Funded in part by a unique statewide initiative – the Ohio Federal Research Network (OFRN) – Zhu’s team is working to develop advanced materials that will improve a battery’s cyclability (the number of times a battery can be recharged) and increase battery storage density (the length of time a battery can go before needing to be charged). Expanding the time between charges also improves a battery’s overall life.
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 Dr. George Chase was named president of the University of Akron Research Foundation at its Oct. 26 board meeting. Founded in 2001, the foundation promotes and supports the development and commercialization of UA discoveries and inventions. Chase, who joined the College of Engineering in 1985, is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. In August, he was named director of STEM research. Chase earned both a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in chemical engineering here.
By Jessica Sublett, Akron Global Business Accelerator  Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. And to make it even better, besides my obligatory female love of all things fall and pumpkin spice, it means the kick off of one of my favorite entrepreneurial support programs. Yes, it is I-Corps Sites time!! (Is my start-up nerd showing?) This is the time when our partner, The University of Akron Research Foundation (UARF), selects about 90 participants for the I-Corps Sites program per cycle and I am always happy and excited to assist them.
If you’re new to the startup scene, or if you’ve been living under the proverbial rock for the past few years, I’m going to share the five “Ws” of I-Corps so that, in the future, you, too, can take full advantage and better understand all of the fantastic programming the Akron entrepreneurial community has to offer. Read more.  Image courtesy of Innovation Fund. From left to right: Chris Miller of Fontus Blue, Audrey Wallace and Amy Husted of Komae, Ronny Shalev of Dyad Medical, and Stephanie Ham of OncoSolutions Fontus Blue, which received a $50,000 Innovation Fund “B” Award, has a cloud-based software that helps water treatment plants optimize their use of treatment chemicals and processes, resulting in exceptional water quality with reduced operating costs. Today treatment plant operators don’t have a way to quickly and reliably tell how changing the amount of one chemical will affect the need for others, so they often use more chemicals than necessary. Decision Blue® uses real-world data and unique measures developed at the University of Akron, along with advanced multi-component optimization mathematics, to evaluate millions of possible combinations of treatment chemical dosage levels and search for cost-effective solutions. Fontus Blue, which is housed in the Akron Global Business Accelerator, is using the Innovation Fund award to a hire software developer and add features to its platform. The company already has 12 water utilities in six states using its platform.
By Elyse Ball  Spark Fund – a University of Akron Research Foundation initiative to fund prototyping and testing to lead to more technology licenses – has announced $255,000 in funding to support its first three funded projects.
Dr. Abraham Joy, at right, an associate professor of polymer science, and graduate students Kaushik Mishra and Cesar Lopezreceived funding to prototype and iteratively test a light-releasable medical adhesive. The 11-month project aims to produce a fully validated negative pressure wound therapy bandage to start FDA testing, as well as a scaled production process. The team was mentored by Dr. Gopal Nadkarni, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. By Lisa Craig, lmc91@uakron.edu  O2 RegenTech, a startup spun out of The University of Akron and originally founded by Dr. Nic Leipzig, has received $100,000 in funding from the Innovation Fund Northeast Ohio.
Leipzig, an associate professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering, was joined by Dr. Andreas Inmann, an experienced medical device entrepreneur to commercialize cost-effective, easy-to-use wound care solutions based on technology originally developed at Leipzig’s UA lab. The proprietary technology is used by O2 RegenTech in an initial product offering, OXAID™, as an oxygen-releasing, moist, antimicrobial dressing to promote chronic wound healing. Research official honored for advancing innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education6/15/2017 By Lisa Craig, lmc91@uakron.edu
By Lisa Craig, lmc91@uakron.edu For the first time in the history of the LaunchTown Entrepreneurship Awards, one university swept all three top spots — The University of Akron. Six finalists out of 30 teams made their final pitches and vied for $10,000 in total cash prizes at the 11th annual competition, held April 27 at The Bit Factory in downtown Akron. The event, which is sponsored by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, is an idea competition for new businesses, products or services that is open to all students, majors, colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio. Additional sponsorship of the event was provided by the Akron Global Business Accelerator, a program of the city of Akron.  From UA Media Relations  Sleep was in short supply this past weekend, but ideas were abundant as students from other universities joined some of UA’s own for a marathon session of problem solving known as a hackathon. Participants were challenged to take a glimmer of an idea and create a fully formed product or program to solve a problem during the 24-hour period of the hackathon. This was the first hackathon organized by UA students — all electrical engineering, computer engineering and computer science majors. HAkron, as the team is known, handled all aspects of the event — from arranging sponsors to lining up a panel of judges.
By Lisa Craig, lmc91@uakron.edu
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