Tech Transfer

George �鶹��Ƶ delivers first commercialization under Virginia’s Lab-to-Launch initiative

Katarina Benson — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 19:27:52 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ delivers first commercialization under Virginia’s Lab-to-Launch initiative Katarina Benson Wed, 02/25/2026 - 14:27

�鶹��Ƶ has become Virginia’s first R1 research institution to commercialize a product under the state’s new Lab-to-Launch initiative, marking an early milestone in the commonwealth’s push to accelerate university research into the market.

Anthony Fung. Photo provided

In January, the George �鶹��Ƶ Research Foundation entered into a license agreement with serial entrepreneur Anthony Fung and his company Valorlox LLC for the patented technology GMU Dynamic Low Visibility Pneumatic Cofferdam, a coastal resilience system designed to protect against flooding. This is the first commercial product to move forward under the new statewide commercialization framework.

Invented at George �鶹��Ƶ by George L. Donohue, professor emeritus and founding director of the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at the College of Engineering and Computing, the cofferdam is an inflatable, permanently anchored system that when deployed creates a water-tight barrier in under 16 minutes without heavy equipment to protect vulnerable communities from most flood events. When not deployed, the system functions as a low-profile boardwalk, blending into waterfront environments rather than standing as a permanent wall.

The cofferdam’s potential to protect communities from floods while supporting economic growth is what attracted Fung, the Valorlox LLC founder and the commonwealth’s former deputy secretary of technology.

His support—as well as that of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) and �鶹��Ƶ Enterprise—has helped move the project toward commercialization. Valorlox is the first company in Virginia to complete a Virginia Fast-Track License, which enables them to apply for up to $50,000 in VIPC commercialization funding.

“The cofferdam project brings together everything I’ve learned about business, government, innovation, and solving real problems,” said Fung. “It’s exactly the kind of challenge I want to tackle.”

The cofferdam’s commercialization demonstrates how the Lab-to-Launch initiative is intended to work: university research, streamlined licensing, and experienced entrepreneurs working together to move innovation into the marketplace. The team is currently working on a prototype.

George L. Donohue. Photo provided

Developed through a collaboration between VIPC and the state’s six R1 research university partners—�鶹��Ƶ, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, and William & Mary—the Lab-to-Launch initiative aims to significantly increase the number of startups emerging from Virginia’s universities and help move technological breakthroughs to the marketplace, through a “fast track license.” Instead of taking months, a licensing agreement can now take weeks.

“It’s been a strategy for the last five years,” said Paula Sorrell, George �鶹��Ƶ’s associate vice president for innovation and economic development. “George �鶹��Ƶ has created several programs to support the lab-to-market activities by providing wrap-around services for faculty. This not only helped build the pipeline of technologies ready for market and created the support system to make them successful, but then got this first technology through this terrific new state program.”

Designed for both commercial and residential use, the cofferdam system has potential applications for protecting homes, apartments, airports, military bases, hospitals, data centers, power generation facilities, tunnels, bridges, and rail systems.

“The potential for property damage avoidance in the future is hard to estimate, but could be huge,” Donohue said.

The invention has been years in development and Donohue shares the patents with former students, now George �鶹��Ƶ alumni Adel Youssef, BS Systems Engineering ’20; Lucciana Remy, BS Systems Engineering ’20; Faris Masri, BS Systems Engineering ’20; and Murat Gokturk, BS Systems Engineering ’20.

The George �鶹��Ƶ Research Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and aiding research and scientific investigation at George �鶹��Ƶ. GMRF manages patents and commercializes intellectual property by negotiating licensing agreements with motivated entrepreneurs and members of the business community. George �鶹��Ƶ has a number of technologies moving toward commercialization through the Lab-to-Launch initiative.

�鶹��Ƶ Enterprise^TM is the host to federal, state, and local programs that support a portfolio of more than 33,000 start-ups and small businesses across Virginia. Last year participating companies received more than $2.8 billion in follow-on funding, and more than 58,000 entrepreneurs, small business owners, students, and research faculty attended workshops and educational programs, received individual counseling, were assisted with product development, resided in an incubator, or received intellectual property advice.

The commercialization of the cofferdam technology also supports Building a Climate-Resilient Society, one of the six interconnected solutions of George �鶹��Ƶ’s Grand Challenge Initiative, a comprehensive research framework to secure the future we want. Learn more.

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IST professors unveil human-AI collaboration tool to automate cartoon colorization

tdonnel — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 18:37:16 +0000

IST professors unveil human-AI collaboration tool to automate cartoon colorization tdonnel Fri, 10/10/2025 - 14:37

In This Story

Sungsoo Ray Hong

Yotam Gingold

�鶹��Ƶ Information and Sciences (IST) Assistant Professor Sungsoo Ray Hong has always loved cartoons. Now he’s helping the artists who make them.

