N.H. firms offer anti-terror tech solutions to federal agencies

But press is barred from Combating Terrorism & High Tech Networking Summit

New Hampshire tech companies gathered at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College Monday morning to find and further relationships with government agencies they seek to do business with.

The New Hampshire High Tech Council and the New Hampshire Aerospace and Defense Export Consortium teamed up with U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte to present the Combating Terrorism & High Tech Networking Summit.

Representatives from private and government organizations, such as Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office, In-Q-Tel, and the Defense Intelligence Agency were present to speak to interested New Hampshire businesses and the public.

Before the summit began, Bill Mouyos, CEO of AMI Research & Development in Merrimack, told NHBR he was seeking to further his relationship with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or better known as DARPA.

AMI, founded by Mouyos and his partner, both former longtime employees at BAE Systems in Nashua, previously had a contract with DARPA to develop fingerprint recognition technology that recognizes the user of the smartphone as he or she swipes his or her finger across the screen. Mouyos said DARPA had been seeking a branch of government to utilize the technology, but had not found one as of yet.

Mouyos is interested in forming a contract to further develop his security explosives detection technology, which he says senses electromagnetics in molecules, something like a radar for explosives. Airport security currently relies on images that are analyzed for explosive-like objects.

Founded four years ago, AMI has seen quite an amount of success, said Mouyos. His partner is a retired scientist from BAE and has 100 patents filed to his name. AMI is working with a company in California to license AMI’s signature recognition technology to an undisclosed bank, which recognizes a finger-implemented signature, meaning your scribbles on receipts will now matter and help prevent fraud.

AMI has also worked with BAE Systems, iRobot based in Bedford, Mass., and Exelis in Nashua, he said.

But Mouyos is also interested in a business relationship or contract to further develop a low-cost phased array antenna for satellite communication on commercial airplanes. If you currently examine the tail of a commercial airliner, there is a big bump with has moving parts that allows you to use the Internet during flight. AMI is working on a flat antenna that will do the job.

And why would airliners be interested?

“It will save them 5 percent of fuel because there is less drag on the plane, and the system weighs less,” says Mouyos.

Airliners are constantly looking for ways to decrease drag and weight to save on expensive fuel.

Mouyos says he hopes to work with a company that develops and sells airplane products. AeroSat in Amherst is also involved in that line of work, he says.

At the start of the actual summit, NHBR and other media were asked to leave by a representative from Senator Ayotte’s office who explained the federal agencies in attendance would not speak in front of the press. The public was allowed to be in attendance.