Manchester, NH – The NH High Tech Council’s Product of the Year (POY) Award judges have selected the five finalists for the New Hampshire technology community’s prestigious annual award competition for innovative products and inventions at the ninth-annual event on November 13, 2014. The following finalists will make a final pitch for their technology-related product or service to vie for top honors in front of a live – and voting – audience at the awards event at the Manchester Country Club:
Akumina InterChange, submitted by Akumina (Nashua, NH): Akumina InterChange is a cloud technology product that lets people easily update websites or add content via SharePoint without needing technical knowledge. SharePoint is a website platform with a limited adoption for content management because of user experience issues, limiting the ROI for SharePoint’s 67,000 customers. Akumina’s product removes the need for business users to understand web architecture and the administrative user interface (UI) in order to maintain their sites. Akumina’s cloud-based solution is architected to dovetail with Microsoft’s “cloud first, mobile first” business approach through Office 365.
RuleGate®, submitted by Centripetal Networks, Inc. (CNI) (Portsmouth, NH): CNI calls RuleGate® “the most powerful and comprehensive weapon now available to defend vulnerable networks.” The RuleGate® appliance is used by security-critical enterprises and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to detect and eliminate cybercriminal communications from their networks. Currently enterprises and ISPs have no way of applying the many millions of units of cyber threat intelligence to protect their networks in real-time and stop attacks before they cause any damage. Current technologies require storing large volumes of network traffic, and then searching the databases for attacks that have already occurred. Successful attacks may not be discovered for weeks or months, if ever.
Dynamic Neuroscreening Device (DND) by Prosenex (Hudson, NH): Invented by physicians, the DND addresses the unmet market needs of primary care physicians, podiatrists, neurologists, endocrinologists and occupational therapists in screening patients for small and large nerve fiber peripheral neuropathy. Neuropathy is caused primarily by diabetes, but is also related to vitamin deficiencies, drug side effects and other causes. Presently, there is no other handheld, portable neuropathy screening device for the diabetic foot offering graded temperature and vibration discrimination that is suitable for mass production. It is designed to replace the current subjective, century-old method of detecting neuropathy and introduce innovative, research-supported graded temperature discrimination for small fiber neuropathy.
E.S.P. Smoke Detection by Valor Fire Safety (Londonderry, NH): E.S.P Smoke Detection eliminates false fire alarms because it can differentiate between smoke caused by fire and smoke caused by other sources. By eliminating the chamber used in current smoke detection technology, E.S.P. Smoke Detection can alarm faster and more accurately. Source discrimination this accurate is unique in smoke detection. E.S.P. Smoke Detection has been independently third-party tested in large-scale, scientific testing environments.
Riddell InSite Impact Response System by Simbex (Lebanon, NH): Riddell InSite Impact Response System is a new head impact monitoring and alerting system designed specifically for the proactive protection of football players of all age levels. InSite uses state-of-the-art algorithms thin-film and wireless low-power electronics to provide team staff with alerts to significant single impacts or combinations of multiple impacts that occur during practice and games.
Finalists will demonstrate their products during the reception and then do seven-minute presentations to audience members, whose votes – in addition to the votes of an expert panel of judges – will impact the final results. The winner will be announced at the POY event and will be awarded the prestigious POY crystal trophy to be displayed at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
“We’re very proud of this year’s field as it demonstrates the innovation that is occurring in our back yard. We look forward to an exciting evening of networking, hearing our finalists present, and helping select the 2014 product of the year,” said Matt Cookson, executive director of the High Tech Council.
Major sponsors for the 2014 POY Awards are: Autodesk; BerryDunn; Cook, Little, Rosenblatt & Manson; Cross Insurance; Dyn; FairPoint Communications;Hanover Insurance, Nanocomp Technologies, Inc.; Public Service of New Hampshire; and Single Digits.
The POY Awards event is 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 13 at the Manchester Country Club, 180 South River Road, Bedford NH. The event will feature networking opportunities, food and beverages. Tickets are $50 for members; $75 for nonmembers. Register online or call 603.782.8192 for tickets.
