Tekne Awards finalists announced

The Minnesota High Tech Association announced the finalists for its Tekne Awards, which honors top companies for innovation, development commercialization and management of technology in the state.

Below are the finalists in six of the 14 categories. A full list of finalists can be found here.

The winners will be announced on Nov. 3 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Cleantech award

Ecolab, Honeywell International and LightinghouseUSA, a manufacturer of lighting products.

Computer hardware and electronic devices

Computer security firm Barrier1, Global Traffic Technologies, and Imation Corp., a developer of disk drives, USB flash drives and other digital storage products.

Capella University, Naiku, a web and mobile testing platform for schools, and online education platform Sophia.

Life sciences award

Established companies: Ecolab Inc., Minntech Corp., Starkey Laboratories

Small-and-growing companies:

-OrthoCor Medical, maker of a device that wraps around the knee, providing relief from arthritis and joint pains

-QuickCheck Health, a business that's developing at-home tests for conditions such as strep throat that consumers can buy at drugstores. After the test is done, the consumer receives a code that she enters online. If her results are positive, she can go to an online clinic visit, according to the company's website.

Mobile and communication technologies

-Avtex Solutions, a business technology integrator

-GeaCom, maker of a handheld medical interpreting device

-QONQR, a multi-player location-based game of strategy, that's sort of like Risk for smart phones

Established companies: Imation Corp., State of Minnesota-CareerOneStop, and information technology firm Unisys Corp.

Small-and-growing companies:

-Calabrio, maker of call recording software

-Insite Software, maker of a software that lets developers build e-commerce websites that connect to internal software systems that manage the business