we wanted to make this sustainable, we had to make it a medical product,” O’Neil said.

Eskiptrainer is a turnkey kit that includes a tablet and its own wireless network that does not interfere with the medical facility’s Wi-Fi. The clinician does not have to be a “techie” to use it either. Sensors and transmitters attached to the patient’s feet produce sounds—and data—as they step, providing immediate analysis of their gait. The music gives patients something to think about other than the act of walking itself which turns out to be the #1 disability in the US (mobility issues).

“It has become a portable system to objectively measure how well someone is walking and implement interventions that are based on biofeedback that is fun and engaging,” O’Neil explained.

Making Strides

Before Electroskip could sell its kit, it had to manufacture it and get it registered with the FDA. This required money, so the company entered FuzeHub’s 2019 Commercialization Competition and won a $50,000 prize. That same year, O’Neil, in his role as a Canisius professor, received a $20,000 FuzeHub manufacturing grant.

These funds enabled Electroskip and its manufacturing partner, Buffalo-based K-Technologies, to complete the design for the manufacturing process for Eskiptrainer. Electroskip also hired Buffalo-based Compliance Team who determined the product was best categorized as a Class II biofeedback device. The consulting firm also assisted with building out a regulatory pathway, designing controls, and making the necessary filings with the FDA.

In 2020, O’Neil received a second FuzeHub manufacturing grant, this one for $34,000, which he used to address FDA compliance and expand manufacturing with K-Technologies, improving key features and product usability. That year, Electroskip—working with Woods Oviatt Gilman, a Rochester law firm—received its second patent.

“We were really enabled by FuzeHub because they provided the funding for us to manufacture enough product for us to build out our research network,” O’Neil said. “That is basically what those two years were about.”

FuzeHub’s Manufacturer Solutions Program also provided assistance by connecting O’Neil to Dr. Daniel Walcyzk from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy. Dr. Walcyzk recommended some modifications to the design of a foot sensor that helped to extend sensor life.

Walking the walk

Eskiptrainer is now in its second year as a registered medical device with robust sales to three main groups: medical researchers, physical therapists (PTs) and other clinicians, and professional trainers who work with Parkinson’s patients. But Electroskip is not standing still.

“We just got our third patent, and we are thrilled about it because it connects our electronic music technology specifically to biofeedback and gait analytics, which is what our product is,” O’Neil said. “The other big news is that we recently presented the latest study from our research group at Upstate Medical in Syracuse at the national PT conference. It showed very promising results for cadence modulation, the ability to control how fast or slow Parkinson’s patients walk.”

The next step will be a product for home use. O’Neil said nearly all patients who try Eskiptrainer want to do it again and many ask if they can use it at home.

Starting this summer, the company will work with Parkinson’s patients at a training organization in Syracuse to teach them how to use the Eskiptrainer in order to begin to evaluate home use.

“We envision a system that could create your own prescriptive song,” O’Neil explained. “If we can capture how you walk and see that as analytics, we can take those and push them through a music system to generate a song for you that you can put on an app and listen to as you take a walk in your neighborhood.”

The idea is to make “homework” from a therapist or trainer fun so that the patient is more likely to adhere to prescriptive exercise. Home use also will enable an analysis of how the patient walks in real-life circumstances rather than at a gait lab.

“People in the future will be able to get a gait score to tell them how well they walked each day and clinicians can use that data to understand which interventions work,” O’Neil said. “That will be a very valuable way for us to develop a data-driven model for gait training, therapy, and evaluation.”

But at the moment the company, and other electronics manufacturers, are facing a big challenge brought on by the COVID pandemic—a shortage of computer chips.

Because of its work with FuzeHub, Electroskip has ample product inventory it can sell. However, as chips advanced, it updated its software to add new features. Now that these advanced chips are not available, “we need funding to reengineer older chips to be compatible with our latest software,” O’Neil explained. “That is a difficult thing to get funding for.”

