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Past Winners

2007 Kalenian Award Winner

The winner of the 2007 Kalenian Award was announced at the June 12, 2007 WPI Venture Forum program. During the ceremony, Paul Kalenian commended the fine work of all of the applicants and acknowledged the addition of the in-kind sponsorship of Wolf Greenfield.  Crescent Innovations, a proposal submitted by WPI Alumnus, Albert G. Prescott, received the Award. Prescott's company is inventing products for pain management.  Crescent Innovations Inc. was founded in 2000 to develop products to treat TMJ disorders, degenerative joint disease, bone disease, fractures, and more, using proprietary polymer technology. These state-of-the-art polymers are used to treat both chronic and acute pain as well as controlled release/drug delivery products. The company has received a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health, and has worked with Fortune 500 companies.

“I cannot emphasize enough how important this award is to us at Crescent Innovations,” said Prescott. “The technology we are developing to treat bone defects will ultimately have deep and far reaching benefits to every one of the 50 million people in America who have ever had a bone fracture or defect. We will use the money specifically to develop prototypes, and to push this technology to commercialization.”

Mr. Prescott stepped to the stage to receive a giant mock check and have photographs snapped with Paul Kalenian and David Wolf. Mr. Kalenian stated that he is looking forward to next year's competition and thanked everyone that participated this year, including the judges.

2006 Kalenian Award Winner

The winner of the 2006 Inaugural Kalenian Award was announced on May 9th at a WPI Venture Forum Monthly Program. Paul Kalenian commended the fine work of all of the applicants and stated that it was very difficult to narrow the field down to one proposal. The 2006 Kalenian Award went to "Powered Arm Orthosis", a proposal submitted by WPI Professor Allen Hoffman and two graduate students, Steven Paul Toddes and Michael Scarsella. The powered arm orthosis is a device that allows its wearers to regain near-normal functionality of an arm when conflicted with muscle dysfunction or weakness from diseases such as Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson's Disease. The very surprised team of three stepped to the stage to receive a giant mock check and have photographs snapped with Paul Kalenian. Mr. Kalenian stated that he is looking forward to next year's competition and thanked everyone that participated this year, including Provost Carol Simpson and Department of Management Head Mac Banks for assisting in the judging process.

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Last modified: May 20, 2008 12:06:38