Nina is charged with leading all the activities for the internationally recognized organization. Her responsibilities encompass the accelerator and incubation programs which help Georgia technology entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) assistance which helps companies win federal research funding, and VentureLab which commercializes technology emerging from Georgia Tech laboratories.

Nina’s selection adds to the excitement occurring at ATDC as the organization enters its fourth decade with an expanded mission. Over the past year ATDC has greatly extended its reach to serve more technology companies along multiple growth paths and at all stages of development. ATDC has opened its membership to all technology entrepreneurs in Georgia, from those at the earliest conception stage to the well-established, venture funded companies. This change has resulted in a growing and robust community with over 300 startups across the state utilizing the services of ATDC.

Nina joined ATDC as assistant director in October of 2009. Prior to that, she was CEO of Zygogen LLC, an Atlanta based biotechnology company. Nina holds a master’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from Harvard Medical School, a masters degree in business from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in social and behavior sciences from Johns Hopkins University. She has served in a variety of positions with Georgia BIO, and as a member of the external review committee for the Georgia Research Alliance VentureLab Program.

Here is the official announcement.

The future of software and business method patents — Impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski v. Kappos

On June 28, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a patent claim directed to a commodities hedging process was not patentable subject matter. The claimed method was found to be too “abstract” to constitute patentable subject matter. There are widespread implications for the decision on the patentability (and enforceability) of patents directed to any kind of process — including software and business methods.

John Harris, senior partner in the IP Practice Group at Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP in Atlanta, will be the featured speaker at the brownbag on July 28, about the Bilski v. Kappos decision. He will give a summary of the case and what happened. Some of the highlights include:

* Is software still patentable?
* Can you patent a business method at all after this decision?
* How can I file a patent on software that might be found patentable?
* How will the USPTO and patent examiners react to this decision?

While the event if free to members please register.

Read the solicitations in detail as SBIR and STTR are slightly different.  Also, read the separate Component-specific (Army, AF, DARPA, MDA, etc.) instructions as proposal requirements vary among the Components. 

The DOD will begin accepting proposals on August 17th and all proposals must be submitted before 6:00 AM on September 15th. You are urged to contact the topic Technical Point of Contact (TPOC)  to ask additional technical questions not found in the topic itself.  You may NOT make direct contact with the TPOC after August 16th–don’t wait until the last minute to ask questions and expect them to respond to you ASAP, it might take some time for them to get back with you.

Your company will need a Tax ID #, DUNs #, and CAGE code before you register to submit your proposal.  If you do not have these numbers, you need to start soon as obtaining these numbers might take some time.  See the document “Registration Requirements” for more information.

Our office is at the UGA campus in Duluth. It is right off of 85 at Old Peachtree. Paul Freet will be there every Thursday meeting with Gwinnett County entrepreneurs. You can sign up for office hours with Paul on Thursday afternoons. We also are starting a weekly circle that will meet every Thursday morning at 8am.

Thanks to UGA, the Gwinnett Chamber and Partnership Gwinnett for their hard work to help make this happen!

The following are the scheduled presenters at CapVenture 2010

Scott Burkett
President and COO of Starpound

Roberto Casas
Startup Catalyst with ATDC

Connie Casteel
Startup Catalyst with ATDC

Jacqui Chew
Principal, iFusion Marketing

Pat Dailey
Management Consultant

Kent Elmer
Managing Partner with TechCFO

Paul Freet
Startup Catalyst with ATDC

Linnea Geiss
Sr Associate with Arcapita Venture Capital

Wes Getman
RSM International

John Harris
IP Attorney with Morris Manning & Martin

Ben Hill
Startup Catalyst with ATDC

Michael Horten
Attorney with Horten CC

Mary Leary
Startup Catalyst with ATDC

Jeff McConnell
Former CEO with iKobo

Keith McGreggor
Technology Evaluation manager with ATDC

Gordon Rogers
President of Atlanta Technology Angels

Nina Sawczuk
Assistant Director with ATDC

Lance Weatherby
Startup Catalyst with ATDC

Early registration has been extended to July 16th, so hurry and take advantage of the up to $50 savings.

NSF issued a RAPID (Grants for Rapid Response Research) for the Gulf Crisis at the end of May. RAPIDs are used to enable research on unanticipated events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or any event where timely presence is required to enable the research.

