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Bergen startup wins award at Houston’s Offshore Technology Conference

Photo: WiSub The company’s pinless connector, called Maelstrom, transfers data through seawater at much higher rates than many other existing non-contact subsea communications methods, but is unaffected by acoustic disturbance, turbidity, and marine growth.

Photo: WiSub
The company’s pinless connector, called Maelstrom, transfers data through seawater at much higher rates than many other existing non-contact subsea communications methods, but is unaffected by acoustic disturbance, turbidity, and marine growth.

Rasmus Falck
Oslo, Norway

The startup WiSub, from Bergen, was one of the Spotlight on New Technology Award Recipients at this year’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas. Their awards showcase the latest and most advanced hardware and software technologies that are leading the industry into the future.

WiSub’s innovative subsea connector eliminates the pins from subsea wet-mate connectors with a solution based on solid-state electronics, providing increased mating cycles, reduced operational cost, and increased reliability of subsea connections. The connector applies inductive coupling for power transfer and patented microwave communication methods.

OTC Award-Winning technologies were selected based on the following five criteria: They must be new, less than two years old; innovative, original, groundbreaking, and capable of revolutionizing the offshore industry; and powerful, through full-scale application or successful prototype testing. They must also hold broad appeal for the industry and make a significant impact, providing significant benefits beyond existing technologies.

In support and recognition of innovative technologies being developed by small businesses, OTC has created a new Spotlight on New Technology Small Business Award this year. The small business applications were evaluated using the same five criteria above, but the company was also required to have fewer than 300 employees. According to the Spotlight Award Committee, the award winners embrace OTC’s mission to advance technical knowledge of offshore developments and environmental matters: “With the creation of the Small Business Awards, we are recognizing the fact that companies both big and small are developing innovative technologies and creative solutions to meet the world’s energy demands.”

WiSub has six employees and won the price for its Pinless Subsea Wet-Mate Connector. Supplying the international subsea industry with patented, innovative, and flexible wet-mate pinless underwater connection systems, they just moved out of Bergen’s local incubator. Their solutions provide greater freedom to subsea equipment designers and operators, transcending traditional complex mechanical systems through the evolution of solid-state electronics.

To win such an award is a highlight for the little oil service company being recognized by about 100,000 visitors at this year’s OTC, the largest fair in the industry. WiSub already has a commercialized product and is now building a sales organization. They are looking for investors!

This article originally appeared in the May 29, 2015, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly.

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Rasmus Falck

Rasmus Falck is a strong innovation and entrepreneurship advocate. The author of “What do the best do better” and “The board of directors as a resource in SME,” he received his masters degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently lives in Oslo.