Latest technologies from Michigan State University

Polyamine-Based Therapeutic Approach for Alopecia Areata

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:43:27 GMT

Executive Summary: Oral administration of DFMO (Eflornithine), a polyamine inhibitor, offers a novel treatment to reduce elevated polyamine levels and stimulate hair regrowth in alopecia areata patients. Description: Alopecia areata is an autoimmune hair loss disorder that affects approximately 5 million patients in the United States. Laboratory research in alopecia mouse models by Dr. André Bachmann (Michigan State University) and clinical insights by Dr. Caleb Bupp (Corewell Health) and their teams, as well as independently published literature, found that elevated ODC prot...

DIGITAL RELAY FOR MICROGRID PROTECTION

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:20:14 GMT

VAlue proposition Distributed renewable energy sources (DREs) have emerged as a preferred alternative to traditional power grids, offering significant environmental benefits, enhanced power reliability, and cost-effective generation. However, integrating DREs into microgrids presents several challenges for protection systems, such as variable output, low fault current contributions, lack of inertia, and dual operational modes. To overcome these limitations, a communication-assisted protection scheme based on a state-observer-assisted digital relay, specifically designed for high-pene...

INDUSTRIAL LASER PULSE METROLOGY

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:49:51 GMT

VAlue proposition The present technology is a method and apparatus for measuring the performance of industrial ultrashort‑pulse, diode‑pumped lasers. While these lasers are widely used in high‑power, high‑repetition‑rate applications, users have observed that systems with identical published specifications often deliver very different processing results. This demonstrates that conventional metrics—pulse duration, repetition rate, and average power—do not fully characterize laser performance. Existing diagnostic methods measure total integrated power or rely on nonlinear t...

X-RAY CONTRAST AGENTS

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 12:05:56 GMT

VAlue proposition X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an important imaging tool that is propelled forward by innovations in contrast agents, imaging systems, image acquisition schemes and image analysis strategies. Contrast agents attenuate x-rays by giving rise to a signal in CT images. Iodine is the most used contrast agent. However, unbound iodine is toxic. Several new contrast agents have been developed by incorporating other x-ray absorbing elements, most with relatively low sensiti...

STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:30:41 GMT

VAlue proposition This technology can monitor the structural health of pipelines and other structures throughout their lifetime. These sensors do not require a power source, are cheap, and can provide real time updates on every structure where they are applied. Piezoelectric materials produce a measurable charge when acted upon by a force, and do not need to be provided power for this sensing operation to work. Structural health monitoring is the process of detecting damage to a structure so that the integrity of the system can be maintained. This process requires the observation of a s...

GENERATOR FOR WAVE ENERGY HARVESTING

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:55:02 GMT

VAlue proposition Ocean wave energy has many advantages like high power density, wide distribution, ease in harvesting and independence of time of day, weather or seasons. It is estimated that the global power by waves breaking around the coastlines worldwide is around 2–3 TW. However, ocean renewable energy technologies like wave energy converters (WEC) are still at relatively early stages of development. There is an opportunity for energy harvesting units deployed in the ocean. Harvested energy from wave actuation can be used to power environmental monitoring sensors as a self...

STRONG-COUPLING QUANTUM DOT MICROSCOPE

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:32:16 GMT

VAlue proposition There is an ongoing search for useful states that allow them to be used as building blocks for topological quantum computers. In such systems, information is stored in these states, making it inherently protected from local disturbances and errors. This robustness is a significant advantage over traditional qubits, which are more susceptible to decoherence. Majorana bound states are zero-energy states that emerge in certain topological superconductors, exhibiting unique properties that make them promising candidates for quantum computing applications. Their unique pr...

MILLI-RADIAN ULTRAFAST LASER PULSE METROLOGY

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 12:32:05 GMT

VAlue proposition Ultrashort laser pulses have seen widespread use in scientific, medical, and industrial fields. Their degree of coherence is a key feature that dictates the accuracy and amount of noise in its applications. The relative spectral phase within the bandwidth of the pulse needs external methods to measure and control. Controlling the spectral phase increases reproducibility, optimizes peak intensity, and allows for use in metrological applications such as the generation of pulse trains. Previous methods such as Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating, Spectral Phase Inte...

Surgical system for minimally invasive repair of sacro-iliac luxations/fractures in dogs and cats

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:33:01 GMT

Executive Summary Injuries to the pelvises of cats and dogs often result in damage to the Sacro-iliac or SI joint. Traditionally, SI joint damage is repaired using an invasive operation, increasing morbidity for the patient as well as high levels of radiation exposure for the surgical team. Recently, there has been increased interest in the utilization of minimally invasive surgical procedures. MSU researchers have developed a set of instruments designed to facilitate a minimally invasive reduction and fixation of sacro-iliac luxations/fractures (SIL/F) in small animals. This ...

Soft, Stretchable Electrical Tissue Adhesive for Precision Biosensing and Bioelectronic Device Integration

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 07:09:36 GMT

Executive Summary In-situ biosensing is a rapidly advancing field, enabling real-time biomolecular detection directly at local tissue sites. However, the integration of biosensors with soft, wet, and deformable tissues remains a key technical challenge. MSU researchers have created an electrical tissue adhesive (ETA) that forms fast, robust adhesive interfaces between rigid electrochemical biosensors and soft, wet biological tissues. The material exhibits high fracture toughness, low modulus, and extraordinary stretchability, while maintaining strong interfacial toughness at the senso...

3D-Printed Microrobots for Magnetic Actuation, Imaging, and Hyperthermia

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 07:02:03 GMT

Executive Summary Microrobots offer transformative potential in biomedical applications, including targeted drug delivery, detoxification, and minimally invasive surgeries. However, two key challenges hinder their clinical translation: achieving scalable and precision fabrication, and enabling non-invasive imaging and tracking within deep biological tissues. MSU researchers have developed TriMag microrobots—biocompatible hydrogel microrobots that uniquely combine three magnetic functions in one platform: precise magnetic actuation, magnetic particle imaging (MPI) visibil...

Process for Transforming Waste Polyethylene to Dicarboxylic acids

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 07:27:11 GMT

Executive Summary Polyethylene is a leading plastic used in a myriad of applications. One consequence of the abundant use of the plastic is the problem of waste which accumulates in landfills. Mechanical recycling waste polyethylene is possible for certain grades and limited applications, and pyrolysis to produce fuels possible but often uneconomical. MSU researchers, have developed a new one pot process for converting collected waste polyethylene into the value added diacarboxylic acids. The process produces clear diacarboxylic acids useful for a range of value-added products with ...

Advanced Design Heat Exchanger Formed by Metal Additive Manufacturing

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 13:16:41 GMT

Executive Summary Heat exchangers are common process units used in the chemical, oil and gas, manufacturing and energy sectors. Their efficient design that encompasses efficient heat transfer, low cost and longevity is critical to their success. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new heat exchanger concept, that uses an advanced design and metal additive manufacturing, providing improved heat transfer and low pressure drop. Description of the Technology The technology is a method of making a heat exchanger components based on laser sintering of a pow...

REMOVING CONTAMINANTS FROM A FLUID

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 07:17:30 GMT

VAlue proposition Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are manmade chemicals used in various industrial and consumer products such as firefighting foams, household cleaners, and vapor suppressants. They have a unique property in being able to repel both oil and water due to their hydrophilic and hydrophobic components. While there are hundreds (if not 1000s) of PFASs and potential precursor compounds, the commonly known groups are the perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), the perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) and the perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSAs). Within these are 13 different carbon chain l...

