{"id":8733,"date":"2016-08-28T18:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T00:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=8733"},"modified":"2016-08-29T09:17:45","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T15:17:45","slug":"entrepreneurs-work-together-to-get-help-from-lab-affiliated-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/general-business-advice\/entrepreneurs-work-together-to-get-help-from-lab-affiliated-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurs Work Together to Get Help From Lab-Affiliated Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Finance New Mexico<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/a>

Left to right: Greg Scantlen, Chuck Bulow, and Paul Saxe<\/p><\/div>\n

Entrepreneurs Greg Scantlen, Paul Saxe and Chuck Bulow depend on high-speed, sophisticated computers to run their individual businesses. And even though they\u2019re developing different products, the trio decided to apply collectively for free technical assistance from scientists at Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program.<\/p>\n

Scantlen owns CreativeC, a Los Alamos and Albuquerque company that works with graphic processing units (GPUs) \u2014 chips composed of thousands of parallel processing threads that can process multiple calculations simultaneously at computing speeds about 100 times faster than the traditional central processing units (CPU) used by most home computers.<\/p>\n

Scantlen wants to increase processing speeds and power capabilities even more. \u201cThat\u2019s my passion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Saxe runs Materials Design, an Angel Fire-based software company whose customized modeling software allows researchers to conduct experiments on computers \u2014 rather than the physical world \u2014 to see how metals, liquids and other materials will interact. Results allow the company\u2019s clients to make their products more efficient, productive and cost effective.<\/p>\n

According to Saxe, the two engineers \u201care always talking about how to push these things forward \u2014 he (Scantlen) on the hardware and me on the software.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both wondered if LAMMPS, the large-scale atomic\/molecular massively parallel simulator developed by scientists at Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories in the 1990s, could be used as the foundation to help them increase computing speed and make modeling more sophisticated.<\/p>\n

With GPU hardware and customized LAMMPS software, the pair turned to Chuck Bulow of Manufacturing Technologies, an Albuquerque-based machine shop known for the tight tolerances needed in jet manufacturing. Bulow\u2019s company created a prototype housing that would be needed to turn the proposed LAMMPS instrument into a commercial product.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the three applied to the NMSBA program as a leveraged project to test their hypothesis with Los Alamos National Laboratory. NMSBA leveraged projects allow multiple small businesses that share a technical challenge to request lab assistance collectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first question was does it make sense to even think about using GPUs,\u201d said Paul Saxe. Los Alamos scientist Saryu Fensin, an expert in shock and tension evaluations, was tasked with finding out.<\/p>\n

Fensin performed various types of simulations that revealed stunning speedups for larger calculations \u2014 the types of sophisticated computations used by scientists and engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimulation normally takes six days,\u201d Scantlen said, \u201cbecause the computations are so complicated, but now we\u2019re seeing speeds of six to eight times faster. Instead of a week, it takes a day to do a complicated simulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Scantlen, \u201cthere\u2019s major disruption in computing with a lot of new technologies coming out.\u201d The team is using these disruptive technologies \u2014 in networking, solid-state storage, memory and others \u2014 to build speed and power.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on figuring out the right blend,\u201d trying different combinations of these new disruptive technologies, he said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing systems integrations with extreme workload specificity. That\u2019s what\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n

CreativeC is now leading a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 project to commercialize the LAMMPS instrument. Materials Design is starting to sell a version of the LAMMPS instrument, including its proprietary graphic user interface (GUI) for LAMMPS, and the company believes that as sales grow it will be able to hire new employees to support the effort. Manufacturing Technologies will continue to manufacture prototypes for testing and will subsequently manufacture the LAMMPS instrument for commercial sale.<\/p>\n

Based on their results, the LAMMPS instrument leveraged project was selected by the NMSBA program as one of the 2015 top ten Outstanding Innovation projects. The project participants will also be recognized at an award luncheon that will kick-off an entire month of Manufacturing Day events.<\/p>\n

Through the NMSBA program, small businesses facing a technical hurdle can tap into the expertise and capabilities of the state\u2019s national laboratories to get help with testing, design and consultation, as well as access to special equipment or facilities.<\/p>\n

Qualifying individual projects can receive up to $20,000 worth of technical assistance, but leveraged projects \u2014 presented by multiple small businesses with similar technical challenges \u2014 can receive five times that amount. The assistance is free to participants.<\/p>\n

The NMSBA program is currently accepting leveraged project proposals for 2017. The application period closes Sept. 12. Requests for individual assistance projects are accepted year-round.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit http:\/\/www.nmsbaprogram.org\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download 465_Entrepreneurs Work Together to Get Help From Lab-Affiliated Program<\/a> PDF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Finance New Mexico Entrepreneurs Greg Scantlen, Paul Saxe and Chuck Bulow depend on high-speed, sophisticated computers to run their individual businesses. And even though they\u2019re developing different products, the trio decided to apply collectively for free technical assistance from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8733"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8739,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8733\/revisions\/8739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}