OrthoX Wins Mira Awards Innovation of the Year Honor

Press Release

INDIANAPOLIS — TechPoint, Indiana’s economic development initiative focused on technology and entrepreneurship, recognized the state’s high-tech success stories during its annual Mira Awards gala held at The Westin hotel in downtown Indianapolis. Now in its 11th year, the TechPoint Mira Awards highlight Indiana’s technology success stories, recognizing the companies, institutions and individuals who are leading the state’s high-tech economy.

The Mira Awards identify the most innovative and successful firms in information technology, as well as technology-focused companies in industries like advanced manufacturing, logistics and the life sciences. “Gazelle” awards are given to fast-growing companies that have been in business for less than three years, as well as awards highlighting educators and institutions that help connect technology and learning.

“Again this year, we attracted a record number of Mira Award nominations,” said Mark Hill, TechPoint chairman and a managing partner of Collina Ventures. “The record we broke was set last year – and the previous high-water mark was 2008. Even during the worst of the national recession, this program generated more and more interest and enthusiasm from an expanding group of Indiana high-tech companies and organizations.”

Despite last year being the worst year in more than a decade (since 1997, to be exact) for venture capital nationally, investors are betting on Indiana’s high-tech entrepreneurs, with Indiana growing in total revenue investment by nearly 70 percent over 2008, which surpassed 2007 by 40 percent, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers National Venture Capital Association Money Tree Report.

“The latest Cyberstates report from the TechAmerica Foundation shows that the state added tech jobs during the downturn, even as the rest of the private sector was making cuts,” said Jim Jay, president and CEO of TechPoint. “When the rest of the economy starts catching up, Hoosier high-tech companies will be leading the way.”

OrthoX, a company born from research and development conducted by scientists associated with the University of Notre Dame, received Innovation of the Year honors for its ceramic fiber reinforced bone cement. OrthoX CEO James Mason expects the FDA to approve the company’s orthopedic innovation, which will then be commercialized.

ExactTarget – whose software as a service technology has evolved beyond email marketing to allow clients to connect with customers via text and voice messaging, social media and more – won the Information Technology Mira Award for the second consecutive year. ExactTarget has now earned a record five Mira Awards including an Information Technology Gazelle Mira Award during the company’s first years of operation.

This year, cloud computing start-up BlueLock received the Information Technology Gazelle Mira Award, and NICO Corporation won the Gazelle award in the Health and Life Sciences category. NICO has created a fully-automated, minimally invasive tissue removal device for neurosurgical and spinal surgery applications.

In an interesting contrast to NICO’s tissue removal platform, Cook Biotech Incorporated earned the Health & Life Sciences Company Mira for its regenerative medicine, tissue repair products. My Health Care Manager took home the Health Care Information Technology Mira Award for its SCANS™/Care Advisor geriatric-health decision support system.

In a new Mira category, New Media Excellence & Innovation, the award went to IMAVEX, a digital design, marketing and streaming-media company focused on search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), play-per-click advertising and other measurable marketing activities.

Two education category awards highlighted an institution and an individual who are helping to shape Indiana’s next generation of emerging media professionals and entrepreneurs. The Education Contribution by a Department, Program or Team Mira Award went to Ball State’s Center for Media Design, which began as an educational experiment in 2003, and is today nationally recognized for excellence in immersive learning. Thomas Mason, recipient of the Mira Award for Education Contribution by an Individual, taught entrepreneurship to engineering undergraduate students and engineering management at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for 25 years. He helped co-found Rose-Hulman Ventures, and has served as Entrepreneur and Educator in Residence for the Indiana Venture Center.

The full list of the 2010 TechPoint Mira Award winners includes:

• Innovation of the Year: OrthoX
• New Media Excellence & Innovation: IMAVEX
• IT Company: ExactTarget
• IT Gazelle: BlueLock, LLC
• Excellence in Corporate IT: Hill-Rom
• Health Care Information Technology: My Health Care Manager, Inc.
• Health & Life Sciences Company: Cook Biotech Incorporated
• Health & Life Sciences Gazelle: NICO Corporation
• Advanced Manufacturing Company: EnerDel, Inc.
• Distribution, Transportation & Logistics: Redcats USA
• Education Contribution to Technology - Program/Department/Team: Center for Media Design – Ball State University
• Education Contribution to Technology – Individual: Thomas Mason, Ph.D. – Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

The winner of the TechPoint Foundation Bridge Builder Award is also an educator. As Chief Information Officer for the Indianapolis Public Schools’ Information Technology Division, Dorothy Crenshaw has ushered IPS into the digital age, to better meet the needs of students, teachers and administrators.

Earlier this month, TechPoint announced that Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist & Filmmaker Robert A. Compton would be named the Trailblazer in Technology award recipient for his for significant and lasting contributions to Indiana’s high-tech economy. (See “Bob Compton is TechPoint’s 2010 Technology Trailblazer” from May 3, 2010.)

About TechPoint
TechPoint is the only statewide organization representing Indiana’s technology sector. TechPoint promotes technology-based enterprise and economic development through lobbying and government advocacy, educational and networking programs, and strategic economic development initiatives. As a part of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership’s family of initiatives, TechPoint is a catalyst for growth in Indiana’s emerging technology clusters, including advanced manufacturing, logistics, life sciences, energy and information technology. Learn more at www.techpoint.org.

About BKD
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Source: TechPoint