CIF Presentation Pitch Event
The Office of Research, Innovation & Economic Development (ORIED) has established the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund (CIF) to raise awareness, promote innovation, and support entrepreneurship for UT’s promising innovators. Through this program, we will enable commercialization of new technology, support the launch of technology-based startups, and fund entrepreneurial opportunities for researchers across our campus.
Earlier this semester, ORIED and the UT Research Foundation (UTRF) reviewed numerous technical proposals from UT faculty and graduate students, focused on entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. We have selected eight semi-finalists from these proposals to compete for proof-of-concept funding awards, each worth up to $50,000.
About the Event
UT is delighted to announce our upcoming 2024 Chancellor’s Innovation Fund Presentation Pitch event! Our 2nd annual event will be hosted by ORIED’s Office of Entrepreneurship & New Ventures on November 12, from 2:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., in The Relix Venue located at 1208 N. Central Street, Knoxville, TN.
Each semi-finalist will deliver a five minute presentation showcasing their technical solutions, market opportunities, and technology commercialization plans. An expert panel will evaluate their pitch and conduct a brief Q&A session. After the event, our CIF team will work with the panel of judges to select up to five awardees. Please note that awardees will not be announced during the event; we are planning an award ceremony for a later date.
Participants selected for this funding may be awarded an amount up to $50,000 to support commercialization and entrepreneurial endeavors, focused on prototyping, proof-of-concept validation and other early-stage efforts to bring their innovations to market. This annual program will support up to five (5) awards of $50,000 each, based upon written proposals and performance during the CIF presentation pitch event.
When and Where
Tuesday, November 12, 2:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. at The Relix Venue (1208 N Central St, Knoxville, TN 37917). Agenda details are included below
Showcase Details
Agenda
2:30 – 3:00p.m. Doors Open / Check-in and Networking
3:00 – 3:30p.m. Welcome / Opening Remarks
3:30 – 5:30p.m. CIF Semifinalist Presentations
- Dr. Dustin Crouch – Endoprosthetic Thumb Replacement Technology
- Dr. Xueping Li – AI-Powered Cancer Staging Reports
- Dr. Sai Swaminathan & Danny Norman – NeuroCam Tags, IOT Sensor Platforms
- Dr. Thomas Zawodzinski & Brian Washington – Aluminum-Air Batteries
- Dr. Feng Yuan Zhang – Water Electrolyzers for Decarbonization and Energy Storage
- Dr. Vince Pantalone – DNA-sequencing for soybean nematode resistance
- Dr. Ahmed Aziz – Intelligent Image Sensors for Enhanced Security and Processing
- Dr. Shuai Li – Systems for Object Recognition and Adaptive Multimode Robotics
5:30– 5:45p.m. Closing Remarks
5:45 – 6:30p.m. Reception and Networking
- From N. Central Street, at the red light, turn on to E. Anderson Avenue (Central Flats & Taps is on the corner)
- The parking lot for The Relix is on the left.
Street parking is available on a limited basis directly on N. Central Street.
The 2nd Annual Chancellor’s Innovation Fund Presentation Pitch Event will be held on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, from 2:30 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. in The Relix Venue located 1208 N. Central Street, Knoxville, TN.
Add the event to your calendar here.
For questions about the event, please contact Rob Coleman (acolem72@utk.edu) or Marc Nabhan (mnabhan@utk.edu) in the Office of Research, Innovation & Economic Development.