Research on improving a line of surgical robots led by UNL engineering professor Shane Farritor earned four patents in 2021.
CRAIG CHANDLER, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Dmitry Oleynikov, a professor and surgeon at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, operates a surgical robot in 2015 while Shane Farritor, an engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, adjusts the camera on the surgical subject. The two developed the robot for minimally invasive surgeries and improving the line of robots earned four patents in 2021.
CRAIG CHANDLER, UNL Communications
Carrick Detweiler and crew flies the Drone Amplified Ignis drone system which drops ball that ignite to create back burns to fight wildfires. September 6, 2019. Photo by Craig Chandler / University Communication.
Craig Chandler
Carrick Detweiler and crew flies the Drone Amplified Ignis drone system, which drops balls that ignite to create back burns to fight wildfires.
Craig Chandler, University of Nebraska
Carrick Detweiler (right) and crew fly the Drone Amplified Ignis drone system which drops balls that ignite to create back burns to fight wildfires on Sept. 6, 2019.
New innovations for surgical robots, developments improving firefighting drones, and breakthroughs in long-acting HIV therapies helped move the University of Nebraska up on a list of patent-earning institutions.
The NU system tied for 64th on a list of the top 100 universities for earning U.S. patents in 2021, according to a report issued by the National Academy of Inventors and Intellectual Property Owners Association last week.
It marks the fifth straight year NU has appeared among the top universities around the world for patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and an improvement of 13 places from its 2020 ranking.
According to the annual ranking, NU finished behind the Ohio State University (50th) and Rutgers University (in a four-way tie for 60th) but ahead of Penn State University and Indiana University (tied for 73rd), and Michigan State University (84th).
NU, with its 43 patents, tied with China’s Southwest Petroleum University.
Bob Wilhelm, vice chancellor for research and economic development at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said a boost in research funding from government and private sources has given faculty and student researchers more opportunities to develop ideas into marketable products.
At the same time, Wilhelm added, UNL and its technology transfer office – NUtech Ventures – is getting better at identifying research that could make a splash and be licensed by private companies for further development.
“We can get as many patents as we want – there are many patents in the patent office that haven’t led to any particular product or impact in the world,†Wilhelm said, “but we are working at pursuing patents that companies are interested in making use of for their own products, systems and services.â€
NUtech Ventures executive director Brad Roth said the process for advancing from the research lab to the commercialization track is strenuous. Less than half of the inventions or innovations developed through UNL research make it through an initial screening process, he explained.
The novel discoveries that do have a decent chance at becoming licensed for commercialization, Roth said: “We have an extremely high success rate compared to a lot of universities in terms of getting things licensed.â€
Research on improving a line of surgical robots led by UNL engineering professor Shane Farritor earned four patents in 2021. One was for a new quick-coupler to attach tools, while another was for an attachment that affords the robot more options for cauterizing and cutting.
Virtual Incision, the company that spun out of the research done on the surgical robots, has received $100 million in private investments since 2006, and recently was selected to take part in a 2024 trip to the International Space Station for testing.
Work done to improve a firefighting system mounted to an unmanned aerial drone also received a patent in 2021. Drone Amplified, a startup founded by UNL computing professor Carrick Detweiler, manufactures the drone platform that has been used to fight forest fires in several states.
Roth said other products, like a special mix of concrete capable of protecting sensitive data or energy infrastructure from an electromagnetic pulse being pioneered at the Peter Kiewit Institute, as well as safety barriers developed at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility will continue to draw attention.
UNL is also eyeing future technology transfer opportunities when a proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture building opens at Nebraska Innovation Campus. The university successfully pitched a companion facility to state lawmakers that would take discoveries made at the USDA lab and turn them into commercial products.
“There will be a need for intellectual property protection and commercialization, that whole transition piece,†Roth said. “It’s still a little ways off, but it’s certainly on our minds.â€
At the University of Nebraska Medical Center, a potential treatment for HIV requiring one dose per year developed by Howard Gendelman and Benson Edagwa, earned three patents in 2021.
The startup company launched to commercialize Gendelman and Edagwa’s discoveries – Exavir – has won $4 million from investors to date.
Michael Dixon, president and CEO of UNeMed Corp., which serves UNMC and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said the technology transfer office also has a high rate of success turning discoveries into licensed products.
Of the 28 patents UNeMed Corp. registered in 2021, 23 have been licensed – “an 82% hit rate for getting technology out the door,†according to Dixon.
“If we weren’t doing anything with them, I wouldn’t think we’re successful,†he added. “I think we do a really good job of getting those technologies into the public so they can be developed further.â€
Dixon said he anticipates future technology growth in some of the research being done at UNMC in conjunction with the National Strategic Research Institute – one of 14 university-affiliated research centers sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Technologies like a portable isolation chamber that could be used in infectious disease hotspots, or devices capable of detecting weapons of mass destruction developed through research done in conjunction between UNMC and NSRI will be key to that growth, Dixon said.
According to Wilhelm, NU’s improving position on the patent list, which has been published annually since 2013, will help spur further research and development at the state’s public university system.
Private partners look at a university’s track record and experience in deciding to invest in further research, Wilhelm said, while the federal government is putting an increased emphasis on research that leads to commercialization and economic growth.
Success in turning ideas into marketable products also helps draw talented faculty, staff, and students, he added.
“It really comes down to talent,†Wilhelm said. “That’s the thing that really makes a difference in terms of having inventive ideas that lead to patents, licenses and new products.â€
Dmitry Oleynikov, a professor and surgeon at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, operates a surgical robot in 2015 while Shane Farritor, an engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, adjusts the camera on the surgical subject. The two developed the robot for minimally invasive surgeries and improving the line of robots earned four patents in 2021.
Carrick Detweiler and crew flies the Drone Amplified Ignis drone system which drops ball that ignite to create back burns to fight wildfires. September 6, 2019. Photo by Craig Chandler / University Communication.
Carrick Detweiler (right) and crew fly the Drone Amplified Ignis drone system which drops balls that ignite to create back burns to fight wildfires on Sept. 6, 2019.