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The Technology Commercialization Academy (TCA) was launched to promote the identification, assessment, and exploitation of economically viable innovations by undergraduates and retain those graduates in the southwest Indiana region. Further, as part of the I-69 Innovation Corridor initiative, the TCA was part of increasing the regional Innovation Index score 20% by 2025. Through the seven years of implementation, the program has determined that there is a crucial tool set that is necessary for new graduates entering industry, including instilling that innovation is a balance; innovation is agile; innovation must fail, pivot, and focus quickly; and lastly the program must realize its capabilities, be diverse in thought, and recognize that the personnel are key. By instilling these practices in the participants, using available programmatic information and surveys, 100% of job seekers post-graduation were employed within six months, 9% began their own startup from the program, and 64% of these high impact graduates stayed in southwest Indiana. Overall, the TCA program structure has shifted to demand side iterative processes that create long-tail value for the region and made the participants attractive hires who are keenly aware of practices to move from opportunity to execution.

We report live animal studies that verify and quantify successful transocular transmission of data from a miniature low-power implant. To minimize damage, implantation within layers of the eye requires an ultrasmall device on a scale of just a few millimeters on each side and less than 500 [micro]m in thickness. A high-frequency transmitter integrated circuit (IC) was designed, fabricated, and bonded onto a board containing an antenna, matching network components, and interconnects. The transmitter must achieve sufficient efficiency to draw minimal power from the limited onboard storage array while outputting a sufficiently large signal to overcome tissue-induced attenuation. Two different versions of the system were developed, one using a low-temperature co-fired ceramic material for the substrate and the other using silicon. Animal studies performed using live rabbits followed by empirical measurements verified the feasibility of a wireless telemetry scheme for a low-power miniature ocular implant. Index Terms--Biological system modeling, biomedical applications of EM radiation, biomedical telemetry, implantable biomedical devices.

As implantable devices gain more widespread use, medical device manufacturers are constantly looking for novel materials that increase and improve capability and functionality. The packaging needs to be biocompatible, but it is also highly desirable for it to be radio transparent to facilitate wireless telemetry and remote powering. Low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) provide a viable solution that meets these desired specifications while also having characteristics that support ease of manufacturing such as the ability for molding, shaping, and even embedding components within the material. In this work, inductor coils used for wireless telemetry and powering are integrated into the walls of the LTCC-based package to maximize the size of the passive component while optimizing the miniaturization of the implant. The package designed and fabricated in this work consisted of inductors approximating 20 mH with a quality factor of 7.8 at 2 MHz. When compared to similar devices in the literature the LTCC inductor out performed these devices when a power-link figure of merit is used for comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaucoma is a detrimental disease that causes blindness in millions of people worldwide. There are numerous treatments to slow the condition but none are totally effective and all have significant side effects. Currently, a continuous monitoring device is not available, but its development may open up new avenues for treatment. This work focuses on the design and fabrication of an active glaucoma intraocular pressure (IOP) monitor that is fully wireless and implantable. Major benefits of an active IOP monitoring device include the potential to operate independently from an external device for extended periods of time and the possibility of developing a closed-loop monitoring and treatment system. The fully wireless operation is based off using gigahertz-frequency electromagnetic wave propagation, which allows for an orientation independent transfer of power and data over reasonable distances. Our system is comprised of a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) pressure sensor, a capacitive power storage array, an application-specific integrated circuit designed on the Texas Instruments (TI) 130 nm process, and a monopole antenna all assembled into a biocompatible liquid-crystal polymer-based tadpole-shaped package. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a fully wireless cardiac pressure sensing system. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medical stents are explored as radiating structures to support simultaneous transcutaneous wireless telemetry and powering. An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), designed and fabricated using the Texas Instruments 130-nm CMOS process, enables wireless telemetry, remote powering, voltage regulation, and processing of pressure measurements from a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitive sensor. This paper demonstrates fully wireless-pressure-sensing functionality with an external 35-dB⋅m RF powering source across a distance of 10 cm. Measurements in a regulated pressure chamber demonstrate the ability of the cardiac system to achieve pressure resolutions of 0.5 mmHg over a range of 0-50 mmHg using a channel data-rate of 42.2 kb/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The molecular mechanisms controlling aqueous humor (AQH) outflow and IOP need much further definition. The mouse is a powerful system for characterizing the mechanistic basis of AQH outflow. To enhance outflow studies in mice, we developed a perfusion system that is based on human anterior chamber perfusion culture systems. Our mouse system permits previously impractical experiments., Methods: We engineered a computer-controlled, pump-based perfusion system with a platform for mounting whole dissected mouse eyes (minus lens and iris, ∼45% of drainage tissue is perfused). We tested the system's ability to monitor outflow and tested the effects of the outflow-elevating drug, Y27632, a rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) inhibitor. Finally, we tested the system's ability to detect genetically determined decreases in outflow by determining if deficiency of the candidate genes Nos3 and Cav1 alter outflow., Results: Using our system, the outflow facility (C) of C57BL/6J mouse eyes was found to range between 7.7 and 10.4 nl/minutes/mm Hg (corrected for whole eye). Our system readily detected a 74.4% Y27632-induced increase in C. The NOS3 inhibitor L-NG-nitroarginine methyl ester (L-NAME) and a Nos3 null mutation reduced C by 28.3% and 35.8%, respectively. Similarly, in Cav1 null eyes C was reduced by 47.8%., Conclusions: We engineered a unique perfusion system that can accurately measure changes in C. We then used the system to show that NOS3 and CAV1 are key components of mechanism(s) controlling outflow.