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Invention February 13, 2019

If the UV-decontaminated shoe fits, thank MIDI

By GREGORY ZELLER // After 30 years in the healthcare business, Rachel Dombrowsky understands very well the dangers of hospital-acquired infections. Also, shoes kind of gross her out. So Dombrowsky embarked on an ambitious “science project,” literally on the ground floor: Floors are the most “unappreciated pool of pathogens” in a hospital environment, she noted, “more contaminated than bedrails or even toilets” – and yet, little scientific progress has been made when it comes to…

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Invention May 1, 2018

SBU science runs wild among 2018 NAI inductees

By GREGORY ZELLER // Innovation abounds among the 15 Stony Brook University faculty members being welcomed today into the National Academy of Inventors. The national academy’s SBU chapter, which debuted in 2016 with an intellectually staggering 30-member opening class, was scheduled to induct 15 new members Tuesday evening during its annual meeting at the university’s Charles B. Wang Center. The latest inductees span a wide range of scientific disciplines, from Dennis Galanakis – an SBU…

Invention March 12, 2018

Makers unite: (Re-)inventor combines creative clubs

By GREGORY ZELLER // And then there was one. And that was the plan all along, according to founder Brian Fried, who has merged the Nassau and Suffolk county inventors clubs he created into a single entity – the Long Island Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club, brought to you by the Farmingdale Small Business Development Center, located on the campus of Farmingdale State College. That’s where the new organization will hold its monthly meetings, beginning this…

Invention February 26, 2018

A decade in, still smarter than your average innovator

By GREGORY ZELLER // Three offices, 80-odd employees and one huge corporate takeover later – not to mention bragging rights on some of the cleverest commercial products in the land – Intelligent Product Solutions has completed its first decade of innovation. The Hauppauge-based product-design specialist with a penchant for the Internet of Things officially marks 10 years this winter, and it does so under the auspices of a new corporate parent: Florida-based global designer/distributor Forward…

Invention November 21, 2017

Northwell innovators think outside the box, and in

By GREGORY ZELLER // Bioelectronics and “smart” tech won the day in the Northwell Health 2017 Innovation Challenge. The challenge, which invited the New Hyde Park-based health system’s 63,000-plus employees to submit groundbreaking healthcare ideas for a shot at project-development funding, eventually came down to two champions at Northwell Health’s Made For Big Ideas Showcase in October – a bioelectronic device designed to reduce premature births and a “smart” laboratory container that knows when a…

Invention August 18, 2017

Rolling Motion rolls out next-gen traction drive

By GREGORY ZELLER // Everywhere he goes, John Pawloski causes friction. And that’s a good thing, especially for Rolling Motion Industries, Pawloski’s North Babylon-based 2016 startup. Rolling Motion is the exclusive (so far) manufacturer of the RMI Traction Drive, a super-efficient transmission system that masters “rolling friction” principles and aims to become an indispensable industrial cog. It looks like the cog has legs: This month, Pawloski’s enterprise received its first order through a newly established…

Invention December 20, 2016

In energy harvesting, the wheels never stop turning

By GREGORY ZELLER // Ramuel Maramara is pedaling an all-new energy-harvesting device, and as usual, he’s not thinking small. His “artificial jellyfish” technology, still gearing up for a major dress rehearsal off the Philippine coast, is looking to revolutionize the renewable energy industry. And yeah, as a bonus, the tech has potential desalination side effects that are still in the earliest developmental stages, but could someday provide virtually boundless freshwater supplies on a global scale. These are not…