UT Research Foundation celebrates innovators advancing industry and development
The Innovators of the Year award was presented to Dr. John Sorochan and Dr. Kyley Dickson for their work on their patented fLEX device.
Among all the exciting innovations and discoveries from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus in 2025, one stands out as the pinnacle of commercialization success. Dr. John Sorochan and Dr. Kyley Dickson pioneered their patented fLEX device to measure the pitch and performance of turfgrass across the nation. In July, their invention was successfully acquired by SGL, the Netherlands-based global market leader in sustainable pitch management solutions.
This was – and still is – a big deal.
Sorochan and Dickson’s influential invention caught the eye of FIFA, which led to the world-renowned football (soccer) program visiting the state of Tennessee for a tour of the university’s turfgrass program in February. It put the UT System in the global spotlight for turfgrass technologies. Now, thanks to the acquisition, SGL plans to supply the technology, expanding its product portfolio with pitch performance testing technology, complementing its current offering of solutions designed to create optimal grass growth conditions in stadiums worldwide.
The University of Tennessee Research Foundation honored the two inventors of the fLEX Device with the prestigious “Innovators of the Year” recognition at their annual award ceremony.
Thankful for the innovators
Hosted just a few days ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the conversation of the annual award ceremony centered around the importance of relationships.
Randy Boyd, the President of the UT System and serial entrepreneur, spoke about his first year running Pet Safe Brands.
“Metrics matter a lot in the early days, the sales, revenue, and operational costs,” he said. “But, 35 years later, I don’t remember the numbers. Instead, I remember the faces of the people who sat around our company’s table that first Thanksgiving. The patents are important, but it’s the people who really matter.”
Fiscal Year 2025 Startups, Licenses, and Patents
UTRF supported five startups in 2025, with innovators from academic backgrounds.
- VizualizAI, founded by Jian Huang, Tanner Hobson, John Duggan, and James Osborne
- Watson Electronics, founded by Daniel Costinett
- fLEX Standard Solutions, founded by John Sorochan and Kyley Dickson
- Elemental Composites, founded by Vinit Chaudhary and Uday Vaidya
- Circular Biosciences, founded by Jordan Cannon and Todd Reynolds
Additionally, the university’s intellectual property (IP) was licensed by 13 teams of researchers, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued 19 patents to academic researchers and innovators at UT.
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