He understands, however, that neither the pandemic nor the chip shortage will last forever.

“We are living through a time that is so hard on us in terms of our future vision,” he said. “But we are going to get through this. The future is bright for the smart shoe industry”

AirTulip is a Manhattan-based startup with a way to convert any indoor space into a cleanroom. The company’s technology was launched during the height of the COVID pandemic and is designed to arrest the spread of the virus and other contaminants in offices, medical facilities, gyms, bars, restaurants, and even the home.

“We wanted to see if there was a way to transform the technology we know exists in cleanrooms and make it portable and compact so we could place it indoors to create a safe environment for people to breathe,” said Arjen de Jong, Founder and CEO of AirTulip. “And we did.”

The two sides of Arjen de Jong

De Jong and his team were able to develop AirTulip quickly, in large part, because of de Jong’s deep background in aerospace engineering and product development.

“There are two sides of me,” he said. “I have a Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics, which is airflow, so I have all the university degrees. But also, I grew up in manufacturing. Our family business in the Netherlands was making cleanrooms and aircraft maintenance equipment.”

He recalled how, as a child, he would build tracks and ramps on the factory floor and ride his electric bike amid people who were welding and cutting. He even had a treehouse inside the factory.

“So, that is where I come from,” he said. “I always have been able to build. I understand manufacturing. Where I am now comes from combining those two sides of me.”

De Jong’s career over nearly two decades included stints at Porsche, Ferrari, and NASA Langley Research Center. In 2014, he founded Airdaptive, a New York City product development company focused on airflow and flow control technology.

When the pandemic hit, de Jong helped out with design and engineering efforts for improved lung ventilators. Then his thoughts turned to prevention.

The “Aha” Moment

It started when the Airdaptive team was working on a downdraft booth, an enclosure that cleans and processes air for painting and other industrial purposes. As in cleanrooms, the booth’s laminarized downflow creates a very slow, downward wind with no turbulence.

“That means there is no mixing,” de Jong explained. “So, if you light a cigarette there is no plume, just a straight line down to the floor. You don’t smell it. You don’t breathe it, nothing. And if someone coughs, it goes straight down and doesn’t spread. It doesn’t linger. That was the ‘aha’ on it.”

He began thinking about what he could do to put downdraft technology into nonindustrial spaces to make it safer for them to reopen.

“I had experience designing cleanrooms so I thought ‘ok, can we make it portable? Can we make it compact? Can we make it silent? Can we make it affordable?”

This was in late 2020. The aerospace engineers at Airdaptive helped with prototyping, and soon it was time to pilot test the AirTulip—so named to honor de Jong’s Dutch heritage and the fact that the design vaguely resembles the flower. The first tests were in bars, restaurants and health clubs.

“For example, we were mimicking what happens if you have a yoga class and someone has COVID,” he said. “Would it spread in the room? What is the effect of ventilation versus the effect of AirTulip? Our data showed that with AirTulip we had a 90% risk reduction in a large space.”

The results were impressive enough to earn the company a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Assistance Grant under the NY MEP COVID Recovery Initiative. ITAC, New York City’s regional MEP center, led the PPE Grant initiative.

By working with both ITAC and FuzeHub, the statewide NY MEP center, Airdaptive made valuable contacts to advance the project. An important question for de Jong was whether AirTulip could be sourced and manufactured in the New York area. Fortunately, it could.

A Blossoming Company

By mid-2021, AirTulip was operating on its own with a team of eight. De Jong is eager to hire more people as the company’s sales grow both domestically and internationally.

“It has been interesting to see which industries are interested in the product,” he said. “Initially we were looking at bars and restaurants but then we got a lot more traction from dentists and medical facilities.”

More recently, the company has pivoted to large office buildings, including the headquarters of a big New York bank.

“We are outfitting their main floors,” de Jong said. “We can enable medical-grade airflow in a building that already exists so we can create a safe space for people to go back to work.”

