Twelve Tech faculty members will get the chance on Wednesday to show the public how their research can be used in the business world.
Tech Assistant Vice-President of Economic Development Dr. Michael Aikens said the Faculty Innovator Showcase features work that can result in the formation of a company or be licensed for use. Aikens said most of the faculty got help from students, who will benefit from the experiences.
“We’re preparing our students with real world, career ready, lab ready research experience,” Aikens said. “So when they go off and graduate, they’re differentiated in the market. They’re the ones that people are going to want to hire.’
Aikens said the faculty research spans agriculture to chemistry to engineering. For example, Aikens said one faculty invented an app to promote mental health and another created a technology to manage southern pine beetles.
“Everybody’s research can be translated into some type of commercialization,” Aikens said. “So that is really the main story that I want to put out there, is that all of this has commercial viability. And the 12 faculty tht we’ve got for this showcase are really going to do a great job of showing just why their research really matters to the market.”
Aikens said Tech began the showcase two years ago with a grant from an entrepreneurial organization called LaunchTN.
“Through that grant, we decided that a great use of funds would be put the showcase together so that we can really expose the great inventions that our faculty are coming up with to not only the campus community, but across the state,” Aikens said.
The Faculty Innovator Showcase takes place from 10am to Noon Wednesday in Memorial Gym.
