Kurt Brandt, president of Brandt Innovative Technologies, has been hailed in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Small Business Times and The Business Journal as one of the most important and successful inventors in Wisconsin for this innovative development of  sensor technology which has bioterrorism detection potential. The UW-Whitewater SBDC director, Bud Gayhart, has served as a hub connecting Brandt to the Wisconsin Entreprneurs' Network resources that fostered the successful development of the new Abiolux non-invasive container inspection device product.

Brandt was one of the UW-Whitwater Small Business Consulting clients in fall 2006 and the SBDC director continued to assist Brandt as he launched a new company that will manufacture and sell the hand-held container inspection sensor that was developed by Brandt's R & D team. The Small Business Consulting student team worked with Brandt's company to develop a commercialization plan for an SBIR Phase Two application. The consulting team conducted a complete SWOT analysis for Brandt assessing internal strengths and weakness and external opportunities and threats. They also identified target markets and advised Brandt on operations development including identifying competing technologies and potential development obstacles. Final recommendations provided specific directions for optimal growth of the company and placement of their sensor products in the market.

The work that the students completed assisted Brandt in continued development of a new trainable sensor network product. The SBDC director also introduced Brandt to economic development persons and angel investors. An article in The Small Business Times announced that the Abiolux spin-off company has management in place and will be manufacturing 3000 units of the hand-held sensor device per year by the year 2011.

For more details about Brandt's story, see the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network (WEN) article about him at the WEN Portal Success Stories website.