The startup TruWeather Solutions was the first to sign up for incubator space in UAlbany’s new ETEC building.
The company’s focus involves analyzing complicated weather data to help the growing drone and air taxi industry know if it’s safe to operate, said Don Berchoff, CEO of the company.
TruWeather has five people working in the ETEC building, with space for several more. The main drone business is located in Syracuse, while the team in Albany is working on discovering other lucrative ways weather data could be used.
Berchoff said being in close proximity to researchers and other nearby relevant companies and organizations, like the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, could lead to new collaborations.
"Us having access to those companies and the research they're doing together helps us build new capabilities," Berchoff said. "That's also a way for us to get new customers and help us grow."
Berchoff first visited New York state in 2017 to learn how his startup could utilize data from the New York State Mesonet program. He opened an office in a basement near the Mesonet office shortly after.
Mesonet includes 126 towers in every county of New York state that collect 19 different pieces of weather data every five minutes. That data is sent to the new operations center in the ETEC building. From there, it's fed to consumers, typically government agencies.
One of the data points that's collected is soil temperature at three different depths at all stations. Each site also has a camera that shows photos of the current weather at each station.
TruWeather’s data comes from Mesonet and sensors in other locations.
TruWeather is an example of what could come from the utilization of that data.
Through the state-funded Center of Excellence in Weather and Climate Analytics, researchers at UAlbany are trying to figure out ways the data can be integrated into research projects, said Matt Grattan, director of community and economic development for UAlbany’s Division for Research, in August.
That research could lead to the formation of new companies.
"We're looking at use-cases and scenarios where private industry might want to look at this data. The data has application across a number of different industry verticals, including transportation, agriculture, energy,” Grattan said. "You don't realize until you come work at a university like this how much weather impacts everything you do."
For Berchoff’s business, he says there’s a lot of potential.
The cost of lost productivity in the U.S. economy because of weather data that's not understandable or is inaccurate was $634 billion in 2017, he said.
"If you don't know what's happening, that costs you money."
He said about 10% to 15% of an aviation company’s operations expenses are spent on weather-related issues. He said the TruWeather system can help a company prevent about 40% of that loss. For a company that spends $10 million on operations, that's a savings of about $400,000.
Berchoff is based in Washington, D.C., so he can play a role in influencing policy that allows for use of new data sources in the aviation industry, he said.
"We're not only developing cutting edge science and technology to solve problems for this new industry, but we're also influencing the standards around that to help open up the industry and increase innovation."
