The Pennovation Center Leases Office to IQinetics

Media Contact: Jennifer Rizzi, Director, Communications, Penn Facilities & Real Estate Services, 215.573.6107, rizzi@upenn.edu

June 27, 2017

The University of Pennsylvania’s Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services announced that IQinetics has signed a lease for office space within the Pennovation Center, the University’s business, technology and laboratory incubator.
The Philadelphia-based IQinetics develops advanced motion control systems that allow electric motors to achieve increased power and efficiency, as well as superior position and velocity control. Born out of Penn’s robotics lab, IQinetics’ six years’ worth of development allows them to incorporate both public and proprietary algorithms to deliver the highest performance and reliability.

A 2016 PhD graduate of Penn’s Schools of Engineering program in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics with a concentration in robotics, CEO Matt Piccoli used his extensive work with and love for aerial vehicles and electric motors as inspiration to create IQinetics.
“The Pennovation Center was the perfect place for us to set up shop for so many reasons. We’re close to our friends in PERCH and neighbors with VCs and potential customers. Penn and Benjamin’s Desk have done an incredible job fostering a community among the different startups in the building,” said Piccoli, from his perspective and that of IQinetics co-founder Jon Broome. “We’re one of the younger startups here, so it’s great to speak with and learn from fellow Pennovation companies.”

Given Piccoli’s background and the companies interested in the product, IQinetics has mainly focused on addressing motion control and efficiency issues in the drone industry. However, the technology has a wide range of robotic applications, such as 3D printers, gimbals and biomedical devices. IQinetics currently sells its motor modules (motor and motor controller all-in-one package) to small robotics teams and is in talks with larger companies to license its hardware design and software.
From the beginning, Piccoli’s work attracted interest from industry and media. While a PhD student, Piccoli earned a best paper nomination at a prestigious robotics conferences, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), for anticogging (a motor calibration algorithm that reduces cogging torque ripple).

In 2016, Piccoli was part of a team called Smart Stator in that spring’s cohort for the Penn I-Corps Accelerator Program. During I-Corps, they worked on a device that is a high-performance motor driver to push motors past their present limits while increasing efficiency, lowering noise, reducing vibrations, heightening precision, and improving control. This work, and additional projects, developed into today’s IQinetics.
Media and public interest in their robotics technology is growing as well. IQinetics shared a tradeshow booth with the Penn Center for Innovation in March at the 2017 SXSW Conference. In April, IQinetics co-founder Jon Broome spoke about their technology and their place in the Pennovation Center in an article for droneblog.com.

“Watching entrepreneurs grow and develop companies while members of the Pennovation Center community validates the value we sought to bring by building this site,” says Anne Papageorge, Vice President, Facilities & Real Estate Services at Penn. “The Pennovation Center provides the resources and facilities for these professionals to take their work to the next level. IQinetics serves as an example of where you can take your ideas when you joining a community of innovators such as we have here at Pennovation.”
About The Pennovation Center

The Pennovation Center is a 58,000 square-foot three-story facility designed for start-up companies, entrepreneurs, and inventors looking to be part of a unique community of innovators, and includes a full service technology incubator; basic wet and dry laboratories; private offices, Inventor Garages, as well as a coworking space for up to 200 members, operated by Benjamin’s Desk. It opened in October 2016 as the centerpiece of the University of Pennsylvania’s Pennovation Works, a 23-acre development adjacent to the University campus on the southern bank of the Schuylkill River providing facilities and amenities to bridge intellectual and entrepreneurial initiatives among University researchers, private sector innovators, and start-ups. Owned by the University, and operated by its Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services, Pennovation Works houses research labs from Penn’s schools of Veterinary Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Design, and start-up companies such as Qualcomm Philadelphia Research Lab, Netronix, and Novapeutics.

Visit pennovation.upenn.edu and follow Pennovation Works on Facebook, @Pennovation on Twitter, and @pennovationworks on Instagram.