Rather than the typical article highlighting retail businesses within our neighborhood, I thought I’d look a bit beyond the norm into the less visible, but no less interesting, world of small entrepreneurs. One such example is Nitz Associates, whose “corporate headquarters” in located in a Spanish style stucco house along NE Alameda Street.
In 2002, Fred Nitz incorporated the company to manufacture and sell storage tank monitoring systems — primarily to oil/gas and water companies. Through a mutual friend connection, Keven Boyett soon joined Fred, both gentlemen have electrical engineering backgrounds with numerous years experience in development and manufacture of testing equipment, as well as software development. The company has looked beyond industrial application of the Acoustic Signature Analysis software and its recently released BBQ TankMeter Android App (available on Google Play store) has been recognized by This Old House magazine in its top 100 best new home products—an amazing feat for any small company. Just hold your Android phone 6” away from tank, strike it with a quarter, and amount of fuel remaining will be displayed on phone— works either while tank in use or not. As Fred mentioned, “the power in the newest phones is amazing, multiple times more powerful than was available in desktops just a few short years ago”; and this has got Fred and Keven thinking even more outside the box on what might be possible through a hand held device. Of course the App that drew my attention was the demo of holding your phone up to that glass/mug of beer and verifying that “a pint was truly a pint”— I’m sure that might get you a few looks at any local pub or brewery, even in “weird” Portland.
But seriously, Nitz Associates is in early stages of development of a “box” not much larger than deck of cards that when married to a smart phone could act as a mini – portable scientific lab. Of course both being from engineering backgrounds, the country’s crisis in falling STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) graduates is near and dear to Fred and Keven. Anything that would help students see fun in these curriculums and keep their interest would be a step in right direction. The company is hoping to have a prototype developed by mid-2014.
So if this article has gotten your creative juices flowing with similar ideas contact Nitz Associates, 4131 NE Alameda, www.nitzassociates.com or Fred directly at fred.nitz@nitzassociates.com, who knows what may bear fruit?