FLEXIBLE SENSOR

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 06:52:54 GMT

VAlue proposition Inflatable structures provide significant volume and weight savings for future space and soft robotic applications. Structural health monitoring of these structures is essential for safe operation, providing early warnings of damage, and measuring structural changes over time. An approach is desired for a single flexible strain sensor for distributed monitoring of an inflatable tube, in particular, the position of a kink and its magnitude. Description of Technology This sensor technology consists of three layers of a flexible conductive substrate, s...

INSPECTION OF INTERNAL SURFACE OF CYLINDRICAL STRUCTURES

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 06:29:08 GMT

VAlue proposition Surface defect inspection, detection, and classification in hollow cylindrical surfaces such as pipes and barrels have a significant impact on the structural integrity of various industrial products. Regular inspection and identification of the faults reduces the likelihood of faults’ aggravation, limits the damaging effects, and increases the product life. However, most of the defect detection systems for cylindrical surfaces rely heavily on handcrafted feature extraction limiting the ability to recognize the defects effectively. An image processing-based automatic de...

MONOCULAR CAMERA CALIBRATION

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 12:16:53 GMT

VAlue proposition Camera calibration is typically the first step in numerous vision and robotics applications that involve 3D sensing. Classic methods enable accurate camera calibration by imaging a specific 3D structure such as a checkerboard. With the rapid growth of monocular 3D vision, there is an increasing focus on 3D sensing for in-the-wild images, such as monocular depth estimation, 3D object detection, and 3D reconstruction. While techniques of 3D sensing over in-the-wild monocular images developed, camera calibration for such in-the-wild images continues to pose significant challeng...

Optical Power Driven Electric Drive

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:45:20 GMT

Executive Summary The global electrification of aviation, transportation, and industrial systems is creating urgent demand for electric machines that combine high power density, operational safety, and supply‑chain resilience. Conventional permanent‑magnet machines rely on rare‑earth materials, driving cost volatility and limiting fault tolerance. At the same time, existing brushless field‑excitation approaches struggle to meet the demands of high‑speed, lightweight applications. Researchers at Michigan State University have developed a breakthrough optically powered synchronous machine pla...

ON-DEMAND LASER-INDUCED CRYSTALLIZATION OF MATERIALS

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 13:38:21 GMT

VAlue proposition Lead halide perovskites, with their exceptional optoelectronic properties, hold considerable promise for a wide array of photonic applications. However, precise spatiotemporal control over their crystallization remains an outstanding challenge, limiting the design of next-generation perovskite-based technologies. Conventional crystal growth techniques often lead to uncontrolled nucleation at random sites, slow growth rates, and structural heterogeneity, resulting in large variances in crystal orientation, size, and, subsequently, optical properties. These limitations...

COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY AND ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED BIOMATERIAL IMPLANT

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 11:57:00 GMT

VAlue proposition The use of implantable biomedical tissue engineering scaffolds (TES) in the clinic is growing rapidly. Often, TES are engineered to perform critical functions in regenerative medicine, including providing mechanical support, delivering therapeutic molecules, and creating protective barriers. Clinically approved TES for these purposes include devices such as biodegradable polymer hernia patches and meniscus replacements. As TES gain clinical acceptance, the trend is to adapt these tools for personalized medicine. This has been demonstrated most successfully for orthop...

EDDY CURRENT SENSOR ARRAY

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 11:42:13 GMT

VAlue proposition Eddy current testing (ECT) is a widely employed nondestructive testing (NDT) technique that utilizes electromagnetic induction to detect surface and subsurface defects in conductive materials. Due to its rapid, contactless nature and high sensitivity to material property variations, ECT has found extensive applications where ensuring structural integrity and early-stage defect detection are critical. However, traditional ECT methods often face challenges in improving detection sensitivity, enhancing defect characterization, and achieving reliable inspection of defect...

MODULARIZED ULTRA-WIDEBAND PHASED ARRAY WITH INTEGRATED SENSING AND LOCALIZATION

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 09:32:20 GMT

VAlue proposition Wireless techniques are increasingly popular to serve perception tasks such as localization and sensing due to their ubiquity, robustness to adverse light condition, and privacy preserving features. However, the diverse application scenarios impose highly different requirements for spatial resolution of the perception, the capability to serve different types of users (such as users carrying devices and device-free subjects), as well as various constraints on the cost and form factors of the radios. A one-size-fits-all wireless radio or array layout rarely works. &n...

VIBRATION BASED METHOD TO ESTIMATE VISCOSITY AND DENSITY OF FLUIDS AND SOFT-SOLIDS

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 13:30:15 GMT

VAlue proposition In various applications there is a need for viscosity and density measurements of fluids and solids. Resonant sensors for the measurement of rheological properties are often employed in process and condition monitoring. Micro-acoustic MEMS devices such as micro-cantilevers and SAW devices have been previously used for such applications. However, due to their scale, these devices measure thin film viscosity and local density. Such measurements are often not comparable to macroscopic measurements obtained through conventional devices. Miniaturized cantilever-base...

Single-Pill Dispensable Closure | OTC & Supplement Packaging Innovation

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 09:14:32 GMT

Executive Summary Millions of people take pills every day, but regular bottles often spill more than one pill at a time. This can cause waste and make pills dirty or non-hygienic, especially when multiple users share the same medication or supplements. Our new Single-Pill Closure fixes that by letting users get just one pill per press, making it cleaner and easier for everyone. More hygienic for consumers. Description of Technology The design uses a flexible tab that moves when you press it down allowing only a single pill to come out. No compli...

Bidirectional Indirect Matrix Converter Circuit for DC Fast Charging

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 09:12:16 GMT

Executive Summary Indirect matrix converters (IMCs) are commonly used in AC/AC converters, which comprise a major power electronics component of DC fast chargers, motor drives, and other electrical power converters. A common use is to convert between 120V, 60Hz, 3-phase grid power to 50kHz+ PWM waveforms for use by systems further ‘downstream’. To avoid damage from high frequency harmonics, bulky DC-link capacitors are often used. MSU researchers have developed a bidirectional power electronics circuit with overvoltage protection system for IMC’s used in high power...

Antimicrobial bioactive glass-ceramic scaffold

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 11:13:30 GMT

Executive Summary Healing infected tissue and combating resistant bacteria are significant clinical challenges. Antibiotic-based therapies are increasingly unsuccessful due to the ability of pathogens to develop resistance. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), for example, is a leading cause of many infections, including skin and soft tissue infections, endocarditis, and osteomyelitis. MSU researchers have developed a new bioactive glass scaffold that has a series of interconnected struts with antibiotic activity. The scaffold promotes proliferation and diff...

Flexible Hybrid Fastener with Increased Bond Strength and Optimized Sealing Capacity

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:49:42 GMT

Executive Summary Fasteners are often installed through holes drilled in individual pieces to be joined. While significant advancements have been made in fasteners over the past several decades, construction techniques such as using composites (including wood, fiberglass, and carbon fiber), in particular, have exposed serious limitations to existing fastener capabilities. Advanced fasteners are often required for dissimilar and advanced materials, especially modern composite structures. Michigan State University has developed a hybrid fastening system with an associat...

Software for Drug-Protein Interaction with Machine Learning

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 11:19:45 GMT

Executive Summary Developing drugs for therapeutic applications is a time consuming and costly process. Selecting potential drug candidates and understanding the potential interactions in the body is a bewildering process due to the number of potential combinations. Thus, a number of efforts have been undertaking to use high throughput testing and artificial intelligence (AI) to speed the process, but currently, these approaches still take considerable computation time. MSU researchers have recently developed a new software platform called BINDSMART that accelerates the process for ...

