We sat down with Dr. Jesse Williams, who is the Chief Technology Officer at Global Technology Connection, Inc. (GTC) located in Atlanta, Georgia. For nearly 25 years, GTC has led successful endeavors in research, development, and commercialization of innovative technology products and services.
Global Technology Connection, Inc. (GTC) has been in the business of conducting research and development for governmental and private entities related to system modeling and simulations, data analytics, and machine learning for over 20 years. Some of their successful endeavors include the Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) field, Condition Based Maintenance (CBM), modeling, simulation, machine language and AI. They have partnerships with universities, large research institutions, National Laboratories and major corporations with partners including Georgia Tech, Rutgers, the University of Michigan, Cornell University, GE, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. And that's just to name a few....
GTC plans to play a role in both the current performance of technology, while also working on being able to provide information for the future to help the technology be even better.
Some of their past work includes their subset product called Prognostic and Enhanced Diagnostics. This invention was applied to various military vehicles like the Bradley tank. Prognostic and Enhanced Diagnostics look at a wide range of sensors, to give the people operating the vehicle, machine or system real time information about the current state of the object and can help the estimated remaining useful life.
However, their interest in the remaining useful life does not stop with the military applications.
GTC has found themselves in what is called Prognostic and Health Management or PHM, which allows for data to be collected to make “estimations about where it’s going to be in the future based on where it is now and what we’ve seen in the past and what we believe,” says Dr. Jesse Williams, GTC’s Chief Technology Officer.
Williams, who has been with GTC for just under three years now, six months of that being in his current position of Chief Technology Officer, has had a career that has taken him from one side of the country to another.
Coming from the world of prosthetics before arriving at GTC, Williams used new, innovative technology that allowed for a more complete and comfortable fit for prosthetic limbs. He was also a part of the creation of a machine that changes contour to match a 3-D scan, making the process of fitting the recipient of the limb much quicker and easier.
GTC currently is not a company that produces something that your regular, everyday household would probably encounter, Williams says. However, that is something they are currently working to amend.
“We are developing technology that we hope to develop to impact people’s lives more. Some of that is in this new tech that’s under development. But this prognostic health and management for water recycling systems,” he says. “We believe that water management will be very important in the future. We think it’s already becoming important.”
GTC was awarded an I-Corps (™) award last year that allowed them to look into the commercialization of water filtration systems.
I-Corps awards are a funding program through the National Science Foundation (NSF) with the intention to help develop commercialization strategies that are crucial to the success of a project from its early stages to development and eventually production.
These kinds of breakthroughs and determination to create new ways of helping others, of course, are where government funding can come in handy. And with almost 25 years of operating experience thanks to the founder of GTC Dr. Ash Thakker, GTC has been able to create a diverse portfolio of award success.
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is a program through the United States government that is coordinated by the Small Business Administration (SBA) with the goal of helping small businesses in the technology field conduct research and development through both government contracts and grants.
SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) are highly competitive programs designed to encourage Federal Research and Development with an aspiration to one day commercialize.
Over the last 23 years, GTC has been awarded over $16 million in awards over SBIR and STTR Phase I and II.
The ability to leverage funding is crucial in their industry, and when GTC is looking at what opportunities would be best for them, it is a collective effort and looking to build their core capabilities while also continuing to explore new possibilities. “So when we go, when we look through the (solicitations), what we’re looking for is opportunities to take new technology, new data, science things, new modeling capabilities, and incrementally expand our core capabilities, add other algorithms and features to our suite of capabilities.”
GTC was recently the recipient of a NASA Phase I award with a vision of creating “smart buildings” that Williams spoke of that would include infrastructure across multiple campuses of different technological capabilities and connectivity.
One of their possible technological developments from these Phase I awards that could be used on such a campus would be their new endeavors into water management systems., but Williams says only time will tell if they can be combined.
“They may be related, but that is ultimately to be determined,” said Williams.
A reliable and educated team to create and manage your proposal is crucial. At OppsSpot, we not only assist with the creation and management of all our clients proposals, we also work closely with them on commercialization strategies and partnerships, taking pride in helping our clients reach a Phase III or their process.
Dr. Thakker and our founder Sonia Vohnout have maintained a fantastic working relationship for well over 20 years, a relationship that made the decision to go with OppsSpot an easy one.
“Our founder has a long and good relationship with Sonia. And while I’ve been here, her company is the only one that we’ve worked with and we’re quite happy with it,” said Williams.
Another recent success for GTC was the I-Corps. Williams says the I-Corps is important and also slightly different from other awards because it allows scientists to think slightly differently than they usually do when it comes to their projects.
“But the I-Corps in particular, they have a strategy and their strategy is to help scientists and technological innovators think more like entrepreneurs...You basically build a business plan and make hypotheses about what your customer base is and what your market segment is.”
Williams is excited about GTC’s future, it’s upcoming awards, and the continued partnership between them and OppsSpot moving forward. Here are many more successful grant applications!
-Team OppsSpot