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High-Tech Corridor
Space Coast
SENSATEK PROPULSION
Heat Detector
Overheating is a critical problem with large engines used in aircraft, ships, spacecraft and power plants. Often, by the time sensors detect a malfunction, it’s too late to avoid damage to the engine. Daytona Beach startup Sensatek Propulsion Technology has developed a system that can withstand high temperatures and detect overheating before engines are destroyed. Founder Reamonn Soto says “We are making engines more efficient and powerful and reducing emissions.”
Based in Embry-Riddle Research Park, Sensatek has raised $1.5 million, including a recent $743,200 grant from the National Science Foundation.
Soto, a Florida A&M and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University graduate, founded Sensatek in 2015. He says the company is working with Rolls-Royce and Lockheed Martin, among others. “We recently sold our first system and are now officially in the market," Soto says. “We upped our timeline by two years.”
The company plans to raise another $1 million through private financing. It has four fulltime employees and plans to hire four more by the end of the year. Soto anticipates it will employ 20 to 30 by the end of 2020.
Tech Cooperation
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Florida Institute of Technology work closely with area employers and the aeronautical and space industries.
One of EmbryRiddle’s recent developments is a new technology that detects and takes control of unauthorized drones, guiding them to land, avoiding having to shoot them down. The university has a licensing agreement with Drone Defense Systems of Daytona Beach to commercialize the technology.
Among the FIT’s collaborations is an agreement with the Air Force Air Combat Command to share research related to artificial intelligence and machine learning.
EMBRY-RIDDLE RESEARCH
Understanding the Atmosphere
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Aroh Barjatya recently received a $1.3million NASA research award that will help fund the launch of two identical rockets from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the summer of 2021. The rockets are part of research into a region of the atmosphere 50 to 87 miles above the Earth, where charged particles can affect radio communications, including transmissions to satellites. Barjatya runs EmbryRiddle’s Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab, which seeks to build instruments to help understand the Earth’s atmosphere and space weather.
Boeing Move
Boeing announced in June that it will move its Space and Launch division from Virginia to the Space Coast. The move — expected to be completed by the end of the year — will involve a small number of people, the company says. The relocated employees will move into Boeing’s facility in Titusville.
Space Coast Standouts
The Space Coast hosts a full roster of defense industry and aerospace heavyweights, along with firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin that are involved in space launch-related manufacturing and other activity.
- Boeing
- Leonardo DRS
- General Electric
- L3Harris
- Lighting Science Group
- Lockheed Martin
- MC Assembly
- Raytheon
- Rockwell Collins
- Satcom Direct
- SpaceX
- Blue Origin
- Military Bases
- Patrick Air Force Base
- Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
- Naval Ordnance Test Unit
- Incubators and Accelerators
- Groundswell Startups
- MicaPlex
- TrepHub
- weVenture at Florida Tech
