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Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) 2017 Awards

FY 2017 Small Business Innovation Research Awards
The Small Business Innovation Research program at the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences' (ED/IES SBIR) provides funding to small business firms and partners for the research and development of commercially viable education technology products designed to support student learning, teacher practice, or school administration in education or special education.

A total of 18 new contracts have been awarded for FY 2017.

Phase I Awards
Phase I projects allow teams to develop, refine, and test usability and initial feasibility of prototypes of commercially viable education technology products. 11 Phase I awards were made in amounts up to $150,000 for 6 months. These projects are designed to support student learning, teacher practice, or school administration in education or special education. These awardees will be eligible to apply for Phase II funding in Fiscal Year 2018.

The Phase I awards are:

Interactive Administrator Dashboard for Improving School-Wide Behavior Supports
LiveSchool, Inc., Matthew Rubinstein

Mission US: Time Snap
Electric Funstuff, Inc., Leah Potter

A Novel Platform for High-Quality Formative Assessment in Mathematics
Simbulus, Inc., Brett Milne

The First Intelligent Wearable Device to Enhance Student Attention Through Personalized Self-Monitoring and Reinforcement
Fokus Labs Behavioral Solutions, Inc., Richard Brancaccio

D-TECT: Determining Students’ Academic Engagement while Completing Learning Activities and Assessments
TutorGen, Inc., Ted Carmichael

StoryWorld: Formative Evaluation Dashboard for English Language Learners
Storyworld International Corporation, Cynthia Harrison Barbera

Advancing Technology To Prevent School Violence
Happy People Games, Sharon Wood 

CloudLab: Software Development for Hands-On Science Learning
Myriad Sensors, Clifton Roozebook

Fate and Fortune: A Story-Based Algebra Simulator of High Seas Trade
MidSchoolMath, Scott Laidlaw

Toddler App and Cane System: An Innovative Program for Teaching Orientation and Mobility to Toddlers with Vision Impairment
Safe Toddles, LLC, Elga Joffee

A Collaborative Interface for Teacher-Student Interaction in a Virtual Environment
Strange Loop Games, John Krajewski

Phase II Awards
Phase II projects support further research and development of prototypes of education technology products that were funded by 2016 ED/IES SBIR Phase I awards. In the Phase II project, the teams will complete the development of the product, and conduct a pilot study in schools to demonstrate the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the product to improve the intended outcomes. Seven Phase II awards were made for amounts up to $900,000 for 2 years.

The Phase II awards are:

Moby.Read: Automated Basic Reading Assessment
Analytic Measures, Inc., Jared Bernstein

EdSurge Concierge: Improving the Education Technology Product Discovery Process
EdSurge, Michael Winters

Cyberchase Fractions Quest
Fablevision, Inc., Gary Goldberger

Development of an Online, Multi-Challenge Platform that can Host Multiple K–12 Engineering Design Challenge Competitions Simultaneously
Future Engineers, Deanne Belle

Design Environment for Educator-Student Collaboration Allowing Real-Time Engineering-centric, STEM (DESCARTES) Exploration in Middle Grades
Parametic Studios, Christopher Whitmer

HoloLAB Champions: The Immersive Reality Chemistry Game
Schell Games, Jesse Schell

Alpha Bear 2
Spry Fox, David Edery