Midé Technology Corp., founded in 1989 by MIT PhD. Marthinus van Schoor, is a company created around the design and engineering of smart material based systems and solutions. Historically, the company has not served any specific industry, in fact, it has served many of them, including: work on the international space station; energy harvesting systems on trains; underwater thermally controlled buoyancy systems; and, most recently, work with the U.S. Navy and the commercial marine industry. In 2004, Midé won a contract from the U.S. Navy to develop a novel bulkhead shaft seal using one of its smart materials, hydrogel embedded foam, a need born out of a situation where a worn out bulkhead seals nearly led to catastrophe.