KCV IMPACT Competition awards six innovative projects.
Kentucky Commercialization Ventures is pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural KCV IMPACT (Innovative Mobile, Public Health, And Community-Oriented Technologies) Competition. The goal of the competition is to encourage ideation relevant to the improvement of the social, health, or economic conditions and highlight the value of innovators from across the state of Kentucky.
Winners will receive up to $25,000 for their institution to bring their innovations to life.
Meet the Spring 2022 KCV IMPACT Award Winners
First Place Winners - $25,000 Each
Dr. Daniel Boamah
Co-Inventors / Collaborators: Dr. April Murphy, Dr. Kimberly Green, Dr. Austin Griffiths
Institution: Western Kentucky University
Development of a Multitenant Mixed/Virtual Reality Platform for Increasing Awareness of Implicit Bias in Child Welfare Decision-Making: A Public Health Crisis
Read more about the winning innovation.
Children of color continue to be disproportionally represented in foster care and experience significantly worse outcomes when involved with the child welfare system (e.g., mental health, physical health, etc.). This project is developing a novel technology that will be used as a catalyst for addressing this long withstanding problem, preparing current and future child welfare practitioners with an interactive and real-time platform to increase their awareness of implicit biases. Identified as unconscious qualities or attributes that are often given to members of marginalized social groups, implicit biases have been identified as problematic contributors that negatively influence decision making in professional practice. More so, workforce turnover in child welfare remains a national problem. Families often experience a “revolving door” of unseasoned professionals who have inherited a large caseload, face significant job stress, and are subject to inadequate training systems that ineffectively prepare them to recognize these unconscious biases in the course of their work duty. Given the dangerous implications of continuing down this path, this cloud-based multitenant virtual reality platform will assist in training child welfare professionals to be aware of implicit biases they may hold and then use that information to make better, more informed decisions. Participants will be able to simultaneously engage in simulated real-life scenarios using virtual reality headsets. The targeted customers for are national, state, and private child welfare services and educational institutions. Other customers include educators, healthcare, social services, and criminal justice entities.
Dr. Rachel Tinius
Co-Inventors / Collaborators: Dex Wood, Ubaha Shipoke (London Business School)
Institution: Western Kentucky University
BumptUp: an evidence-based digital technology to improve physical activity and health outcomes among pregnant and postpartum women
Read more about the winning innovation.
High rates of maternal mortality and morbidity are an urgent crisis in the U.S. A major contributing factor is the high number of women presenting for prenatal care with chronic health issues such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and depression and/or anxiety; all of which complicate pregnancies and all of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortunately, physical activity during pregnancy reduces gestational weight gain and improves all of the aforementioned health outcomes during and after pregnancy. However, only 15% of pregnant women achieve the recommended amount of exercise. Further, women report a lack of guidance from their health care team on how to safely and effectively engage in physical activity during and after their pregnancy.
96% of women of childbearing age in the U.S. own a smartphone, and the majority of pregnant women utilize mobile apps for health information. A timely opportunity exists to provide pregnant and postpartum women with much-needed physical activity support through digital technology. Our team of qualified experts (exercise physiologists, women’s health physical therapists, nurse practitioners) have created a solution - BumptUp: the only evidence-based mobile health app designed specifically for pregnant and postpartum women with the goal of becoming/staying physically active in accordance with clinical recommendations. The unique features of the app were designed based on feedback from women (pregnant and postpartum) and obstetric providers; these include quality education, time-efficient exercises, individualized programming, safety monitoring, social support, and more. Help us improve health outcomes by getting BumptUp into the hands of women who need it!
Runners-Up - $9,000 Each
Dr. Nicholas Caporusso
Co-Inventors / Collaborators: Brett Thaman, Trung Cao, Alex Oassey, Abhishek Shreshta, Dr. Junxiu Zhou, Dr. Yangyang Tao
Institution: Northern Kentucky University
Cursor - Next-generation eye-tracking solutions
Read more about the winning innovation.