NSF is seeking brief proposals (2-5 pages) before September 30th. Research awards will be made up to $200Kif justified.  Unlike the standard NSF review process, these proposals will only go through an internal review before the awards are made, reducing the timeline.

PI(s) must contact the NSF program officer(s) whose expertise is most germane to the proposal topic before submitting a RAPID proposal. This will facilitate determining whether the proposed work is appropriate for RAPID funding.

For more details see: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf10_1/gpg_2.jsp#IID1.

All questions regarding this RAPID, should be directed to Dr. Don Senich (dsenich@nsf.gov) or Mr. Kevin Simmons (kesimmons@nsf.gov).

There will be many topics and subtopics that fall within these Mission Directorates. Full list of Topics and Subtopics will be available on the 19th. Meanwhile, take a look at last years’ 2009 solicitation topics  to give you an indication of projected 2010 topic areas. 

All contractual and technical questions must be submitted in writing via email to Cassandra Williams, Contracting Officer (cassandra.williams-1@nasa.gov), not later than August 13, 2010.  NOTE: To ensure fairness, questions relating to the intent and/or content of research topics in this Solicitation will not be addressed during the Phase 1 solicitation period. Only questions requesting clarification of proposal instructions and administrative matters will be addressed.

When the solicitation opens on the 19th, it will be posted on NASA’s SBIR/STTR site.

All Phase I proposals will be due on September 4th.

“At TVP Ventures we partner with a select group of companies where we believe we have the opportunity to become big winners.” said Donald Gasgarth, Managing Director of TVP Ventures. “We are excited to partner with Urban Planet Mobile to assist in taking an immense worldwide mature market and introducing their top quality, original products that integrate with the mobile phone”.

Worldwide, economic growth and development are closely tied to improved education of the workforce, particularly when the population has cultivated English communication skills. In certain parts of Asia, for example, an individual can expect a 300% increase in his income by acquiring English proficiency. By developing deep libraries of educational and informational content built specifically for mobile delivery, Urban Planet Mobile is the only company to create patent pending mobile education products that are deliverable to up to 95% of handsets. With about 1.4 billion people worldwide actively learning English, there is a vast market for Urban Planet Mobile English language learning products alone.

In addition to the English language learning lines, Urban Planet Mobile offers test preparation products, including vocabulary building for the SAT, GRE, and TOEFL.

The USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has identified five primary “societal challenge areas”.  Proposals that fit in one of the topics below AND address these challenge areas are highly encouraged:

1. Global Food Security and Hunger
2. Climate Change
3. Sustainable Bioenergy
4. Childhood Obesity
5. Food Safety

Proposals are also encouraged in these government-wide initiatives:

1. Agriculturally-related Manufacturing Technology
2. Energy Efficiency and Alternative and Renewable Energy

The Topics for this solicitiation are:

8.1-Forests and Related Resources;
8.2-Plant Production and Protection – Biology;
8.3-Animal Production and Protection;
8.4-Air, Soil and Water Resources;
8.5-Food Science and Nutrition;
8.6-Rural and Community Development;
8.7-Aquaculture;
8.8- Biofuels and Biobased Products;
8.12-Small and Mid Size Farms;
8.13-Plant Production and Protection – Engineering

Please be sure to read the solicitation for proposal preparation instructions and topic descriptions.

In 2010, for the first time, CapVenture will be split into two tracks: “Series A” and“Seed”. The Series A track is designed for those companies ready for venture capital. The Seed track is for those companies who need capital but are not yet ready for venture capital.

Through participation in this program, companies will:

• Gain valuable practical knowledge about the various forms of capital available to early-stage technology companies.
• Sharpen the participating company’s business and financing strategy to increase the probability of successful capitalization.
• Assess their companies’ fit with various forms of capital.
• Gain practical tips on the process of capital raising that will increase their odds of success and limit unproductive activities.
• Gain peer and mentor relationships to facilitate valuable connections for their businesses.
• Provide prepared participants an opportunity to meet investors.

The 2008 forum led to requests for 59 meetings by investors. The top CapVenture “Series A” track companies will have an additional opportunity to present to dozens of investors through an automatic slot during the ATDC/VentureLab early-stage forum at Venture Atlanta.

Please, click here to register