THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH INNOVATION

SPARK FUND AWARDEES

Representing multiple colleges and disciplines, this cohort of Spark Fund awardees presented diverse and exciting projects to CRI—giving us a detailed glimpse into the society-driven impact our community looks to achieve.

With expert assistance from Spark Fund advisors, the CRI carefully evaluated over twenty applicants and selected six research opportunities to fund and grow.

FALL 2023

Leanne Chukoskie

Leanne Chukoskie

Transforming Diabetes Care with Smart Technologies

Ke Zhang

Ke Zhang

Developing polymer-enhanced oligonucleotide therapeutics for myotonic dystrophy type 1

Sara M. Hashmi

Sara M. Hashmi

High throughput microfluidic tensiometry/elastometry

Alexander R Ivanov

Alexander R Ivanov

Next-generation ultra-low flow chromatography column technology for high sensitivity analysis of limited biomedical samples

Jason Radford

Jason Radford

True Voice

Aarti Sathyanarayana

Aarti Sathyanarayana

My Atlas

SPRING 2023

Dori Woods

Dori Woods

Compartmentalizing Biology to Diagnose and Treat Disease

Randall Erb

Randall Erb

Broadening the Aperture for Accessible Markets for Thermoformable Ceramics

Ebong Eno

Eno Ebong

Structurally and Functionally Repaired Endothelium Glycocalyx

Yi Zheng

Yi Zheng

Nanofibrous bio-paint for large-scale passive cooling

Rebecca Carrier

Rebecca Carrier

Streamlining Oral Drug Formulation Using Model-driven Design of Lipid-based Vehicles

Leigh-Plant

Leigh D. Plant

Developing Custom Treatment Strategies for Muscular Dystrophy Ailments

FALL 2022

Carolyn-Lee-Parsons-

Carolyn Lee-Parsons

Engineering plants to produce increased anti-cancer drug precursors

Edmund-Yeh

Edmund Yeh

Designing an advanced content delivery platform for adaptive bitrate video streaming

Ke-Zhang

Ke Zhang

Completing a proof-of-concept study of a Duchenne muscular dystrophy candidate

Ryan-Koppes

Ryan Koppes

Building a stem cell strategy for improving peripheral nerve repair

Yaning-Li

Yaning Li

Testing 3D tiled auxetic metamaterial (3D TAMM) for impact-resistance Applications

Diomedes-Logothetis

Diomedes Logothetis

Developing selective modulators of brain GIRK1/2 for treatment of epilepsy

SPRING 2022

Mansoor Amiji

Mansoor Amiji

Oral RNA Tx -Solutions for Oral RNA Delivery

Peter-Bex

Peter Bex

Validating AI-guided, rapid, self-administered vision diagnostics in a remote setting

Sara Hashmi

Sara M. Hashmi

High throughput microfluidic tensiometry/elastometry

Purnima-Makris

Purnima Makris

Passive Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing of Marine Ecosystems

Mohsen Moghaddam

Mohsen Moghaddam

AI Technologies for Need Finding, Concept Evaluation, and Generative Design

Emily

Emily Zimmerman

NeuroSense Diagnostics

FALL 2021

Randall Erb

Randall Erb and Jason Bice

New advanced manufacturing platforms that can process phononic crystals into intricate parts at high rates of production.

Peter-Bex

Jeff Ruberti

CRISPR Cas9 Acceleration of Human Active Collagen Production

Sara Hashmi

Aatmesh Shrivastava

“Ultra-low Power Wake-up” with Analog Computing for Always on Connectivity

Purnima-Makris

Ben Woolston

A Co-Culture Method for Enhanced Biofuel and Biochemical Production from Untreated Waste Gases

Yi Zheng

Yi Zheng

Recyclable, Scalable and Self-cleaning Passive Cooling Paper for Building Roofs

Emily

Sunny Zhou

Spatial and Temporal Activation of Protein Therapeutics by Light: Animal Testing for Photo-Caged Immunotoxin to Treat Eye Cancer

SPRING 2021

Randall Erb

Tomasso Melodia

The Melodia lab is developing CellOS, a data-driven network operating system to automate the control of 5G/6G cellular networks and maximize their performance. CellOS combines softwarization and virtualization principles, network slicing and intent-based networking with data-driven solutions to automate network control and deliver high-performance services to mobile users.

Peter-Bex

Sara Rouhanifard

The Rouhanifard and Wanunu labs are refining ViralNPQ, a cost effective and easy-to-use device that collects all viral measurements using the same sample. This solution images and quantifies the presence of a viral genome with single-molecule accuracy.

Raymond Fu

Raymond Fu

Pathfind uses patented deep learning model compression techniques to transform once costly AI algorithms into customized lightweight processes. Pathfind enables complex computer vision and machine learning programs to run in real time on simple devices – bringing cutting-edge innovation to telemedicine, in-home fitness and other markets.

Purnima-Makris

Tania Konry

Konry Lab produces rapid, low-cost, highly accurate, and readily available point of care testing (POCT) solutions for microbial pathogen detection.

Yi Zheng

Neel Joshi

Tantu is developing innovative microbe-based therapeutics expressed and delivered to the site of intestinal lesions to treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and other gastrointestinal diseases without systemic side effects.

