Two Buckeye engineering teams will work to commercialize their technology

Groups chosen to participate in I-Corps@Ohio

Two teams led by Buckeye engineering faculty members are among the four Ohio State University teams selected to take part in a state program that will help them figure out if they can commercialize the discoveries they have made at the university.

The four teams from Ohio State are among 20 teams from universities across the state that will participate in the second round of the I-Corps@Ohio program. Modeled after a similar program launched by the National Science Foundation in 2012, I-Corps@Ohio is funded and supported by the Ohio Department of Higher Education (formerly the Ohio Board of Regents).

The seven-week program aims to help the chosen faculty and student teams determine if their intellectual property—such as a new technology—could be the basis of a startup company.

Associate Biomedical Engineering Professor Yi Zhao’s team will develop technology that enables the use of smartphones to acquire microscopic images with quality comparable to mid-class commercial microscopes. 

Endowed Chair and Ohio Research Scholar Katrina Cornish and her team will focus on production of a non-allergenic, high-performance natural rubber alternative. Cornish has a dual appointment in the Departments of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and Horticulture and Crop Science. 

During the program, the teams will evaluate the market need and commercial potential of their proposed technologies.

The other participating Ohio State teams are led by Thaddeus Ezeji, associate professor of animal science; and the duo of Jon Parquette, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Robert Tabita, Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of microbiology and of molecular genetics.

Ohio State is one of six Ohio academic institutions that, along with the Ohio Department of Higher Education, govern the I-Corps@Ohio program.

The Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) Institute at Ohio State provides administrative oversight for the program.