Corporate
The Technology Commercialization Center (TeCC) was created and incorporated in Virginia in 1999. TeCC is a small, for-profit, business. TeCC won a NASA competition to operate the NASA Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology Transfer Center (RTTC) in February 2001. On March 13, 2009, TeCC was awarded a 5-year contract by NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to provide support to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. TeCC's partner in this effort is the Pennsylvania Technology Assistance Program (PennTAP) at Penn State University.
The original TeCC office was in the ARC building in Newport News, VA. TeCC moved to its current location at 144 Research Drive, Hampton, VA in 2002. At that time we shared offices with the National Institute of Aerospace, which later moved into their new buildings. We now share office space with the Hampton Roads Technology Incubator.
TeCC's Technology Commercialization Experts
The core staff has a strong background in the NASA technology program and in commercializing NASA technologies, with extensive technical experience in a particular technology area and industry sector.
President
H. Milton Holt
Vice President
Duncan E. McIver
Technology Leader
Frederick R. Morrell
Export Controls Specialist
John Franke
Consultant
Charles P. Blankenship
Bios of TeCC Staff
a. Milton Holt – Mr. Holt is President of the Technology Commercialization Center (TeCC). He worked for NASA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology Transfer Center as a Technology Leader concentrating on the State of Virginia since January 2002. At TeCC Milt is responsible for representing all available NASA technologies to commercial companies. He conducts technical assessments of new disclosures and recommends to NASA if a commercial market exists for the technology and if a patent should be pursued. He developed a software database for the five state regions that TeCC represents to aid in selecting companies that may be interested in a specific NASA technology. He also designed and implemented a wireless local area network for the TeCC Office.
Mr. Holt retired as Deputy Director for Airborne Systems from NASA’s Langley Research Center in June 2001. In this position, he was responsible for research in sensors and electromagnetics and for simulator and research aircraft research, development and operations. He reviewed and approved all changes to the experimental aircraft and their research avionics and changes to the flight simulators. He worked on command and control systems on small rocket programs in supported of the Apollo Program, Lunar Orbiter, and the command and control system for the two Viking Landers that successfully landed on Mars in 1975. After Viking, he was chief engineer for the experimental system on Langley’s Boeing 737 research aircraft, a Branch Head responsible for the development of fault tolerant computers and a laboratory used for the development of mission critical computer systems technology.
Mr. Holt has a BSEE from NC State University, an MSEE from the University of Virginia, and 24 hours Post MS Graduate Courses at ODU. Mr. Holt is a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society.
b. Duncan McIver - Mr. McIver is Vice President of the Technology Commercialization Center, Inc. (TeCC). Mr. McIver is a co-founder of TeCC, which won a contract in 2001 to operate NASA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology Transfer Center. Mr. McIver served as Director of TeCC from 2003 through the completion of the NASA contract in the fall of 2006. He led the TeCC effort to provide technology marketing and licensing support to the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA). Mr. McIver worked with the Hampton Roads Technology Council (HRTC), NASA LaRC and NIA to organize and host a technology workshop on Development of Advanced Materials in Virginia and the Impact of Nanotechnology held at the NIA in February 2007.
Mr. McIver has more than 40 years of experience in managing technical programs for the government and the aerospace industry. He worked at NASA LaRC from 1958 to 1980 in the fields of sensors, communications and avionics. He moved to NASA Headquarters to become Director of the NASA Guidance and Control, and Human Factors Program. In 1985 he spent a year at Bechtel, Inc. in San Francisco in the President’s Executive Exchange Program. In 1986, he was promoted to head of the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) Office. McIver retired from NASA Headquarters in 1989.
After retiring from NASA, McIver co-founded the Southeastern Virginia Network (SEVAnet), which became the Virginia Electronic Commerce Technology Center (VECTEC), at Christopher Newport University. He served 12 years on the Board of the Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton, Virginia and was President for two years. He is former Chairman of the Virginia Aerospace Business Roundtable, one of the precursor organizations to the HRTC. He is former President of the NASA Langley Alumni Association (LAA), which hosted the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Reunion VII in 1996. He also led the LAA in partnership with the United Way, and the Association of Retarded Citizens of the Peninsula (ARC) to form the Galaxy of Gifts program and served on the Board of the ARC for 8 years.