Low Interception Wireless Communication Method

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 13:46:44 GMT

Executive Summary Wireless communications are carried on electromagnetic waves that travel through physical space between a transmitter and receiver. This represents a potential area of vulnerability whereby eavesdroppers may ‘listening in’ to this data if they’re within range of the signal’s transmitter. Various approaches have been taking to increase the security of the wireless signal and mitigate eavesdropping or jamming such as physical-layer, beamforming and artificial noise. However, all of these approaches have challenges such as requiring knowledge of the phys...

Woven Turbomachine Impeller

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 14:04:33 GMT

Executive Summary Impellers are used in numerous applications such as turbines or compressors. In some cases, the cost of the impellers are prohibitive and difficult to manufacture and incorporate into a system. MSU researchers have developed a new woven impeller design that is less expensive to produce, ideal for integrating other parts such as conductive and magnetic fibers, and motors. Description of Technology This technology introduces a woven impeller made from continuous fibers such as carbon, aramid, or glass, that forms both blades and a peripheral shroud as a singl...

High Speed Additive Metal Manufacturing Process

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 08:26:29 GMT

FABRICATED GREEN HEAT EXCHANGER PLATES BY SEAM PROCESS SINTERED STACKED HEAT EXCHANGER ASSEMBLY Executive Summary Metal additive manufacturing is an attractive process for producing highly complex and tailored co...

Cubic Boron Nitride Inserts for Iron Based Workpieces

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 07:54:41 GMT

Executive Summary Compacted graphite iron (CGI) has recently been gaining more attention due to its superior mechanical properties over the currently more popular flake graphite iron (FGI), aka gray cast iron. However, the poor machinability has prevented CGI to be used in a wider range of potential applications. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new insert that allows high speed cutting of CGI materials with low tool wear. Description of the Technology The technology is a method of method for machining an iron-based workpiece involving an insert co...

SECURE BIOMETRIC RECOGNITION USING EFFICIENT NEURAL NETWORKS

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:25:06 GMT

Value proposition Face Recognition (FR) has become integral to identity management in many practical applications, from unlocking personal devices to facilitating law enforcement and accessing financial services. These systems process sensitive biometric data that, if compromised, can lead to privacy invasions, identity theft, and unauthorized surveillance. Unlike passwords, biometric data is immutable-once compromised, it cannot be changed, which elevates the need for robust security mechanisms to protect it. Such protections are also mandated by legal regulations on the acquisition, storage...

AUTOMATED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE DETECTION AND LOCALIZATION USING MECHANICS-INFORMED DATA ANALYSIS

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 10:54:01 GMT

VAlue proposition Structural health monitoring ensures the safety and longevity of structures like buildings and bridges. As the volume and scale of structures and the impact of their failure continue to grow, there is a need for techniques that are scalable, inexpensive, can operate passively without human intervention, and are customized for each mechanical structure without the need for complex baseline models. We have developed a “deploy-and-forget” approach for automated detection and localization of damage in structures. It is a synergistic integration of entirely passive me...

2D SHAPE SENSING AND RECONSTRUCTION SYSTEM

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 09:37:18 GMT

VAlue proposition Accurate shape sensing is crucial in robotics, biomedical engineering, and structural health monitoring for tasks like robotic guidance and infrastructure assessment. However, challenges such as dealing with complex geometries during sensing and data acquisition while maintaining high accuracy remain. This technology is a flexible differential inductive sensor array for 2D shape sensing and reconstruction. Description of Technology The system employs two FPCB-based inductive sensor strips, separated by a fixed distance, to measure curvature through relative...

Magnetic Field-Assisted Finishing Composition

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 10:00:54 GMT

Executive Summary Magnetic field-assisted finishing (MAF) is a machining process which utilizes a magnet, ferrous materials, abrasive materials, and an oil to create a ‘brush’ for polishing operations. The process allows automation of surface finishing without the need for manual polishing. However, the quality of the finishing is highly dependent on the brush composition. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new MAF composition that can can improve the final surface quality. Description of the Technology The technology is a brush composit...

Lignin-Based Separators for Lithium-Ion Batteries

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 09:44:43 GMT

Executive Summary Lithium ion batteries are currently ubiquitous in numerous applications. In these batteries, the separator plays a crucial role by physically separating the anode and cathode to prevent electrical short circuits while allowing the flow of ions through the electrolytes. Common materials used for separators include polyolefins such as polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE), both derived from fossil fuels. However, despite their widespread use, PP and PE separators face challenges related to thermal stability and environmental sustainability. Researchers at Michigan...

Hybrid Lithium-Ion / Lithium-Metal Battery Electrolyte for Fast Charging and High Energy Density

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 09:38:06 GMT

Executive Summary Lithium ion batteries are currently ubiquitous in numerous applications while lithium metal batteries are becoming closer to commercialization. For all batteries, there is a continuous need for higher energy density and fast charging and discharging due to growing applications such as e-vehicles. One limitation of lithium based batteries is the problem of lithium dendrite formation during fast charging which can cause shorts and fires. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new electrolyte system for lithium batteries that allows fast charging wit...

Patterned Surface Coating for Water Harvesting

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 13:57:40 GMT

Executive Summary In arid regions worldwide, there is a critical need for supplying water for drinking, agriculture and public use. However, these regions often have limited well capacity or water is available but is brackish, saline or contaminated. One possible solution it to capture the water from moist air. While several technologies exist for this purpose, they are often costly or ineffective, thus limiting their practical implementation. MSU researchers have developed new way of patterning surfaces with an eco-friendly, simple and scalable coating method. The surfaces effectively cond...

SECURE RETRIEVAL-BASED LANGUAGE GENERATION

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 12:22:00 GMT

Value proposition Security in large language models (LLMs) is crucial due to the potential for data breaches, malicious attacks, and the generation of harmful or biased content. LLMs are trained on vast datasets containing sensitive information, making them prime targets for attacks. These attacks can lead to data leaks, privacy violations, and reputational damage. Moreover, LLMs can inadvertently memorize and reproduce sensitive data from their training corpus, potentially exposing intellectual property or authentication credentials Description of Technology Thi...

EMBEDDED ELECTRONICS IN COMPOSITES USING CONDUCTIVE AND MAGNETIC FABRICS

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 11:55:57 GMT

Value proposition There is a need for assembling miniaturized and embedded electronics into the vehicle bodies for light weight, mechanical stability and wireless technologies. Non-metallic/composite body structures enable embedded antennas and circuits. This technology relates to the packaging of concealed electronics [active and passive circuits] embedded inside multilayered automotive composite hoods (planar/conformal surfaces) including a novel way of integrating conductive fabric circuit designs for various applications such as sensing, authentication, Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communicat...

Sensing Platform for Dynamic Soil Properties in Autonomous Vehicles

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 12:42:40 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION A sensing platform which generates real-time soil property data for offroad autonomous vehicle control. The target application of this technology in autonomous vehicle guidance for off-road applications. Such vehicles could include Humvees and agricultural tractors. While not limited to autonomous vehicles, this system could also be implemented on smaller ‘probe’ ground vehicles which would survey a large area in a parallel manner. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY This invention is a sensing array mounted on a metal disk which measures the depth, strain, and moi...

A novel sampling method for the detection of oak wilt pathogen, Bretziella fagacearum in oak and chestnut

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 13:33:22 GMT

Executive Summary: A novel sampling method that uses petioles from fallen leaves is non-destructive and highly accurate for detecting Bretziella fagacearum, the fungus that causes oak wilt, using real-time PCR and culture-based methods. Background: Bretziella fagacearum has been distributed to much of the Midwest and Southern United States and is responsible for the disease known as oak wilt. It kills 100% of the trees it infects and is spread either via root systems or from beetles that can carry the pathogen spores from one tree to the next. Traditional laboratory testing methods...

