Tucson Tech: U of A program helps foreign companies set up shop in the U.S. Business

And the UA Global Advantage program, administered by the UA Center for Innovation, recently won an international award of its own.

Long Vision, an Ontario-based company that develops helmet-mounted “augmented reality” thermal imaging systems for firefighters, and EcoBlock, a Newfoundland-based developer of sonic rodent control systems, recently participated in the Global Advantage program at the UA Tech Park. South Rita Road.

Last week, UAA Long Vision announced its decision to join UACI’s Incubation Program, a low-fee structured mentoring program for start-ups, including business services, offices and labs to connect resources and customers and strategic partners.

EcoLab is also enrolled in the UACI program, after recently joining TechStars, a leading business accelerator program based in Boulder, Colorado.

Andrew Lehmann, Longan Vision’s business manager, said the exciting entrepreneurial support network offered by UACI was a big reason for joining the incubator when the company went through the Global Advantage program earlier this summer.

“The network’s UACI is far beyond our wildest dreams of what could happen here,” Lehman said. “This area, especially centered around Tucson, is full of entrepreneurial, supportive and kind people who want to see you succeed.”

Lehman said he has begun contacting local fire departments, including the Vail-based Rincon Valley Fire Protection District, to test the company’s Fusion Vision System.

The system adds a lightweight “smart visor” to firefighters’ helmets to enable enhanced thermal imaging — including multi-color and night vision-like options — and data sharing tools to see through smoke, locate victims and locate fire sources.

Although firefighters use handheld thermal cameras to see through smoke and assess fires, they tie up one arm, and previous attempts at helmet-mounted sights were expensive, heavy and bulky, Leaman said.

The company – named after an Asian fruit, also known as Dragon’s Eye – was founded by four graduates and student scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He said he developed thermal-imaging technology at a hack-athon event in 2018. .

The company later won a nearly $200,000 Canadian grant as part of a government challenge for hands-free technologies, and has since been awarded a $1 million government grant to further develop the system.

The prototype, which has been tested by fire departments in Canada, Korea and Japan, is in its sixth stage, and the company plans to deliver the first commercial version next year, Lehmann said.

EcoBlock CEO Jason Trask said Arizona was barely on the company’s radar when it was exploring options in the U.S. But Tucson was interested in the Global Advantage program because of its proximity to the California market and lower costs.

EcoBloc has developed a commercial-grade ultrasonic device designed to repel rodents and is targeting the product at food storage facilities.

“After doing the program, I realized that southern Arizona has a lot more to offer than I expected,” said Trask, referring to the significant location of the food port and manufacturing opportunities in Mexico.

“We are now considering setting up an R&D and sales office in Tucson because southern Arizona can be a big market for us and is close to other big US markets,” he said in an email. “We can establish manufacturing right on the border; and the University of Arizona and others are producing high-quality technical talent.”

EcoBloc, a food technology startup partnering with agri-food giant Cargill Corporation and environmental services leader Ecolab, received a major boost when it was named a Techstars “Farm to Fork” business accelerator.

Ultrasonic pest control systems, which claim to kill everything from mice to cockroaches, have been shown to be ineffective in past scientific studies, and Trask admits that current research is “negative or inconclusive.”

But Trask says the company’s device, designed for outdoor industrial use, is more sophisticated and uses a proprietary noise algorithm to avoid rat noise frequencies.

The EcoBloc device has been proven effective by customers in six different countries, and the company has been conducting independent academic studies in collaboration with several universities in the US and Canada to confirm the field study, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

“We want to be a science-based company, and as we continue to innovate, we will continue to work with universities to independently validate our solutions,” Trask said.

Since the relaunch of the previous edition under the auspices of UACI a few years ago, the UN Global Advantage program has been busy and has gained international recognition as a result.

As of 2019, four international companies that have worked with UACI have relocated to southern Arizona or established US subsidiaries in the region.

In the year In 2020, UACI received a “Soft Landings” designation from the International Business Innovation Association as one of 50 entrepreneurial organizations to meet the group’s high-level criteria for supporting the operations of global companies in the US.

And in late June, UACI was named “Soft Landings Representative of the Year” at InBIA’s 36th Business Incubation International Conference in Atlanta.

According to Carol Stewart, vice president of UA Tech Parks Arizona, the Global Advantage program has been restructured under UACI and Executive Director Eric Smith to attract foreign companies.

The current Global Advantage program, launched in 2004, aims to attract foreign companies by operating technology business incubators in other countries.

“We want to innovate and we want to change it, we want to focus more on inbound companies than outbound companies,” said Canadian-born Stewart, who led entrepreneurial initiatives in Waterloo and was named head of Tech Parks Arizona in 2018. Ontario, and forming the Canadian Association of University Research Parks.

In addition to Canada, Global Advantage has served companies from Mexico, Colombia, Israel and Saudi Arabia, and Stewart USA recently completed a deal with an Australian company.

“It’s really the economic impact,” she said. “There’s really a good opportunity with Canada, because with 30 million people they don’t want to sell to themselves, they’re always looking to America.”

Stewart, who sits on the Tucson Airport Authority’s board of directors, said the new nonstop flights from Tucson International Airport to six Canadian cities by Flyer Airlines last spring will strengthen business ties.

“We’re looking at each one and reaching out to their economic development people to see what opportunities there are for companies to expand into the U.S.,” she said.