American Navigation Systems

American Navigation Systems, Inc. (AMNAV), creator of a patented portable navigation device that uses standard topographic diagrams and marine navigation charts to provide highly detailed maps to outdoor recreation enthusiasts, won top honors in the Venture Forum's 2002 Business Plan Contest. The company received $15,000 in cash and in-kind services. WPI professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering William R. Michalson, PhD, serves as chief technical officer of AMNAV. He and Gene V. Roe, PhD, vice president of sales and marketing, and Frank D. DeFalco, PhD, secretary, described AMNAV's product, called "The Navigator," to the June Venture Forum audience. Their patented virtual display and data compression technologies were at one time limited to homes, cars, planes or large boats; now this handheld personal navigation device will be available to a broader audience. This technology creates a new category of PDA or palm computer that they have dubbed a Personal Digital Guide or PDG. For more information regarding AMNAV, call DeFalco at 508-831-5272 or email defalco@wpi.edu.

Another finalist in the business plan contest was Natural Metal Recovery Systems (NMRS), founded by Robert Winnicki, PhD candidate at WPI. NMRS is a preliminary waste manufacturing company with products that utilize naturally produced biopolymers to separate and recover metal from industrial wastewater. The company's goal is to develop and sell a new class of heavy metal waste treatment products that will make a positive environmental impact. Winnicki recently won the WPI Student Business Plan Contest. To contact Winnicki, call 508-792-0783 or 508-736-2963 or email bobw@wpi.edu or bob@naturalbiopolymers.aol.com.

Also in the running for top honors was VasculaRegenesis, the result of eight years of froundbreaking tissue-engineering research conducted at The Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). CEO and co-founder Fraser Sutherland, M.A., M.B., B. Chir., F.R.C.S., and CFO and co-founder Simon Chiavarini, M.A., explained to the Venture Forum audience their tissue-engineered, replacement heart valve designed for children suffering from congenital heart disease. Determined to pioneer a revolution in heart surgery, the company expects to expand eventually into other promising areas of substitution medicine that require tissue-engineering approaches. To learn more about VasculaRegenesis, call Chiavarini at 617-817-0037 or email simon@vascularegenesis.com.

Judges for the business plan contest included Robert J. Creeden, general partner at Egan Managed Capital, John Merrill, managing director, Worcester Capital Partners, and Kevin S. Nixon, associate at Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation.

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Last modified: Aug 19, 2005, 15:06 EDT