Ceramic Micro-Burner

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 08:58:51 GMT

Ceramic Micro-Burner Figure 1: Design of micro-burner Figure 2: Sequence of fabrication process Executive Summary Microchemical systems (µCSs) are compact chemical and biological process units offering enhanced mixing, excellent heat transfer, and enabling highly exothermic reactio...

Photoelastic Polymer Sensor

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 07:51:56 GMT

Executive Summary Sensors for measuring force or pressure are used in a wide variety of applications in industrial, healthcare and automation. Soft sensors, in particular, are used in applications where only low levels of stress are measured. However, one drawback with current soft sensors, is the long term repeatability and cost. Researchers at Michigan State University and Stony Brook University have developed a new photoelastic polymer-based sensor technology. Upon stretching or compression, the sensor material changes color rapidly within seconds, which can be measured and translated in...

VITRUALGENOME, A VIRTUAL REALITY IMMERSIVE SYSTEM

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 09:00:26 GMT

VAlue proposition A virtual reality immersive system that enables users to visualize, explore, and analyze 3D genomes and their associated biochemical features. Combining VirtualGenome with Tensor-FLAMINGO and 3DVarientVision creates a technology that provides a high-resolution image of the altered 3D structure resulting from a genetic variant, decodes the functional impacts of the altered 3D structure and models these changes. Modeling the 3D genome and its associated biochemical features provides important insights into gene regulation and control of gene expression. This can help us better...

HIGH-RESOLUTION RECONSTRUCTION OF SINGLE-CELL 3D CHROMOSOMAL STRUCTURES

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 08:57:12 GMT

VAlue proposition The dynamic 3D spatial structure of chromosomes has variations across cells of different types and between cells of the same type. This structural variation between single cells plays an important role in regulating single-cell specific transcription and epigenetic landscapes. Computationally reconstructing chromosomal 3D structure based on data from chromatin contact frequencies between genome regions has furthered our understanding of interactions between distant chromosomal regions, linking genes, enhancers, transcription factors and distal genetic variants. Current...

3DVARIENTVISION: DECODE FUNCTIONAL IMPACTS OF GENETIC VARIANTS BASED ON 3D CHROMATIN

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 08:53:21 GMT

VAlue proposition Deciphering the effects and mechanisms of genetic variants is essential to understand human genetics and further precision medicine. A genetic variant is a permanent change in the nucleotide sequence that makes up a gene, also known as a gene mutation. Mutations can cause diseases or phenotypic changes. Typically, Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) are used in genetic research to associate specific genetic variations with particular diseases. This method involves studying the genomes of a large group of people and searching for small variations of single nucleoti...

Synthesis of biodegradable adhesives/compatibilizers and their uses

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:28:53 GMT

Executive Summary Flexible plastic films and labels are used extensively for packaging applications. Increasingly there are consumer, company and government demands for better end of life products to minimize landfill waste. However, many of these products have other materials such as inks, coatings and adhesive that can impact the end of life properties of the packaging composition. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new tie layer adhesive composition that allows excellent bonding between common film layers and is expected to be biodegradable. Descrip...

High Performance Tie Layer for Multilayer Film

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:25:34 GMT

Executive Summary Flexible plastic films are used extensively for packaging applications. Increasingly there are consumer, company and government demands for better end of life products to minimize landfill waste. However, often these more eco-friendly products have poor mechanical or barrier properties and are not suitable for recycling. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new tie layer composition that allows excellent bonding between common film layers. Description of the Technology The technology is based on a unique tie-layer adhesive composition...

Recyclable High Barrier Film with Tie Layer

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:21:30 GMT

Executive Summary Flexible plastic films are used extensively for packaging applications. Increasingly there are consumer, company and government demands for better end of life products to minimize landfill waste. However, often these more eco-friendly products have poor mechanical or barrier properties and are not suitable for recycling. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a film technology that offers good barrier properties and is amenable to both chemical and physical recycling. Description of the Technology The technology is based on a unique tie-la...

Destructing Organic Compounds in Liquids

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 12:34:06 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Per and Poly Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a group of human-derived chemicals widely used in consumer products and industry applications that can be toxic. PFAS are difficult to deconstruct and current ways for PFAS destruction present many limitations. These limitations include the systems being ineffective at removing short chain PFAS, long processing time, needing large quantity of absorbents, generating by products, expensive equipment and large energy consumption. Cost effective methods to destroy PFAS are needed. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY This...

Light Scattering Fiber with Enhanced Side Emission for Photobioreactors

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 12:06:04 GMT

Executive Summary Photobioreactors are used to cultivate various photosynthetic microorganisms to produce useful materials such as biofuels, value added chemicals. These systems regulate key factors including light, temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, and nutrients. A key challenge with photobioreactors is getting enough light into the medium especially when it is opague. Current light distribution methods rely on reactor shape, size, and circulation which are complex and costly. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new type of light fiber that has high ...

Robust Adaptive Modular Perception System

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 11:11:39 GMT

Value proposition Neural network-based algorithms have advanced the state-of-the-art in many perception-related tasks such as detection, tracking, and prediction, which are critically important for autonomous vehicles, ADAS, and other related technologies. However, integrating disparate neural network-based algorithms together can be challenging due to varying system-level requirements, non-standard network input and output formats, and custom network features. A framework for developing a node-based system for integrating datasets, perception algorithms, and other processing modules in a sin...

Virtual Quasi-Optical Systems in Parallel Plate Waveguide Technology

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:55:05 GMT

VAlue proposition In important applications antennas or arrays will steer their beam in different directions. In particular there are structures in which a mechanical steering is required between different parts of the antenna or where vertical metallic walls are not possible within the structure. There is a need for an antenna or array that can steer its main beam by properly tailoring in amplitude and phase its radiating aperture. Steering the main beam of antenna is a major requirement for all applications involving mobile users or a wide field of view. As an example, next generation...

Generalizable approach to reducing data volume and quality while retaining application performance

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 09:44:45 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION In machine learning and related applications resource reduction allows for lower economic, energetic, and data costs, which in turn (1) increase the scale of sensing and connected system deployment and (2) allow for more applications to operate on a fixed resource budget. Machine learning applications, particularly for constrained systems such as Internet of Things and mobile devices or embedded computers, are limited in deployment or not developed due to the resource costs required for operation. Many machine learning applications have over-provision requirements for data qu...

Multi-Mode Radiofrequency Cavity

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 07:03:56 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Particle accelerators accelerate charged elementary particles by using radiofrequency cavities which house and control powerful alternating electric fields. In these cavities, the electric field typically oscillates at the charged particle’s fundamental frequency; this creates a beam of energy which needs to be further focused and shaped before exiting the accelerator. Beam shaping and focusing are accomplished by using an electric field oscillating at a harmonic frequency, these are frequencies which area an integer multiple of the harmonic. Typically, acceleration (fu...

High-Speed, Wideband, and Widefield Coherent Raman Imaging

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 06:45:02 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Inter- and intra-molecular interactions in solids dictate a variety of physical and chemical properties, ranging from structural characteristics and carrier transports to reaction pathways and the emergence of topological states. In heterogeneous materials, compositional changes and local nanoscale environments tune these properties spatially. Correlating molecular interactions with structural and compositional features necessitates statistical analysis across numerous measurements to establish direct causal relationships. An analysis apparatus is needed for parallel mapping ...

