Two New Jersey organizations – a higher education institution and a medical technology company – have received federal grants to pursue scientific innovations.
New Jersey Institute of Technology
The National Science Foundation awarded NJIT a $6 million grant to support the university’s efforts to commercialize scientific and engineering discoveries in areas including health care, sustainable energy and data privacy , announced the Newark institute on October 16.
Awarded by the NSF Directorate of Technology, Innovation and Partnershipsfunds will support NJIT prototype development as well as training workshops for students, researchers and faculty through a new translational research center.
“NJIT’s goal is to become a regional leader in research translation,” Atam Dhawan, NJIT’s senior vice provost for research and principal investigator of the grant, said in a statement. “We have many revolutionary technologies in the pipeline that are close to commercialization. This grant provides crucial support to these projects.
In the works
Two projects supported by NJIT’s Technology Innovation Translation Acceleration Program are:
- Sagnik Basuray, associate professor of chemical engineering, is developing a device that can rapidly detect several diseases of animal origin, including infectious diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans.
- Salam Daher, assistant professor of computer science, works on software and hardware to accurately measure irregularly shaped wounds and create personalized dressings. “Health workers still use rulers and cotton swabs to measure wounds,” she said. “We use 3D tracking technology. We can also simulate healing progress.
Led by Dhawan, the new center will serve as an on-campus hub for marketing training and development and will host workshops, forums and demonstrations to attract collaborators, advisors and investors, according to NJIT.
The federal grant will strengthen NJIT’s Technology Innovation Translation Acceleration (TITA) program, which provides seed grants to projects as well as guidance from an industry advisory board made up of inventors and entrepreneurs. Over the next four years, the NSF grant will provide seed funding of $50,000 to $100,000 per project to up to 10 TITA researchers.
Self-help healthcare
The same day, NJIT unveiled its grant, based in Hoboken Self-help healthcare announced it was receiving federal funds to support its marketing efforts.
THE National Institute on Drug Abuse from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded the company a $1.9 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant to further develop and commercialize its TraCS medication management platform.
The company said this platform uses advances in artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to help pharmacies streamline their workflow. The technology can also help pharmacies detect “drug diversion” related to controlled substances in real time. THE Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention explained that “drug diversion” refers to prescription drugs being obtained or used illegally.
“The introduction of advanced AI and automation in pharmacy will have a direct impact on patient safety and clinical workflow efficiency,” said Behnood Gholami, CEO of Autonomous Healthcare, in a communicated. “Our AI platform is well-positioned to revolutionize this facet of patient care. »
The company added that while many healthcare organizations have improved their operations using pharmacy management software systems, most of these processes are still largely manual. That’s why the company’s partners “are very excited about this next phase of our business development,” added Dr. James Bailey, chief medical officer of Autonomous Healthcare.
According to its website, “Autonomous Healthcare was founded by a team of aerospace engineers trained in biomedicine to develop the next generation of automated medical technologies. »
AI in New Jersey industries
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