Drawing on his expertise in human-computer interaction (HCI) and artificial intelligence (AI), Hong and colleague Yotam Gingold, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science (CS) created ShadowMagic, a new human-AI collaboration tool designed to make one of the most time-consuming parts of comic creation faster and easier.

The idea for ShadowMagic emerged from interviews with professional cartoonists. Hong, Gingold and their PhD students wanted to reduce the burden of shadowing, a task many artists find repetitive and time-consuming.

“Professional cartoonists are sometimes producing content every other day,” said Hong, who is also director of George �鶹��Ƶ’s Alignment Lab. “You cannot commit to these kinds of deadlines doing everything by yourself. That's why the colorization industry is so helpful to professional cartoonists.”

Colorization is a multi-step process of line drawing, flatting, base colorization, adding shadows and lighting, backgrounds, and other special effects. It is “fairly standardized, especially in South Korea and growing throughout the United States,” said Hong, who is from South Korea. ShadowMagic builds on an earlier project, FlatMagic, another AI-driven colorization tool designed to support digital comic professionals.

While there are existing AI tools that help with colorization, Hong and Gingold found that these tools require more work than doing it manually. They wanted to design a system that better augments cartoonists’ work and cuts down on shadowing, a labor intensive and, according to cartoonists, decidedly uncreative part of the process.

“We looked at artistic challenges, usually tedious things that aren’t so fun for the artists and break down those problems, so that they can focus more on the creative parts of it,” said Gingold, who directs George �鶹��Ƶ’s Computational Reality, Creativity, and Graphics Lab.

Gringold explained that there are millions of pixels in an image, and if an artist wants to move or change the color of an object, they currently have to point at one pixel among the millions.

Yotam Gingold (left) and Ray Hong in Research Hall, presenting their colorization tool. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding.

Gingold’s research applies computer science to visual, geometric, and design problems. He has “always been interested in sketching and how computers can help us express ourselves.” Many of his algorithms automate filling in pixels and handling visual constraints.

“The computers will do the math where we can write formulas to update all the other millions of pixels. Another example would be keeping lines parallel and corners perpendicular, and that’s where a lot of my research comes in,” he said.

Chuan Yan, PhD ’24, was recruited by Gingold for this project and conducted research on sketching and painting. Yan, now a postdoctoral research at Stanford University, brought expertise in computer graphics and sketch-related computer vision techniques, which he had studied extensively with Gingold.

The team built ShadowMagic as an Adobe Photoshop plug-in, and since its release, it has attracted a lot of interest from professional artists.

“Artists have expressed a strong desire for a tool that could free them from the labor-intensive flatting process,” said Yan. “This response is both exciting and humbling. It confirms that our research is addressing a real need in the industry yet also highlights the remaining challenges in making [the tool] ready for widespread adoption.”

Yan believes ShadowMagic is just the beginning of a broader shift in creative industries towards tools that amplify creativity rather than replace it.

“I am excited to witness and contribute to this transformation, helping to shape a future where AI acts as a powerful tool that amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it,” he said.

Read the full paper: ShadowMagic: Designing Human-AI Collaborative Support for Comic Professionals’ Shadowing by Amrita Ganguly, Chuan Yan, John Joon Young Chung, Tong Steven Sun, Yoon Kiheon, Yotam Gingold, and Sungsoo Ray Hong. It was presented at UIST 2024.

Topics

College of Engineering and Computing

comics

Tech Transfer

Artificial Intelligence

�鶹��Ƶ Enterprise at �鶹��Ƶ propels entrepreneurship across the region

ckearney — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 20:18:05 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ Enterprise at �鶹��Ƶ propels entrepreneurship across the region ckearney Tue, 09/23/2025 - 16:18

Northern Virginia and the Greater Washington Region is rapidly becoming one of the nation’s fastest-growing entrepreneurial destinations for investors and inventors, with �鶹��Ƶ’s investments and partnerships as a key driver.

From Accelerate investor Conference 2024. Photo provided

The state’s largest university-based business incubator, �鶹��Ƶ Enterprise partners with the university’s schools and institutes, big business, start-ups, and venture capital investors to advance a thriving ecosystem of entrepreneurship and economic growth. This contributed to making Virginia a top state for business, according to CNBC.

“George �鶹��Ƶ is powering Virginia’s future,” said George �鶹��Ƶ President Gregory Washington. “The university is preparing students for high-demand careers, supporting entrepreneurs at every stage, and driving the growth of small businesses across the state. We’re not just in the degree business, we’re in the success business.”

�鶹��Ƶ Enterprise played a key role in Virginia’s new Lab-to-Launch initiative, the first of its kind in the nation. Developed through a statewide collaboration led by George �鶹��Ƶ and University of Virginia, with the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) and the state’s four other R1 research universities—Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, and William & Mary—the initiative is designed to double the number of start-ups that originate from Virginia’s research universities and accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough technologies.

