BOZEMAN, Mont. - ­New technology for protecting motorists and pedestrians from collisions with railroad locomotives is being jointly developed by a Billings, Mont. company, Brightsun Incorporated, and NASA¹s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of Pasadena, California. Reg Gibbs, Brightsun President, said his technology ³will be operated automatically by sensors or manually by an engineer, to deflect objects from the path of a train and greatly reduce injuries and deaths.²

The MSU TechLink Center in Bozeman and the Montana Incubator for NASA Technology (MINT) in Billings assisted Brightsun and JPL in forming a partnership to utilize NASA expertise and equipment to refine the technology.

Brightsun is an idea generation and invention development company with an interest in application of technology to the transportation and agriculture industries. Brightsun currently markets one agricultural-related product and has several other technology-related inventions in the development stage.

JPL researchers are conducting technical feasibility studies to assist Brightsun in evaluating the cost and potential commercial benefits of the new collision-mitigation technology, which is based on technology that NASA has previously used successfully in its space programs.

TechLink is located at Montana State University in Bozeman and funded by the Department of Defense and NASA to link companies in Montana and the surrounding region with federal laboratories for joint research and technology transfer. Its overriding purpose is to contribute to the success of both technology-based companies and key resource-based industries in the state and region. The MINT provides technology transfer and commercialization assistance to companies working with the Big Sky Economic Development Authority in the Billings region.

Contacts:
Reg Gibbs, President
Brightsun, Inc.
(406) 252-6651
bright@wtp.net 

Will Swearingen 
TechLink
(406) 994-7704
wds@montana.edu

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