Orlando Celebrates Innovative Technologies

From Florida Technology Journal, September 10, 2010, Written by Staff Reporter

ORLANDO – Six high-tech companies in Metro Orlando were recently honored by the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission with the 2010 William C. Schwartz Industry Innovation Award. The annual award program recognizes innovative companies who have had a significant impact on the region and in their respective fields for innovative practices, products and/or ideas. The awards program is named in honor of the late William C. Schwartz, an avid community leader, business pioneer and innovator within the field of optics and photonics. Recipients come from each of the four counties served by the EDC – Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties – and from the City of Orlando as well as the Florida High Tech Corridor Council’s Award for Innovation. This year’s winners include:

Analog Modules – Seminole County

Analog Modules Inc. designs and manufactures a wide range of laser and electro-optics products for use in applications including medical, military, scientific and industrial markets. Most recently, the company has developed a new generation of laser spot trackers, using a mixture of analog and digital technology, with superior accuracy and resolution. Their products are currently being deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Helios Interactive – Orange County

Helios Interactive is one of two companies in the world with the ability to stream 3D games and content through a Web browser. The company developed GameCore, a 3D game engine software that allows artists, students and professionals to easily build 3D games or other interactive 3D content quickly and inexpensively. This innovation is helping pioneer the future of 3D online.

FPA Clinical Research – Osceola County

In partnership with many leading pharmaceutical companies, FPA Clinical Research investigates compounds being developed to treat, control or cure a variety of diseases. This year, as they make their way towards FDA approval, FPA Clinical Research added a Phase I Research unit, which involves company researchers in the beginning stage of human testing for new compounds.

IDEAS – City of Orlando

Using IDEAS proprietary technology, StorySource, “TeacherStudio” was created to help reduce the isolation often felt by classroom teachers. TeacherStudio uses social network technology and rich media content to create the world’s first “Professional Collaborative Network”. This tool allows users to co-create and disseminate professional development programs and feed the results back as best practices and lessons learned, inspiring a vital, worldwide community of learning for educators.

Vision @ work – Lake County

Visions@work is helping revolutionize the way healthcare providers interact and collaborate with each other. This company’s online patient referral and information management system – known as Preferr – helps to cut costs and improve efficiencies for health care providers. Preferr also helps improve patient satisfaction by taking the burden of arranging care off of the patient. This is especially helpful to elderly patients with chronic conditions who are referred to multiple providers.

Engineering & Computer Simulations – Florida High Tech Corridor Council

Engineering & Computer Simulations is a leading provider of educational games and simulation, interactive performance assessment tools, mobile learning environments and enterprise-wide information management systems. The company launched in 1997 as a client of the UCF Business Incubation Program and has grown tremendously since then. Earlier this year, ECS president Waymon Armstrong was named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Person of the Year.