Celebrate Invention 2017

10/31/2017

On Wednesday, October 18, over 350 inventors, entrepreneurs and community leaders gathered at the Michigan League Ballroom to recognize the accomplishments of U-M faculty and researchers at the University’s 17th Annual Celebrate Invention reception.

Among those attending the reception were U-M Provost Martin Philbert, U-M VP for Research Jack Hu, U-M Senior Associate Dean for Research Steve Kunkel, and Interim Director U-M Innovation Partnerships Rick Brandon, all of whom addressed the crowd, recognizing the accomplishments of those University researchers who, during the past fiscal year, participated in the technology transfer process. All four speakers, while noting examples of U-M technologies presently making a difference in the world, called attention to the fact that this year, for the fifth straight year in a row, U-M researchers had reported over 400 new inventions, filling the pipeline for future commercialization activities.

In fiscal year 2017 alone, Hu said, a record-breaking 444 technologies had been disclosed to U-M Innovation Partnerships, reflecting the desire of U-M’s research community to see their work make a positive impact outside the University.

As in year’s past, the event was built around eight invention kiosks, where inventors from across the U-M campus shared their most recent discoveries. Among this year’s presenters were:

WiEnTra
A novel technology that significantly extends the efficient charging zone of wireless chargers by maintaining the power transfer level and efficiency as the relative position between the transmit and receive pads varies in terms of distance variation and lateral/angular misalignment.

MATURA96
An FDA validated high throughput screen for pre-clinical human cardiac pro-arrhythmia and cardiotoxicity detection. MATURA96 is the only FDA validated platform to detect drug induced Torsades de Pointes (TdP) arrhythmia mechanisms in vitro. The MATURA96 “96 hearts in a dish technology” will streamline drug discovery.

Arcascope
Algorithms that operate like GPS for your body’s clock. Arcascope tracks your body’s internal time by tracking your light exposure, and uses that information to recommend how you should expose yourself to light to improve health and performance.

RITMO
An optimization approach for the design and operation of a multimodal transit system consisting of buses and shuttles.