Chelsea Bossert/Daily Mining Gazette AMMP Program Director, Grace Hsia Haberl, left, and MTEC SmartZone CEO, David Rowe, right, welcome seven new AMMP cohorts into its 2026 program.

HANCOCK — MTEC SmartZone’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Program (AMMP) has selected the 2026 cohorts. CaptureTech, her.HAT, PileVision, Optical Quantum Technologies, SinusBath and ZiTech will participate in SmartZone’s Three-month intensive business preparation program which kicked off this week.

AMMP Program Director, Grace Hsia Haberl, said the AMMP program began around three years ago with a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration for 1.4 million. AMMP is on its third set of cohorts and has seen the idea fully take shape.

“We’ve been so thrilled to see that we are getting manufacturing, more of it, happening right here in the state of Michigan,” she said. “And what we see here, in the Upper Peninsula, here in the Keweenaw Peninsula, is that you get some of the strongest, advanced materials and manufacturing and metallurgical processing companies,” she said.

Hsia Haberl said her own experience working in materials science and being an entrepreneur shaped her experience with SmartZone. SmartZone hosted two different events in the past few days to kick-off its AMMP cohort program. A mixer on Monday at Beviamo Vino and a kick-off presentation Tuesday morning at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock. The keynote speaker for the kick-off event was Obrion Space Technology Co-Founder and CEO, Brad King.

For the AMMP cohorts, they have the idea but need the push to get their products to market.

Optical Quantum Technologies Founder, Seth Nelson, said he has experience working with the Army Research lab and was introduced to AMMP through his time at Michigan Tech. “I have a major background in physics. I don’t have much experience in business at all,” he said. “So this has been huge for me to be able to go and essentially have a crash course in business and actually commercialize the technology that I’ve been working hard on.”

SinusBath Founder, Sergiy Blackwood, said his new sinus-clearing technology has applications far outside use in doctor’s offices. He aims for it to be used over the counter and said he hopes AMMP will propel his idea into the market.

“I can already tell that this will definitely strengthen how well-rounded my business knowledge is,” he said. “One of my personal main goals is getting more comfortable with pitches.”

CaptureTech Founder, Jonathan Weyhrauch, is farther along in his journey than the other cohorts. His technology helps rid containments from bodies of water and then turns those materials and turning them into fertilizer. “The real important thing is we are building out the largest genomic ecosystem scale database in history though looking at different waterways and different soils that we’re working in,” he said. “It’s been really cool to meet everyone and see how we’re projecting to help build out our financials, looking at our manufacturing plan and how we’re gonna scale into the future.”