Fayetteville-based MORE Technologies has received a $50,000 Technology Development Program award through the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. The MORE team will use this funding to develop an open-ended prototyping platform for K-12 educators to easily provide hands-on STEM robotics activities for their students.
The MORE Team
The MORE team is made up of four current and former University of Arkansas students.
Rex Hearn serves as the chief technology officer and has a background in biomedical engineering. Kaushik Ramini is the vice president of manufacturing and an expert in mechanical engineering. MORE’s chief executive officer Canon Reeves studied computer science. Chief operating officer Peyton Smith has a background in business and finance.
“We first discovered our love for robotics through our high school robotics teams, so we have a unique understanding of what our users are experiencing when they use our platform. Our team is technically ambitious yet business savvy and we’re just getting started,” said Reeves.
MORE expects to grow new, high-tech jobs in Arkansas through a couple of ways.
“We plan on growing the team and expanding our product lines to include other innovative education products. As we scale we will need to hire more engineers, sales reps, and operational specialists. Our product also helps inspire the next generation of engineers, problem solvers, and innovators. Ten years from now we hope to see engineers in the Arkansas workforce who are there because our robots helped them discover a passion for problem-solving in school,” said Reeves.
The Opportunity
Students and teachers will benefit most from MORE’s platform.
“Our goal is to help teachers meet their curriculum goals while making lessons fun and memorable for the students. This technology will do a better job than existing technologies at bridging together an easy entry point and a high ceiling for what students can create and learn. We focus on teaching students how to create their own technology, not just use what’s out there,” said Reeves. This platform will also allow educators to meet state-mandated standards in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
The Solution
Through their TDP award, MORE will be developing a prototyping tool that makes it easy for any fifth-12th grade teacher to incorporate hands-on learning through robotics into the classroom. It includes an easy-to-use electronics platform, 3-D printed construction platform, and a portable cart to make it easy to share resources between classrooms.
“We came up with the idea after creating MOREbot and talking with teachers across the state,” said Reeves. MORE was a participant in the Delta I-Fund program.
This TDP award will help MORE bring this product to market over the next year with rigorous testing along the way. “Developing a hardware product is often a daunting and expensive task. Without the TDP I’m not sure that we would have been able to bring this product to market in a reasonable timeframe,” said Reeves.
ASBTDC Assistance
“Rebecca Todd of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center has been instrumental in helping us understand what grants and funding avenues we should explore. She coached us through the ins and outs of applying to TDP and gave great feedback along the way,” said Reeves.
The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center also assisted the team by providing curated market research.
What’s Next for MORE?
MORE is spinning up their research and development efforts on this project in the hopes of being ready to start beta testing in the fall.
“With the help of the ASBTDC, we are also pursuing a Small Business Innovation Research funding opportunity to develop an educational drone using our platform,” said Reeves.
Advice for New TDP Applicants
“Start early and work with the ASBTDC!” Reeves advised.