Soin award will help tech firm tell its story

The award is presented annually to local companies that best exemplify Dayton’s “historical innovative spirit.”

Redwall principals will use the award’s $25,000 to spread the word about what their technology can do. The award also offers support from CareWorks and marketing services from Cox Digital Marketing.

The idea is to protect cell phones, tablets and anything connected to the “internet of things” from attack, including home thermostats, medical devices and automobiles linked to the net.

“Those devices are now inside your car and on the bus,” said Rosenstengel, Redwall president and chief executive. “If somebody can reach out and attack your phone, they can reach out and attack your (device). And that’s not a good thing to have happened.”

The company began with a “certified ethical hacker” who came up with the idea of what is now Redwall. The company is reaching out to the federal government and producers of cell phones and “hardened radios” for police and fire services, among other manufacturers.

“We tend to be inside of someone’s else’s device,” Rosenstengel said. “We need people to think of us when they’re designing a device.

“We are talking with the biggest of those,” he said of potential customers.

Redwall has eight full-time employees, but it is “definitely growing,” Rosenstengel said.

“We’re really just now out doing a hard-core press,” he said.

Debate talk

Also at the chamber’s annual meeting, David Hopkins, president of Wright State University, said the presidential debate that WSU will host Sept. 26 may be among the most watched in history.

“The eyes of the world will turn to Dayton,” he said.

The impact of the debate goes beyond economics, Hopkins told the chamber audience at Sinclair Community College.

But the deeper impact will be on how the world sees Dayton, he said. For example, C-SPAN before the debate is expected to spend 30 minutes focusing on Dayton.

“We have 30 minutes to tell our story,” Hopkins said. “And not just Wright State’s story. We’re talking about how we can show off on C-SPAN for 30 minutes. And show off all the assets we have here.”