Several Ohio manufacturing companies took home awards from MAGNET's seventh annual Mspire competition held in Cleveland on Tuesday, and one company won a $10,000 cash prize for most sustainable product.
Given since 2016, Mspire awards from the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network in Cleveland, better known as MAGNET, are customized prizes, such as marketing and LEAN operations support, aimed at helping Ohio manufacturers get their products off the ground.
This year's competition was expanded to Northwest Ohio under the new sponsorship of ProMedica Innovations, the early stage venture capital arm of the ProMedica health system in Toledo, Ohio, MAGNET said in a statement. The Northwest Ohio competition will be held July 28.
Circular Cleveland, the collaboration between Cleveland Neighborhood Progress and Cleveland, offered one $10,000 cash prize this year for a manufacturing technology that has the best sustainable or circular economy benefit, MAGNET said.
Akron law firm Kastner Westman & Wilkins and the Center for Innovative Food Technology, better known as CIFT, the food processing, manufacturing and agribusiness organization network in Toledo, also sponsored the event.
Here are this year's nine finalists, which were selected from a pool of 40 applicants, MAGNET said:
- Max Pennington, founder and CEO, Cleanr, Cleveland. Makes microplastics filters for washing machines, which are the single largest source of microplastics in the environment and our bodies, the company says. Its product was designed to answer pending legislation requiring microplastics filters on new washers.
- Michael Ragsdale, founder and CEO, Bailout Systems Inc., Cincinnati. Developed a pocket-sized, hands-free, descent technology that can safely lower to the ground a person who weighs up to 350 pounds. After spending three days in a coma following a rock climbing accident, Ragsdale designed the device for first responders and construction workers, among others.
- Bryan Stewart, founder and chairman, HDO Health, Columbus. Founded to commercialize technologies developed at Ohio State University and licensed from Ohio State Innovation Foundation. Its first product, the Journiquet, is a medical device used in the battlefield to stop bleeding in the abdomen and groin.
- Peter Stancato, founder, Nosotros Rock Climbing Gym, Lakewood. Its Climba Boards bring the world of climbing gyms to your home.
- Tyler Collishaw, founder, Epiphany, Cincinnati. Developed a germ-killing spray and aims to pioneer a new age of consumer goods.
- Ben Woods, co-founder and chief operating officer, Onedrus, Akron. Designed an air filtration device for commercial buildings. its scroll-filter technology can remotely index dirty filter media for clean material, reducing the need for servicing.
- Sarah Jordan, founder and CEO, Skuld, Springfield. Developing a hybrid additive manufacturing process that merges 3D printing with lost-foam casting to get the benefits of both.
- Kelly Franko, founder, Seraphina Safety Apparel, Youngstown. Designs and manufacturers flame-resistant base layer clothing for women working in industrial occupations and motorsports.
- Michael Arens, founder, Clean Earth Rovers Inc., Cincinnati. Has designed an autonomous, Roomba-like device to skim manmade pollutants from coastal waterways while reporting water quality data.