Modular and Scalable Solar Microinverter

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:53:48 GMT

Executive Summary Induction motors are used in a myriad of applications. Often, however, they are oversized and draw high starting currents which typically incurs additional electricity charges. For pumping applications, this can also lead to excess wear of the pump and piping system. While a variable speed drive (VSD) may alleviate this problem, VSD’s are expensive to install and may be uneconomical. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new solar microinverter that can soft start induction motors, thus relieving them of peak energy use during sta...

Dual Mode Sensor for Non Destructive Testing of Composites

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 13:39:19 GMT

Executive Summary Fiber reinforced composites are used in a wide variety of applications in the automotive, aerospace, boating and energy sectors. Testing the composites for defects is an important part of manufacturing quality control, however, this often requires the costly sampling and destructive testing of finished parts. While several technologies exist for non destructive testing, these devices are often limited to measuring one specific type of flaw. MSU and the US Dept of Army researchers have recently developed a new dual mode system that uses both eddy current testing (ECT) and c...

Recyclable Multilayer Polyester Films

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 12:07:14 GMT

Executive Summary Plastic films are used extensively for packaging applications. Increasingly there are consumer, company and government demands for more recyclable products to minimize landfill waste. However, often recyclable products have poor mechanical or barrier properties and are not suitable for certain applications such as food packaging. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a film technology that offers good barrier properties compared to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is amenable to both chemical and physical recycling. Description of the ...

Process for Stereocomplex PLA and Compostable Laminate Film for Food

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 14:01:51 GMT

Executive Summary Consumers, companies, and governments are increasingly favoring compostable materials over fossil-based alternatives, as waste from traditional materials has escalated significantly in recent decades. However, a key challenge with compostable materials is their inferior oxygen and moisture barrier properties compared to non-compostable options. For instance, compostable films used in flexible food packaging often lack the moisture resistance needed to maintain sufficient shelf life. Current compostable film technologies typically rely on metallization or non-fully composta...

A.R.M.O.R. – A Tool for Evaluating Polypharmacy

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 09:51:02 GMT

Executive Summary Many patients, especially the elderly, are on various forms of medication, leading to higher risks of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and drug-drug interactions (DDIs). Addressing this complex issue of polypharmacy requires collation of multiple factors, including patient clinical profiles, functional status, and evidence-based data on potentially harmful medication interactions. ARMOR is an interactive tool developed by an MSU physician that can be used to successfully evaluate polypharmacy risks in elderly patients. Description of Technology ARMOR ...

Non-contact railway inspection

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 14:35:01 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Rail transportation is periodically marred by accidents, highlighting ongoing safety challenges. There is a need for effective rail inspection methods. Current techniques are hindered by limitations such as low detection accuracy and sensitivity, particularly at high speeds. This technology introduces a novel method for high-speed, high-accuracy rail inspection. The technology employs an electromagnet to generate motion-induced eddy currents in the rail track with high Signal-to-Noise Ratios and sensitivity, capable of detecting defects at speeds up to 60 mph. The ...

Thin Film Deposition

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 12:02:10 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION The specific application of thin films dictates the required material properties such as thickness and chemical structure with many produced by deposition of a target material onto a substrate. Thin films play a critical role in the fabrication of many devices such as integrated circuits and solar cells, along with optical coatings and protective coatings. Some common methods for producing thin films include Physical Vapor Deposition and Chemical Vapor Deposition. Operating temperature plays a key role in deposition quality. By increasing the temperature during dep...

Heavy Metal Sensing

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 08:14:02 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Heavy metal pollution in soils is widespread in the world, resulting from both natural sources and human activities (e.g., mining and smelting, industrial emission, fossil fuel combustion, etc.). Due to their toxicity, bioaccumulation, and environmental persistence, elevated levels of heavy metals in the environment pose major threats to ecosystem health and the safety of food crops grown with contaminated soils and waters. Conventional techniques for heavy metal detection via atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrom...

Optically gated field emission cathodes

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 09:46:01 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Electron beam-based devices are critical to applications such as particle accelerators, high-power electromagnetic sources ranging from microwave to X-rays, vacuum electronic devices, e-beam lithography, electron microscopy, space-vehicle neutralization and emerging vacuum nanodevices. They are key elements in telecommunication systems, satellite-based transmitters, radar, communication data links, and electronic countermeasures. There continues to be strong interest in increasing the output power, frequency tunability, and bandwidth of electron beam-based vacuum e...

Super-resolution Optical Imaging

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 13:55:25 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Conventional microscopes rely on making a spatial measurement of light, which are diffraction limited. Traditional scanning microscopy approaches obtain a spatial image by scanning across known locations. The wavelength of light becomes the limiting factor in achieving better spatial resolution. It would be advantageous to have a system using light that was not bound by diffraction limitations. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY This technology is an optical imaging apparatus that uses light emitted from a laser, where the leading phase front of the l...

Distributed Radar Imaging

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 13:47:32 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Electromagnetic imaging sensors operating in the millimeter-wave band are an attractive solution for a variety of current and emerging applications, including airline passenger screening, as well as autonomous vehicle navigation. Such sensors generate two-dimensional representations of targets, thereby allowing for the automated extraction of information through traditional image processing techniques. Due to the short wavelengths associated with mm-wave radiation, imaging systems operating within this band provide sufficient spatial resolution to produce images wh...

Secure and Efficient Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Transmission System with Disguised Jamming

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 13:31:07 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION The use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal modulation has become widespread in current electronics. Currently 4G, 5G, LTE and other data and telecommunications systems utilize this modulation technique due to its numerous advantages.. With integration of OFDM into consumer, government, and corporate fields, resistance to signal jamming is an essential system safeguard. Jamming communication systems are a substantial threat to an increasingly technical society. While high power jamming is still a threat, the possibility of a different route ...

Harmonic RF Tag for Wireless Measurement of Multiple Products

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:33:28 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION It is desirable to remotely detect and measure the motions of objects in living spaces for applications such as human-computer interaction and connected homes. Furthermore, home health and remote diagnostic applications have seen dramatically increased demand as people look for solutions to health care that do not require leaving the home. While optical systems can track the motions of people and objects, privacy concerns related to devices obtaining images in the home have been a concern. Harmonic Doppler radar presents a solution that not only mitigates such pri...

Detection and Prediction of Mild Cognitive Impairment using Resting-State EEG

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 13:34:17 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Early discrimination and prediction of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are crucial for the study of neurodegenerative mechanisms and interventions to promote cognitive resiliency. Existing work mainly focuses on the detection of MCI before Alzheimer’s onset; however, quantitative methods which enable prediction of progression trends in older adults, especially pre-MCI diagnosis, are far less frequent. Here, focusing on resting-state EEG data collected among high-risk, under-served African American seniors, we first conduct multi-scale analysis of brain funct...

Self-Supervised Method and System for Removing Smeared Points

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 12:28:20 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Computer vision is roughly composed of three phases: image acquisition, image processing, and image analysis/understanding. During the phase of image acquisition, depth sensors are used to gather digital information about the scene being observed, usually requiring post-processing of data to transform it into a useable form. This data is then applied to algorithms to infer low-level information on the content of the scene observed, such as edge detection, segmentation, and classification of objects in the scene leading to three-dimensional scene mapping and object ...

Spectroscopic Bioagent Detection

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 12:11:41 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION The need for Identifying viruses quickly and accurately has become more apparent than ever. Each cell, virus, nanoparticle vibrates at a natural frequency. This technology is a phonon spectroscopy-based microscope that accurately identifies single nanoparticles and viruses. The device can be used for detecting single viruses or bacteria in various clinical applications such as: early identification and detection for diagnostics, compositional analysis for gene therapy, vaccine and drug development, viral load monitoring, and identification of ne...

