Innovation Program Teams WV Universities with Businesses - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

Innovation Program Teams WV Universities with Businesses to Create Jobs

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By Douglas Fritz - email

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During a speech in Huntington on Wednesday, May 23, U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) announced a new program to boost jobs and grow businesses in West Virginia.

Innovate WV is a program that is partnering Concord and Marshall Universities along with the Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing (RCBI) with the U.S. Economic Development Administration to create the EDA University Center.  Congressman Rahall said that the federal EDA focuses on job creation, while the University Center's mission is retaining and creating jobs by calling on the academic and technological resources of higher education.

"The idea of looking at the tried and true and finding a better way to view, use and understand it in a more efficient and cost saving way is at the heart of any hard driving economy and the first principle we build with must be innovation," said Congressman Rahall.

The program will help small businesses and investors turn their ideas into working models by making the first-class facilities at RCBI available to them and offering awards up to $10,000

"We need continued federal investment in RCBI, Marshall, Concord and our community colleges to match the nations need for worker training and fostering innovation," said Congressman Rahall. "It is a little bit like Yankee ingenuity marrying southern hospitality.  We are building on the jobs mission of the University Center by presenting these five awards."

Two companies out of Greenbrier County are a part of the program.  Those include Blue Gold Inc. in White Sulphur Springs and Stinson-Lane, LLC in Williamsburg. 

Blue Gold will use the award to design a water purification device they have a patent pending on.  It eliminates buildup of calcium on large HVAC units.  The devices application for health care facilities is currently being reviewed.

Stinson-Lane is designing an energy efficient lighting system.  The company will work with RCBI to design drawings and build house prototypes of different sizes for installing the lighting technology.

A Fayette County company, VinTech Manufacturing of Gauley Bridge, will use the Innovate WV program to design 3-D prototypes of a lightweight man-trip for use in underground coal mines.  The vehicles will have increased battery life by reducing the weight of the man-trips which are currently made of steel.