�鶹��Ƶ Enterprise leadership and impact highlights include:

$2.8 billion in bank loans, lines of credit, venture capital, angel investment, new revenues, and government contracts secured in 2024
65 invention disclosures by faculty last year—a 150% increase over five years
Growth from 300 to 2,000 supported tech start-ups in five years
One in six of the businesses served by �鶹��Ƶ Enterprise are veteran-owned
58,000 entrepreneurs, small business owners, students and faculty participated in 2,600 workshops in 2024 (up from 19,000 attendees in 2020)
Helped in the formation of 409 new companies in 2024
Helped in the creation and retention of 6,351 jobs in 2024

“We’re proud to be building a culture of innovation that is reaping benefits for the region and beyond,” said Paula Sorrell, George �鶹��Ƶ’s associate vice president of innovation and economic development. “The blend of education, research, and public–private partnerships has created a steady pipeline of new ideas and investments that ensure our regional and national competitiveness.”

The �鶹��Ƶ Enterprise team, led by Sorrell, was recently recognized by the Virginia Association of Counties for its Accelerate Breakfast Series, which connects entrepreneurs and investors through curated pitch opportunities that strengthen the local start-up ecosystem and attract regional investment. In addition, the International Economic Development Council recognized �鶹��Ƶ Enterprise for its multiyear efforts advancing the region’s tech innovation economy with its Innovation Ecosystem Building award, the result of creating several high-impact, tech start-up focused programs to help diversify the regional economy.

�鶹��Ƶ Enterprise provides small business and start-ups with affordable office space, legal and accounting assistance, free mentoring, access to investor networks, makers’ spaces, and tailored programs designed to help get ideas get off the ground or take the next step to get to market. Working closely with VIPC and nearby local officials in Prince William, Arlington, and Fairfax counties, the team also manages the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) network, called the Virginia Small Business Development Center and the Department of War’s (DOW) Virginia APEX Accelerator.

�鶹��Ƶ Enterprise will host its fifth annual Accelerate Investor Conference 2025 on November 5-6 at the new Fuse at �鶹��Ƶ Square in Arlington, Virginia. This year’s venture capital event will feature keynote speaker Sid Banerjee, chief strategy officer for Medallia, as well as a fireside chat co-hosted by Virginia BIO CEO John Newby and Jeff Conroy, managing director of Bayeux Ventures and former CEO of Embody, a successful Virginia start-up.

In This Story

Paula Sorrell

Learn more about �鶹��Ƶ Enterprise

Topics

Small Business Development Center

Youngkin launches university commercialization initiative to fast-track startups and accelerate innovation

ckearney — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 16:56:06 +0000

Youngkin launches university commercialization initiative to fast-track startups and accelerate innovation ckearney Wed, 08/13/2025 - 12:56

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has launched a new Lab-to-Launch initiative to unlock innovation in Virginia by accelerating university research commercialization and technology transfer.

Developed through a bold statewide collaboration between Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) and Virginia’s six R1 research university partners—�鶹��Ƶ, Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, William & Mary—this initiative aims to double the number of startups that spin out annually from Virginia’s research universities and propel technology breakthroughs into the marketplace.

Governor Youngkin joined by Secretary of Commerce and Trade Juan Pablo Segura, VIPC President and CEO Joe Benevento, Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, representatives of Virginia’s research universities, including George �鶹��Ƶ's Paula Sorrell, and business leaders at ceremonial MOU signing. Photo by Kaitlyn DeHarde/Governor's Office

The Lab-to-Launch initiative will create Virginia’s first-ever standardized Fast-Track License agreement to commercialize university research, while also expanding opportunities to connect with talent and capital from the private sector.

“Virginia is home to world-class research university institutions, and with Lab-to-Launch and the Virginia Fast-Track License, we are moving at the speed of business to accelerate commercialization pathways for university technology startups,” said Youngkin. “Since 2022, we’ve seen a record 15,000+ high-growth startups launch in Virginia, and we are now ranked top 10 in the nation for both technology and innovation and access to capital. Virginia is leading the way, and I look forward to seeing the transformative discoveries that go from ‘lab to launch’ and enhance people’s lives, not only in Virginia but throughout the country.”

Virginia Fast-Track License for Startups

Standardizes key terms in university intellectual property (IP) license agreements with startups and streamlines the university technology transfer process to make it easier, faster, less costly, and more transparent for scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs.
Offers some of the most founder-friendly, standard university license economic terms in the country for entrepreneurs.
Startups that spin off from universities using the Virginia Fast-Track License are eligible for a grant award of up to $50,000 from VIPC toward upfront out-of-pocket university commercialization costs.

Private-Sector Collaboration with University Commercialization

Launch Entrepreneur-in-Residence program to connect industry experience and business acumen with technical knowledge and scientific expertise.
Create digital database and online catalog for university IP to make it easier for industry partners to access and engage with university innovation pipelines.
Attract private-sector investment for university startup spin-offs by engaging with venture capital funds and investor networks and evaluating potential partnership opportunities through VIPC’s Virginia Invest platform.

