Busy week at the Gulf Blue Navigator!

This week saw the 3rd in-person meeting of the Navigator Cohort-1. It was a busy time during which the cohort members continued to work with USM's Roger F. Wicker Center for Ocean Enterprise on their test and demonstration projects. The cohort members also participated in the SBIR Road Tour event held at Jackson State University. They met with various federal SBIR program representatives to discuss potential funding opportunities for supporting their innovation and commercialization efforts and working with the federal agencies. They continued to receive support from Unmanned Coast, a program of NVision Solutions, Inc., who helps manage the Navigator program. Unmanned Coast is funded in part by an SBA Regional Innovation Cluster (RIC) contract. This assistance included getting all 6 members approved as subcontractors on the Navy Seaport NXG prime contract number N0017821D9247P00006! Several of the members also met with NOARC - National Oceans and Applications Research Center, to discuss potential partnerships and demonstration projects here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. A special thank you to HORNE for sponsoring our cohort dinner at Mary Mahoney’s in Biloxi. Additionally, three of the Navigator Pilot Cohort members from last year were this week continuing their efforts with USM's Center for Ocean Enterprise - #SEATREC, #Blue Ocean Gear, and #SeaTrac Systems. Cohort-1 members are: #BLUEiQ, #LeVanta Tech, #V2 Forensics, #Oscilla Power, #Seasats, and #Mythos AI.