Lorain County Community College will open a long-sought testing center for sensors with $5.5 million from the state. The award was among six, totaling $17 million, announced Tuesday by the Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering at Cleveland State University.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Lorain County Community College will open a long-sought testing center for sensors with $5.5 million from the state.
The award was among six, totaling $17 million, announced Tuesday by the Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering at Cleveland State University.
The center is doling out money for sensors from Ohio's Third Frontier, the $2.1 billion program to advance high-tech industries in Ohio.
Companies making sensors and related control systems employ thousands in Ohio. The state wants to boost jobs in that sector, where technology is advancing quickly for devices that sense everything from fuel use and tire pressure to underground pollution and wind turbine performance.
"All of these [awards] are related to getting products to the marketplace within three years," said Trevor Jones, a business executive who chairs the Wright Center board of directors at CSU.
Awardees and their partners must match the grants at ratios of up to 2-to-1, resulting in some $38 million invested in the six sensor proposals, Jones said.
For several years, LCCC has been seeking a clean-room facility to package sensors -- some of them micro-sized -- and test their lifespans. Researchers and companies in the sector told LCCC officials there's a glaring need for such a resource.
"Currently, companies developing sensor technologies are forced to send most of their work outside of Ohio," LCCC President Roy Church said in a news release. "It fills a much-needed gap in the continuum and positions Lorain County as the hub for this activity in the Midwest."
Collaborators include Case Western Reserve University, R.W. Beckett Corp. and Parker Hannifin Corp.
The Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute will get $2.67 million to establish a Center for Sensor and Microdevices, collaborating with CSU and CWRU.
The center should open by year's end, said Vadim Lvovich, principal investigator at the institute's Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Projects include micron-sized devices that could sense bacteria and pathogens, Lvovich said.
The money enables purchase of specialized equipment that will make the center and its users globally competitive in micro-device development, he said.
Other grants announced Tuesday were:
• $2.6 million to the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron. Projects revolve around technology that evaluates healing in a wide range of wounds, from foot ulcers to tendon ruptures.
Partners include CWRU, the Cleveland Clinic and Parker Hannifin.
• $3 million to Ohio State University. The university is developing sensors for next-generation X-ray imaging that can see through walls or identify the presence of cancer cells.
Partners include Raytheon Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
• $1.66 million to the University of Akron. Projects include sensor systems for a wide range of clean technologies, including solar energy, hybrid-electric vehicles and wind turbines.
Partners include local companies Orbital Research and Greenfield Corp.
• $1.66 million to Youngstown State University. The school will work with the Youngstown Business Incubator and others to develop cutting-edge manufacturing and inspection systems.