Smart Products: Rev’s First Networking Night of 2020

To start off the new decade, Rev’s first networking night of 2020 featured a modern theme: “Smart Products Are Everywhere.” Moderated by Rev Director Ken Rother and catered by Luna Street Foods, the event highlighted member companies whose products or services demonstrate cutting-edge technology or simply make people’s lives easier.

• The audience heard from the creators of Air Quality Egg, about its latest product line, Zynect Sensors. Currently, customers can choose from a suite of three sensors to measure temperatures (Thermote and Thermote X) and soil moisture (Soilmote). The sensors are battery-operated, internet-connected, and water- and dust-proof, making them appropriate for both indoor and outdoor uses. The company’s Thermote sensor was installed on the balcony of Rev’s office space for the evening, enabling Network Night guests who downloaded the company’s mobile app to determine the temperature immediately outside the building in real time.

• Based in Rochester and Cornell AgriTech’s Center for Excellence in Geneva, BZDesign specializes in industrial design, helping companies develop from idea to physical product. BZDesign additionally helps companies tell the story behind their products. The company designed a revolutionary wearable asthma attack detection device for Health Care Originals. The device helps parents anticipate when their asthmatic child may experience an attack. BZDesign engineered the family of products, provided marketing materials, and designed the company’s trade show booth.

• CassCaps are patented devices that serve as both caps for containers of food ingredients, such as spices, and measuring devices that dole out a prescribed amount of an ingredient, eliminating the need for measuring spoons. Since you can measure straight from the bottle, CassCaps reduce the amount of mess left to deal with after food prep.

• Ithaca Generator is a makerspace where members can craft their wares from a whole host of technologies. Using devices from 3-D printers to welding machines to looms, members make creations such as knives, electric bicycles, and sculptures. Ithaca Generator offers classes and is open to the public every Tuesday night.

• The hardware involved in beekeeping hasn’t changed in 200 years, according to the founders of Combplex. That is, until the company designed a beekeeping frame equipped to eliminate a pest which contributes to an estimated 50-80 percent of annual US honeybee losses: the varroa mite. Leveraging their knowledge of anatomical and behavioral differences between honeybees and varroa mites, Combplex outfitted its beekeeping frames with sensors and a laser, which destroys the varroa mite and leaves the honeybee unharmed.

Rev’s next Network Night, The Future of Clean Energy in the Southern Tier, is scheduled for February 13.

Smart startups with an environmental bent to their missions can additionally apply to take part in NYSERDA’s fifth annual 76West Clean Energy Competition, which awards winners with funding to start their businesses in New York’s Southern Tier region. The application period is open through March 2. The competition has been so successful in showcasing the area as a clean energy hub that even non-winning companies have elected to settle in the Southern Tier.