Troy, N.Y. - Three companies affiliated with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will vie to win the $100,000 Business Plan Competition at the Summit in Tech Valley in Albany next week.

Crystal IS Inc., Evident Technologies Inc., and Orca Gear Inc. will present their business plans to a panel of national venture capitalists on Tuesday, April 29. The winner will receive a cash prize of $100,000 and professional advisory services from several firms.

About the Companies
Crystal IS, of Latham, N.Y., uses single-crystal aluminum nitride substrates to cost-effectively produce high-power, high-temperature, and optoelectronic devices, such as blue and ultraviolet lasers. Incorporated and founded in March 1997, the company is the brainchild of co-founders Leo Schowalter, professor of physics and applied physics at Rensselaer, and Glen Slack, scientist and former professor of physics at Rensselaer. Currently, Crystal IS is a tenant in Rensselaer's renowned Incubator Program.

Evident Technologies, based in the Rice Building business incubator in Troy, is a nanotechnology manufacturing and application company that draws upon semiconductor nanocrystal expertise to create sophisticated and innovative products for use in the biotechnology, optical switching, computing, telecommunications, and energy fields, among others. The company, which has research laboratories in the Rensselaer Incubator's Watervliet facility, is headed by Clint Ballinger, president/CEO-chairman and an adjunct professor at Rensselaer.

Orca Gear, of Ballston Lake, integrates technology into recreational apparel, and was incorporated in April 2002 by four MBA students attending Rensselaer's Lally School of Management and Technology. The group, which is marketing the Float-Tech Personal Flotation Device (Float-Tech PFD) - a lightweight liner for a jacket that inflates automatically when it is immersed in water or when a ripcord is pulled - formed as a result of an assignment for Rensselaer's Design, Manufacturing, and Marketing course, a class for Lally School MBA students.

About Rensselaer's Incubator Program
Since its launch in 1980, the Rensselaer Incubator Program for high-tech start-ups has served more than 150 companies, and most have remained in the Capital Region. Currently, the Incubator has 28 tenants representing 230 jobs.

Contact: Caroline Jenkins
Phone: (518) 276-6531
E-mail: N/A