From creating a safer and more effective battery, to developing microscale environmental sensors, one thing is for sure: Maryland is a global leader in high-tech innovation. Check out how Ion Storage Systems, N5 Sensors, and Penacity, all Maryland Future 20 companies, are paving the way for local and global technological advancement.

Ion Storage Systems
In a world that increasingly relies on technology and electricity, batteries have become an essential component of our everyday lives. Many battery suppliers are loading more and more energy amounts into smaller packages, increasing the risk of fire, swelling and explosion.

Thanks to local innovation, Ion Storage Systems of College Park is taking charge by commercializing U.S. manufactured, higher energy density, intrinsically safe batteries. The company has re-imagined how batteries are made through merging technologies initially developed at the University of Maryland and the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute. While most of the existing Lithium-ion production companies are predominantly located in China, Japan, and South Korea, Ion Storage System has paved the way for a shift in marketing strategies, presenting the U.S. with an opportunity to accelerate its battery manufacturing and overtake foreign competitors.


N5 Sensors
N5 Sensors of Rockville is a semiconductor sensor company that is leading the way in development of ultra low-power, selective microscale environmental sensors. Currently, the commercially available gas and chemical sensors for industrial use are often bulky and costly, however, N5’s unique solution is a patented miniature gas sensor technology that allows for manufacturing multiple microscale gas sensors on a single semiconductor. This enables the detection of 80 percent of the most harmful gases and elements with just one chip that is about ten times smaller than a penny.

Currently, N5 has launched several products targeted towards specific industrial applications – automotive cabin air monitoring, wastewater treatment, and drone-based monitoring – and the company was recently selected as one of four global partners for a Department of Homeland Security pilot program aimed at developing a solution for early detection of wildfires near urban interfaces.


Penacity
Penacity, LLC of Hanover was founded in order to bring innovative, cost-effective strategies and customer-centered cybersecurity needs and state-of-the-art security services to companies and the federal government. The company has extensive experience with hundreds of IT environments, cultures and evolving requirements, allowing Penacity to streamline processes and refine customer security needs.

As a Veteran-owned small business, Penacity brings decades of cyber operational experience gained through the DoD Cyber Mission Force and private sector. Its founder, CEO and Chief Hacker Dr. Timothy Schilbach, is an entrepreneur and inventor with more than 27 years of ongoing military service as Commander for the 124th Cybersecurity Division for the Virginia National Guard under the 91st Cyber Brigade. The company uses this knowledge to its advantage by channeling decades of applied IT and infrastructure experience in all disciplines from network and systems engineering to programming.


Learn more about Maryland’s IT & Cybersecurity industry.