Pipeline Inspection Robot

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 08:07:57 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Pipelines represent a major supporting industry for utilities and are used in a variety of applications such as for natural gas, water, and oil, as well as residential distribution. Natural gas pipelines alone travel over 2.5 million miles, delivering 28.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to customers in the United States alone. There is an ongoing need for inspecting and maintaining these pipelines. A robot is developed with features which increase its effectiveness in navigating and inspecting small-gauge pipes such as residential gas mains and in...

MRI RF Powered Voltage Sensor

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 12:51:36 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION For Magnetic Resonance Imaging it is often desirable to measure electrophysical characteristics alongside MRI data. To do so, voltage sensors are employed. This technology is an RF powered voltage sensor which can be configurable to measure a variety of physical indicators with excellent resolution. The design minimizes interference with MRI operations. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY The parametric resonator is a circular-shaped loop-gap resonator with a continuous center conductor to bridge its virtual grounds. As a result, t...

Well-Characterized Non-Genetically Modified Bovine Muscle Cell Lines for Research Use

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 06 May 2024 13:16:20 GMT

Well-Characterized Non-Genetically Modified Bovine Muscle Cell Lines for Research Use Executive Summary: Well-characterized non-genetically modified bovine primary muscle cell lines have been sorted based on genetic information and proliferate well for research use. Background: Animal cell lines are utilized for a variety of medical and veterinary research purposes. Bovine cells, in particular, are useful for studying bovine-related diseases and treatments Description of Technology: The muscle biology program at Michigan State University has developed over 100 high-quality pri...

Plant-Associated Bacterial Isolate Collections from Grasses Show Plant Beneficial Functions

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 02 May 2024 14:07:03 GMT

Executive Summary: Two collections of bacterial isolates, one from the epicuticular wax and root mucilage of sorghum and one from the rhizosphere of switchgrass, were enriched for plant beneficial functions. The inoculation of a subpopulation of the switchgrass isolates resulted in increased biomass production in switchgrass compared to the control. Background: Plant-associated microbial communities can function to support plant growth and increase plant resistance to environmental stresses. Isolating and characterizing native microbial communities from crop plants is useful for identifyi...

Biobased Films with Improved Oxygen Barrier

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 14:39:33 GMT

Executive Summary Biobased materials such as polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), polyglycolic acid (PGA) and polybutylene succinate (PBS) are attractive materials for packaging films due to their positive sustainability aspects including biodegradability. However, their oxygen barrier properties limit the use of these materials to certain applications. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new film technology that improves oxygen and water barrier in biobased polyesters, thus providing a sustainable packaging solution for a broader range of applications the...

Biodegradable Barrier Coating for Paper

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 14:33:11 GMT

Executive Summary Coated paper is used in a variety of packaging applications including fresh produce, cheeses, confectionary, frozen fish and fast food. To achieve sufficient barrier properties, the paper is often coated with petroleum based waxes or polyfluorinated substances (PFAS). However, these coatings are not environmentally attractive and can present challenges in end of life management of the packaging. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new coating for paper that uses biobased materials and is PFAS free. The coated board has excellent resistance to g...

Biodegradable Hyperbranched Polymer

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 10:56:02 GMT

Executive Summary Hyperbranched polymers are attractive due to unique structures, low viscosity, good solubility and a large number of functional end groups. However, because they are non linear polymers, they can be difficult to synthesize to high conversion without gelling. MSU and CMU researchers have developed a new hyperbranched polymer that is biodegradable and can be made at extremely high conversions. The polymer has high levels of end groups of only one type (hydroxyl or acid) which can be further esterified with another chemical without fear of gelation, thus allowing new sustainabl...

Electrically Active Magnetic Nanoparticle-based Biosensors

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 12:54:27 GMT

Executive Summary Harmful microbes are present in various sources including water, food, plants, and through human-to-human transmission. The ability to detect them rapidly at a low cost is important to protecting the health and safety of humans and animals and the security of food chains. MSU researchers have developed novel nanoparticle-based biosensors for rapidly sensing pathogens in complex matrices or media. The biosensors can be used in a variety of application settings without the need for pre-purification, lengthy culturing, and amplification. Devices for determining path...

Process for producing a Cyano ring-substituted Arene borane

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 11:24:36 GMT

Executive Summary In the pharmaceutical industry, organoboron complexes are key building blocks for drug manufacturing, versatile reagents for high-throughput parallel synthesis in drug discovery and exhibit some useful and unique biological activities. However, conventional synthesis routes can be complex and involve undesirable reagents. MSU researchers have developed processes for efficient synthesis of cyano ring-substituted arene boranes. Description of the Technology The technology involves reacting a ring-substituted cyano arene with an HB or a B—B organic co...

A Novel Framework for Lidar-Camera Fusion

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 13:12:25 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Motion-Capture, the essence of any autonomous vehicle application is the process of recording and following the movement of objects and people. The use of this 3D-based object detection enables better spatial planning and object avoidance than its 2D counterparts. 2D object detection systems often lack sufficient video resolution which has an adverse impact at longer ranges, this framework works well at both long and short ranges. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY This technology named CLOCs (Camera-LiDAR Object Candidates) provides a better performing, low-complexit...

Random Finite Set based Tracking for 2D/3D Object Detection

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 13:07:58 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Multi object tracking is critical in enabling an autonomous vehicle to perceive and maneuver its environment. Three common flaws in multi-object tracking detection is (1) uncertainty in the number of objects, (2) uncertainty regarding when and where the objects may appear and disappear and (3) uncertainty in objects states. A Random Finite Set (RFS) based method is paired with Poisson Multi-Bernoulli Mixture (PMBM) filtering to both reduce frequency of flaws and improve efficiency while saving in computational cost. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY Random Finite...

Camera-LiDAR Fusion for 3D Object Detection

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 13:05:04 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION When compared to single modality approaches, fusion based object detection methods often require more complex models to integrate heterogeneous sensor data and use more GPU memory and computational resources. This is particularly true for camera-LiDAR based multimodal fusion, which may require three separate deep-learning networks and/or processing pipelines that are designated for the visual data, LiDAR data, and for some form of a fusion framework. A Fast Camera-LiDAR Object Candidates (Fast-CLOCs) fusion network has been developed that can run high-accuracy fusion-b...

Blockchain-based Mobile Electronic Voting

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 13:08:43 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Electronic voting presents a convenient and cost-effective alternative to current paper ballot-based voting. It provides many benefits such as increased voter turnout and accuracy in the decision-making process. While presenting many improvements, e-voting still faces serious security challenges that hinder its adoption, especially for smartphone applications. A novel remote e-voting scheme has been developed that can enhance the integrity and efficiency. The system can be implemented in smartphones, which we believe can significantly increase voter turnout of the election...

Topologically Controlled Composite Materials with High Energy Absorption Capability

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 13:21:02 GMT

Executive Summary Composite materials are a well-established technology in applications requiring high-performance such as sports, aerospace, or defense. However, conventional fiber reinforced composites are prone to severe delamination, cracking, and fiber breakage upon projectile impact. This lack of toughness is a critical limitation on the possible uses of the composite. MSU researchers have developed a new composite material based on small angle lamination (~15 degrees) with macroscopic curvature to give an increase in fiber bridging and increased toughness. ...

Stretchable Bioelectronic Interface for Biopotential Recording

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 11:43:06 GMT

Executive Summary Flexible electronics are materials that are often soft and bendable which allow them to conform to various surfaces. One application for these is in the biomedical field where flexible electrodes are used to measure electrical signals such as an electrocardiogram (ECG), electroencephalogram (EEG), or electromyography (EMG). However, currently available materials, while flexible, are not stretchable, which limits their extended use over time due to patient comfort. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new flexible electrode system built from a ...