Safa Jamali

Safa Jamali

The lab’s methodology leverages the most recent advances in the world of science-based machine learning to accelerate material design and discovery as well as process control and design for complex and multi-component fluid systems.

FALL 2023

Leanne Chukoskie

Leanne Chukoskie

Compartmentalizing Biology to Diagnose and Treat Disease

Ke Zhang

Ke Zhang

Developing polymer-enhanced oligonucleotide therapeutics for myotonic dystrophy type 1

Sara M. Hashmi

Sara M. Hashmi

High throughput microfluidic tensiometry/elastometry

Alexander R Ivanov

Alexander R Ivanov

Next-generation ultra-low flow chromatography column technology for high sensitivity analysis of limited biomedical samples

Jason Radford

Jason Radford

True Voice

Aarti Sathyanarayana

Aarti Sathyanarayana

My Atlas

SPRING 2023

Dori Woods

Dori Woods

Compartmentalizing Biology to Diagnose and Treat Disease

Randall Erb

Randall Erb

Broadening the Aperture for Accessible Markets for Thermoformable Ceramics

Eno Ebong

Eno Ebong

Structurally and Functionally Repaired Endothelium Glycocalyx

Yi Zheng

Yi Zheng

Nanofibrous bio-paint for large-scale passive cooling

Rebecca Carrier

Rebecca Carrier

Streamlining Oral Drug Formulation Using Model-driven Design of Lipid-based Vehicles

Leigh D. Plant

Leigh D. Plant

Developing Custom Treatment Strategies for Muscular Dystrophy Ailments

FALL 2022

Carolyn Lee-Parsons

Carolyn Lee-Parsons

Engineering plants to produce increased anti-cancer drug precursors

Edmund Yeh

Edmund Yeh

Designing an advanced content delivery platform for adaptive bitrate video streaming

Ke Zhang

Ke Zhang

Completing a proof-of-concept study of a Duchenne muscular dystrophy candidate

Ryan Koppes

Ryan Koppes

Building a stem cell strategy for improving peripheral nerve repair

Yaning Li

Yaning Li

Testing 3D tiled auxetic metamaterial (3D TAMM) for impact-resistance Applications

Diomedes Logothetis

Diomedes Logothetis

Developing selective modulators of brain GIRK1/2 for treatment of epilepsy

SPRING 2022

Mansoor Amiji

Mansoor Amiji

Oral RNA Tx -Solutions for Oral RNA Delivery

Peter Bex

Peter Bex

Validating AI-guided, rapid, self-administered vision diagnostics in a remote setting

Sara M. Hashmi

Sara M. Hashmi

High throughput microfluidic tensiometry/elastometry

Purnima Makris

Purnima Makris

Passive Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing of Marine Ecosystems

Mohsen Moghaddam

Mohsen Moghaddam

AI Technologies for Need Finding, Concept Evaluation, and Generative Design

Emily Zimmerman

Emily Zimmerman

NeuroSense Diagnostics

FALL 2021

Randall Erb and Jason Bice

Randall Erb and Jason Bice

New advanced manufacturing platforms that can process phononic crystals into intricate parts at high rates of production.

Jeff Ruberti

Jeff Ruberti

CRISPR Cas9 Acceleration of Human Active Collagen Production

Aatmesh Shrivastava

Aatmesh Shrivastava

"Ultra-low Power Wake-up" with Analog Computing for Always on Connectivity

Ben Woolston

Ben Woolston

A Co-Culture Method for Enhanced Biofuel and Biochemical Production from Untreated Waste Gases

YI ZHENG

YI ZHENG

Recyclable, Scalable and Self-cleaning Passive Cooling Paper for Building Roofs

SUNNY ZHOU

SUNNY ZHOU

Spatial and Temporal Activation of Protein Therapeutics by Light: Animal Testing for Photo-Caged Immunotoxin to Treat Eye Cancer

SPRING 2021

Tomasso Melodia

Tomasso Melodia

The Melodia lab is developing CellOS, a data-driven network operating system to automate the control of 5G/6G cellular networks and maximize their performance. CellOS combines softwarization and virtualization principles, network slicing and intent-based networking with data-driven solutions to automate network control and deliver high-performance services to mobile users.

Sara Rouhanifard

Sara Rouhanifard

The Rouhanifard and Wanunu labs are refining ViralNPQ, a cost effective and easy-to-use device that collects all viral measurements using the same sample. This solution images and quantifies the presence of a viral genome with single-molecule accuracy.

Raymond Fu

Raymond Fu

Pathfind uses patented deep learning model compression techniques to transform once costly AI algorithms into customized lightweight processes. Pathfind enables complex computer vision and machine learning programs to run in real time on simple devices – bringing cutting-edge innovation to telemedicine, in-home fitness and other markets.

Tania Konry

Tania Konry

Konry Lab produces rapid, low-cost, highly accurate, and readily available point of care testing (POCT) solutions for microbial pathogen detection.

Neel Joshi

Neel Joshi

Tantu is developing innovative microbe-based therapeutics expressed and delivered to the site of intestinal lesions to treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and other gastrointestinal diseases without systemic side effects.

Safa Jamali

Safa Jamali

The lab’s methodology leverages the most recent advances in the world of science-based machine learning to accelerate material design and discovery as well as process control and design for complex and multi-component fluid systems.