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Governor Steve Beshear's Communications Office
Universities receive awards for commercialization of emerging technologies from KSTC
FRANKFORT, Ky.—Governor Steve Beshear today announced six new awards in the amount of $556,137 to state universities under the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation’s Kentucky Commercialization Fund to help them commercialize promising emerging technologies in the Commonwealth.
Ideas for commercialization range from a high performance materials for structural repairs to a urine test for diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea. The funding allows validation, scale up or development of a test kit or commercialization plan depending upon what is needed to transfer these technologies from university labs to companies for commercialization.
Researchers receiving these new awards were from the University of Kentucky (UK), University of Louisville (U of L) and Kentucky State University (KSU). Projects funded represent priority focus areas identified by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
The funding will allow UK to develop and test a new product made from high strength carbon fiber strips to strengthen and upgrade existing reinforced concrete and steel bridges and buildings. U of L will use these funds for design completion and optimization of a reactor for producing metal oxide nanowires at commercial scale; development of Web Assisted Recovery (WAR) computer and marketing programming to prevent relapse among addicted persons in early recovery; development of a wireless device to alert parents and care providers by monitoring sudden increase in body temperatures beyond a predetermined threshold in children due to infection, seizure or under a therapy; and development of a urine-based diagnostic test to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea in snoring individuals either as a clinical diagnostic test or a home test kit for rapid screening. The award to the KSU will help the researchers to develop and commercialize a specialized sensor-based wireless technology to remotely monitor and detect loss of fluid and changes in other physical parameters in difficult-to-monitor individual containers.
Since April 2002, Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation (KSEF) has invested more than $14 million dollars as seed research and development funding in 257 technology ideas attracting additional federal dollars and developing a pipeline of technologies and about $5 million dollars in 43 emerging technologies through Kentucky Commercialization Fund for commercialization of promising technologies for the advancement of technology-based economic development in the Commonwealth. A rigorous national peer review process is used in making these competitive awards.
For further information about these new awards and other KSEF activities visit http://ksef.kstc.com or call (859) 233-3502.
KSEF and KCF are initiatives of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation through support from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.
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