SPARK Fund announces awards to two UA innovation teams

​Spark Fund, an initiative of The University of Akron Research Foundation (UARF), has announced two awards to support prototyping and testing for UA innovation teams. Spark Fund aims to help UA faculty generate the proof needed for their technology to be licensable to a scalable startup company. On February 4, 2026, the SPARK fund selection committee awarded:
 
$50,000 to team UltraQuench, for advanced manufacturing for heat treatment developed by Dr. Gopal Nadkarni, Associate Professor and Dr. Hyeonu Heo, Assistant Professor, both from Mechanical Engineering.
 
$50,000 to team Novel Redox Flow Battery for clean energy battery storage technology developed by Dr. Yu Zhu, Professor Polymer Science.
 
To qualify for SPARK Fund, applicants need to have a patent application or provisional patent application filed through UA's Office of Technology Transfer, show proof of principle or proof of concept work that indicates the technology is likely to work, and demonstrate an understanding of the potential market for the technology based on conversations with real customers completed through UA’s NSF I-Corps program. SPARK Fund is supported by Ohio’s Department of Development, Third Frontier, Technology Validation & Startup Fund (TVSF).