Biocatalysis of Bioactive Taxanes

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 11:07:50 GMT

Executive Summary Chemotherapy drugs are critical for effective patient cancer care. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry has encountered several instances where it has not been able to supply sufficient quantities of important chemotherapy drugs due to manufacturing problems. Michigan State University researchers have discovered a novel, faster way of producing producing important drugs such as paclitaxel (Taxol®), cabazitaxel (Jevtana®) and docetaxel (Taxotere®) using biocatalysis. The process allows a more streamlined and faster in v...

High Performance Reversible Adhesive System

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 12:18:36 GMT

Executive Summary In many applications, the ability to debond adhered substrates is advantageous as this can significantly reduce removal time and costs. However, to date, reversible adhesive systems with the proper balance of performance under a variety of environmental conditions and debonding time have not been developed. MSU researchers have recently developed a new modified polymer system and related equipment, that debonds on demand under induction fields of specific strength and frequency. The system has been used to debond in 1 minute, 2’ x 2’ composite panels bonded to ...

A Novel Enzyme from Solanum Habrochaites that Synthesizes Sesquiterpenes

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 09:59:57 GMT

Introduction Zingiberene is a sesquiterpene produced by many plant species including ginger, turmeric, cultivated tomato, and its wild relatives. It is synthesized at particularly high levels in the trichomes of certain accessions of the wild tomato species Solanum habrochaites and is a potent insect repellent. The identification of a gene from S. habrochaites that synthesizes zingiberene provides an opportunity to directly control the synthesis of the chemical in other plant species to improve resistance to insect pests. Description of Technology Michigan State University...

Biosynthetic Route to Phloroglucinol Synthesis

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 11:10:16 GMT

Executive Summary: Phloroglucinol (1,3,5 trihydroxybenzene) is used in the production of a plethora of applications such as explosive or propellant compounds, medicaments, cosmetics, dyes, and others which make it such a sought-after resource. However, Phloroglucinol is difficult to synthesize by chemical synthesis and alternative routes are desired. Michigan State University researchers have discovered a biosynthetic route to make Phloroglucinol from glucose, while avoiding hazardous chemical and petroleum based starting materials, in addition to doing so in a more efficient and hi...

Boron Based Catalysts for Cycloaddition Reactions

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 13:53:31 GMT

Executive Summary Increasing there is greater interest in replacing petroleum based chemicals with bio-based alternatives. The packaging market in particular, has actively sought “greener” alternatives for important materials such as poly(ethylene terephthalate), a.k.a. PET. MSU researchers have developed a new catalyst and method to make cycloaddition products at high yields while avoiding deleterious side reactions. The process allows the efficiency conversion of biobased materials to important starting monomers used in the production of PET, thus enables 100% biobased polymer...

Expanded Graphite Reinforced Shaped Polymer Composites

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 08:43:44 GMT

Executive Summary Polymeric composites are used in a myriad of applications including automotive, aerospace, industrial and consumer markets. Balancing properties such as weight, cost, mechanical and electrical properties is key to developing a successful product. MSU researchers have developed an inexpensive method of preparing a shaped polymer composite with graphene nanoplatelets produced from expanded graphite, that has excellent mechanical and electrical properties. Description of the Technology The invention uses graphene nanoplatelets less than 200 microns in length ...

Conductive Circuits by Microcontact Printing of Graphene Nanoplatelets

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 11:51:06 GMT

Executive Summary Photolithography is a standard method of forming electronic circuits in electronic devices. However, in some cases, this can be a expensive step in the fabrication process. MSU researchers have developed an inexpensive method of creating thin films with conductive surfaces using a combination of polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) coating on a substrate, and microcontact printing of conductive graphene nanoplatelets coated with a charged polymer. The method allows for conductive organic patterning on both flat and curved surfaces and can be used in microelectronic device fabr...

Machining Lubricant Containing Exfoliated Graphite

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 14:01:19 GMT

Executive Summary Machining processes in high production environment usually adopt flood cooling with water-based lubricants and various chemicals. In order to minimize the lubricant use and waste (which also eliminate centralized pumping stations), minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) techniques have been adopted, which generate mist of oil droplets. However, as the cutting speed increases, the oil droplets from MQL vaporize which cause excessive heating and degrade cutting tools. MSU researchers have developed a new MQL lubricant with exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnPs) that pro...

Polyethylene Implants with Controlled Immune Response

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 14:40:17 GMT

Executive Summary Polyethylene is commonly used as a material for medical implants such as total joint replacements. Unfortunately, polyethylene wear particles can promote adverse host immune responses in patients, which may require secondary revision surgery. MSU researchers have recently discovered that metabolic reprogramming and altered bioenergetics is a key reason for the adverse immune responses and have developed a novel means of reducing them by the incorporation of metabolic inhibitors into the implanted materials. Description of the Technology This technology utilizes ...

Efficient Room Temperature, Ambient Pressure Liquid Ammonia Storage System

heguangm@msu.edu — Sun, 14 May 2023 06:20:30 GMT

Executive Summary Liquid ammonia is current stored and transported in very large quantities in refrigerated units, railcars, tanker trucks and pressurized containers. While the majority of existing uses are as a nitrogen fertilizer for agricultural uses, increasing attention has been turned to ammonia as a green, carbon free energy storage medium for fueling combustion engines and fuel cells. However, the low boiling point (-33°C) and toxicity of ammonia presents challenges to safely storing and handling the material. MSU researchers have recently developed a new method of stori...

Liquid Piezoelectric Device

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 09:44:26 GMT

Executive Summary The piezoelectric effect is the ability of certain materials to generate an electric charge in response to mechanical stress. Typically these effects are seen in certain solid materials such as crystals, ceramics, semiconductors and polymers. Devices that take advantage of the piezoelectric effect are used in a range of applications including high power applications, musical instruments, non destructive test equipment, sonar and laboratory equipment. However the solid nature of the piezoelectric materials limits the applications they can be used in. MSU researchers have re...

Rapid Point of Care Detection of Tuberculosis

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 08:41:43 GMT

Executive Summary Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major causes of death from a single infectious agent worldwide, affecting both humans and livestock. Pulmonary TB can be currently diagnosed by various methods including chest radiography, sputum smear microscopy, nucleic acid amplification and cultivation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). However, all these techniques suffer from various issues such as high cost, long diagnosis times or complicated procedures. MSU researchers have recently developed a new technology for detection of TB from clinical samples (sputum, CSF, urine, etc....

Translucent Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO)

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 08:10:54 GMT

Executive Summary Thermoplastic polyolefins (TPO) are used in a variety of applications such as automotive bumpers and fascia where good impact and chemical resistance are needed.. MSU researchers have recently developed a new technology for producing translucent TPO materials. The materials are compounded by conventional extrusion and then molded to produce a final article with high transparency, low haze and good mechanical properties. As a result, the material can be used to display messages underneath the substrate. Description of the Technology This invention involves a poly...

Synthetic Implants with Controlled Immune Response

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 12:59:00 GMT

Executive Summary Polymers such as polylactic acid (PLA) are commonly used as bioabsorbable materials for implants. Unfortunately, degradation products from these often promote adverse host immune responses in patients, which may require a secondary medical intervention such as surgery to remove the implant. To attempt to counter this, some implant technologies incorporate pH modifying ingredients, which ostensibly act by regulating the local acidity at the implant surface. However, this approach has not completely controlled the chronic inflammation associated with implanted materials...

