Daily News Briefs

Biophan Technologies Inc., of Rochester, N.Y., will receive the Nano Science and Technology Institute (NSTI) Early Stage Company Award, to be presented at the International Nanotechnology Exhibition and Conference (Nano Tech 2005), Feb. 23-25 in Tokyo. The award recognizes innovation and achievement by development-stage nanotechnology companies. The NSTI also accepted Biophan into its Nanotech Ventures program, to be launced at the Nanotech 2005 Conference and Trade Show, May 8-12 in Anaheim, Calif., where Biophan will make a presentation at the Nanotech 2005 Early Stage Company Review. Biophan develops technologies for implanted medical systems and surgical devices to enable them to be used safely and effectively with magnetic resonance imaging. . . . BOC Edwards, a supplier of materials, equipment and services to manufacturers of microelectronics devices, including semiconductors and flat panel displays, has selected KoMiCo Ltd., of South Korea, as its preferred chamber kit management services provider. A chamber kit is a package containing parts and consumables required for periodic maintenance on process tool subsystems. In addition, BOC Edwards and KoMiCo have made agreements to license to each other their respective advanced parts cleaning technologies for customers in the US, Europe and parts of Asia. This alliance complements a recently announced joint venture BOC Edwards said it intends to finalize with Highlight Tech Corp. to provide component management and equipment support services for semiconductor and flat panel manufacturers in Taiwan. . . . The engineering department at the University of Cambridge, England, announced it will use visual pattern recognition and autonomous navigation technologies by Pasadena, Calif.-based Evolution Robotics GmbH in its Machine Intelligence Laboratory to initiate new projects involving the ERSP (Evolution Robotics Software Platform) kit, which facilitates robotics research and product development. The laboratory's robotics research focuses on 3-D object shape recovery, object and person-recognition, video surveillance, image-based localization and human-machine interaction.