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UT celebrates the ‘Chancellor’s Innovation Fund’ award recipients
The recipients each received $50,000 and support to help move their technology from the lab toward the marketplace.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) hosted its second annual Chancellor’s Innovation Fund award ceremony on Tuesday night, honoring five teams—including six faculty members and one post-doctoral candidate—with the prestigious award.
The awards, provided by UT’s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development (ORIED), aim to grow East Tennessee’s entrepreneurship pipeline by providing a pathway to commercialize technology developed by faculty. ORIED established the fund in 2023 to raise awareness, promote innovation, and support UT’s promising faculty entrepreneurs.
In years past, the event was coordinated by Rob Coleman; however, this year, it was orchestrated by Marc Nabhan, the recently promoted Director of Entrepreneurship and New Ventures at UTK. Read his story here.
UT Chancellor Donde Plowman kicked off the ceremony by turning the audience’s attention to how the event originally got started. She credited Deborah Crawford, the University’s Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development, as the one who pitched the idea of using reserves to benefit the commercialization of faculty innovations.
“It was such a great idea, and very easy to say yes to,” Plowman said. “I’m so thankful for Deb, and I’m so excited to hear about the innovations coming from our campus.”
Plowman continued by thanking those in attendance. Among the audience were Dr. Maha Krishnamurthy, President of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF); Mark Gibson, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Partnerships & Economic Development; the Dean of the Haslam College of Business, Stephen Mangum; the Dean of the College of Law, Lonnie Brown; Marianne Wannamaker, the Dean of the Baker School for Public Policy; and many other corporate partners, chief executive officers, ecosystem partners, and friends of the university.
“I can look at so many people in this room and pinpoint specific initiatives that each of you has accomplished to elevate the importance of research and turn it into businesses that develop our economy and improve the livelihood of Tennesseans,” Plowman said. “We’re not just solving Tennessee’s problems; we’re solving the world’s problems.”
2025 recipients
EndoThumb
Dr. Dustin Crouch an Associate Professor in UTK’s Tickle College of Engineering, received one of the first Chancellor’s Innovation Fund Awards for the evening. He is is building a prosthesis company to help support thumb amputees.
Unlike traditional prosthetics, worn on the outside of the body, the EndoThumb will be enclosed in living skin to restore both natural appearance and tactile sensation. Crouch and research associate Katrina Easton will focus their efforts on finalizing the EndoThumb design to prepare for FDA preclinical testing; this would support an application to perform a clinical trial, with expected FDA approval in 2031.
Read his story in teknovation.biz.
Commercialization of Robust Soybean Varieties
Professor Vince Pantalone, a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the Herbert College of Agriculture, uses a combination of classical plant breeding and DNA laboratory technologies in his lab to develop high-yielding cultivars that are resistant to pests and adapted to the climate, soil, and cultural practices of Tennessee, the Mid-South, and the Southeast.
He noted that soybeans are the top agricultural product in Tennessee, and soybean cyst nematode (SCN) resistance causes $1.5 billion in damages across the nation each year. Pantalone has developed the first patent-pending gene that is resistant to Race 2 SCN.
On-Site Internet of Things
Sai Swaminathan, an Assistant Professor in the Tickle College of Engineering, is bringing to market a technology that transforms smart manufacturing. In his pitch, he explained that smart manufacturing involves “lots of sensors, and they need lots of batteries.”
His technology allows for self-powered ‘Internet of Things’ devices, providing real-time manufacturing and, perhaps most importantly, ensuring “no data leaves the building.”
Skillfold Robotics
Jindong Tan, a Professor in the Tickle College of Engineering and Adjunct Associate Professor Shuai Li are bringing to market robots that will be trained to restock shelves.
In Li’s November pitch, he noted that the technology could save stores 20 percent in personnel costs and increase sales by five percent.
Aluminum-Air Batteries
UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair for Electrical Energy Conversion and Storage, Thomas Zawodzinski, and Tickle College of Engineering Entrepreneurial Fellow Brian Washington secured a Chancellor’s Innovation Fund award for their joint work on aluminum-air batteries.
In Washington’s initial pitch, he noted that aluminum-air batteries “can increase storage by an order of magnitude” and only require aluminum and air. He also predicted the company would have customers by Q3 of 2025 and a product available by Q4.
Washington also secured the winning prize at the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council’s Opportunities in Energy event in November. TVA granted Washington a “down payment” to support the development of a potential pilot project with TVA through the Spark Cleantech Accelerator.
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