AutoHarvest is creating a new Internet platform that not only promises to make the purchase of intellectual property easier but will also open up innovation hubs in the automotive industry to more collaboration.
The 3-year-old nonprofit aims to foster collaboration and innovation in the auto industry by making things like tech labs and intellectual property more accessible. AutoHarvest has offices at the University of Michigan and TechTown. It has a team of six people after adding two more over the last year.
AutoHarvest has spent the last year and change developing a new software platform that it hopes will serve as a Amazon.com of intellectual property innovation. The online bazaar will allow inventors, entrepreneurs, businesses and institutions to buy, sell and collaborate on technology. It's currently in Beta-version and is aiming for a June release.
"There are several key communication features that need to be added," says Jayson Pankin, president & CEO of
AutoHarvest. "We are in major bug-hunting mode."
Among the features in line for addition are the ability to broadcast the website in eight different languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French and German.
"We have companies from France and Germany that use our network now," Pankin says. "This will help them."
AutoHarvest is also looking to add an "Innovation Hub" tab to the site that will allow local research institutions to open up their labs and databases to the public. For instance,
TARDEC (the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren) will make 70 of its laboratories open to the public that follows specific guidelines. The idea is to make the resources of big organizations available to startups.
"This way small companies can have access to software and databases they wouldn't otherwise," Pankin says.
Source: Jayson Pankin, president & CEO of AutoHarvest
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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