Baltimore Innovation Week 2017

David W. Wise is the Director the Maryland Momentum Fund a new initiative of the University System of Maryland (USM) to provide late seed investment funding for promising technology ventures that come out of any of the twelve constituent institutions of the University System or its incubators. Mr. Wise has a business career spanning over thirty years including serving eight and half years as CEO of The Genetics & IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia an international women's healthcare company with operations in both the US and China of which the Inova Health System was the largest shareholder. In 2014 he decided to shift the focus of his career to helping develop the innovation economy in Maryland. Since 2014 he has been the Venture Advisor to the President of the Abell Foundation on its direct investment program. He is also an advisor to UM Ventures and the Sinai/LifeBridge Health Bioincubator. In addition, he is a member of the Betamore Advisory Board and of the Board of the Maryland Humanities Council and sits on the Bioscience Committee of the Greater Baltimore Committee. He has served as a business competition judge for Accelerate Baltimore, Beta City, and at both the Fischell School in College Park and their School of Medicine of the University of Maryland, among others.

In his position with the Momentum Fund Mr. Wise will be responsible for the review and due diligence and recommendations on investments by the Momentum Fund. In addition, he in conjunction with members of the UM Ventures team, will work with these early stage companies to provide business advice and counseling to help promote their success. Mr. Wise graduated with highest honors from the University of Dayton and received a graduate degree in international business from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Dr. Miriam Boer is the founder of Sonify Biosciences, an ultrasound-based hyperthermia device company based in the Alexandria LaunchLabs incubator in New York City. Dr. Boer founded Sonify Biosciences in 2012 after receiving her PhD in biochemistry from the University of Maryland College Park, where she studied mechanosensation in bacterial cell membranes. Prior to that, Dr. Boer studied chemistry at New York University and worked as a color and flavor chemist in international research and development at PepsiCo.

Darius Irani is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins, currently studying Computer Science and Applied Mathematics & Statistics. Originally from Upstate New York, Darius has found his home in Baltimore through involvement in his social start-up Project Charmify that does community development, educational programming, and vacant space activation in neighborhoods across Baltimore. Darius would like to combine his passion for social justice issues and technical interests and skills in STEM, by using Big Data and Machine Learning to have social impact in cities and influence social policy.

Our team project, "ABSP - Active Bed Sore Prevention," was a creative concept and prototype model to prevent bed sores through a sensor-based pad that may be placed on an existing patient bed. The idea was to detect the location and magnitude of pressure differences, then use a feedback mechanism to create an air pocket at the target site in order to alleviate the pressure. Our presentation included a consideration of the potential for a large public health impact across the world, as pressure ulcers currently result in a largely preventable mortality risk and incur a heavy economic burden.

Aaron is a radio and podcast producer at WYPR. His current project with Wendel Partrick is called Out of the Blocks. It is an immersive podcast that blends voices and sounds from the streets of Baltimore. A tapestry of stories hidden in plain sight, with an original musical score.

Tom Jarboe leads the International Business Division at Ausley Associates, Maryland’s premier Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and fighter aircraft acquisition and engineering management small business where he provides oversight of Ausley’s overseas commercial unmanned business. He also currently serves as President of Kieyos, LLC, an international trade company. With its corporate headquarters located in Lexington Park, Maryland, with offices in Baltimore, MD, Rochester, NY and Huntsville, AL, Kieyos is well-known in the international trade industry for its expertise in International Traffic in Arms (U.S. State Department) and Export Administration and Regulations (Commerce Department) licensing, Customs brokering, freight forwarding and international business trade development. He is a certified professional in ITAR export compliance (ECoP-ITAR). An active leader in the community, Tom has served as President of the Board of Directors for Leadership Southern Maryland, Chairman of the Board of the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce, co-chair of the St. Mary’s County Local Emergency Planning Commission and counselor for the Wounded Warrior Initiative at Fort Meade. He has served as a board member of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance and co-chair of the SMNA BRAC Committee. He also was a member of the BRAC Business Initiative in Howard County, Baltimore Council for Foreign Affairs, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, the Patuxent Partnership, the World Trade Center Institute and the Washington International Trade Association. In 2013, Jarboe was named the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year. He currently lives in St. Mary’s City with his wife, Shannon and three sons Nick, Christian and Luke.

Jarboe earned a BA in Behavioral Science and a MS in International Commerce from the University of Maryland. He is a graduate of Leadership Maryland and a founding member of Leadership Southern Maryland. Tom is a veteran of the United States Coast Guard. Upon leaving the service he worked for Sierra Management Technologies as a Flight Operations Coordinator for the V-22 Integrated Test Team before going to Eagan McAllister Associates as a Deputy Program Manager. He then left to start his own defense contracting company Technology Security Associates, Inc. where he led as Chief Operating Officer until September of 2014.

Babila Lima is the Director of the Business Process Improvement Office for the Department of General Services. Since 2007, Babila has worked in City government in a number of different agencies and capacities including the City Council President’s Office, Mayor’s Office and as a consultant on cross agency process challenges. Prior to the current role, his City projects included an overhaul of the City’s special event permitting process, and the establishment of a regulatory, licensing and management system to support the growth of food trucks and mobile vendors in the City of Baltimore. He also developed and managed a yearlong initiative in Mongolia to improve garbage and recycling collection through a business social responsibility program funded by USAID.

Brad Hennessie is the CEO of NextStep Robotic Inc., a company whose portable robotic ankle exoskeleton is being developed as the first ever treatment option to reverse foot drop in stroke victims. Foot drop, which occurs in a wide range of neurological and orthopedic conditions, is recognized as the inability to lift the toe during normal walking. He has been working with the inventors of this technology for 8 years, managing multiple grants with Drs. Macko, Roy, and Forrester. He started with the team as a single study coordinator and quickly grew into a leadership role over the past few years, helping manage the day-to-day tasks and long term goals for the Maryland Exercise and Robotics Center of Excellence (MERCE). MERCE is a ~$7M/year research organization originally founded by Dr. Richard Macko that is part of the Baltimore VA Medical Center and the Department of Neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Brad’s conception of the business model and commercialization plan led to the team’s successful TEDCO MII Phase I/II submission and attracting their first external investor.

Since transitioning out of the robotics lab and starting full time with NextStep Robotics, he has directed an engineering team with Dr. Gil Blankenship at the Maryland Development Center to create the first prototype of the portable ankle robot.

Brad’s early development as a leader was shaped by his 8 years in the Maryland Army National Guard where he learned the importance of having confidence in the quality of a product by being a parachute rigger.