Bowling with CATS

LAKE WALES-BASED KEGEL HOPES to up its average in the bowling sector. It adds high-tech to its bowling lane maintenance machines, conditioning products and training services. In addition to producing maintenance machines that oil lanes only when and where greasing is needed, Kegel (www.kegel.net) operates a 12-lane training center, tailored to world-class professional and amateur bowlers. Bowler’s Map software allows bowlers to compare their form to top professionals.

To up its technology ante, Kegel purchased the computer-aided tracking system C.A.T.S. and all of its patents from the American Bowling Congress. In bowling language, the updated C.A.T.S. program offers players a shot-by-shot analysis of ball speed, shot comparisons, and consistency and accuracy comparisons to other players, says Chris Chartrand, Kegel’s vice president of sales and marketing. C.A.T.S., now marketed to commercial bowling centers, offers a “fine-tuned coaching machine.”

Oranges and Optics
It may be an Odd Couple but oranges and optics illustrate the diversity of industries that makes for much of the success in the Florida High Tech Corridor. That’s also a working title for the next international conference of the National Association of Management and Technical Assistance Centers (NAMTAC), scheduled for late October in Orlando.

At the helm of the conference is Carol Ann Dykes, COO of the University of Central Florida Technology Incubator, who has also assumed duties as president of NAMTAC (www.namtac.org), a consortium of universities, nonprofits and organizations.

It’s not a surprise that Dykes has been tapped for this executive role. Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Technology Incubator (www.incubator.ucf.edu) has helped more than 70 tech firms create over $100 million in revenue and 400 jobs with an average salary of $68,000. The National Business Incubation Association credits it as one of the top 10 in the nation.

STAR’s R2D2 and C3PO
Constellation Technology (www.contech.com) at the STAR Center is stepping up to the plate to protect this sector of the Galaxy’s public with new detection tools, including a lightweight, portable device that analyzes air, water, gas or soil quickly, when time and safety are at stake. It’s not quite R2D2 from the popular Star Wars movies, but the new CT-1128 GC-MS is a rugged, user-friendly, PC-based system designed to be taken anywhere by law enforcement officials. In the past, site samples had to be sent to a handful of state labs, with turnaround time at a week or more. Now the CT-1128 can be transported by vehicle right to the scene for immediate answers, allowing first responders to act quickly, says John W. Hintenach, director of product marketing. The Largo firm has also introduced a P3 Portable Monitor – not nearly as etiquette-driven as C3PO but nonetheless social minded – for radiation detection screening, and is developing products to protect both the U.S. Mail and the local water supply.

Accelerating Business
The College of Engineering and School of Management at Melbourne’s Florida Institute of Technology have teamed up with the Volusia business community to create Florida Tech Start (www.fit.edu/floridatechstart), a business accelerator for high-tech companies. Florida Tech Start coordinates networking, special seminars, training and workshops for entrepreneurs. It will also serve as the contact point for entrepreneurs to collaborate with university faculty members or students in using specialized university laboratories or technical services. “Florida Tech Start will become the premier center for entrepreneurship on the Space Coast,” says FIT President Anthony J. Catanese, “and an integral part of the community’s effort to build a high-tech economy.”

Tech FYI
Ocean Optics Inc. (www.oceanoptics.com), Dunedin, opened a new 31,000-square-foot Winter Park manufacturing facility to expand production of spectrometer and electro-optic technology systems … Universal Studio’s Hard Rock Live will be the site of the first Florida summit for the digital and dynamic media industry – The Money & Media Show (www.MoneyAndMedia.com) on February 11 … Orlando Computer Business Consultants (www.computerbusiness.com) helped South America’s NPI Communications of Guyana double its call center stations for an expanding international business … A new $30-million Space Life Sciences Lab – a partnership between the State of Florida and NASA – was dedicated in November at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (www.ksc.nasa.gov).

Correction:
Solicore received a $750,000 contract from the U.S. Army. An incorrect amount was reported in November.

Send tips, information and news releases related to technology to Melissa Wells at MADDUX BUSINESS REPORT, P.O. Box 202, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. Or by email: mwells@maddux.com