Mainebiz

V O L . X X I N O. X M atthew Hodgkin, an animal and veterinary sciences graduate, has a lot more than a new Bachelor of Science diploma to show for his four years at the University of Maine in Orono. He's the co-owner of a lobster-related business exploring ways to create products from lobster- processing waste. A research project he led this year shows early promise as a non-invasive way of testing the viability of lobsters for shipping. And a project he's working on to commercialize currently unmarketable green crabs, if successful, could create demand for an invasive species that's decimating soft-shell clam populations on Maine's coast. At the heart of those accomplishments is the wild card of any young person's college experience: Finding a mentor. In Hodgkin's case, the more experienced guide is professor Bob Bayer, executive director of the Lobster Institute, who helped Hodgkin pivot when his original career goal of becoming a veterinarian hit the roadblock of organic chemistry during his sophomore year. "We started working together because of a dog," Bayer says, sitting at a small table in a campus office with Hodgkin, who graduated from UMaine on May 9. "A nice yellow lab," Hodgkin adds. "We would just chat after class. He asked me to do some research for the Lobster Institute and it evolved into a mentoring relationship … If you look for those paths on your own, you don't always find them. Bob helped me to see some of the possibilities." "I just made the suggestion, 'Innovation engineering — check it out,'" Bayer recalls. Hodgkin did and graduated with a minor in inno- vation engineering, a multi-disciplinary program that teaches students from any major "to create, com- municate and commercialize, or otherwise realize, meaningfully unique ideas in any field." Given that emphasis, it's not surprising that Hodgkin's capstone project advances the Lobster Institute's early efforts, dating back to the late 1970s, to measure the viability of Maine lobsters prior to shipping. Given the whopping 45.4% increase in the export value of Maine lobsters between 2013 and 2014 — accounting for almost $366 million of last year's seafood exports — that's hardly an academic question. Air transportation to China and South Korea, where demand for Maine lobsters is sky- rocketing, can take up to 60 hours — long enough to stress and kill the weakest lobsters. Real-life problems To demonstrate how the lobster claw strength sensor works, Hodgkin picks up a good-sized lobster and carefully removes a thick rubber-band from the crus- tacean's crusher claw. He picks up a syringe needle and carefully inserts the needle into a gap between sections of the lobster's tail, drawing out a small sample of clear liquid called hemolymph (the equivalent of blood in arthropods). He withdraws the syringe and squirts the liquid onto a reflector plate of a refractometer. Matthew Hodgkin, a 2015 University of Maine graduate, demonstrates the lobster claw strength sensor device he tested as a project under the guidance of Bob Bayer, executive director of the Lobster Institute. The device shows promise as a way to test the viability of lobsters for shipping. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A I N E O RO N O New and better tool for lobster exporters? UMaine graduate 'finds his star' through the college's innovation engineering program B y J a m e s M c c a r t h y M AY 1 8 , 2 0 1 5 22 P RO F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T / WO R K F O R C E T R A I N I N G F O C U S

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