“Once again, Virginia is at the forefront because Virginia is open for business,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Juan Pablo Segura. “I cannot wait to see its impact from the extraordinary work, talent, and technology we have in our universities as we continue to unlock Virginia’s potential when it comes to innovation, technology, and everything it has to offer.”

“Virginia’s leading university hubs play an essential role in our innovation ecosystems and in catalyzing groundbreaking research discoveries,” said Joe Benevento, VIPC’s president and CEO. “Collaboration and innovation are at the heart of VIPC. This statewide partnership with Virginia’s R1 universities will elevate the commonwealth’s national leadership and launch a new frontier of innovation-driven growth and opportunity.”

As part of Lab-to-Launch, university partners will seek ways to identify and share best practices to grow research commercialization efforts in Virginia. VIPC will also measure and benchmark statewide university commercialization outcome metrics against historical baselines as well as national peers.

“Lab-to-Launch puts Virginia in a strong competitive position to connect business experience with faculty innovators, offer start-ups access to university technology with clear terms, and create a clear path to seed capital,” said Paula Sorrell, associate vice president of innovation and economic development at George �鶹��Ƶ. “It’s a win for tech start-ups, George �鶹��Ƶ, and the commonwealth.”

Achieve your entrepreneurial goals with �鶹��Ƶ Enterprise

Topics

Innovation Awards recognize George �鶹��Ƶ researchers

ckearney — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:00:11 +0000

Innovation Awards recognize George �鶹��Ƶ researchers ckearney Thu, 06/26/2025 - 11:00

In May, �鶹��Ƶ celebrated its research enterprise with Innovation Awards. Hosted by the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact, the event recognized researchers, a start-up, and those who received and/or licensed a patent in the past two years.

From left, George �鶹��Ƶ researchers Lance Sherry, Mikell Paige, and Craig Yu received Innovator Awards. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

“We're deeply committed to fostering a research environment that encourages innovation and supports discovery,” said Provost James Antony in his opening remarks. “We want to ensure that the faculty have the tools, the partnerships, and the resources that they need to take their ideas further.”

Antony also commended the researchers for mentoring George �鶹��Ƶ students. “You set a powerful example for emerging scholars. You show them what it's like to be both a researcher and a changemaker.”

At the event, the university awarded its second �鶹��Ƶ Lifetime Disclosure Award, which recognizes a researcher with the most innovation disclosures. The first recipient was Lance Liotta, codirector and cofounder of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM). It was Liotta who presented this year’s award to his CAPMM cofounder and codirector Emanuel Petricoin.

Petricoin, who joined George �鶹��Ƶ in 2005, is a cofounder of four life science companies: Theranostics Health Inc., Ceres Nanosciences Inc., C-4 Diagnostics Inc., and Perthera Inc. He also is a coinventor on 40+ patents and has published more than 350 peer-reviewed publications.

CAPMM's Kelsey Mitchell with Paula Sorrell, associate vice president of innovation and economic development. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

This year’s �鶹��Ƶ Start-Up of the Year went to Mingkui Wei, an associate professor in the Department of Cyber Security Engineering, and his company CyberMirage. CyberMirage, which started as a collaborative research project involving researchers in network security with experts from both academia and industry, offers solutions to protect websites against web content theft and copyright infringement.

Three groups of researchers received George �鶹��Ƶ Licensed Technology Awards, which celebrates when a protected intellectual property, such as a patent, is licensed by a company.

Kathryn Laskey of the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) and Paul Houser of the Geography and Geoinformation Science Department in the College of Science had their prototype system licensed by Global MapAid, a nonprofit working in Africa. The technology maps groundwater to help small farmers locate better wells and create soil conservation programs.
Leading biotechnology tools provider Targeted Bioscience licensed a tissue collection method patented by the CAPMM team of Liotta, Alessandra Luchini, Marissa Howard, and biosciences PhD candidate Purva Gade.
Toronto-based Affinity Diagnostics licensed a method for sequestering and/or isolating analytes of interest from an oral fluid, also developed by a CAPMM team. Researchers Ahana Byne, Fatah Kashanchi, and Kelsey Mitchell joined Luchini, Liotta, and Howard on this award.

The Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact also gave out Innovator Awards in the categories of sustainability, biohealth innovation, and digital innovation.

CEC’s Lance Sherry was recognized with the Innovators Award in Sustainability for his work with contrail mitigation. His pioneering research and technologies have not only enhanced flight safety and operational efficiencies but have also addressed aviation's growing efforts to track and mitigate the environmental impacts and to quantify their CO2 equivalency.

The College of Science’s Mikell Paige was recognized with the Innovators Award in Biohealth Innovation for his groundbreaking work in biochemistry at the interface of synthetic organic chemistry, drug discovery, and molecular design. His work focuses on designing small molecules that target computational modeling and biochemical assays to produce drug development in meaningful and practical ways.

