Startup's Non-Destructive Testing Sensors Attract Boeing, Grants

CHARLOTTE — Editor's note: Charlotte Beat is a regular feature on Wednesdays.Scanning an aircraft's metal parts for cracks or corrosion via a non-destructive sensor will be possible with a new technology under development at Albany Instruments (AI).

Founded in August 2000, AI is a spin-out from the Center for Precision Metrology (CPM) at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Teodor Dogaru, a founder and vice president, tells Local Tech Wire the company makes "non-destructive testing sensors that use a new technology."

The sensors use a magnetic coil to induce "eddy currents" in the metal and then detect magnetic field fluctuations caused by cracks or corrosion. The technology attracted enough U.S. Air Force interest for AI to win about $650,000 in small business innovative research grants.

Boeing also recently awarded the three-person company a contract, says Dogaru.

A former electrical engineering student at UNCC, Dogaru founded the company with his mechanical engineering professor, Dr. Stuart Smith, and his brother, Traian Dogaru, who is company president.

The company's first product is in the prototyping stage and won't be ready until September 2005. Dogaru says the sensors have primarily attracted interest from the aircraft industry, but would also prove useful to scan nuclear power plants, railroads, and structures such as bridges.

The company acquired its first patent in a tech transfer agreement with UNCC, and has two more filed and pending. "UNCC transferred the rights to Albany for equity in the company," Dogaru adds.

Dogaru says the company is seeking private angel funding "on the order of a few hundred thousand."

The company recently won a National Science Foundation grant and uses equipment made by NVE, a Minnesota company that makes the sensors in Albany's products.

Dogaru also thinks the basic detection technology may have an even more lucrative application and he is considering starting yet another firm to market a security system.

"I may open a new company and may seek venture capital funding for that because it might be a much bigger market. So I can't say a lot about that yet. It could be applied in a smart card ID security system and could be applied in banks, airports and for homeland security."

Job outlook better

Manpower, a staffing company that conducts quarterly employment surveys, reports the Charlotte region's employment outlook is "significantly more robust than the first-quarter forecast."

Manpower says that 35 percent of the companies it surveyed in the Charlotte area say they plan to hire more people from April to June, up from only 14 percent in the first quarter.

Only 3 percent of those surveyed planned employment cutbacks, down from 12 percent in the previous quarter.

The Manpower survey suggests most employment gains will be in construction, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, education and services.

Five-Ventures' "Top Ten"

Five finalists in UNC-Charlotte's Five Ventures business plan competition vie for $5,000 in professional services April 7 at the Barnhardt Center.

Mark Wdowik, director of UNC-Charlotte's Office of Technology Transfer, tells Local Tech Wire that a "Top 10" list of firms has been invited back to campus on March 23 to present to the "downselect" committee. They are:

The finalist program starts at 8:30 a.m. and runs until 5 p.m. April 7 as a panel of service provider professionals grills the business plan finalists on the nitty-gritty of how they plan to make a go of things.

Tom Fisher, chief information officer at Qualcomm and a Tech Fund Capital Partner, and Mirsad Hadzikadic, UNC-Charlotte's internationally known dean of the College of Information Technology, will moderate.

UNC Chancellor James Woodward will make the opening remarks. Presentations start at 10:30 a.m. and the public is invited to watch the finalists sweat it out under panel questioning.

Five Ventures Competition: wwwdb01nt.uncc.edu/ors/ott/five/index.cfm