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The Kruesi Award for Innovation
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DESCRIPTION |
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The Kruesi Award is America’s first community innovation award. The award was created in 2001 to recognize area businesses that best exemplify an innovative spirit. The designation honors a Chattanooga family whose Swiss ancestor, John Kruesi, immigrated to America and worked with the inventor Thomas A. Edison. Kruesi made the first phonograph in 1877 and was the principal mechanic on countless other patented innovations, including the incandescent light bulb. His son Paul Kruesi settled in Chattanooga, founded the American Lava Company in 1902, and served as president of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. The legacy and lineage of the Kruesi family permeate the community today, symbolizing enlightened enterprise and philanthropy.
The Kruesi Award for Innovation is presented each year to the local company that best exemplifies the inventive spirit in business. Applications for the Kruesi Award will be reviewed by two panels of experts: one comprising local business people, entrepreneurs and community leaders, and a second comprising national business leaders and entrepreneurs. The national panel will select the winner of the Kruesi Award, which will be announced during the Chamber's Spirit of Innovation Awards luncheon on April 16, 2008. |
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CRITERIA |
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Defining Innovation
The selection committee approaches the definition in the broadest sense. The committee looks for new technologies and new ways of doing things. These innovations may originate on the manufacturing line, in the research lab, the marketing department, the training room, or the boardroom. Some innovations reflect a major breakthrough; others result from an accumulation of small developments. But all successful innovations positively influence a company's performance, productivity, quality or competitiveness.
Selection Criteria
To be eligible for the Kruesi Award, the innovation must meet certain criteria:
• The applicant must have conceived and/or implemented the innovation within the last five years;
• The applicant must be able to demonstrate that the innovation was conceived, developed and/or implemented in the Chattanooga area;
• The applicant must be able to demonstrate that the innovative practice has been implemented and has produced a measurable impact on the applicant's performance, productivity, quality or competitiveness.
Selection Process
Applications for the Kruesi Award will be reviewed by two panels of experts: one comprising local business people, entrepreneurs and community leaders, and a second comprising international business leaders and entrepreneurs. The international panel will select the winner of the Kruesi Award, which will be announced during the Chamber's Spirit of Innovation Awards luncheon on April 16, 2008. |
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APPLICATION PROCESS |
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Who can Apply?
• Chattanooga-area companies, large and small, in any sector: manufacturing, service, retail, etc.
• Individuals
• For-profit and non-profit businesses, institutions, and organizations
• Government agencies
• Chamber members and non-members
Application Process
Interested applicants submit an "Intent to Enter" – a paragraph briefly describing the innovation and its conformance to the eligibility requirements. Deadline for Intent to Enter: December 14, 2007.
How to Apply
To apply for the Kruesi Award click on the Simplified Application Process to answer a few basic questions and submit a paragraph describing your company's innovation and its impact. Contact Lindsay Hiatt at 423-763-4337 or lhiatt@chattanoogachamber.com for more information. |
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2008 FINALISTS |
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Download the 2008 Kruesi Award Finalists Video
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Accurate Automation
For designing and implementing Sentinel, an unmanned ocean racer equipped with artificial intelligence that protects water-based assets such as ships and oil-drilling platforms. Sentinel is the first and only artificially intelligent boat that can perform in a variety of high-demand, real life situations -- such as during storms and at night -- without human risk or intervention.
Andersen Flaps, Inc.
For designing the Eco-Flap, patented mud flaps for trucks with a 75 percent open surface area which allows water and air to flow through the flaps. The flap reduces the spray from trucks’ tires in the rain to make roads safer and they also reduce the drag effect resulting in fuel savings up to 3 percent depending on conditions.
Astec Industries, Inc.
For the Double Barrel Green System which allows the production of “warm-mix” asphalt cement without the use of expensive or caustic additives or systems. The systems provide a 14 percent reduction in the fuel usage, emissions and cost related to producing asphalt cement.
Cleveland Tubing, Inc.
For inventing Flex-Drain®, a patent-pending flexible, expandable plastic pipe, usable in most drainage applications. Offering an alternative to bulky, traditional plastic drainage pipe, the product collapses to six feet and expands to 25 feet which makes it easy to transport and to store.
EnWaste Recovery Systems
For creating a patented filtration system to address the environmental issue in the healthcare industry involving the recovery of silver and other heavy metals from the photogchemical process in radiology departments. The system not only allows the silver to be captured and recycled but also neutralizes and captures heavy metals and prevents contamination into the water system.
Transcard
For integrating financial processing settlement technology with legacy software platforms for companies and industries. Transcard is a financial stored value processor, taking cash and converting it into electronic cards for everything from payroll to tax benefits and tax payments, fit cards and other transactions.
TR Automation
For developing a revolutionary approach to robotic work cell manufacturing, called SuperCell, which allows for greater productivity because the robot or group of robots is working 95 percent or more of the time, 10 percent more than what is considered very good productivity for most cells. The innovation reduces floor space, improves quality and allows skilled labor to be used more efficiently.
