CURF Hosts Annual Innovation Award Ceremony 

CURF was excited to host this year's Innovation Awards ceremony and recognize the outstanding achievements of our Clemson University inventors. This year's event, sponsored by Fredrikson & Byron, P.A., featured opening remarks from Provost Bob Jones and special guest speakers Sam Havelock and Sean Solberg. Sam Havelock is an American Venture Developer and former Navy Seal. Sean Solberg is a shareholder and patent attorney at Fredrikson and Bryon P.A.  In the opening remarks, Dr. Jones provided insight into the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in Clemson Elevate and provided words of support to the faculty who seek to innovate and commercialize. Sean Solberg updated us on the Mira medical device commercialization efforts, including its FDA approval and test use in space flight. Sam Havelok addressed the difficulties and chaos that happen in commercialization, the importance of team building, and remaining intrepid when venturing into the unknowns of starting up a company.

This year, we were proud to present 29 Patent Awards and 9 License Awards to over 30 inventors!

Below are those who were granted a Patent Award:

• Radiographic Discernable Sensors and Orthopedic Applications for Same - Jeffrey Anker and John DesJardins
  
• Self-adjusting Tissue Holder with Flow Placement for Universal Integration into Tissue Preparation Processes and Tools for Assembling - Agneta Simionescu and Dan Simionescu

• Fluorescent Conjugated Polymer Bioconjugates - Jason McNeill 
• Target-specific Polymeric Micelle/nucleic Acid Complex Nanotherapeutics - Jeoung Soo Lee
• Self-Repairing Polyurethane Networks - Marek Urban
• Oat “SCLA0100214” Plant Variety - Richard Boyles and Bradley Stancil
• Channeled Fibers in Separation of Biologically Active Nanoparticles - Terri Bruce, Richard Marcus, and Rhonda Powelll
• A graphene/polymer heterostructure based flexible and bio-compatible pressure/strain sensor - Goutam Koley and Apparao Rao
• System and Methods for producing hybrid foam structures using polymer injection forming - Saeed Farahani
• Redox-active interfaces for accelerated liquid-solid charge transfer reactions - Stephen Creager and Mark Roberts
• Management of data access authorization using blockchain - Richard Brooks and Lu Yu
• Hollow Porous Silicon-Containing Structures and Methods of Formation - Nancy Chen, Apparao Rao, and Morteza Sabet
• Hydrothermal method for growth of alkaline earth metal stannate bulk single crystals and crystals formed thereby - Joseph Kolis, Rylan Terry, and Colin McMillen
• Embroidery for precision control of tensile material properties of textiles - Michael Porter

Patent Award Spotlight: Method and apparatus for non-destructive measurement of faceguard structural stiffness - Alex Bina, John DesJardins, and Gregory Batt

Below are those who received a License Award:

• Simila, Inc. - Carlos Garcia and Lucas Ayres
• Health Extension for Diabetes^TM - Sherrill Windsor, Danielle McFall, and Janet Evatt
• Enhance Diagnostics, LLC. - George Chumanov, Robert Latour, Tyler Harvey, and Guzeliya Korneva

Congratulations to all awardees! We are already looking forward to next year's event.