Craig Yu of the College of Engineering and Computing received the Innovators Award in Digital Innovation for developing groundbreaking systems that redefine how people interact with virtual and augmented spaces. Through his research, Yu has developed a more human-centered approach to navigation, designing digital pathways that take into account physical effort and make virtual experiences more natural and inclusive.

“At George �鶹��Ƶ, we’re not just advancing research—we’re building a culture of innovation that has real-world impact,” said Andre Marshall, vice president for research, innovation, and economic impact. “These awards are about honoring the bold ideas and the committed people who move the university’s research forward—and outward—into the world. They represent the spirit of innovation that defines our university: impactful, collaborative, and driven by a desire to make a difference far beyond our campus.”

The awards the researchers took home for patents and licensed technologies have a special design. They are Plexiglas hexagons with magnets so researchers can add to their award over the years as they receive patents/licensing.

The researchers and teams behind 19 George �鶹��Ƶ patents were also recognized.

Compositions and methods for laser capture microdissection—Virginia Espina, Lance Liotta, and Alessandra Luchini
Collapsible fluid collection system for point-of-care diagnostics—Marissa Howard, Liotta, Luchini, and Kelsey Mitchell
Honey proteomics for honeybee disease and environmental biomonitoring—Liotta and Luchini
Antimicrobial peptides and related methods—Shravani Bobde
Molecularly imprinted particles—Barney Bishop, Mrinalini Ramanan, and Yaling Zhu
Systems and methods for coordinating travel through traffic lights—Melvin Friedman and Brian Mark
Impactor platform allowing freefall upon impact—David Cerri
Recombinant host cell with heterologous nucleic acids encoding SHREK proteins—Deemah Dabbagh and Yuntao Wu
Methods for breast cancer treatment—Emanuel Petricoin and Julia Wulfkuhle
Anti-fibrotic agent—Mikell Paige and Gregory Petruncio
Using Wi-Fi infrastructure to predict locations and contacts—Janusz Wojtusiak
Methods and systems for system call reduction—Kun Sun
Systems and methods for improved aircraft safety—Lance Sherry
Exertion-aware path generation—Lap-Fai (Craig) Yu
Complex user authentication factor integrating a sequence of fingerprints and a personal identification number—Massimiliano Albanese
Small molecule inhibitors of SLC25A1—Mikell Paige
Mining all atom simulations for diagnosing and treating disease—Mohsin Jafri
Antimicrobial peptides and related methods—Monique van Hoek
Look-up table containing processor-in-memory cluster for data-intensive applications—Sai Manoj and Sathwika Bavikadi

Research at George �鶹��Ƶ

Topics

Research

Tech Transfer

patent

Engineering professors develop human-AI colorization tool for cartoonists

Shayla Brown — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 17:28:34 +0000

Engineering professors develop human-AI colorization tool for cartoonists Shayla Brown Mon, 03/03/2025 - 12:28

�鶹��Ƶ professor Sungsoo Ray Hong has always been a huge fan of cartoons, comics, and animations. By combining his passion with his research area of human-computer interaction, he has created a new tool for cartoonists, ShadowMagic.

Hong, his colleague Yotam Gingold, and their PhD students published a paper, “ShadowMagic: Designing Human-AI Collaborative Support for Comic Professionals’ Shadowing,” elucidating the need for the tool, which aims to boost product quality and designer productivity through study-informed human-AI interaction.

The team worked with professional cartoonists to find common workflow of colorization that is shared within the industry as a reference point for their research, which examines the evolution of designing technology as cartoonists transitioned from using PCs in the 1980s to artificial intelligence, said Hong, who is an assistant professor at the Department of Information Sciences and Technology.

Creating a comic book is a team effort as there are many roles throughout the process including story drafting, sketching, colorizing, editing, and sending to a production company, said Hong.

Colorization is a sequential process of line drawing, flatting, base colorization, shadows and/or lighting, background and other special effects. The tool stems from a previous project, FlatMagic, another AI-driven tool designed to improve the creative process for digital comic professionals.

“This is a fairly standardized process, especially in South Korea and growing throughout the United States as well,” he explained. “The solutions to these network visualizations should be contextualized, but we have the limited resources. We can’t build everything for everybody. That’s my motivation here.”

Gingold also specializes in human-computer interaction and “has always been interested in sketching and how computers can help us express ourselves,” said the Department of Computer Science associate professor.

Yotam Gingold (left) and Ray Hong in Research Hall, presenting their colorization tool. Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding.

“We looked at artistic challenges, usually tedious things that aren’t so fun for the artists and break down those problems, so that they can focus more on the creative parts of it,” said Gingold, who is the director of George �鶹��Ƶ’s Computational Reality, Creativity, and Graphics Lab.

There are millions of pixels in an image, and if an artist wants to move or change the color of a building for example, they point at one pixel among the millions. The artist wants the rest of the pixels to follow along naturally so the rest of the building should also change, he explained.

