4th annual
UTSA Innovation Awards luncheon
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Office of Commercialization and Innovation
Annual UTSA Innovation Awards Thursday, December 8, 2016 The annual UTSA Innovation Awards recognize excellence in innovation in the UTSA research community. These annual awards are presented in four categories and are the lead indicators of UTSA’s success at commercializing technology.
w e l c o m e a n d i n t r o d u c ti o n s Ricardo Romo President
Bernard Arulanandam
Interim Vice President for Research
remarks Cory Hallam
Chief Commercialization Officer
[ Lu n c h ] awards
Patent Recipients
Presented by C o r y H a l l a m
Licensing Revenue Recipients
Presented by b e r n ard ar u l a n a n da m
I-Corps Recognition
Presented by chri s ti n e b u r k e
Innovator of the Year
Presented by ricard o r o m o
Message from The Office of Commercialization and Innovation The UTSA Office of Commercialization and Innovation (OCI) is focused on the commercialization of innovations and intellectual property created by faculty, students, and staff. Our four primary thrusts are to: • Manage the university’s portfolio of innovations and intellectual property • Accelerate the translation of UTSA innovations to the community • Provide intellectual property education and training • Engage companies in research and commercialization partnerships We have built an entrepreneurial ecosystem that continues to grow in the region. OCI helps bridge the gap between basic research and applied innovation by operating a proof-of-principle fund and supporting commercialization development programs such as the NSF I-CorpsTM. Our novel Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program pairs faculty and seasoned entrepreneurs to move promising technologies into the market. We operate the UTSA New Venture Incubator (NVI) to enable university start-ups and host partner companies that grow our research and commercialization activities on campus. Together, these activities contribute to the success of UTSA’s mission, vision and core values. We created the Annual UTSA Innovation Awards to recognize the importance of translating cutting edge research into new products and companies that impact our lives in a positive way. We are proud of this year’s honorees and invite you to join us in celebrating their success and contribution to UTSA. Dr. Cory R. A. Hallam UTSA Chief Commercialization Officer and Jacobson Distinguished Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
I ssu e d P at e n ts
Issued patents represent the securing of intellectual property rights for new innovations. This year we received a record number of issued patents. These grow our licensing portfolio and contribute to UTSA’s state, national, and international rankings. Dr. Sos Agaian | 9,299,130 | United States Methods and Apparatus for Image Processing and Analysis Techniques for digital image enhancement using a single input image.
Dr. Mauli Agrawal | 9,259,334 | United States, Australia Scaffold System for Tissue Repair An expandable scaffold that serves as a temporary template that allows damage tissue to be rebuilt.
Dr. Arturo Ayon and Dr. Cory Hallam | Australia, Mexico, China Impact Resistant Surface-Mounted Roof Sensors A roof sensor system to measure and transmit load information to warn of roof collapse.
Dr. Rajendra Boppana | 9,128,791 | United States Generation of Distinct Pseudorandom Number Streams Based on Program Context Method of providing random number streams to a computer useful for simulations and cryptography.
Dr. Banglin Chen | 9,127,025 | United States Robust highly interpenetrated metal-organic framework constructed from pentanuclear clusters for selective sorption of gas molecules Metal-organic frameworks useful for gas storage, gas absorption, gas separation, and gas detection.
9,296,773 | United States Enantiopure Mixed Metal-Organic Frameworks for Selective Separations and Enatioselective Recognition Metal-organic frameworks useful for gas storage, gas absorption, gas separation, and gas detection.
9,376,641 | United States, Europe, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Ireland A Metal-Organic Framework with Optimized Open Metal Sites and Pore Spaces for High Methane Storage at Room Temperature Metal-organic frameworks useful for gas storage, gas absorption, gas separation, and gas detection.
Dr. Doug Frantz | 9,221,800 | United States Isoxazole treatments for diabetes Compounds to treat diabetes by inducing synthesis and secretion of insulin from pancreatic beta cells.
