What's Innovocracy?

Posted at: 06/05/2012 5:56 PM | Updated at: 06/05/2012 6:49 PM
By: Christine VanTimmeren | WHEC.com

A local company is connecting innovators with people who want to fund their inventions.  Their first venture is with the University of Rochester.

Researchers at the University of Rochester come up with a lot of inventions that, if they had money, would be extremely helpful to the public. So what Innovocracy wants to do is link up inventors at the institutions like the U of R with people who want to help those inventions become marketable.

Despite it being summer at the University of Rochester, researchers are still busy working.

Dr. Stephen McAleavey, UR Researcher, said, “We got a team of 4 or 5 of our seniors to work on the project for a semester.”

Their project is creating a device to help potty train kids with Autism.

Dr. McAleavey said, “To make something that was wireless so there was nothing with the kids to play with and something that had a disposable sensor so it wasn't a pain to clean or difficult to clean.”

And they did it. They created a sensor that detects moisture in a child’s underwear.

Dr. McAleavey said, “When the child wets, when it gets wet, the signal transmits to the receiver and the receiver beeps.”

That beep lets a parent or caretaker know that the child needs to go to the bathroom. Jerri Kaiser has a 14-year-old son with Autism. She believes this would really help parents like her.

Kaiser said, “It made me feel wonderful and it made me feel like people out there care and are trying to find real solutions.”

And Dr. McAleavey wants to make the device available for parents like Kaiser which is where Innovocracy comes in.

Alex Zapesochny, of Innovocracy, said, “The University of Rochester was the very first partner on board. We have a great relationship with them based on other things we've done.”

Innovocracy is a company that just started in Brighton. Through their website, people around the world have been able to donate money to help the U of R researchers.

Dr. McAleavey said, “We're going to be able to go now to some local industry and have these things mass produced by the thousands.”

Zapesochny said,” Anywhere from 5 to 15 thousand dollars can make all the difference.”

In this case, the website made a nearly 10-thousand dollar difference.

Dr. McAleavey said, “It gets us to the point where we can persuade outside industries that this is really worth funding or worth supporting.”

Innovocracy’s website was only set about six weeks ago.  There are other projects on Innovocracy’s website. They also hope to get colleges like Cornell and RIT involved as well. 

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