Five University of Tennessee, Knoxville, faculty entrepreneurs, recipients of the university’s first Chancellor’s Innovation Fund awards, are revolutionizing their fields and tackling big problems with research supported by the competitive funding opportunity.
The inaugural recipients, who were announced in February 2024, each received $50,000 from UT’s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development, which created the awards to help faculty commercialize their technology.
“The CIF awards sit at the heart of translational research—a stepping stone on the journey from benchtop to consumer,” said Marc A. Nabhan, assistant director of entrepreneurship and new ventures at UT. “We introduced the primary investigators to entrepreneurial training that pushed them to explore the commercialization potential of their technologies.”
The recipients were chosen through a rigorous process that included a pitch competition during which they described the benefits of their technology and how the funding would propel their ideas to market. Evaluations of the projects were based on the ability to address an unmet market need, the current state of technology, the proposed technology development plan, and the funding’s impact on commercialization.
The goal, Nabhan said, was to encourage faculty to “think like investors, explain their technologies in layman’s terms, and connect effectively with their audience—building on their impressive technical expertise and groundbreaking inventions.”
Before UT announces the 2025 Chancellor’s Innovation Fund winners on February 18, last year’s recipients reflected on how they were able to use their award to make progress on their research in 2024.
Jian Huang: Using AI to Democratize Data
Jian Huang, a professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is pioneering new ways to visualize large datasets, helping organizations and individuals draw important new insights from big data.
Jian Huang
Working with UT and the UT Research Foundation, Huang has launched a tech start-up called VisualizAI (VAI), the university’s first AI-based startup. VisualizAI is developing high-powered data visualization services that can be used by nonspecialists, using a novel “visualization as a service” model that Huang and his students have been refining since 2017.
“VAI is an explainable AI company,” said Huang. “After we demonstrate how our solutions work in a business setting, like hospitals and other health care settings, I hope more people will treat AI as an ally or friendly assistant rather than an unknown and a potential risk.”
CIF is funding Huang and his team to develop a minimum viable product, or prototype, that they will use to attract investors and identify new revenue streams for VAI. VAI customers include businesses that need to make sense of big data but lack resources to hire data scientists and analysts. VAI is already working with partners in the health care industry to validate their solutions.
“For computer science research, especially the kind of work I am doing, the transformative impact is measured best by adoption,” said Huang. “From this perspective, I see commercialization as an important route to put my research to the litmus test.”
UT and UTRF are investing in Huang’s work in other ways, too. One of his PhD graduates, Tanner Hobson, was named UT’s first Entrepreneurial Fellow. The Entrepreneurial Fellows program was established in 2024 to retain talented innovators in the region and support the launch and growth of deep tech startups.
Todd Reynolds: Engineered Enzymes Enhance Circularity of Bioplastics
Todd Reynolds, professor in the Department of Microbiology, and UT PhD graduate Jordan Cannon have launched a new deep tech startup, Circular Biosciences, to commercialize novel enzyme mutations they discovered at UT that accelerate the degradation of bioplastics five times faster than industry standards.
Todd Reynolds
Poly-L-lactic plastics, or bioplastics, are one alternative to the forever plastics plaguing the planet, but they don’t break down quickly during the composting process. Derived from renewable organic sources such as cornstarch or sugar cane, they degrade naturally rather than piling up in landfills. The biodegradation process requires certain conditions, however, and can take 45–90 days in an industrial composting facility.
This is where Circular Biosciences’ enzyme mutations come into play.
“Dr. Reynolds and I participated in UT’s I-Corps Mid-South Hub program, and in the customer discovery process we learned that our enzymes would need to operate at high temperatures to be commercially viable,” explained Cannon. “Our Chancellor’s Innovation Fund award allowed us to engineer our enzymes for improved thermostability.”
Cannon is now the CEO of Circular Biosciences and has been accepted into the highly competitive Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he continues to advance the commercialization of this promising technology.
John Sorochan: Testing Sports Surfaces with New Technology
John Sorochan has tested an invention that measures the performance and playability of sports surfaces in more than 100 stadiums in three countries.
John Sorochan
fLEX is a portable device that can simulate the foot strike of an athlete ranging from 35 to 350 pounds doing a stopping or accelerating motion. These simulations help optimize field performance and enhance player safety.
The award from the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund award helped Sorochan, Distinguished Professor of Turfgrass Science and Management in the UT Institute of Agriculture, and Kyley Dickson, researcher and co-director of UT’s Center for Athletic Field Safety, co-found the start-up fLEX Standard Solutions, license their technology from the university, and apply for a patent.
“Since we won that funding, we also have been able to meet our goals of updating our software, coming up with a prototype 3 that is more OSHA- and user-friendly, and finding a company that can manufacture them at a good clip,” said Sorochan, noting that three fLEX devices exist with a fourth underway.
Along the way, Sorochan and Dickson have continued testing fLEX in NFL, MLS, and college stadiums in the United States, Canada, and England, and the two have been invited to include it as a potential testing unit at the FIFA Technology and Innovation Test Event for Natural Playing Surfaces in February, as fLEX is a “great tool for FIFA to ensure consistency across all World Cup stadiums,” Sorochan said.
Ahmedullah Aziz: Reimagining Superconducting Logic Systems
Ahmedullah Aziz, an assistant professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is reimagining the future of computing with superconducting technology.
Ahmedullah Aziz
“Superconductors deliver the best energy efficiency known to us,” Aziz said. “To realize their full potential, we need to redesign computing elements with this technology. The promise is enormous.”
Aziz has already explored how superconducting logic systems can revolutionize multiple promising fields, from large-scale quantum computing systems to deep space missions where temperatures drop to -455 degrees Fahrenheit.
With support from the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund, Aziz transitioned his superconductors from simulation models to prototype development. Initially Aziz partnered with a German manufacturer, but logistical constraints led him to switch to a US-based partner, SEEQC.
Aziz is now poised to demonstrate his superconducting processor to industry partners, confident it will pave the way for energy-efficient AI and sustainable computing.
Uday Vaidya: Creating New Materials Using Carding Technology
UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Uday Vaidya, researcher Pritesh Yeole, and graduate research assistant Vinit Chaudhary, all from UT’s Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, received their 2024 Chancellor’s Innovation Fund award to expand the scale of their “carding and combing” method of producing new materials from carbon, glass, and natural fibers that are considered waste, thereby minimizing what goes to the landfill.
Uday Vaidya
Creating new products out of natural fibers or out of recycled carbon and glass fibers would help reduce a company’s carbon footprint.
To create these composite materials, the team uses a technique they call carding and combing, which Vaidya likens to combing hair. The fibers are entangled when they begin, he said, but UT’s equipment can comb them into straight fibers ready to be mixed with glue or resin and woven into new composite materials.
“Think of it like sticking pieces of paper together with glue,” he said. “If you stick 10 pieces of paper together, now you have a pretty rigid board. It’s the same concept with composites: you start with flexible discarded fibers and you weave them together to make them strong, stiff, and resilient.”
After rigorous testing of the composite materials themselves, the team started determining how the new composites could be used in the marketplace and made eight to 10 prototypes of possible applications for demonstration purposes. Now they’re actively talking to companies that are interested in using these kinds of lightweight sustainable materials in areas such as heavy equipment and transportation.