Dr. Donald Kurtz | 9,346,855 | United States Protein Scaffolds for Targeted Delivery of Toxic Iron to Cancer Cells New method of cancer treatment using iron-based cancer photodynamic therapy (PDT).
Dr. Taeg K Nishimoto | D759,885 | United States A Hexagonal Translucent Mesh Light Source Container Lighting design using three different kinds of fabric (recycled polyester felt, spandex, and silk).
Dr. Dhiraj Sardar | 9,173,562 | United States Method and Apparatus for Diagnosing Neovascularized Tissues Method for detecting eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy.
Dr. Qi Tian | 9,412,020 | United States Geometric Coding for Billion-Scale Partial-Duplicate Image Search Image search for use in image/video copyright violation detection, and image tracking.
*Dr. Bao Liu | 9,181,089 | United States Carbon Nanotube Crossbar Based Nano-Architecture Design for a carbon nanotube microprocessor that could lead to a new approach for creating CPU’s.
*Dr. Carlos Garcia | 9,134,223 | United States Modification of A Flow Cell to Measure Adsorption Kinetics Under Stagnation Point Flow and Development of a Setup Correction Procedure for Obtaining Adsorption Kinetics at The Stagnation Point A modified flow cell for a spectroscopic ellipsometry machine used for chemical analysis.
*Dr. Todd Wolf | 9,177,154 | United States Remediation of Computer Security Vulnerabilities A computer vulnerability patching system that uses the exploit itself as a tool for applying the patch.
* Not Present
L ic e nsing R e v e nu e
Licensing revenue represents income the university receives from intellectual property that has been optioned or licensed. The revenues are shared amongst the university, colleges, departments, and faculty involved in the intellectual property. This year also showcases the first ever licensing revenue generated upon initiation of a sponsored research agreement as a result of improved intellectual property policies. Dr. Doug Frantz New Chiral Phosphite Ligands for Asymmetric Catalysis Doug Frantz is the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Distinguished Professor in Chemistry. His research areas include asymmetric catalysis; heterocyclic synthesis; medicinal chemistry; physical organic chemistry; and process chemistry. He is the co-founder of the Center for Innovative Drug Discovery in San Antonio.
Dr. Ruyan Guo and Dr. Amar Bhalla Accurate and Repeatable Method of Measuring and Profiling Frozen Beverages Ruyan Guo is the Robert E. Clarke Endowed Professor of Electrical Engineering and serves as the program director of The Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Advanced Materials Engineering. She specializes in the areas of ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and nonlinear dielectric and optical materials. Amar Bhalla is a Distinguished Research Professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests include electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices, and nanosystems.
Dr. Arturo Ayon and Dr. Cory Hallam Surface-mounted monitoring roof sensors system/ Impact-resistant surface-mounted roof sensors Arturo Ayon is a Professor with the department of Physics & Astronomy. His research focus includes micro devices; photovoltaics; metamaterials; sensors; and materials science of thin films. He was named 2015 UTSA Innovator of the Year. Cory Hallam is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Technology Management, the Director of the Center for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE), and serves as Chief Commercialization Officer of UTSA’s Office of Commercialization and Innovation.