While a doctoral student at George �鶹��Ƶ, Chuan Yan, PhD ’24, was recruited by Gingold for this project and conducted research on sketching and painting. Yan’s area of expertise encompasses computer graphics fundamentals and sketch-related computer vision techniques, which he had learned extensively from Gingold, he explained.

The ShadowMagic tool was built as an Adobe Photoshop plug-in, and since its release, the team “has garnered significant interest from artists inquiring about updates and expressing a strong desire for a tool that could free them from the labor-intensive flatting process,” said Yan, who is currently a postdoc researcher at Stanford University.

“This response is both exciting and humbling. It confirms that our research is addressing a real need in the industry yet also highlights the remaining challenges in making [the tool] ready for widespread adoption.”

Yan believes that as more sophisticated generative AI systems continue to emerge, AI-human collaboration will become increasingly vital.

“I am excited to witness and contribute to this transformation, helping to shape a future where AI acts as a powerful tool that amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it,” he said.

Discover more Artificial Intelligence research from George �鶹��Ƶ

In This Story

Sungsoo Ray Hong

Yotam Gingold

George �鶹��Ƶ agricultural tool is another step closer to helping U.S. farmers, thanks to NSF support

ckearney — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 19:08:57 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ agricultural tool is another step closer to helping U.S. farmers, thanks to NSF support ckearney Tue, 08/13/2024 - 15:08

The CropSmart Digital Twin (CSDT) decision tool, a research project led by �鶹��Ƶ research professor Liping Di, is one of seven multidisciplinary projects nationwide recently selected to advance to Phase 2 of the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator, which could provide the researchers with up to $5 million in funding.

Liping Di. Photo provided

The user-inspired CropSmart Digital Twin provides on-demand, decision-ready solutions to take the guesswork out of crop management decisions. The services will be easily accessible to users through both web portals and smartphone apps. The optimal solutions are derived from near-real-time remote observations of cropping systems with artificial intelligence or machine learning-based modeling and simulations.

The United States accounts for more than 25% of the total grain traded globally. Successful crop production involves smart management decisions. With the Accelerator, the NSF is investing in new technologies that address the complex challenges in tackling food and nutrition insecurity from population growth, increasing diet-related diseases, and disparities and climate resilience.

In Phase 1 of the Convergence Accelerator, Di and his team received $750,000 from NSF to design CropSmart. With Phase 2, the team will focus on an operational release of the tool. “So it can be tested and evaluated in a real operational environment and provide services to users,” said Di, who is the director of the Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems in George �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Science.

Farmers often depend on their own experience when making decisions, but some will make large investments in commercial instrumentation to measure and collect data on their crops. Yet, after making that investment, they must also collect the data and possess the scientific knowledge to apply it effectively. Di’s team will do this using remote sensing and modeling, covering larger areas at no or very low cost to the farmers, agribusiness operators, and governmental agriculture decision makers.

Di said they were working with more than 20 end-user partners to test CropSmart and anticipates increasing that number to 2,000 over the course of 2024. These users represent different agricultural sectors ranging from individual farmers to farm credit bureaus and ag-related businesses, and include the USDA.

The team is focused on commodity crops, such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. Co-principal investigators on the project include Cenlin He at University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Jenny Du at Mississippi State University, Haishun Yang at University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and Juan P. Sesmero at Purdue University.

Sesmero said the first part of the release—CropSmart 1.0—focuses on certain decision points: when to apply irrigation and how much; crop condition and yield prediction for supporting farm loan and crop insurance decision making; and in-season crop mapping and statistics.

Over time, the teams plans to add additional decision points, such as when to plant and harvest and when to apply nitrogen fertilizer and how much. They will conduct comprehensive field testing to ensure a fully tested and operational solution by the time they release CropSmart 2.0.

“We use the results of our testing to refine the technology,” said Sesmero. “We collect data, process it, and deliver that information through the app.”

The CropSmart Digital Twin will provide three types of products to users: decision-ready information, a “what if” service, and direct management recommendations. The decision-ready information will be delivered to end users for free.

The CropSmart team is focused on commodity crops, such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. Photo by Andrew Draper on Unsplash

“The users will get a good amount of aggregated information at whatever the format they want for free,” explained Sesmero.

The CropSmart "what if” and direct recommendation services are provided with a subscription fee, intended to help fund additional product development and sustain the operation of CropSmart Digital Twin.

In a “what if” service, the CropSmart Digital Twin will give a prediction of outcomes. Users can experiment with different decision scenarios and management paths, see their effects, and compare potential outcomes, by posing such questions as “Should we plant today or wait for another week?”

Also, a third service is available where the tool provides a direct management recommendation. For example, the CropSmart suggests planting within the next four days. This recommendation, optimized for the user’s specific decision goal, is automatically generated by CropSmart.

