The UEDA Innovation Affinity Network was joined by two guests from the University of Utah: Kyrsten Woolstenhulme, Director of Innovation Management at the Technology Licensing Office, and Penny Atkins, Director of Research and Science at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute.
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Recently known as the PIVOT Center, The University of Utah Technology Licensing Office (TLO) research to develop, license and protect research and technology discovered at the Institution. The Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI) is an internationally recognized leader in visualization, scientific computing, and image analysis.
Kyrsten began by discussing how the University of Utah strives to promote a research community; for example, in 2023, the university received $768 million in research funding. This has led TLO to lead the nation in patents, disclosures, and innovations.
The approach of TLO is to better serve faculty first. By listening to faculty needs, they identified gaps and inefficiencies in their process. Faculty drives innovation and should be the focus of efforts. TLO has helped with finalizing over 1,300 patents and plays a crucial role in helping faculty have a lasting impact beyond the classroom. Getting technology out of the university is only half the battle, and Kyrsten and Penny discussed examples of how the university has leveraged innovations with startups and research initiatives.
The discussion closed with Penny sharing how AI and data are continuing to transform industry and society. The university received $100 million towards the AI Research Initiative at SCI, which focuses on leveraging the culture of innovation through translational and applied AI. The core strengths include visualization and imaging, scalable analytics, advanced computing, and data. The work also prioritizes ethical development of the technology, focuses on interdisciplinary collaborations, and emphasizes data literacy.
Presentation slides can be found here.
Meet the Presenters:
Kyrsten Woolstenhulme draws on her combined business and engineering experience to help accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries to commercial products. She collaborates with inventors, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives to shape and execute on sustainable business strategies, foster partnerships within the community, and match potential management teams with promising technologies. Kyrsten also leads or supports option and licensing deals with new startups being spun out of the University. When not engaging with Utah’s innovation ecosystem, she utilizes her process improvement and project coordination experience to improve office efficiency through special projects. Kyrsten received her Bachelor of Science in Management with an emphasis in Organizational Leadership and a minor in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Utah. She also earned an MBA from the David Eccles School of Business. Kyrsten is a Certified Associate in Project Management and holds a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification.
Penny Atkins, PhD, is the associate director of the One Utah Data Science Hub, which connects the Data Exploration and Learning for Precision Health Intelligence (DELPHI) Initiative, the Data Science and Ethics of Technology (DATASET) Initiative, and the Utah Data Science Center to expand data science research, education, outreach, infrastructure, and datasets at the University of Utah.
Penny completed her BS in Industrial Engineering at Montana State University prior to working at the Idaho National Lab for four years. Penny then received her PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Utah and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at ETH Zurich before returning to the University of Utah as a research associate at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute. In her new role, Penny will oversee all administrative aspects of the One Utah Data Science Hub.
