Bloomington Startup Wins Crane Competition
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowBloomington-based startup Semiring Inc. won first place in the second annual Crane IP Defense Innovation Pitch Competition this week. The competition provides royalty-free access to companies and startups to commercialize patented technologies developed at Crane.
Southwestern Indiana defense and economic development industry leaders served as judges who awarded cash prizes to the top three contestants, totaling $7,000.
Semiring won the $4,000 top prize for its use of Crane technology for data pre-processing with natural language processing. The team consisted of six team members and was headed by Dr. Damir Cavar, a cofounder of Semiring Inc. and associate professor of Computational Linguistics at Indiana University.
The other winners include:
Vieaura ($2,00 prize): Vieaura, ran by co-owners Shrikant Yarlagadda and Srini Morampudi and team members Karey Koscevic and Dr. Mohan Tatikonda, focused on Crane technology involving virtual 3D model generation and navigation using opportunistically captured images.
Exocetus Autonomous Systems ($1,000 prize): Exocetus Autonomous Systems, led by Paul Lwin and Joe Turner, directed its pitch on Crane technology to develop a networked buoy underwater communications system.
Bedford-based Radius Indiana sponsored the event along with Elevate Ventures, Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane Division, Indiana Innovation Institute, Indiana Small Business Development Center and The Mill.
Radius says the competition was established to use NSWC Crane’s Rapid Response Licensing Program, which was created in response to COVID-19.