Wayne State spinoff gets funding boost

The Detroit Innovate Fund, a new fund to help launch local high-tech startup companies, has invested $250,000 in Detroit Materials Inc., a Wayne State University spinoff that hopes to make cast-steel parts for the military, mining and off-road markets. [...]

Detroit Materials is based on patented research by Susil Putatunda, a professor of chemical engineering and materials science in WSU's College of Engineering, which involves austempering, a heat treatment for steel and iron that results in improved mechanical properties.

Putatunda's work was previously funded by a three-year NSF grant of $303,461 that began in June 2009