Kurt Adair and Adam Sawyer: Educated and Educating

In the 2007-2008 Cozad Competition, partners Kurt Adair and Adam Sawyer won the Commercial Venture Division with their venture SA Microsystems. The idea behind this venture was to create an educational tool that can be used by college students to help them understand characteristics of micro fluids.

The mission of SA Microsystems, according to Adam Sawyer, is to “design and sell specialized engineering workstations to research laboratories, educational classrooms, and industry.  Our workstations use a unique method known as PIV to measure and map out fluid flows in microscale devices.  This analysis reduces the time and costs associated with developing new products in the areas of micro- and nanotechnology.” Sawyer, a 2007 graduate in Mechanical Engineering, said they came up with the idea in their Senior Design class.

Sawyer notes that SA Microsystems was incorporated in May of 2008. Also since Cozad, Adair said the team has started prototyping. Because they have such a small market and there is no real potential for a multimillion dollar company, Adair said, they mainly work on the venture on the side. They have no need for a big front office or a sales team because their main goal is only to sell it to universities.

Adair graduated this past summer from the University with a Masters degree in mechanical engineering. While he works on SA Microsystems on the side, he is actively putting his degree to use by working at Continental Data Label in Elgin, Illinois, where he is a production process engineer. His main objective is to improve setup time and the speed of productions.

Conversely, Sawyer is currently working on finishing his Master’s degree in mechanical engineering and hopes to continue on with a PhD. Along with taking classes and studying, he is diligently working to fine-tune their systems and recruit potential customers to SA Microsystems.

When asked what he thought of Cozad, Adair said that he really thinks the Cozad competition was a great tool in propelling them forward in their venture and getting him to be more independent and focused. “Whether you win or not, it forces you to think about your ideas. It wakes you up a little bit,” he said.

Sawyer also had good things to say of the University. “I have always been grateful for the excellent education I have received at the University of Illinois. The Technology Entrepreneur Center (and the College of Engineering) was an important part of this education and I am really glad I got involved with them.”