At the moment, the company has two products: the AirTulip stem and the larger AirTulip Canopy. In March 2022, it plans to launch a consumer product, Sleep by AirTulip, which integrates the AirTulip technology into a bed headboard to reduce asthma and allergies by eliminating airborne irritants.

“You can breathe completely clean air while you sleep for eight hours,” de Jong said. “That is a spin-off for us—to keep making spaces safe, but also now looking at increasing the wellness of people.” Although COVID was the impetus for AirTulip, de Jong is looking to a post-pandemic world. He envisions the company working closely with government agencies and universities to aid in research, awareness, and education around the topic of airflow and its importance in preventing illness.

“So, I think in five years we will have a much larger presence in the air purification/wellness sphere,” he said. “On the product side, it will be about creating a healthier indoor space for people so that work conditions are better, there is less sickness and less absenteeism. We will get it into people’s homes through different devices. There are a couple of products we have in the pipeline that can help with this and really create a better world. All our products will be unique, different in effect and enabling technology that wasn’t there yet, all-around airflow.”

Eco-Baggeez LLC is a Cazenovia startup that produces sandwich bags made of sustainable natural brown kraft paper. The bags are biodegradable, recyclable, compostable, microwavable, resealable and 100 percent sourced and made in the USA.

“None of our competitors can make all those claims,” said Elizabeth Race, owner of Eco-Baggeez. Race’s goal is to make a difference for consumers and the planet.

“Did you know that each year 97 billion plastic sandwich bags end up in landfills, waterways and oceans from US households alone and those bags take an average of 50 years to biodegrade?” she said. “Eco-Baggeez are designed to put a dent into that by offering the consumer an alternative that is not only better for the planet but that fits their lifestyle.”

From Busy Mom to Entrepreneur

It was Race’s own lifestyle that spurred the idea for Eco-Baggeez. She was a mom, working as a teaching assistant for the local elementary school. One day it dawned on her just how many plastic bags her family was using and discarding every year. She set out in search of alternatives.

“This was years ago and back then it was mostly reusables—hard plastic or glass,” she said. “Those weren’t anything that fit our lifestyle as a family. We were just so busy. The kids were in sports and other activities, and we were involved in the community. We didn’t have time to wash these things out every night and get them ready for the next day.” Over the next decade—during which she moved from teaching assistant to computer tech specialist for Cazenovia Central Schools—Race worked to create the solution she had been unable to find.

“I was researching and developing all kinds of materials and actually formulating this product,” she said. “I would come home from my full-time job and work late at night to move this thing down the field. I paid for everything as I went along. That’s one of the reasons it took 10 years.”

What Race designed was a bag with pleated sides and an adhesive flap, made from natural materials that are not only environmentally friendly but able to absorb moisture, fat and grease.

Doing Good

In 2016, Race was one of 20 green technology innovators from around the world invited to present her product to political and business leaders in Washington, DC. Her fellow inventors told her how difficult it was to find someone to make their product in the U.S. Soon after, she would learn this for herself.

Her goal was to contract with one manufacturer who would make the bags from start to finish, but that proved cost prohibitive. She found a company in Illinois to produce the bags alone and contracted with The Arc of Madison-Cortland to apply the adhesive, package the bags, prepare them for shipment and act as Eco-Baggeez’s shipping and receiving warehouse.

“I was very lucky to find The Arc since they were willing to work with me and make a go of it,” she said. “Plus, it supported my mission of doing good for the planet while doing good for the people on the planet.” It was June of 2019 that Race decided all the pieces were in place to leave the school district and officially launch Ego-Baggeez. Her daughter, a recent college graduate, signed on as director of marketing and sales. The bags found their way onto some store shelves and things were going fine until COVID hit.

“Our product is designed to transport food from home to school or work and people weren’t going to school or work,” she said. “We had to figure out not only how we would survive but how we could we make a difference and help during that time even if we couldn’t sell our product.”

