Digital-guitar maker Zivix and Genesys Works, a nonprofit that trains and places disadvantaged high school kids in business internships, were among the 15 "high-tech innovators" honored Wednesday night at the annual Tekne Awards ceremony presented by the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA).
"With the innovations and achievements of this year's Tekne Award recipients and STEM [scholarship winners] Minnesota continues to prove it's a leader in the science and technology industry," said MHTA CEO Margaret Anderson Kelliher.
Among the winners:
• PaR Systems, for its creation of a first-of-a-kind main crane system to reconstruct a new confinement structure in two radioactive sites: Chernobyl and Fukushima. The system operates inside the structure using overhead bridge cranes, trolleys and a remote-control and video-monitoring system to allow the dismantling and cleanup of a site in a controlled environment.
• The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs and Minnesota's information technology agency for the Minnesota Homeless Veteran Registry that identifies and provides housing services to homeless vets. The registry connects federal, state, county and nonprofit partners and uses a case-management approach to provide customized solutions for clients.
• Zivix developed the portable jamstik, a mobile digital guitar that wirelessly connects a player to the Internet through a mobile device. The jamstik uses real guitar strings and frets to present an authentic experience.
• St. Paul-based Genesys Works has trained 1,301 disadvantaged Twin Cities high school students on office technology and workplace skills, 1,039 of whom have received internships from Twin Cities companies over the past seven years.
• Rebiotix is focused on 500,000-plus Americans each year suffering from a debilitating gastrointestinal infection called clostridium difficile infection (CDI) characterized by severe diarrhea and abdominal pain. Rebiotix's first product, RBX2660, helps people who have experienced multiple episodes of CDI and failed standard antibiotic therapy, with an 87 percent cure rate.