Cursor develops an innovative technology that enables realizing eye- and gaze-tracking with standard webcams instead of requiring dedicated hardware devices, which renders healthcare and consumer applications more affordable, scalable, sustainable, and available to audiences in developing countries as well as the rest of the world.
Gaze tracking (GT) consists in estimating where a user is looking on a computer screen based on the observation of the movements of their eyes. This information is used in healthcare (e.g., vision, cognitive, and behavioral analysis), to enable people with disabilities to interact with a computer and communicate (e.g., Stephen Hawking), and in marketing, user research, product design, gaming, and professional software.
Currently, GT requires auxiliary hardware. This limits the users who can access GT technology and the scope of potential applications. Although there are attempts at using standard webcams, accuracy is extremely poor and not suitable for real-world applications.
Conversely, Cursor’s technology uses Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to accurately detect the position and movement the eyes based on video acquired with a simple webcam. By doing this, our technology does not require any external hardware, which enables distributing GT applications to any user with a webcam-equipped computer. Also, our solution can be integrated in any applications and systems, including websites: creating and distributing GT applications via a simple web page eliminates most user adoption logistics. For instance, this enables scientists to realize research with hundreds of remote participants and supports delivering GT-based healthcare applications such as EMDR therapy.
Dr. Jamie Fredericks
Co-Inventors / Collaborators: Eric Wooldridge (SCC/KCTCS)
Institution: Eastern Kentucky University
Sample Collection Tool for Rapid DNA analysis
Read more about the winning innovation.
The demand for DNA testing to solve crimes continues to grow and has contributed to an ever-increasing back log of samples that require analysis. Traditional DNA typing encompasses a multi-step process that can take a considerable period of time.
Direct DNA amplification (direct PCR) has focused on profiling samples from the source, avoiding the time-consuming extraction and quantitation processes and alleviating back log issues. As well as saving considerable time, money and resources, Direct DNA amplification can also reduce the risk of contamination; the direct PCR process minimizes the number of times samples are transferred from tube to tube, decreasing exposure to potential contaminates.
Storage cards, such as FTA® Elute cards, are traditionally used to store and preserve blood and saliva samples that are typically provided by a donor. They contain a chaotropic salt that can lyse cells and keep proteins tightly bound to its matrix while DNA is eluted and made available for Direct PCR protocols.
Storage cards have shown to improve DNA recovery when used in more unorthodox scenarios to collect evidence. However, without collection tool to support the storage card, the protocol is very cumbersome, awkward (as it would involve forceps) and would potentially impact the integrity of the card – it would ultimately lead to the contamination of the evidence. This product intends to provide a mode to which storage cards can be used to successfully and efficiently collect forensic evidence from a crime scene.
Dr. Christopher Lennon
Co-Inventors / Collaborators: Dr. David Wood (The Ohio State University)
Institution: Murray State University
Engineering of a novel self-cleaving intein tag for protein purification
Read more about the winning innovation.
Inteins (intervening proteins) have been described as “nature’s gift to protein chemists” due to their use in a variety of bioengineering and biotechnological applications. In one application, inteins are used as a method for protein purification, which enables products in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, biofuels, agricultural, textiles, and more. The Lennon lab has recently identified an intein that can function under improved solution conditions, technology that has the potential to make large scale protein purification easier and less expensive.
Dr. Kouroush Jenab
Co-Inventors / Collaborators: n/a
Institution: Morehead State University
Virtual Reality STEM and Workforce Training Platforms
Read more about the winning innovation.
Kentucky has an average annual growth in real gross state product (GSP) that results in ranking 43rd in terms of growth in GSP relative to the rest of the states. The remedy option for Kentucky is to equip the K12 with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills and the workforce with Advanced Manufacturing (Automation and Robotics) to ensure a more innovative and prosperous economy.
This proposal aims to develop the VR STEM and workforce training platforms that would significantly enhance the quality, recruitment, and retention of K12 students to STEM programs and continue the education of workforces in academic institutes.
If you'd like to learn more about these innovators or their technologies, please reach out to KCV@kstc.com.