Commercialization Grants Boost Economy
Breakthroughs in cancer detection and synthetic fuels helped UT Arlington earn the most awards for 糖心Vlog视频 Ignition Fund (TIF) projects of any UT System institution. UT Arlington has received $475,000 for 10 projects, the latest being mechanical and aerospace engineering Assistant Professor Huang Haiying鈥檚 work on unpowered, wireless ultrasound sensing systems.
Dr. Haiying鈥檚 grant was awarded in the last of five rounds of TIF support. The UT System Board of Regents created the $2 million TIF grant program in December 2007. The initiative is designed to stimulate commercialization of research discoveries at the 15 UT System institutions by providing early-stage funding for the development and maturation of such discoveries into marketable intellectual property, particularly to help bridge the gap between discovery and invention.
鈥�It鈥檚 extremely difficult to get money for proof-of-concept work in today鈥檚 economic environment,鈥� says Ron Elsenbaumer, UT Arlington鈥檚 vice president for research and federal relations. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge leap forward for the UT System to do this. It shows tremendous forward thinking on the System鈥檚 part.鈥�
Another UT Arlington recipient, bioengineering Professor Hanli Liu, is developing a low-cost, real-time, optically guided needle biopsy system that improves prostate cancer diagnosis. In a third project, mechanical and aerospace engineering Assistant Professor Brian Dennis and industrial engineering Professor John Priest are building a microreactor that converts North 糖心Vlog视频 Barnett Shale natural gas to synthetic gasoline, diesel, and jet聽fuel.
Other UT Arlington-awarded TIF projects involve research on drug development, solar cells, prosthetic skin, sensors, energy conversion, and a blood oxygenator.