May 30, 2023
Technology/Innovation
Rocking the Boat
A marine marketing truism holds that the ideal locale for photographing a boat is in the clear blue waters of the Bahamas. Cam Heaps, CEO of electric boat maker Voltari, wanted that Bahamas photo and decided to go for more: Instead of shipping or towing his new Voltari 260 performance boat there, he would seek to set a record for the “first and longest” electric boat overseas crossing — the 91 miles from Key Largo to Bimini.
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Published on 5/15/2023
Smart Cane
Bay County high school students Henry Jiang and Walker Verenakis have created a prototype aid for the visually impaired. Both seniors at North Bay Haven Charter Academy in Panama City, the two have invented a digital ultrasound walking cane.
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Published on 4/26/2023
Child's play
Will Weinraub caught the entrepreneurial bug early, while attending Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach in 1997.
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Published on 4/14/2023
The Futurist
By now, the usual reasons Wall Street types had for decamping to Florida during the pandemic are well-known: No income tax, an entrepreneurial spirit, welcoming policies and effusive politicians, high-growth potential and minimal regulation.
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Published on 3/15/2023
Wasting No Time
About 30% of a typical city's food waste comes from restaurants. Aneshai Smith wants to do something about that while helping restaurants thrive. Her Orlando-based startup, Go See The City, offers digital coupons for deep discounts on unsold food before restaurants close for the day.
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Published on 3/7/2023
Rocket Booster
Growing up in Satellite Beach, Janet Petro enjoyed a front row seat to the U.S. space program. Her father, who worked for Chrysler, moved the family from Michigan to the Space Coast in the early 1960s to help the automaker build spacecraft consoles that astronauts could operate. He ended up working on the Gemini, Mercury, Apollo and space shuttle programs. Petro recalls her family navigating their way through dunes strewn with sea oats — “there were no condos at the time,” she says — to witness rocket launches from the beach.
One of her most vivid memor
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Published on 2/9/2023
Construction underway for Leon County's $24-million business incubator
Construction underway for Leon County's $24-million business incubator
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Published on 12/31/2022
Emergency Ventures app helps get critical information out during natural disasters to those without cell service
Emergency Ventures, a web and mobile app that connects citizens, volunteers and emergency managers during natural disasters when there's no internet or cell service, was launched to help recovery efforts during Hurricane Ian in Southwest Florida. It uses cached data from hundreds of services and bluetooth links.
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Published on 12/30/2022
NanoRAD takes on germs with powerful new non-toxic anti-microbial disinfectant
Three-year-old Orlando-based Kismet Technologies has developed a patent-pending nanotechnology called NanoRAD that aims to revolutionize infection control for the health care sector and other industries.
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Published on 12/27/2022
Dr. Hyun Suh's new scarless surgery is a gamechanger for thyroid patients
Partial or complete removal of the thyroid, the butterfly-shaped organ in the lower front of the neck that controls a person's metabolism, is a common treatment for an array of conditions, including thyroid cancer, overactive thyroid and non-cancerous enlargement of the gland known as a goiter — but the cosmetic impact of the routine surgery can be life-altering for patients.
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Published on 12/27/2022
Bfore.Ai Releases the First Ever Cybersecurity Book for Children Just Before Christmas for Free
“The King, The Knight & The Snowball” was downloaded over 100 times within the first hour of being available.
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Published on 12/23/2022
Fashion tech startup Fit:Match makes shopping experience more efficient with 3-D body twin avatars
Fit:Match's technology can find a customer's body twin in its digital database, accommodate for shape differences and give recommendations on what will fit and what the customer will like — in about a minute.
The Backs
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Published on 12/8/2022
Sky Dreamer drone project gives students opportunity to discover, develop new technologies
Fort Walton Beach-based Hsu Educational Foundation has launched a student-oriented project called Sky Dreamer.
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Published on 11/30/2022
FPL's first-ever commercial drone helps quickly identify and restore power outage issues
FPL has launched the first-ever commercial, fixed-wing drone of its scale designed to capture high-quality images and videos of its infrastructure and thousands of miles of power lines.
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Published on 11/28/2022
Miami-based Doroni Aerospace is developing an eVTOL flying car
Miami-based electric vehicle takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company Doroni Aerospace is developing an eVTOL flying car.
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Published on 11/23/2022
Michelle Abbs
Michelle Abbs' leadership journey started 16 years ago in a fifth-grade Miami classroom.
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Published on 11/17/2022
New program developed to help Florida job seekers find new careers based on location
CareerSource North Central Florida in Gainesville has been testing a program designed to help job seekers more easily find out location-specific information about jobs, salaries and demand.
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Published on 11/16/2022
Miami unveils collection of nearly 5,000 NFTs designed by 56 Miami artists
Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez announced a partnership with Time magazine, Mastercard and Salesforce to launch an NFT initiative for the city to drive revenue to local businesses and non-profits.
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Published on 10/31/2022
Tallahassee-based Applied Fiber's high-performance cables are vital component of NASA's James Webb Telescope
Tallahassee-based Applied Fiber's high-performance cables are a key component of NASA's James Webb Telescope. The company supplied Northrop Grumman, a NASA contractor, with nearly 200 cable assemblies used in the sunshields that protect the lens from extreme temperatures. The company began work with Northrop Grumman on the project more than 13 years ago.
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Published on 10/31/2022
Orlando International Airport debuts its new $2.75-billion,15-gate terminal
Orlando International Airport debuted its new $2.75-billion, 15-gate terminal, which features a slew of technological touches. Among the highlights are:
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Published on 10/31/2022
SMG Delivering Data gathers infrastructure data for utilities
For 12 years, Hadley Doyle-González and her pilot husband, Jorge, ran a business based in Palm Beach County towing airplane banners. That led them to the idea of using their flight skills and manned and unmanned aircraft — she's a drone pilot — to gather infrastructure data for utilities.
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Published on 10/31/2022
AI-based program makes easy work of legal contract reviews
Reviewing contracts for legal purposes takes a lot of repetitive attention to detail. The use of artificial intelligence at the law firm Foley & Lardner makes that type of review easier, according to Jacksonville-based partner Chanley Howell.
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Published on 10/27/2022
Johnny Crowder's startup Cope Notes helps others struggling with mental health issues
Mental health advocate, metal musician and motivational speaker Johnny Crowder's peer-support startup finds a receptive audience around the world.
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Published on 10/10/2022
Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation opens in Pasco County
Built on what used to be a Pasco County cow pasture, the $70-million Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation opened this school year, ushering in a new era of what used to be called a technical high school. Kirkland's curriculum still features all the traditional trades, such as automotive maintenance and welding, but it also includes classes in cybersecurity, computer science, biomedical sciences, digital media, engineering and robotics.
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Published on 9/30/2022
Miami-based fintech company Pipe reaches $2 billion valuation
While companies usually sell equity or take out loans to fund growth, Miami-based Pipe makes recurring revenue streams tradable for small businesses or startups by treating the revenue streams as an asset companies can sell to investors for instant cash.
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Published on 9/19/2022
