After three days of demonstrations, Lumineye was named the winner of the second round of the Army’s xTechSearch competition.

The Boise, Idaho-based company received $250,000 to continue work on its man-portable wall-penetrating radar.

The announcement was made Oct. 16 during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C. Officials also named 12 finalists for the third round of the competition—those companies will demonstrate their technologies and a winner will be named during AUSA’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in March.

The Expeditionary Technology Search, shortened to xTechSearch, calls on companies to demonstrate technologies that can help the Army meet its modernization challenges. The goal is to seek nontraditional innovators and small businesses who can work with the Army, including through cooperative research opportunities with Army scientists, as it modernizes the force.

For xTechSearch 3.0, the Army on Oct. 16 selected 12 out of 25 participating small businesses to move on to the next round.

Each company received $120,000 to continue their research and prepare for their demonstrations at Global Force in Huntsville, Alabama.

They are Anti-Rotational Technologies, Cayuga Biotech, ElectroNucleics, GhostWave, Knight Technical Solutions, LiquidPiston, Merciless Motors, SIGINT Systems, Syncopated Engineering, TexPower, TRX Systems and XO-NANO.

Bruce Jette, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, called on the businesses to “invest well.”

“We are really looking forward to your awesomeness and the next piece,” he said.

Aside from the money, the competition allows small businesses the chance to interact with the Army, Jette said.

“You’re trying to discover how you can fit in, how you can help,” he said. “And we’re trying to give you opportunities to dialogue with people in the Army.”

In turn, xTechSearch gives the Army “insight into what you have. This is a two-way data exchange.”

- Scott Gourley for AUSA