Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From the Oregon Health & Science University:

Nike Co-Founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, gifted $2 billion to the Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) Knight Cancer Institute. According to last week’s press release, the plan is to invest in “cancer research, diagnosis, treatment, care, and someday, eradication.”

The Knight family’s gift will go down as the largest donation a U.S. educational institution has ever received.

“This gift is an unprecedented investment in the millions of lives burdened with cancer, especially patients and families here in Oregon,” OHSU President Shereef Elnahal said. “It is also a signal of trust in the superlative work that our clinicians, researchers and teammates at the Knight Cancer Institute do every day. Dr. Druker’s vision around a multidisciplinary system of care — focused squarely on making the patient’s experience seamless from the moment they receive a diagnosis — will now become reality. And thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Knight, Oregon will be the place to do it.”

From the Georgia Institute of Technology:

The Georgia Institute of Technology has posted its strongest year ever in research commercialization, breaking multiple records for invention disclosures, issued patents, and licensed technologies — clear indicators of the Institute’s expanding role in delivering research-driven innovation to the marketplace.

“Invention is only the beginning. What sets Georgia Tech apart is our ability to move our ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace, where they can make a tangible impact on human life and contribute to our economy,” said Ángel Cabrera, President of Georgia Tech. “This year’s record results show that our researchers aren’t just pushing the boundaries of knowledge — they’re creating marketable solutions with the power to improve everyday lives.”

For fiscal year 2025, Georgia Tech reported:

1. More than 460 new invention disclosures — a 30 percent increase over the previous year and the highest ever recorded by the Institute. The Georgia Tech Research Institute reported 70 invention disclosures, marking a 70 percent increase year over year.
2. A 210 percent increase in technologies licensed, and 140 percent in total licenses executed, reflecting unprecedented industry interest, with 65 licenses in total.
3. A total of 124 U.S. patents were issued, representing a 20 percen increase compared to the prior year.

This momentum strengthens Atlanta’s position as one of the nation’s fastest-growing innovation economies. Georgia Tech plays a leading role in advancing the region’s ambition to become a top 5 tech hub by connecting world-class research with industry, supporting a thriving startup ecosystem, and fueling talent pipelines that serve emerging sectors like AI, cybersecurity, and clean energy.

From the University of Georgia:

For the third consecutive year, the University of Georgia (UGA) ranked #1 among U.S. universities for the number of commercial products brought to market by industry partners based on university research, according to an annual survey conducted by AUTM. This marks a solid decade in which the university has placed in the top two, and UGA has never placed outside the top five in the 12 years the survey has been conducted.

In fiscal year 2024 (the year of the latest survey numbers), UGA industry partners and startups developed 69 new products from research, a university record. These products span a range of industries including poultry vaccines, biodegradable plastics, virtual reality tools for disaster preparedness, biomedical research tools, and new plant varieties of turfgrass, blueberries, wheats, and peanuts, developed by newly elected National Academy of Inventors Fellow Bill Branch — to name a few.

“Being ranked among the top two universities for a decade is compelling recognition of the impactful research conducted by UGA faculty, staff and students, our robust industry partnerships and the university’s productive commercialization program,” said Derek Eberhart, Associate Vice President for Research and Executive Director of Innovation Gateway. “Moving research discoveries from our labs and fields to the market improves lives and drives economic impact as part of UGA’s land-grant mission.”

From the University of Iowa:

The University of Iowa’s Venture School is accepting applications for its fall 2025 cohort, which will begin the week of October 6 at four locations across the state and a month earlier in Mason City.

The seven-week entrepreneurial training program meets one night per week, either in person, online, or in a hybrid format, depending on location. Each cohort concludes with a Venture School Launch Day competition the week of November 17. The cost is $299 per team, and each team is paired with a local entrepreneur as a coach.

The statewide program, developed from the National Science Foundation I-Corps curriculum at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, focuses on real-world entrepreneurship and innovation. It is designed to help start-ups refine their ideas, explore opportunities, and build customer traction.

From Arizona State and the University of Michigan:

With funding from the National Science Foundation, Arizona State University is collaborating with the University of Michigan to establish the Center for Digital Twins in Manufacturing, aimed at advancing scalable digital twin technologies.

The new center will address the key barriers that are delaying the broader industry implementation of digital twins.

A digital twin is like a real-time dashboard. Just as pilots use flight simulators, engineers rely on digital twins to monitor, analyze, and improve performance without disrupting an actual system. These tools offer powerful capabilities for boosting efficiency and precision in manufacturing, but widespread adoption has been slowed by challenges in updating, scaling and integrating across platforms.

To maximize their full potential, digital twins must become more adaptable across complex manufacturing systems.

The center will operate as an NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, which unites academic institutions and industry partners on research that has direct industry relevance.

From The Pennsylvania State University:

The Pennsylvania State University Smeal College of Business has launched the Propel Penn State Seed Fund, an initiative designed to provide undergraduate students with hands-on experience in venture capital while supporting real-world start-ups seeking early-stage investment.

The Propel Penn State Seed Fund expands access to undergraduate students interested in venture investing and is modeled after the paradigm of the Garber Venture Capital Fund, which was founded more than 25 years ago and continues to provide graduate students with real-world investing experience. To date, the Garber Fund has made more than 35 investments, deployed $3.5 million in capital, and educated nearly 300 graduate students on venture investing and entrepreneurial finance topics.

“The Propel Penn State Seed Fund has a dual mission to expand experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students related to venture investing and entrepreneurial finance topics and to invest in early-stage companies to promote economic development, innovation and sustainable educational programming for the future,” said Michael Zaydon, Fund Manager and Administrator of the Propel Penn State Seed Fund and business development relationship advisor at the Farrell Center.

The seed fund is part of the Propel Business: New Venture & Innovation Program, a hallmark initiative of Smeal’s Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship that provides experiential learning and engagement opportunities that bridge the classroom and the business world. The seed fund offers undergraduate students the chance to explore venture investing topics and apply their knowledge by evaluating, recommending, and investing in promising start-ups.

From the University of Florida:

Tampa Bay Inno reports that the University of Florida will break ground on the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence and Agriculture at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center campus in Wimauma on November 7. The center will focus on cutting rising labor and production costs in Florida’s second-largest industry – agriculture.

The center will serve as a statewide hub connecting growers and experts to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-driven automation tools tailored to Florida and the Southeast’s unique crops and conditions. Collaboration with global tech giant Nvidia, a leader in AI and supercomputing, further bolsters the center’s capabilities.

The university has received $30 million from the state to build a 40,000-square-foot building and $4.5 million in federal grants for equipment, with plans to hire faculty over several years.

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