Software Program Developed at FAU's NSF Research Center Coming to 6,500 Walmart Stores Nationwide

FAU Licenses Technology to C-Capture, Inc.

SurviveDrive, a small portable plug and play USB drive designed as a one-step process to make Windows-based PC system backups available to the masses, will be in 6,500 Walmart stores nationwide in spring 2017 thanks to an innovative partnership between academia and industry. Researchers in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University designed and developed the software program and licensed the technology to C-Capture, Inc. The company, formed through an initiative by the National Science Foundation (NSF), commercialized SurviveDrive, and for every unit sold, FAU will receive a royalty payment.

FAU’s NSF Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (CAKE) was established in 2009 to provide a framework for interaction between university faculty, industry, and government in critically important areas of information technology, communication, and computing.

"SurviveDrive is yet another example of a success story coming from our Industry/University Cooperative Research Center," said Borko Furht, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at FAU and director of FAU's CAKE. "This is a ‘win-win’ situation for both C-Capture and our University."

C-Capture, Inc. (www.c-capture.com) was established in 2014 by Neal Hynes, an FAU graduate student at the time, who approached Furht in 2013 for his assistance to further develop SurviveDrive. In the process, C-Capture became a member of FAU’s CAKE.

"Getting involved with Dr. Furht and Dr. Hari Kalva, FAU graduate student Deepti Pappusetty, and the entire CAKE team at Florida Atlantic University was instrumental for the success of C-Capture and SurviveDrive," said Hynes, FAU alumnus and chief technical officer and partner of C-Capture, Inc. "Data loss is something that no one wants to experience, but sooner or later, all hard drives crash – it is only a matter of when. Many individuals are not prepared when it happens, and in most cases the data is not retrievable. Paying an IT professional to try and recover the data or using a cloud based storage system to hold the data can be expensive, so SurviveDrive provides a simple yet affordable solution."

SurviveDrive does not install an invasive program; it simply runs an executable every time it has been plugged into an available USB socket. The product captures all files on the C-drive including all photos, documents, settings, email if using Outlook or Windows mail; music, videos, desktop, contacts, and all folders that were created by any end user on the machine. The device works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 in both 32 and 64 bit, and comes in three sizes at 32GB, 64GB and 128GB.

FAU's CAKE (cake.fau.edu), an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, encompasses researchers from FAU and Florida International University, and serves as a bridge linking academia, industry, and government in a coordinated research initiative, providing a much-needed boost for the region. Research is applicable to many fields, including national defense and homeland security, health care, biomedical science, environmental science, entertainment, finance, and technology services. The 33 members of CAKE include companies such as JM Family Enterprises; Motorola Mobility; LexisNexis; Tecore Networks; and Emerson Network Power; among others.