The decision was made to donate 500,000 Eco-Baggeez to school districts statewide, for use in providing lunches to needy children. Meanwhile, the company began selling online, through Amazon and GreenPaperProducts.com, and “that really was what saved us” as people who found the bags became return customers.

The Next Level

Race’s daughter has since left the company for another opportunity, leaving Elizabeth Race a one-woman company with some contract help. But she is not alone. Eco-Baggeez is a member of the Tech Garden, a Syracuse-based technology incubator, and works with the Technology Development Organization (TDO), the MEP Center serving Central New York. In November 2021, Eco-Baggeez was a $50,000 winner in FuzeHub’s Commercialization Competition, part of the Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund. This gave the company the resources it needed to expand its product line to include larger bags, a necessary part of an effort to attract national grocery store chains, wholesalers and other key customers.

The FuzeHub grant—along with FuzeHub’s Marketing Services—are also making it possible for Race to update her branding—developing more cohesive marketing materials and redesigning her packaging. “So, with the money from the Jeff Lawrence Fund we are going to have two different sizes and a totally new look, so I am very excited,” she said. “I think the new box will be easy to spot from a distance on a grocery store shelf. It also makes it very clear what product is even if you are looking at it online.”

That is not all that may be changing. Because of the rising cost of wood pulp, Race has been working with SUNY College of Environmental Services and Forestry (ESF) to find alternative materials from which to make her bags. “I thought maybe we could come up with something that is still sustainable, still plant-based, but not wood,” she said. “So, I am working with ESF on what we could be in the future that would still do the same thing but with a slightly different material that will keep the costs low for the everyday consumer.” Meanwhile, Race is seeking financial partners to help the company reach its full potential. “We’re looking for investors who would be willing to come in and have the same mission we do,” she said. “Then we could move to the next level and begin manufacturing our bags ourselves.”

The Challenge

Create O&P needed support to address some design challenges that were resulting in significant downtimes for their 3D printers, which were housed at individual practitioners’ offices. The company also wanted to find a contract manufacturer in New York State, after having quality control issues with manufacturers in China and California.

The Solution

The Shipley Center for Innovation at Clarkson University, which had been working with Create O&P since a meeting at a Point Positive angel investors pitch event, applied for a 2018 FuzeHub Manufacturing Grant and received $49,200. The funding enabled Create O&P’s engineers and students in the machine shop at Clarkson to work together to redesign the printer, which later became known as the Create 6000. Although the agreement originally called for the development of two smaller units as well, customer feedback made it clear that the larger 6000 was in much higher demand. Resources shifted to the 6000, resulting in the development of a demonstration model designed and manufactured in New York by PVA.

Impact

Having a demonstration model to take to trade shows and other events helped Create O&P increase sales and improve profitability. The arrangement with PVA also brought the manufacturing of the printer to New York, creating jobs and enabling Create O&P to have a higher level of control over the quality of the product. It also led to PVA acquiring Create O&P in October of 2019.

“The success of this project goes to the core of FuzeHub’s mission to support NYS manufacturing. Not only did this project facilitate the redesign of Create O&P’s flagship product, but it also helped to increase their profit margins and, most importantly, it brought manufacturing jobs to New York State that had previously been housed in China and California.”

– Jamey Hoose, Clarkson University Shipley Center for Innovation

The Challenge

John Domres, the owner of Buffalo Brewing, needed funding to establish a canning line as part of a shift from offering only draft beer to selling packaged beer. Domres had determined that operating his own canning line would be far more cost-effective than using a mobile canning service for a brewery his size. He had about two-thirds of what he needed to purchase and install the necessary equipment but was about $10,000 short.

The Solution

Buffalo Brewing applied for a 2018 FuzeHub Innovation Incentive Prize Program grant and received $10,000. It used the money to support the purchase and installation of a canning line.

