Welcome to the 2019 Innovator of the Year awards.
This event, and these pages, are dedicated to Long Island’s best and brightest ideas, born across a broad spectrum of inventiveness and nurtured by social need, red-blooded capitalism and old-fashioned creativity.
This year’s honorees start at the top, literally. In 2019 Master of Innovation Mitch Maiman, we have selected a mind-over-matter maestro who’s guided the next-generation product-development company he launched a decade ago to global prominence; in Stony Brook University Economic Development Vice President Yacov Shamash, first-ever winner of our John L. Kominicki Legacy Award, we salute an old friend whose contributions to the regional innovation economy will ripple for decades.
Collectively, our other 2019 honorees display an amazing breadth of innovation. The Zucker School professor developing new telehealth options for Spanish-speaking patients. The Stony Brook startup battling environmental contamination with microbiological warriors. The beauty-industry veteran who thought small and scored big.
There’s the new Edgewood video-production studio, the Smithtown medical-product ace, the Jericho digital-education expert and the Southampton “entrepreneur’s club.”
We’re saluting one of the Feinstein Institute’s all-time champions in the fight against lupus. And for the first time, we’re honoring high schoolers who are already showing off the skills they’ll need to thrive in the 21st century innovation economy – and maybe save the world along the way.
Healthy pet treats, next-level vanadium flow batteries, new employee-loyalty apps and a familiar download now one billion blocks into its anti-robocall crusade – the inventiveness highlighted in these pages knows no bounds.
As fervent believers in the power of Long Island’s innovation economy, we’re thrilled by the collective talents of our 2019 awardees. As humanitarians, we’re emboldened by their heart – each of these thinkers, tinkerers, entrepreneurs and execs is not only interested in making a buck, but in changing the world.
We firmly believe Long Island’s economic vitality depends on brilliant researchers, forward-thinking makers and risk-taking venture capitalists, just like these inspiring awardees. And we think they deserve a round of applause!
Like Innovate Long Island itself, these awards wouldn’t be possible without the encouragement and generous support of our sponsors. Their company logos and congratulatory messages grace these pages. We’d also like to offer our sincerest appreciation to the universities, law firms, accounting firms, economic-development offices, nonprofit foundations and individuals who believe – as we do – that innovation will be the bedrock of Long Island’s restored prosperity.
Thank you also to the small army of professionals who helped us pull this off, including steadfast photographer Bob Giglione, videographer and digital master John Richardson (and his entire Quick-Cast team), the topflight experts at Design Audio Visual, graphic designer extraordinaire Mike Albano and, of course, our longtime friends at the Crest Hollow Country Club.
To the 2019 Innovators of the Year: Congratulations! As we like to say, ideas are easy – the hard part is courage, determination and execution. And that’s why you’re here.
~ Marlene McDonnell, Gregory Zeller
Innovator of the Year: SnappyXO Design Innovation and Robotics Camp
Location: Plainview
The skinny: A high-tech summer camp inspiring the next generation of Long Island STEM students
In 2018, the SnappyXO Design Innovation and Robotics Camp gave Long Island students a chance to spend part of their summer learning the ins and outs of complex robotics, through a host of STEM-based educational programs meant to inspire the next generation of innovators.
The two-week, immersive project was the brainchild of Plainview-based Composite Prototyping Center (which hosted the kids), Dix Hills-based Mechanismic Inc. and the Stony Brook University-based Manufacturing & Technology Resource Consortium, one of 10 statewide Empire State Development Corp.-designated Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers.
Anurag Purwar, Mechanismic founder and research associate professor in SBU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, served as instructor, utilizing Stony Brook’s innovative MotionGen robotics programming app and Mechamismic’s novel robotics kit, SnappyXO, to provide a hands-on learning experience.
Students were each given a robotics kit and instructed on the basics of integrating software and hardware components in their robotic creations – a hands-on introduction to microcontroller programming, electronic-circuit design, sensors, actuators and other advanced-robotics concepts.
Basically, everything a growing child needs to construct walking, “two-wheel differential drive” and more complex automatons. But while the theme was centered on robots, the true focus was the development of a future workforce ready for multiple industries – one keen on robotics and related STEM disciplines, matching the camp to the primary mission of both the MTRC and the Composite Prototyping Center.
“The goals for this camp are to expose students to the design-innovation process, mechanisms, machines, practical electronics and microcontroller programming,” Purwar told Innovate LI. “(All) in the context of robot design.”
See all the recipients of this prestigious award on the original article.
Original Article: http://www.innovateli.com/2019-innovator-of-the-year-awards/