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2008 RECIPIENT |
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TR Automation
For developing a revolutionary approach to robotic work cell manufacturing, called SuperCell, which allows for greater productivity because the robot or group of robots is working 95 percent or more of the time, 10 percent more than what is considered very good productivity for most cells. The innovation reduces floor space, improves quality and allows skilled labor to be used more efficiently.
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2008 JUDGES |
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Preliminary Round
Tim Andrews
Hamilton County Railroad Authority
Jonathan Bragdon
Tricycle, Inc.
Richard Burke
Chattanooga State Technical Community College
Ray Childers
Chattanooga Manufacturers Association
Stephen Culp
Smart Furniture, Inc.
Mike Harrell
Latitude Advisors, LLC
Matt Jannerbo
Miller & Martin PLLC
Matt McClelland
Kenco Group, Inc.
Kevin Maxfield
Tennessee Small Business Development Center
Mack McCarley
QORE Property Sciences
Jerry Sterling
Sterling Business Solutions, LLC
Kathleen Wheatley
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga |
Final Round
To Be Announced |
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PAST RECIPIENTS |
| 2007 |
eSpin Technologies |
In 1999 eSpin Technologies began its journey to become the first company in the world to develop a process and fiber spinning machinery for the mass production of nanofibers (polymeric fibers 1,000 times finer than a single human hair). This quantum leap in the technology of synthetic fibers offers new-to-the-world products and delivers superior performance in a wide range of existing products including apparel, energy storage and medical applications. |
| 2006 |
Shared Health |
Shared Health has improved access to digitized patient information by creating a database of patient medical records, which can be accessed by authorized medical practitioners over the web. The system has resulted in more accurate diagnoses, better healthcare outcomes and cost savings. |
| 2005 |
Specialized Enterprises |
Specialized Enterprises created an innovative Fluid Exchange System for vehicles. The system consists of a replacement fitting that is substituted for the vehicle’s original oil drain plug and allows for the automatic changing of vehicle fluids using Specialized Enterprises’ oil change machines. One version of the oil change machine is a permanently mounted shop unit used in vehicle service areas and the other is a mobile unit which can be mounted in a vehicle such as a van, truck or military service vehicle and can be taken directly to the vehicle requiring fluid changes. |
| 2004 |
AquaShield, Inc. |
AquaShield, Inc. manufactures a unique line of patented Stormwater Treatment Solutions from recycled HDPE -- a hydrodynamic separator, an inline stormwater filtration system and a catch basin insert --to effectively treat highly contaminated stormwater runoff and protect environmentally sensitive receiving waters. AquaShield’s stormwater filtration products offer three levels of treatment for impaired water resources, resulting in more effective protection of our waterways. |
| 2003 |
American Mammographics |
American Mammographics was co-recipient of the 2003 Kruesi for developing the S.O.F. T. Paddle, a screening tool that is curved and slopes downward to conform to the natural contours of the breast. The tool improves imaging accuracy, increases breast cancer detection rates, lowers exposure to radiation and increases patient comfort at no additional cost to the patient. |
| 2003 |
Alexian Brothers: Live at Home Program |
The Live at Home program provides integrated levels of care -- from very modest assistance to nursing home level services -- that are designed to be delivered at the care recipient¹s home, without the requirement to enter a nursing home. The program is designed to provide aging adults their best opportunity to live and age in their own homes, even through advancing years and declining physical abilities. |
| 2002 |
U.S. Xpress |
U.S. Xpress received the Kruesi Award for bringing the trucking industry into the electronic age. U.S. Xpress has used the aggressive adoption of technology as a key component of its competitive strategy, including the adoption of satellite-based e-mail connections with all trucks, electronic data interchange with customers and vendors, e-commerce tracking of trucks and goods shipped and anti-collision radar technology. |
| 2001 |
Collins & Aikman Floorcoverings |
Collins & Aikman was nominated for the company’s Infinity Initiative, the first and only full-scale closed loop reclamation and recycling system for floorcoverings. Through new technology and patented manufacturing processes, the company is able to recycle used carpet into new products and assure customers that no portion of their used carpet will ever go to a landfill. |
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2008 SPONSORS |
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Platinum
EPB
Tandus
Gold
Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel
Miller & Martin
Northwest Georgia Bank
SRC Technology Solutions
TVA
Tennessee River Gorge Trust
Unum
Silver
Chattanooga Technology Council
Chattem
Henderson, Hutcherson & McCullough
Kennedy, Coulter, Rushing & Watson
McKee Foods Corporation
Merrill Lynch
Regions
Tennesee Valley Federal Credit Union |
Media
Brewer Broadcasting
Chattanooga Times Free Press
ChattanoogaTraffic.Net
Citadel Broadcasting
Classical 90.5 WSMC
Clear Channel Radio
Comcast
Fairway Outdoor
The Pulse
WDSI Fox61TV
WTVC NewsChannel 9
WTCI
Donations
Kruesi Family | |
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