Finalists for the Excellence Award for Commercial Software
• Asset Performance Technologies – Economic Risk Calculator and Task Optimization EngineFinancial decisions regarding spending for manufacturing plant maintenance are often based on intuition or limited, unreliable historical data. This leaves plant maintenance departments without the financial decision-making and analysis tools to justify their spending decisions. Asset Performance Technologies developed the Economic Risk Calculator to quantify in financial terms the economic risk to plant operations due to changes in preventative maintenance and reliability. The complementary Task Optimization Engine allows the optimization of preventative maintenance tasks based on their return on investment at the simple click of a button. These tools help industrial plants better manage their maintenance costs and ultimately increase their bottom-line profits.
• Figaro Systems – in-Ovation
Figaro Systems, Inc., innovators and global leaders in multi-lingual text delivery systems for the performing arts, developed their in-Ovation performance titling software for the creation and presentation of spoken and translated text and captioning of live performances. The software offers a flexible and intuitive user interface that supports the creation and tracking of titling scripts from rehearsal through timely presentation to live audiences in multiple languages. Any text or graphics can be presented to the audience simultaneously regardless of the language or presentation device. And the information is displayed instantaneously, since there is nothing worse than a punch line arriving late. Since their first installation at the Santa Fe Opera in 1998, Figaro Systems has installed their titling systems in thefinest theaters and opera houses around the world.
• Gigablast – Gigablast Search Engine
Gigablast is a small, growing software company that provides fast, efficient information retrieval services to Web and corporate customers worldwide. The Gigablast Search Engine was developed to provide high performance search capabilities with low hardware demands. It was designed to be the cheapest most scalable search engine on the market, quickly indexing billions of web pages and serving thousands of queries per second at very low cost. The search engine is accessible for free from Gigablast.com, and the company licenses the technology in several configurations to organizations that range from members of the NASDAQ 100 to boutique companies. Gigablast customers choose between hosting their own sites and receiving a custom feed from the Gigablast databank.
• Sandia National Labs/Computational Modeling Sciences – CUBIT
The Computational Modeling Sciences group at Sandia National Laboratories developed the CUBIT Geometry and Meshing Toolkit to provide algorithms that help engineers prepare geometric models for simulation. Mesh generation is a complex problem that involves breaking a geometric model into smaller elements including triangles and quadrilaterals for surface or 2D models, and tetrahedra and hexahedra for 3D models. CUBIT is a world leader in algorithms and tools for generating hexahedral finite element meshes. As computer simulation becomes an integral part of the engineering design process, the meshing and geometry tools provided by CUBIT become vital.
This solution is also a finalist for the Excellence Award for Innovative Research.
• Science & Technology Corporation at UNM – foliodirect.net
Universities have a strong need to distribute software and applications developed by faculty and staff directly to end-users. The Science & Technology Corporation at UNM developed a web-based, e-commerce solution, called foliodirect, to proactively address this need. Foliodirect is an online 'shopping center' offering licensable university technology through individualized storefronts. Visitors can browse, license, purchase, and download technologies from any participating university. The system complements existing university technology transfer platforms, allowing universities to efficiently market and non-exclusively license copyrighted materials, software, and patent biological materials through an automated, easy-to-use, web-based platform. The University of Washington, Arizona State University and Purdue University have joined foliodirect.
*The commercial software category has a four-way tie for finalists.
