Three central New York companies were awarded $400,000 to launch their projects -- all aimed at improving air quality or creating the next generation of air purification systems.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the money to the Center of Excellence, which is then doling it out to the start-ups.
The CollabWorx project is one of those getting the funding. It addresses the concept of open-building automation systems, which link all the heating and cooling systems in a building or a house. CollabWorx is a tenant at The Tech Garden.
Various sensors for temperature, humidity, air quality and other factors are meshed together through a Web-based interface, meaning "you can have full control of your business or residence," says CollabWorx president and CEO Dr. Marek Podgorny.
Each person can go in and customize their temperature. Instead of 80 degrees, they can make it 70 with the click of a mouse.
It's taken CollabWorx and another company, Sensyr, four or five years to develop the system. This latest grant of $145,000 will be used to deploy it.
CollabWorx will be tested and evaluated at the Center of Excellence headquarters sometime over the next year.
The other two projects to receive awards are Air Innovations of North Syracuse and Hap Control of Syracuse.