Impact

The project was completed in the summer of 2019. This meant that by the time the pandemic hit, Buffalo Brewing Co was well–positioned to shift from serving draft beers in-house to selling canned products to go. Domres said the canning line FuzeHub supported may well have saved his company from going bankrupt due to COVID restrictions. It has also saved Buffalo Brewing Co. thousands of dollars over using a mobile service. The company since has received over $550,000 in grants from Empire State Development, which it plans to put toward a $7 million relocation and expansion in a historic brewery in the city.

“The people at FuzeHub are good people, they want you to succeed. They really did some great work with us on getting the lineup and running. Everything we are doing now is a direct correlation to what we did in 2019 with FuzeHub.”

– John Domres

“My sister had an issue with bras because they didn’t fit her well,” said Isabel Castillo, CEO, and Founder of IZANA.  “I had the issue of having to wear two different bras just to go to the gym because I wasn’t getting enough support.  And throughout the day, you wear these bras, and the wires are poking you and the sliders move out of place and then one breast is more supported than the other. We redesigned it with bottom support instead of top support—so when you adjust the straps, it pulls from the bottom and has breathable fabric, so we don’t perspire.  All of these considerations were built into this bra.”

From Army to Entrepreneur

Castillo has designed a line of everyday wear bras, sports bras, and swimsuits for military women, keeping in mind the comfort, support, and endurance that they need. She served for four years in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Kuwait and South Korea.  

When she left the military, she went straight to college, earning an associate degree in engineering. Her performance earned her a scholarship to Vassar College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in physics. The internships she did while at Vassar taught her that she liked to innovate and design things, so a career counselor recommended she join the school’s entrepreneurship program.

She and her sister Eugenia, an advisor to IZANA, had already started working on the company. So, in 2019, during Isabel’s final semester at Vassar, she started going to pitch competitions. 

“We placed first at the Mid-Hudson Valley Competition,” she said. “A month later, we went to the New York Business Plan Competition, and I received the Minority Women Business Enterprise award.  From there we just kept competing and gaining traction.”

It was at about this time that IZANA was introduced to FuzeHub through the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship (GSCEN). Castillo met Everton H. Henriques, NY MEP Solutions Director, at GSCEN’s headquarters in Kingston, New York, and discussed design and manufacturing with him. The company is now leveraging FuzeHub’s Manufacturing Solutions Program and has been connected to New York State contract manufacturers that provide cut-and-sew services.

“FuzeHub has been helping to guide me,” Castillo said. “They have been a resource of information, connecting me to manufacturers, people who can help me [and] people who can mentor me.”

Putting the pieces together

Once the bra designs were set, it was necessary to determine the best way to produce them.  After trying traditional manufacturing, Castillo decided  3D knitting was best for the individual components. She was determined to use contract manufacturing in the United States, to ensure ethical labor practices, and kept moving the company forward even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

For example, she hired a seamstress to produce a sample of the bra to show manufacturers how to sew the 3D knitted components together. At the same time, fabric swatches made from anti-microbial and breathable yarns were being prepared for testing. 

“What is important about this fabric is that the cooling effect and breathability are inherent in the fabric rather than applied with a chemical,” Castillo said. “The chemicals wash off, so they don’t last long.”

Testing the various swatches to determine which would work best for each bra component will take about two months. Castillo, therefore, expects to be able to start manufacturing by March 2022.

Meanwhile, IZANA is selling its innovative bra clips that close but don’t slide. “We launched them to support the company because it is a bootstrap company,” Castillo said. “So, here we are, working on marketing, selling them [and] shipping our orders.  We are also working on our newsletter, trying to build interest and a customer base.”

Castillo has big plans for IZANA.  Within five years, she expects to have her own factory producing a full line of conventional bras, sports bras, and swimwear.  These will be available at military bases in the US and around the world. Non-military women will be able to order online, using an app that scans the torso and ensures a perfect fit.