The University of Arizona’s McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship and a local company that makes mobile surveillance systems were honored at the 2013 Governor’s Celebration of Innovation Awards Thursday night in Phoenix.
The McGuire Center was given the Innovator of the Year award for academia, while Tucson-based StrongWatch Corp. won the small-company Innovator of the Year award.
StrongWatch offers products for the video surveillance market, including mobile camera systems used by law enforcement agencies and emergency responders.
McGuire was honored for its successful track record in educating entrepreneurs and its research in the area, according to the Arizona Technology Council, a partner on the awards with the Arizona Commerce Authority and sponsor Phoenix-based Avnet Inc.
Other local awardees are the Thomas R. Brown Foundations, which won the William F. McWhortor Community Service Leader of the Year; and two Tucson students who were named Future Innovators of the Year: Eric Epstein of Tucson High Magnet School and Shelby Yuan of University High School.