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Invention October 11, 2018

EPCAL delay diverts Luminati VTOL to upstate landing

By GREGORY ZELLER // An aerospace company looking to make a splash in the emerging field of solar-powered flight has reached back through the decades to power up an ambitious new division. Over the last year, Calverton-based Luminati Aerospace has gobbled up entire helicopter-manufacturing firms, and key assets from several other rotor-based companies, including Gyrodyne LLC (formerly Gyrodyne Company of America) and Rotor Flight Dynamics. These acquisitions of companies, designs and manufacturing rights are the…

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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…

Invention October 12, 2016

IPS-designed smart safe enters the war on drugs

By GREGORY ZELLER // Perpetual monitoring of your prescription medications is now an app away. A Westchester distributor has taken to Indiegogo with humanity’s “first Internet of Things-integrated personal safe,” and while there’s no reason you couldn’t use it to secure a passport, diamond or wad of Benjamins, the iKeyp is specifically “designed to disrupt the cycle of prescription drug theft and abuse,” according to Solo Technology Holdings LLC. Aiming for $50,000 in 45 days,…

Invention October 2, 2016

Brew ha-ha: Seriously silly inventor strikes again

By GREGORY ZELLER // There’s always something brewing at Mary Putre’s house, sometimes literally. The relentless inventor – creative force behind Eyecatcher Gifts and much of its whacky inventory – believes she’s struck gold, again, with her latest doodad: the My Brew-Tini Kup, a portable, hand-held device that turns out steaming cups of joe, sans electricity. Putre, a regular at meetings of the Nassau County Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club, showed off her latest invention at…

Invention September 18, 2016

Hofstra mechatronics lift SBU startup

By GREGORY ZELLER // Well, that worked just like they drew it up. Inside three short months, ThermoLift’s strategic research partnership with Hofstra University’s Center for Innovation has engineered advanced mechatronic controls for the Stony Brook-based startup’s cutting-edge heat pump technology. Attacking a design problem with a mechatronics solution – combining mechanical, electronic, computerized and control systems – helps his company take a big step toward a critical testing phase, according to ThermoLift CEO Paul…

Invention September 9, 2016

When Elon Musk came to Shoreham

By GREGORY ZELLER // Spoiler alert: He hasn’t, yet. But with the South African-born Canadian-American magnate, engineer and inventor already investing $1 million in the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe – and the Musk Foundation promising more support – there’s a chance the man himself might grace the grounds of his most famous company’s namesake. “It’s possible,” according to Marc Alessi, executive director of the coming-soon center, who traces the Musk Foundation’s first $1 million…

Invention September 6, 2016

BNL shines in annual ‘Oscars of Invention’

By GREGORY ZELLER // Brookhaven National Laboratory has once again flexed its technological muscle, scoring five finalists in the 2016 R&D 100 Awards, R&D Magazine’s annual championing of the year’s top tech. An independent panel of more than 50 judges selected a bevy of BNL projects for the penultimate cut, including a novel electrocatalyst, a nanostructured water-repellent surface, an X-ray microscope, a “flex plate” ideal for protein crystallization and X-ray detectors fashioned from synthetic diamonds….