Prizes Awarded at 4th Annual Innovation Forum

April 10, 2009 by (permalink)   

On April 2nd, the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network, in conjunction with Princeton's Office of Technology Licensing, held the 4th Annual Innovation Forum. The purpose of the event was to showcase Princeton research that offers the potential to be commercialized. Audience members included angel investors, venture capitalists, students, faculty, staff, and members of the Princeton area entrepreneurial community.

This year, for the first time, the top three innovations were awarded research funds in recognition of their work. The funds were awarded to the Principal Investigator for the research and will be used for the purpose of advancing the research for the presented innovation. The prize winners were:

• First Place, $25,000
  • Innovation: Deep Penetrating Upconverting Nanoparticles for Photodynamic Cancer Therapy
  • Presenter: Stephanie Budijono, Graduate Student, Chemical Engineering
  • Principal Investigator: Robert Prud'homme, Professor, Chemical Engineering in collaboration with Yiguang Ju, Associate Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Jingning Shan, Associate Research Scholar, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
• Second Place, $10,000
  • Innovation: Ultra Efficient Laser Spectroscopic Trace-Gas Sensors for Sensor Networks and Portable Chemical Analysis
  • Presenter: Stephen So, Post Doctoral Research Associate, Electrical Engineering
  • Principal Investigator: Gerard Wysocki, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering
• Third Place, $5,000
  • Innovation: EdgeXL: An Edge Acceleration Box for Slow Networks
  • Presenter: Vivek Pai, Associate Professor, Computer Science
  • Principal Investigator: Vivek Pai, Associate Professor, Computer Science

The following innovations were presented at this year's forum. Applications ranged from drug discovery to computer architecture to monetizing online content. A two-page summary of each innovation is accessible in the links below. For a single pdf that combines all the summaries, download it here.

• Tissue-Like Electronic Interfaces (pdf)
• A multiple-people MRI scanner that can simultaneously scan more than one person for studying brain responses of inter-person communication and physical contact (pdf)
• 3rd Place, EdgeXL: An Edge Acceleration Box for Slow Networks (pdf)
• Commercialization of Research in Holographic Optical Storage (pdf)
• 1st Place, Deep Penetrating Upconverting Nanoparticles for Photodynamic Cancer Therapy (pdf)
• Sharing Mart: A Monetary System for Online Content Trading (pdf)
• Efficient and Scalable Analysis Tool for Surveying Relative Abundance of Biologically Important Compounds in High Resolution LC-MS/MS Data (pdf)
• CoBlitz Unified: Leveraging Network Ownership for ISPs and Telcos (pdf)
• Rare Earth Doped Upconverting Nanophosphors (UCNPs) for Bio-imaging, Energy and Security Applications (pdf)
• 2nd Place, Ultra Efficient Laser Spectroscopic Trace-Gas Sensors for Sensor Networks and Portable Chemical Analysis (pdf)
• Addressing the Multicore Problem (pdf)
• Discovery of Entry Inhibitors for HIV-1 via a Novel De Novo Protein Design Framework (pdf)

The Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education extends its sincere thanks to our partners and sponsors, the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network, the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Princeton's Office of Technology Licensing, as well as to the presenting researchers, the judges, and the entrepreneurial community for making the 4th Annual Innovation Forum a success.