He served as Vice President for Marketing for Eagle Aeronautics in Hampton for eight years and during this time he participated in the Aerospace Industry Sector of the Virginia Technology Summit. He represented the AIAA Hampton Roads chapter in three Congressional Visit Days and recently participated with the NASA Langley Research Center in two Aerospace Days in Richmond and visited Virginia Senators and Delegates. Mr. McIver served on the current Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS) on nanotechnology.
McIver is the past President of the NASA LAA for the second time and is Chairman of the final NACA Reunion scheduled for the spring of 2008. He is a member of the Board of the National Aeronautics Support Team (NAST) and a liaison member of the Board of the Hampton Roads Technical Council (HRTC). McIver is a member of the Sensors Science and Technology Forum (SST&F) and has worked with NASA LaRC to help organize and implement two national SensorsGOV events in Hampton Roads. He serves on the Advisory Board for the Department of Physics, Computer Science and Engineering at Christopher Newport University. McIver is the Virginia Air and Space Center (VASC) representative to the NASA Langley Colloquium Committee, which along with the VASC sponsors the Sigma Series Lectures at the VASC. McIver serves as the host for the Sigma Series at the VASC.
Mr. McIver has a BS in Physics from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and completed graduate courses in physics at the College of William and Mary.
c. Fred Morrell - Mr. Morrell has been a Technology Leader at the Technology Commercialization Center Inc. since January. He worked under TeCC’s contract with NASA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology Transfer Center concentrating on the state of Pennsylvania. Fred conducted technical assessments of new technology disclosures and recommended to NASA whether a viable commercial market exists for the technology and if a patent should be pursued. He generated one-page summaries of all Langley Research Center (LaRC) technologies for dissemination to all commercial companies interested in NASA technology. He also conducted reviews of LaRC SBIR proposals and helped to develop subtopic solicitation write-ups.
Mr. Morrell retired from NASA Langley Research Center in January 2001 as leader of the Small Business Partnership Team. He became the LaRC SBIR/STTR Program Manager and Leader of the Small Business Partnership Team. As SBIR/STTR manager he was responsible for Topic/Subtopic Development and Ranking and programs ensuring Center Program Critical Technology needs were met. He established commercialization potential review procedures for LaRC using external Consultants and developed an Agency SBIR Contractor Assistance Program. Fred also was Assistant Branch Head for the Aircraft Guidance and Controls branch where he was the LaRC NASP Flight Systems Manager, Agency Flight Systems Manager for the Generic Hypersonic Program, and Agency Guidance and Control systems Manager for the High Speed Research Program. He also conceived and conducted flight test demonstrations of several innovative inertial navigation technologies.
Mr. Morrell has a BSEE with honors from the University of Connecticut, an MSEE from the University of Virginia, and 30 hours post MS graduate courses at George Washington University. He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Societies. Mr. Morrell authored or co-authored more than 30 Technical Papers.
d. John Franke – John is Chief Technologist for the Technology Commercialization Center (TeCC). As part of the NASA Mid-Atlantic RTTC, John provided Infusion and Spinout support for Langley Research Center Innovative Partnership Program Office. His tasks included: assisting in the establishment of an Innovation Assessment Panel to Triage NASA New Technology Reports; assisting the evaluation of license applications; drafting license term sheets; drafting Non-Disclosure Agreements, Space Act and License agreements; maintaining Intellectual Property portfolio; and gathering relevant information for the preparation of Langley Edge Sheets, success stories, and other applications.
John was an Aerospace Technologist, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA from September 1974 to January 2005. His last assignment was Assistant Center Export Administrator. He was responsible, in coordination with the Center Export Administrator, for export control review and processing all NASA Langley Research publications, foreign shipments, and foreign national visitor requests. He also served as technical advisor to the Center Counterintelligence Office. Ten years in the Commercialization Office as a licensing agent, technical advisor to the Patent Counsel Team, and reviewing SBIR proposals. From 1974 to 1994, he was involved in designing fabricating and operating advanced instrumentation to support NASA research in material science and wind tunnel testing.
John has a BSEE and MS Physics from Old Dominion University. John holds 3 U.S. Patents and authored over 100 scientific and technical publications.
