Innovation in the Capital Region: Non-stop Ingenuity from Cellcontrol and Marucci Sports in Baton Rouge

Cellcontrol, Baton Rouge

Cellcontrol Changes the Game for Road Safety

Cellcontrol is solving distracted driving across the world as commercial fleets implement this patented technology.

Engineers at Baton Rouge startup Cellcontrol created technology that does what no other distracted-driving solution can do: fully block texts, email, messaging and social media on mobile devices while a driver’s at the wheel.

Competitors may remind drivers not to use their phones, but only Cellcontrol’s technology effectively prevents the use of both iOS and Android devices while a vehicle is in motion.

“We offer an enforceable solution,” says Cellcontrol’s Joe Breaux, chief technology officer. Tech observers and those working to prevent distracted driving have taken notice. Cellcontrol has been featured in national media, including Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports.

In 2014, Cellcontrol was a Best of Innovations honoree at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the world’s biggest gathering of consumer-technology innovators.

Worldwide users of Cellcontrol’s technology have driven a combined

miles.

Delivering Customizable Safety

Cellcontrol’s patented technology comprises two main parts: a vehicle motion-activated device and a mobile app that runs on a mobile phone or other portable device. The system is tamper-resistant and flexible.

Commercial fleets can customize the app and allow drivers to use music or maps, and 911 calls always go through. The system provides feedback on braking, other measures of driver performance, and a driver safety score. Cellcontrol’s prime market to date is commercial trucking fleets in North America, Europe, the U.K., Australia and other markets.

The nine-year-old company’s success can be measured partly by distance: Worldwide users of Cellcontrol’s technology have driven a combined 2 billion miles. The firm has opened offices in Chicago, Dublin and Ireland to support long-term growth.

This is a global solution for a global problem, so it makes sense that we grow into a global company.

Joe Breaux//Chief Technology Officer, Cellcontrol

Marucci Sports, Baton Rouge

Data-Driven Design from Marucci Sports

Marucci Sports crafts its wooden baseball bats with hitter insights and maple from an Amish-run mill in Pennsylvania. At company headquarters in Baton Rouge, Marucci delves into Doppler radar-based technology to test the spin rates and exit speeds of aluminum bats in a research lab.

Marucci
today is the

in Major League
Baseball.

Such are the steps Marucci will take in search of the perfect bat. Established in a backyard shed by namesake and long-time LSU head athletic trainer Jack Marucci in 2002, Marucci today is the No. 1 bat in Major League Baseball (MLB) while also making a name for itself in all other competitive levels of the sport.

“Most of our competitors are 100 years old, so doing things fast is how we compete,” said co-founder and CEO Kurt Ainsworth, a Baton Rouge native who pitched at LSU, was a first-round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants in the 1999 MLB Draft and also won a gold medal for Team USA in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia. “People look to us for speed and innovation.”

Marucci Sports uses Doppler radar-based technology to test spin rates and exits speeds in search of the perfect baseball bat.

From its start with wood bats at the professional baseball level, the firm relied on player feedback, high-grade materials and relentless testing of bats in the lab and on the ballfield to expand into other baseball gear and equipment in more recent years. The pursuit of perfection paid off. Today, more than one-third of Major League players, including MVP winners Buster Posey and Albert Pujols, swing Marucci bats, and the company’s presence is increasingly seen in college baseball and youth leagues around the country.

Fine-Tuning Excellence

Popular Science magazine put Marucci’s aluminum-alloy CAT7 Connect Bat on the Best Innovations of 2017 list, citing flawless calibration, a big sweet spot and a “trampoline effect” that’s ideal for rocketing long balls. Marucci’s market strategy involves quickly adopting meaningful changes to its bats and other products, Ainsworth said, with the Marucci series of CAT aluminum-and-composite bats offering a perfect example.

After earning praise for the CAT7 Connect Bat, Marucci went straight to work on a CAT8. Introducing a new model every two years requires rethinking every aspect of the bat almost immediately. The resulting CAT8 — released in late May of this year — is essentially a new bat, with elements from knobs to vibration-dampening features to graphics to internal materials undergoing critical adjustments.

It’s a continuous process of innovation. It has to be nonstop.

Kurt Ainsworth//Co-Founder and CEO, Marucci