Topics

Research

College of Science

National Science Foundation

Tech Transfer

�鶹��Ƶ named to top 100 list for patents awarded in 2022

ckearney — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:30:11 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ named to top 100 list for patents awarded in 2022 ckearney Thu, 10/12/2023 - 09:30

It isn’t surprising that �鶹��Ƶ, a university that has been recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, would be among the top 100 universities in United States for patents. This fall, the National Academy of Inventors ranked �鶹��Ƶ No. 91 in its list of the top 100 universities granted patents during 2022.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“�鶹��Ƶ is in the business of discovery,” said Andre Marshall, vice president for research, innovation, and economic impact. “Our researchers are curiosity-driven. As such, we don't always know where our research will lead or what impact it may have. I am absolutely delighted that the �鶹��Ƶ Enterprise tech transfer team is working with our researchers on inventions and patents to transform our discoveries into impact.”

In 2022, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued 15 utility patents to �鶹��Ƶ inventors including a method to monitor physical cues for people in recovery, a wearable device for knee injuries, a system for detecting power grid states and determining appropriate actions, and therapeutics for dealing with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), to name a few. Utility patents cover the creation of a new or improved—and useful—product, process, or machine.

�鶹��Ƶ professors Padmanabhan Seshaiyer of the Department of Mathematical Sciences and Holly Matto, Department of Social Work, share a patent for systems and methods for biobehavioral-regulation treatments. Their invention provides recovery support for users by monitoring their biobehavioral state and strategically delivers, in real time, personalized recovery cues to treat and prevent relapse. It is the first patent for the Department of Social Work.

Researchers Marissa Howard and Lance Liotta at �鶹��Ƶ’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine patented a wearable device that measures, tracks, and monitors a wearer's physical physiological conditions during a rehabilitation period. The device collects metrics, such as temperature, patellar shifting, limb circumference, and acceleration, and communicates them through a networked communication system so medical personnel and patients can stay updated with the patient’s rehabilitation progress and make adjustments.

�鶹��Ƶ alum Eniye Tebekaemi, PhD Information Technology ’18, and Duminda Wijesekera of the College of Engineering and Computing were awarded a patent for a secure overlay communication model for decentralized autonomous power grids. The model is a logic-based system deployed onto computing devices in power grid stations and substations. In response to detecting various power grid faults, such as line failures and over-current states, the system can automatically rearrange power line configurations.

Researcher Yuntao Wu, a professor in �鶹��Ƶ’s School of Systems Biology and the Center for Infectious Disease Research, was awarded two patents in 2022 for his work on HIV: “Targeting the Cofilin Pathway” and “Method and System for Inactivating Virus Infectivity for Producing Live-Attenuated Vaccines.” Wu has devoted his career to HIV research. In 2013, he founded the biotech company Virongy after licensing an HIV drug-screening technology that was developed in his �鶹��Ƶ lab.

“The Office of Technology Transfer takes great pride in the quality of patented innovations brought forth by our dedicated researchers,” said David Grossman, senior director of Technology Transfer and Industry Collaboration at �鶹��Ƶ. “We are honored to help these innovators transition their groundbreaking concepts from the laboratory to the marketplace. This collaboration between academia and industry underscores our unwavering commitment to harness the full potential of research for the betterment of society.”

The academy’s Top 100 lists are created using data provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Other Virginia universities in the top 100 included University of Virginia at 52 and Virginia Commonwealth University at 86.

According to the National Academy of Inventors press release, “This new list was created to highlight and celebrate American innovation and to showcase the universities that play a large role in advancing the innovation ecosystem within the U.S. and beyond.”

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Andre Marshall, PhD

Holly Matto, PhD, LCSW-C

Lance A. Liotta

Duminda Wijesekera

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Innovation Awards celebrate �鶹��Ƶ researchers

ckearney — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 13:57:40 +0000

Innovation Awards celebrate �鶹��Ƶ researchers ckearney Fri, 06/02/2023 - 09:57

On May 9, �鶹��Ƶ celebrated its research enterprise with Innovation Awards, recognizing the Innovator of the Year and a �鶹��Ƶ start-up, and those who received and/or licensed a patent.

Michael Buschmann's team accepted the Innovator of the Year award from Vice President Andre Marshall (holding plaque) on his behalf. Photo by John Boal Photography

According to David Grossman, senior director of technology transfer and industry collaboration in �鶹��Ƶ’s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact, this was the first time since 2010 that the university formally recognized researchers. Going forward it will be an annual event.

“At the �鶹��Ƶ Innovation Awards, we were privileged to recognize the tireless pursuit of knowledge and the transformative impact of our faculty’s discoveries,” said Grossman. “Through their dedication, these researchers are helping shape the world with their groundbreaking technologies and pushing the boundaries of what is possible."

The Innovator of the Year Award was awarded posthumously to Michael Buschmann, Eminent Scholar and the former chair of the Bioengineering Department within �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Computing. Buschmann help found the start-up AexeRNA Therapeutics Inc., in partnership with the university’s Office of Technology Transfer. He and his team licensed the commercial rights of four patents to the company. The technology AexeRNA is working on will make mRNA vaccines less costly and more readily available worldwide. Members of Buschmann’s AexeRNA team were recognized at the ceremony.