i - C o r ps T M R e cognition
The National Science Foundation awarded $50,000 grants to UTSA investigators and their teams, with the goal to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research. This grant also provides entrepreneurship training to the participants by combining experience and guidance from established entrepreneurs through a targeted curriculum. All UTSA I-Corps grantees completed a joint CITE/OCI program to qualify for the national program. The Agaian Team Digital Pathologist Platform Mr. Cole Wollak, Dr. Sos Agaian, Mr. Mike Troy Sos Agaian’s team, which included student Cole Wollak and businessman Mike Troy, explored the needs of pathologists and insurance companies and how their automated cancer detection and grading, with additional analysis of patient medical information and allowing remote analysis for underserved markets, may be able to fulfill market needs. The Ayon Team Obstructive Sleep Apnea Mr. Trent Berryman, Dr. Arturo Ayon, Mr. Joey Oliver Arturo Ayon’s team, consisting of UTSA business major Trent Berryman and San Antonio businessman Joey Oliver, interviewed people who suffer from sleep apnea and the medical professionals who treat them, to explore and understand the market requirements for their discreet and portable EPAP nasal masks, an alternative to CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) therapy. The Chen Team Gas cylinder for high-purity acetylene storage Dr. Huimin Wen, Dr. Banglin Chen, Dr. Jeff Xu Banglin Chen’s team, which included postdoctoral fellow Huimin Wen and entrepreneur in residence Jeff Xu, investigated the needs of gas storage and separation companies and the fit of their porous materials that can efficiently store high-purity acetylene, or separate acetylene from ethylene and has potential applications in gas storage, separations, sensors, catalysis and electronics.
I nno v ator of th e Y e ar
The final category is for the Innovator of the Year Award. The award recipient is presented with a trophy recognizing the highest innovation productivity based on technology disclosures, patent filings, issued patents, and licenses signed in the previous fiscal year.
Banglin Chen Innovator of the Year Dr. Banglin Chen earned his B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from Zhejiang University, China and his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the National University of Singapore. His current research interests include solid state nanoporous metal-organic frameworks and nanoparticles, self-assembled by coordination of suitable metal ions/clusters with organic building blocks. Such porous materials are of great interest for their potential applications in gas storage, separations, sensors, catalysis and electronics. The current challenge for the synthesis of such materials is to functionalize their nano-sized cavities; so that they can be well suited for specific host-guest interactions and practical applications.
C omm e rciali z ation A cti v ity S ummary
Technology innovation and commercialization are major focuses of the UT System and other Tier One universities throughout the state and nation. The office establishes UTSA procedures and policies for technology transfer and commercialization, and provides training to faculty, staff, and students. It also spearheads connecting UTSA with regional technology commercialization partners.
ACTIVITY
FY 2012
FY 2013 fy 2014 FY 2015
FY 2016
Commercial Agreements (Contract, SRA, MOU, NDA, & MTA)
49
52
84
105
143
New Invention Disclosures
26
62
56
41
53
Patents Filed
46
76
75
69
68
Patents Issued
4
0
9
9
23
Copyrights & Trademarks
0
6
3
3
4
New License/Options Signed
1
10
5
7
3
New Technologies Licensed/Optioned
3
10
8
7
2
120
128
102
74
83
20
19
16
14
18
215
295
310
329
376
11
13
15
15
15
Entrepreneurs in UTSA $100K Competition Companies in UTSA $100K Competition Entrepreneurs Trained at Boot Camp Companies Incubated
Office of Commercialization and Innovation Cory R. A. Hallam, Ph.D. AVP & Chief Commercialization Officer (210) 458-6985 | Cory.Hallam@utsa.edu Christine Burke, Ph.D., MBA Director, Commercialization & Technology Transfer (210) 458-8140 | Christine.Burke@utsa.edu Neal Guentzel, M.S., J.D. Technology & IP Management Specialist (210) 458-4458 | Neal.Guentzel2@utsa.edu Andrei Zorilescu Technology Licensing Associate (210) 458-8139 | Andrei.Zorilescu@utsa.edu Suzette Vallejo, M.A. Coordinator of Research Commercialization (210) 458-6963 | Suzette.Vallejo@utsa.edu Roland Vasquez Contracts & Agreements Coordinator (210) 458-5197 | Roland.Vasquez@utsa.edu These awards are supported, in part, by the generosity of Roman Aguilera III, of The Aguilera Law Firm PLLC
Distinguished Achievement UTSA Interim Provost C. Mauli Agrawal was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) for his research and innovation in orthopedic and cardiovascular biomaterials and implants. The honor places Agrawal among an elite group of professionals that includes presidents and senior leaders of research universities, Nobel laureates, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees and National Academies members. www.academyofinventors.org
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Office of the Vice President for Research