TTC Program Spotlight:  Pennsylvania Cyber Security Commercialization (PaCSCI)
e-Newsletter February 5, 2007

In this age of security concerns large and small – especially those affecting the control and flow of information across the Internet – The Technology Collaborative (TTC) has staked a claim to help transform promising work being done by university students into viable commercial enterprises through the Pennsylvania Cyber Security Commercialization Initiative (PaCSCI).

PaCSCI, a unique, statewide program created by TTC using funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) – stands as the only economic development program in the country supporting the evolution of student-developed cyber security and information assurance technologies into sustainable business ventures.  The program was designed to encourage and accelerate the commercialization of cyber security technologies developed through University student projects with the stated goal of helping to create 3-5 new spin-out companies.  Carnegie Mellon University, The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pittsburgh, East Stroudsburg University, and Lehigh University participated in the pilot program. 

Two stages of funding were available to student teams:

• Phase-1 (“Conceptual Phase”) – TTC provided each participating University with a $20,000 per year directed grant, which they in turn used to fund multiple small-scale student team projects.  Phase-1 funding could be used to defray the various costs associated with developing proof-of-concept prototypes; 32 student teams received Phase-1 funding over the two-year pilot period.
• Phase-2 (“Commercialization Phase”) – with the endorsement of their University, especially meritorious projects could apply for and compete against other University teams across the State for $30,000 commercialization grants directly from TTC.  This funding was generally to be used to support activities related to company formation and help defray costs such as: business incorporation, business plan development, IP-related licensing and patent filing, market research, early customer identification and validation meetings, etc.

“During the first year of PaCSCI, 14 student teams participated, three submitted Phase 2 applications, and two of those were awarded commercialization grants,” stated David Landis, vice president of Education and Training for TTC.  “That showed us that university students can be a significant source of entrepreneurial cyber security technologies ideas.  In the second year of the program, 18 student project teams were funded and TTC made competitive awards of six more commercialization grants.”

Since the inception of PaCSCI, a total of eight teams received Phase 2 commercialization awards, with six of them supporting new start-up companies:

·   ClearSpring Technologies, Carnegie Mellon University (secure semantic
   information architecture).
·  Computational Consulting LLC, University of Pittsburgh (network immunization).
·  Grad Techs LLC, East Stroudsburg University (academic integrity scanner).
·  Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh (BuildingWare).
·  Kiddix, Inc, University of Pittsburgh (Kiddix Computing).
·  Electrical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh (SECuRFID: Secure Efficient
   Customizable RFID).
·  DayZero Inc., Pennsylvania State University (proactive worm containment).
·  iConserve LLC, Pennsylvania State University (wireless sensors on secure ZigBee
   networks).

“This has been a great opportunity to get the word out about our entrepreneurship program with faculty and graduate students,” noted Liz Kisenwether, Director of Penn State’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Program.  “The first round of funding called for four $5,000 grants, and frankly, for faculty who have been doing this for a long time, that might not be as attractive.  But for younger faculty, that represented a good chance to work with TTC.”

As noted above, two Penn State teams recently received TTC Phase 2 cyber security funding: DayZero Inc., who has developed a framework that canhandle bandwidth-limited worms, which can cause damage to cyber networks two orders of magnitude faster than other types of worms; and iConserve LLC for their use of a new wireless standard, commonly termed ZigBee, to meet the growing demand for low-data rate, low-power consumption wireless sensor networks to monitor overall mechanical system health.

“The Phase 2 grant meant we were able to create the company, produce a competent business plan, fully implement and evaluate our prototype, and produce a beta test version of the software,” said Peng Liu, the faculty project leader for DayZero.  “We plan to post a website so that potential customers can download and test the product.  We’re able to establish connections with customers very early on, and the cyber security grant helped make that possible.”

“We have built up expertise in establishing secure environments at PSU and through this new company,” said Sven Bilen, who leads the iConserve project as a Penn State faculty member.  “We’ve been able to leverage our skills to work as part of a U.S. Navy project for encrypted energy harvesting sensor modules, and that would not have possible without the Phase 2 Cyber security grant.”

In addition, Phase 2 grants prepared the new companies for additional opportunities, including the Idea Foundry Transformation Fellowship Program, Ben Franklin Technology Partner Programs, and ultimately seed or Series-A funding.  

“The PaCSCI program has successfully fulfilled its goal of accelerating development of marketable cyber security solutions beyond the research and development stage,” said Mike Matesic, CEO of Idea Foundry.  “Our Transformation Fellowship program will benefit from the PaCSCI initiative by offering our business and product development expertise to these promising student projects.”

Next on the horizon, TTC plans a new pilot program – modeled after PaCSCI – to encourage innovation and commercialization of assistive technology and quality of life technologies by offering funding for promising student projects that dovetail with TTC’s focus areas of electronics, computers, networking, and robotics.

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