Saleet Jafri was awarded the �鶹��Ƶ Start-up Award. Photo by John Boal Photography

The �鶹��Ƶ Start-up Award was presented to Saleet Jafri, director of �鶹��Ƶ’s Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience and professor in the School of Systems Biology, College of Science, for his company Pathodynamics. Pathodynamics has licensed three �鶹��Ƶ patents and is developing a technology that solves the problem of cancer drug resistance, which is responsible for more than 90% of cancer deaths. Jafri has also received a Small Business Innovation Research award for the technology and is working with the Virginia Small Business Development Center’s Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP).

University Professor Lance Liotta, cofounder and codirector of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, was recognized with a �鶹��Ƶ Lifetime Disclosure Award. During his career, Liotta has filed more than 120 patent disclosures. Disclosures are the first step toward a patent by making a public claim about an invention or discovery. Liotta has 100 inventions to date and the prototype of one of these inventions—Laser Capture Microdissection, a method to procure subpopulations of tissue cells under direct microscopic visualization—is in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection.

Lance Liotta (left) and David Grossman holding Liotta's Lifetime Disclosure Award. Photo by John Boal Photography

During the program, Gisele Stolz, senior director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programs at �鶹��Ƶ, was recognized for recently receiving an Impact Award from the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative for mentoring students. Stolz has helped place more than 150 �鶹��Ƶ students in internships with cyber-related start-ups.

Participants of the Virginia SBDC ICAP and national I-CORPS programs and �鶹��Ƶ researchers who have patented or licensed a technology or invention were also recognized.

The awards for patents and licensed technologies are Plexiglas hexagons with magnets so researchers can add to their award over the years as they receive patents/licensing.

A list of those �鶹��Ƶ researcher licensing technologies follows.

�鶹��Ƶ Licensed Technology Awards

“Microscopic Particles for Target Bio-markers,” licensed to Ceres NanoSciences

Lance Liotta, Emanuel Petricoin, Alessandra Luchini Kunkel, Barney Bishop, Virginia Espina, Marissa Howard, and Fatah Kashanchi

“Self-Cleaning Intrusion Tolerance” licensed to SCIT Labs

Arun Sood

“Pre-Shot Sniper Detection” licensed to First Guard Technologies

Kenneth J. Hintz

“Cauldron” licensed to Cyvision Technologies

Sushil Jajodia

“Antiretroviral Compositions” licensed to Lentx

Yuntao Wu

“Biological Materials” licensed to Kera FAST

Barney Bishop, Monique van Hoek, Robin Couch, and Yuntao Wu

“Atomic Magnetometer” licensed to Twinleaf

Karen Sauer

“Protein–Protein Interactions” licensed to EMD Millipore

Alessandra Luchini Kunkel, Lance Liotta, and Virginia Espina

“Antiretroviral Cyclonucleotides” and “Pseudovirus Platform” licensed to Virongy

Yuntao Wu and Brian Hetrick

“Packet Flow Watermarking” licensed to CyberRock Tech

Xinyuan Wang

“Encryption IP Cores” licensed to Chaologix

Gaj Krzysztof and Panasayya Yalla

“Personalized Therapy” licensed to Avant Diagnostics

Emanuel Petricoin and Julia Wulfkuhle

“Thromboembolism Sleeve” licensed to Phase II Consulting and Staffing

Lance Liotta and Marissa Howard

“Laser Capture Microdissection” and “Tissue Molecular Profiling” licensed to Targeted Biosciences

Lance Liotta, Alessandra Luchini Kunkel, Virginia Espina, Amanda Nicole Haymond Still, Marissa Howard, and Philip Andrew Pappalardo

“Cancer and HIV Therapeutics” licensed to Targeted Pharmaceuticals

Catherine DeMarino, Fatah Kashanchi, Lance Liotta, and Virginia Espina

“HIV Vaccine” licensed to Viropeutics

Yuntao Wu

“Protein Painting” licensed to Monet Pharmaceuticals

Alessandra Luchini Kunkel, Amanda Nicole Haymond Still, Lance Liotta, Mikell Paige, and Virginia Espina

“Antidepressant Selection” licensed to Teahorse

Farrokh Alemi

“Honeybee Hive Therapy” licensed to Tri-State Proteomics

Alessandra Luchini Kunkel, Lance Liotta, and Rocio Solange Prisby

“mRNA Delivery Lipids” licensed to AexeRNA Therapeutics

Michael Buschmann, Mikell Paige, Suman Alishetty, and Manuel Carrasco

“COVID Contact Tracing” licensed to Vericord

Farrokh Alemi and Janusz Wojtusiak

“Wearable Devices for Managing Substance Abuse” licensed to LifeSpan Digital Health

Holly C. Matto and Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

“Precision Oncology” licensed to Pathodynamics

Mohsin Saleet Jafri and Soukaina Amniouel

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�鶹��Ƶ Licensed Technology Awards

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