Tech Tidbits From Around New Hampshire

Planet Fitness Inc. has appointed Sherrill Kaplan as is chief digital officer. Most recently, Kaplan served as global marketing operations advisor for Advent International, a private equity firm.

Consolidated Communications says 25,000 residents and businesses in the New Hampshire town of Durham, Kingston, North Hampton, Pelham, Raymond, Rye, Salem and Seabrook will be getting gigabit fiber internet this month. The company says that, by the end of 2021, nearly 32,000 total addresses in the towns will be able to access the service.

Gary Sloper, co-founder of Macronet Services, has been named the new chair of the NH Tech Alliance’s board of directors. Also joining the board are Adam Coughlin of York IE, Jason Gagnon of WipFli and Jeremy Hitchcock, a partner at New North Ventures.

Orion Entrance Control Inc. of Laconia, a manufacturer and supplier of converged entry technology, has appointed Pierre Bourgeix as an embedded consultant. Bourgeix has over 30 years of security experience through his work at The Rand Corporation, U.S. State Department, ADT/Tyco Security, HySecurity, Wallace International, SecureState, and BoonEdam.

Periscope Equity, a Chicago-based private equity firm, has added MAS Medical Staffing LLC of Londonderry, NH, to its portfolio. Founded in 2002, MAS is a tech-enabled medical staffing agency primarily serving long-term care facilities in the Northeast. The company employs its proprietary technology platform, MAESTRA, thatit says optimizes per diem shift fulfillment by directly linking facilities and their open shifts with nurses. MAS said the partnership with Periscope will help it expand its geographic footprint, accelerate its technology development and pursue strategic acquisitions.

Oztek Corp. of Merrimack, a provider of power conversion systems, is now ISO 9001:2015 certified for the design, manufacturing, sale and repair of power control and instrumentation solutions, the company announced. ISO 9001:2015 is the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system, or QMS.

Merrimack-based IT firm Connection, is accepting nominations for its first IT Superhero Awards, presented in partnership with TechCrunch. The awards “recognize hard-working IT professionals whose heroics have saved the day and helped move their teams forward in the face of daunting challenges,” Connection said. The awards are open to IT professionals from companies of all sizes and industries. Winners will be announced at the very first IT Superhero Awards Show, held during TechCrunch Disrupt on Sept. 21. Nominations must be submitted by Aug. 10. For more information, visit connection.com/ITawards.

North Country Healthcare – a nonprofit affiliation of four medical facilities in New Hampshire’s White Mountains Region – is partnering with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Connected Care and Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock to provide neonatal services to patients via telemedicine. NCH affiliates include Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin, North Country Home Health & Hospice Agency in Littleton, Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster, and Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook.

Although Upper Connecticut Valley and Weeks do not offer labor and delivery services, providers there can assist patients who are in labor using a specialized telemedicine cart that allows the bedside team to collaborate with a board-certified D-H neonatologist. At Androscoggin Valley, the local clinical team will collaborate with the D-H team using an iPad on a special stand that can be positioned at the patient’s bedside. In NCH hospitals, D-H telehealth clinicians also will utilize two-way, interactive audio and video technology to support and assist the local clinicians in critical situations, allowing patients to receive specialty care that is unavailable locally.

The Seacoast School of Technology in Exeter held its 41st certificate ceremony June 1, recognizing nearly 250 seniors and certificate completers across 12 programs. The school, serving students from Epping, Exeter, Newmarket, Raymond, Sanborn and Winnacunnet, offers programs that allow students to earn college credit and industry-recognized certifications while fulfilling their high school graduation requirements.

MarketReach of Nashua, a provider of creative services for technology companies, has been recognized as one of the top 35 B2B marketers in the United States on the B2B Marketing U.S. Agencies Benchmarking Report.

A team of engineering graduates from Dartmouth is a finalist of NASA’s Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams Challenge to design and build an autonomous search-and-rescue vehicle. The team’s invention is being be tested alongside the 20 other finalists by NASA at the Johnson Space Center Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, Texas, this week. The team consists of five members of Dartmouth’s bachelor of engineering class of 2021: Mit Patel; Garrett Rawlings; Rafael Rosas; Ty Teodori; and Andrew Skow. The team’s faculty advisor is Professor Laura Ray.