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University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships
University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships
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Celebrate Invention Showcases U-M Innovators, Launches Accelerate Blue Foundry Program

10/18/2024

On October 15, Innovation Partnerships hosted more than 300 attendees at its annual Celebrate Invention event. Members of the University of Michigan community and the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem gathered together at the Michigan League to honor campus innovators and the societal impact of their discoveries.

The 2024 Distinguished University Innovator of the Year Recipient Dr. Kevin Ward receives his award during Celebrate Invention. Ben Marchionna, the State of Michigan’s first-ever Chief Innovation Ecosystem Officer, listens as Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation Arthur Lupia congratulates Dr. Ward.

The event kicked off at 3 p.m. with the Distinguished University Innovator of the Year Award panel and presentation. This year’s award recipient was Dr. Kevin Ward, executive director of the Weil Institute for Critical Care and Research and professor of biomedical engineering and emergency medicine. Ward received this year’s award for his contributions to U-M’s culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in the fields of critical and intensive care.

After Ward’s presentation, a panel discussion titled “Transforming Critical Care: A Conversation with Pioneers in Medical Innovation” was convened. Moderated by Kelly Sexton, associate vice president for research – innovation partnerships and economic impact, the panel included Andrew Malcolmson, CEO of Fifth Eye, Inc., Dr. Sridhar Kota, Professor Emeritus, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan and Co-founder of AeroSolve, and Ward.

Following the panel, doors opened for the Celebrate Invention networking reception and technology demonstrations. Sexton opened the remarks by introducing a new program by Innovation Partnerships: the Accelerate Blue Foundry.

“The Foundry will partner interested entrepreneurs with University of Michigan technologies that have the potential to become high-growth startups,” said Sexton.

“Teams that successfully complete the program and launch a University of Michigan startup are guaranteed investment from the Accelerate Blue Fund, our offices’ early stage seed fund focused on university startups. The aim of the Foundry is to expand the entrepreneurial network connected with U-M innovations and technologies, to facilitate the launch and growth of successful startup companies.” 

Remarks were also provided by the State of Michigan’s first-ever Chief Innovation Ecosystem Officer, Ben Marchionna and interim Vice President for Research and Innovation Arthur Lupia, who presented the Distinguished University Innovator of the Year Award to Ward. 

“It’s clear how deeply Innovation Partnerships – and the University as a whole – are committed to not just the growth of Ann Arbor or southeast Michigan, but to the entire state,” Marchionna said. 

“I’m excited to strengthen our partnerships and help elevate Michigan as a prime destination for startups and venture capital in the future. With your help, we aim to establish Michigan as the Innovation Hub of the Midwest and America’s Scale-up State.”

Upon concluding their remarks, Marchionna and VPRI Lupia joined attendees in touring the room, where nine dynamic U-M startups and technologies showcased their work. The projects and startups included:

Attendees at Celebrate Invention network and explore kiosks from promising U-M startups and projects including Heat2Power, Lumetec, Inc., EIPC Scan-Lab, and RUA Diagnostics.

  • ArtSpective, ArtSpective uses art and museum-based approaches to improve the way healthcare workers think about patients. Their self-guided, interactive software helps healthcare workers learn and apply perspective-taking techniques to reduce biases and improve their effectiveness in assessing and caring for patients.
  • BallotIQ, BallotIQ is using tools from operations and cybersecurity research to improve the security and administration of United States elections. Their patent-pending technology helps election officials perform rigorous pre-election testing of voting machines to determine whether machines are misconfigured to swap votes between candidates. Their technology has been piloted in real-world elections in the state of Michigan. In addition to improving election security, their technology also helps election officials efficiently check whether ballots are formatted correctly.
  • Demask, Demask’s Deep Forgery Detector (DFD) detects manipulated images, audio and video, including deepfakes, propounding trust in the integrity of the markets where it is deployed. Unlike other approaches, the DFD uses neuro-symbolic AI reasoning to make decisions and is able to explain its process to lay people through detailed reporting, including visualizations. DFD is an anti-forensic attack-aware detector.
  • EIPC Scan-Lab, Empathy in Point Clouds (EIPC) Scan-Lab is an emerging University of Michigan Research Core that provides architects, engineers, and creatives with high-precision and visually saturated spatial data. The EIPC Scan-Lab captures data with LiDAR and photogrammetry at the scale of an object to the scale of buildings, environments and landscapes. EIPC curates and processes the data for accessible and efficient immersive use in VR/XR technologies for our collaborative partners.
  • Heat2Power, Heat2Power is building the world’s best photovoltaic heat-to-electric systems using its proprietary air-bridge cells. In conjunction with inexpensive and scalable thermal storage, these cells allow multi-day electricity storage at a fraction of the cost of lithium-ion batteries. This allows low cost energy storage for intermittent renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, and for industrial heat sources, such as hard-to-decarbonize cement and steel. Additionally, it allows electricity users to switch to clean and reliable energy in an affordable way.
  • LearningClues, LearningClues is a cutting-edge platform designed for online adult and higher education, harnessing generative AI to enhance teaching and learning experiences. Their platform seamlessly integrates with your course content, automatically gathering videos and documents to generate dynamic concept maps and targeted, course-specific questions. By employing adaptive learning and spaced repetition, LearningClues helps students achieve mastery of key concepts while providing educators with valuable insights into student proficiency.
  • Lumetec, Lumetec is a deep-tech B2B surveillance software company revolutionizing the telecom industry by turning any fiber into a powerful sensing engine with its cutting-edge fiber-optic technology.
  • Precision Trauma, Precision Trauma is a veteran-owned and operated small business that provides innovative life-saving products for hemorrhage control, including:
    • Turn-I-Kit: the first tourniquet developed specifically for civilians for control of life-threatening extremity hemorrhage. 
    • Junctional-Abdominal Aortic Hemorrhage Control Device: a novel pressure control device designed for military and civilian paramedics to stop junctional and non-compressible pelvic hemorrhage.
  • RUA Diagnostics, RUA Diagnostics has developed a non-invasive, point-of-care diagnostic platform that can diagnose and monitor multiple diseases with just a breath.