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From kneecaps to military vehicles, the team at Microstrain keeps raising the bar on innovations.

What began as soft-spoken Steve Arms' graduate study on human ligament strains at the University of Vermont has become an widely lauded high-tech company specializing in miniature sensors with nearly infinite uses.

Last week alone, Arms, the president, and his 13-person crew filled orders for medical research labs worldwide while also honing devices to be used by the military, on civil structures, for security, and on aircrafts.

"What happens is that you work on one area and you see that there are other applications for the technology," said Arms, who has been called a "boy genius" along with Microstrain's head electrical engineer, Chris Townsend, by the editors of Sensor magazine.

As a graduate student at UVM, Burlington native Arms studied human knee and ligament strains at the university's Orthopedics Department. After graduating in 1986, he investigated other potential markets for using sensors to measure things and provide feedback.

Arms found limitless uses. By 1990 Chris Townsend, also a UVM graduate student, had joined him to officially launch Microstrain as a business which has grown fast, from two employees to 13, and from selling sensors to one market -- medical -- to at least a dozen at present. Arms sees an almost limitless future for its markets.

Dan Clingman, an engineer for a large commercial aircraft manufacturer, has relied heavily on Microstrain to provide technology to measure the effects of helicopter rotor blades on the materials that turn them.

"I think that Microstrain's new product, the Strainlink wireless data acquisition system, is a groundbreaking product," he said, adding that the technology costs one-third as much as other products on the market because it is so small and doesn't rely on wires. "Over the years I have been acquainted with Microstrain. I have found them to be highly innovative and I support their products beyond the call of duty."

Microstrain has received business innovator awards from the state of Vermont and the national Tibbetts Award for achievement in the Small Business Innovation Research program.

Last fall, Microstrain became the first firm in history to win five gold medals from the sensor industry. Its medals came from unmatched technological advances in just the past two years. The company's products consistently win awards over companies that are 200 to 300 times larger than the small Burlington operation.

Arms credits the company's success to beginning the company with medical uses of sensors, requiring very tiny devices. That expertise opened the door to automobile manufacturers and civil structure builders who also needed tiny, effective sensors to monitor strains and give feedback in real time.

"It's always been in our (company) culture to make things small," Arms said. "This whole company that started by measuring ligament and knee strain has developed into millions of applications."

One of Microstrain's biggest accomplishments has been combining sensor technology with data processors without wires. For example, a bridge can be installed with Microstrain's sensors, which then send data to a central receiving unit, which transmits to an Internet browser, enabling unlimited numbers of users to view the data in real time.

The systems also can be programmed to report information to only those with secure access. In the case of an earthquake, sensors would provide feedback on the soundness of buildings and other structures to fire, police, and safety workers at the same time.

Before wireless technology was available, sensors had to be connected to processors via extensive amounts of costly wires, which added weight and gave delayed measurement feedback.

Microstrain's sensors are being used to measure strain on airplane frames upon landing, temperature control units in food processing plants, and the structural health of buildings.

Microstrain is also developing new uses of the technology for security networks, where sensors would detect intrusions onto a property, send an alert to a central control unit and result in a phone call to the owner or police.

"Our wireless Web sensor networks can collect data from up to 1,000 sensors via a single receiver, enabling massive amounts of data to be shared globally in real time," Arms said. "This technology has civil structural, agricultural, environmental, military, and industrial applications."

Microstrain has done work for Boeing, the Navy and the Army, and received grants from the National Science Foundation. International Truck and Engine Corp. has used Microstrain sensors in prototype engines and plans to replace camshafts in all engines by 2007.

The sensors provide feedback for electronic valve control in engines, permitting better timing and reducing fuel consumption by 15 percent, Arms said.

While Arms declined to reveal his company's revenues, he said in a 2001 interview with the state Economic Development Department Web site ThinkVer-mont.com that Microstrain's automotive sensors have the sales potential to exceed $100 million a year.

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