Synthetic Bacterial Microcompartment Shell Proteins Derived by Circular Permutation and/or Genetic Fusion

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 13:11:01 GMT

INTRODUCTION Bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) are organelles used by various bacteria to encapsulate metabolic pathways into a proteinaceous shell. BMCs serve as scaffolds to organize encapsulated enzymes and as physical boundaries to reduce diffusive loss of volatile or toxic intermediates and restrict crosstalk with cytosolic biosynthetic pathways. Because of BMC's attributes (i.e., self-assembling modules, optimization of the reactions in their lumen), they can function as customizable catalytic bioreactors for the production of diverse compounds. The modulation of the microcompartme...

Bioluminescent Dopamine and Glutamate Sensors

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 13:35:57 GMT

Executive Summary Genetically encoded optical sensors and advancements in microscopy have revolutionized the scientific toolbox used for answering complex biological questions especially in terms of studying brain activity. However, there remains a need to develop new tools for reporting neuronal activity in vivo within deeper structures. MSU innovators have recently developed new bioluminescent sensors that do not require external light sources and produce unprecedented intensities in the presence of glutamate or dopamine neurotransmitters. Their efficiency makes them especially attra...

A Robust Algal Assemblage for Biomass Production and Carbon Dioxide Capture

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 13:34:24 GMT

Executive Summary: Stable algal assemblage cultured for biomass production and carbon dioxide capture is robust under different bioreactor configurations, environmental conditions, and CO2 supplements. Background: Carbon dioxide accounts for 82% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Sustainable carbon capture is essential for decreasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and mitigating global warming. Microalgal cultivation continues to be a preferable solution due to its capacity for carbon dioxide capture and generation of value-added algal products. When comparing algal s...

Extracellular Vesicle Library for Drug Screening

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 09:46:14 GMT

Executive Summary The body’s natural transporter, Extracellular vesicles (EVs), have gained recent attention for their potential as targeted drug delivery vehicles with low immunogenic response. Properly designing the surface allows EVs to deliver therapeutic payloads (protein, RNA, nanoparticle, small molecule, etc.) to a target organ. However, the critical challenges are a lack of targeting molecules that can guide EVs to the specific tissue and a time-consuming and costly process of designing such EVs for the intended purpose. MSU researchers have recently developed a new meth...

Tunable Degradation of Fibers

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 11:20:39 GMT

Executive Summary Degradation of polymeric materials is an important process in recycling, composting and rendering them innocuous to the environment. Controlling the rate by which the materials degrade remains challenging and impacted by the nature of the materials and their use in applications where combinations of materials exist to fulfil product property requirements. MSU researchers have developed a novel process controlling the rates of degradation of mixtures of compounds that involve chemochemical cascades. Applications are illustrated by mixing PLA fibers with cellulose ace...

Polylactide Lignin Blends

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 09:51:38 GMT

Executive Summary Increasingly, bio-sourced and biodegradable materials are being sought to replace petroleum or gas based polymers. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a well known biodegradable polymer that is used in a range of applications from biomedical devices to packaging materials. However, PLA by itself suffers from some deficiencies in mechanical properties. Lignin, is an abundant organic polymer found in plant cell walls such as wood and bark, but it’s commercial use is limited. MSU researchers have developed a novel process for preparing composites based on blends of PLA reinforced ...

Treatment Process for Reduced Corrosion in CFRP/Metal Hybrids

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 08:47:46 GMT

Executive Summary Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) are often mechanically fastened to metals such as aluminum alloys in lightweight aircraft applications. Since both materials are electrically conductive, galvanic corrosion of the less noble metal can occur, leading to degradation over time. MSU researchers have developed a new technology for treating the exposed carbon fibers in the CFRP parts that significant inhibits corrosion. Salt spray test results for mechanically fastened treated CFRP to aluminum over 14 days show a 2/3 reduction in weight loss and ¼ ...

High-Throughput Screening Platform for Identification of Insect Repellents

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 07:13:56 GMT

Executive Summary: High-throughput screening platform identifies repellent compounds that activate specific insect odor receptors. This platform can identify pyrethrins and pyrethroids to combine with odorant-mediated repellents to enhance overall repellant activity. Background: Mosquitoes transmit a number of dangerous diseases to humans (malaria, dengue, yellow fever, Zika virus) and animals (dog heartworm, equine encephalitis, West Nile virus). In order to reduce disease transmission, insect repellents are used to prevent mosquitos from making contact with humans and animals. ...

Insect Sodium Channel Clones for Insecticide Research and Development

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 10:02:40 GMT

Executive Summary: Well-characterized insect sodium channel clones useful for insecticide research and development. Background: Sodium channels are well-known targets for a variety of widely-used and relatively safe insecticides, such as pyrethroid insecticides (e.g., bifenthrin and cyfluthrin). Thus, understanding the function and structure of these sodium channels are important for insecticide research and development. Description of Technology: These insect sodium channel clones were isolated from the cockroach (Blattella germanica) genome for expression and ch...

Characterized isolates of Phytophthora sojae, a pathogen of soybean

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:13:02 GMT

Executive Summary: Isolates of Phytophthora sojae were collected in Michigan for pathotype structure characterization and identification of EC50 (effective concentration to inhibit mycelial growth by 50%) for common seed treatment fungicides. Background: Phytophthora sojae is a pathogen of soybean that causes stem and root rot, resulting in major crop losses in most soybean growing regions. Current management techniques include fungicide seed treatments, however long-term use of fungicides can result in fungicide resistance. Understanding the pathotype structure and fungicide ...

Microbial Protection Against Fusarium graminearum Infection and Mycotoxin Accumulation

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:09:08 GMT

Executive Summary: Endophyte isolates that have antagonistic activity against the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum were shown to decrease mycotoxin accumulation and increase seed weight when wheat heads were challenged with Fusarium graminearum after endophyte isolate treatment. Background: Fusarium head blight is one of the most devastating diseases of cereals worldwide and is primarily caused by the fungus Fusarium graminearum. Infection causes a decrease in yield and can result in grain contamination by mycotoxins. Mycotoxins affect the digestive system and organ functio...

Gold Nanoparticle Biosensors

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 26 May 2022 13:19:17 GMT

Executive Summary Harmful microbes are present in a variety of sources including water, food, plants, and through human-to-human transmission. The ability to detect them rapidly at low cost is important to protecting the health and safety of humans and animals and the security of food chains. MSU researchers have developed novel gold (Au) nanoparticle biosensors for rapid sensing of bacteria, proteins, viruses in a variety of media. The biosensors can be used in a variety of application settings without the need for pre-purification, lengthy culturing, and amplification. The particl...

Passive 3D Optical Identification Tag Design

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 23 May 2022 08:28:54 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Spatial navigation is important for many human-related activities, including those underwater like scuba diving and underwater accident rescue. Efforts to improve underwater navigation based on acoustic and RF techniques incur significant drawbacks, including high power consumption, expensive price, long latency, or short communication ranges. Therefore, there is still a need for a technology to aid in spatial navigation that can have embed data for the user, be efficient in its power consumption and low deployment cost. MSU has developed a new passive low-order opt...

Laser Pulse Shaper

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 09 May 2022 13:11:22 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION This technology can continuously monitor internal dispersion and correct for temperature drifts caused by the environment or by laser deposited thermal energy. This Pulse shaper will be zero-dispersion and will be able to faithfully characterize input as well as output pulses. INTRODUCTION When a pulse shaper is used as a pulse characterization device, the system can produce dispersion-free pulses at the output, but the system cannot characterize the input pulses because of the unknown spectral dispersion of the pulse shaper itself. To measure ...

Modular quantum interconnect for microwave and telecommunications wavelengths

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 06 May 2022 12:46:48 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION This technology is a quantum interconnect (QuIC) technology that consists of scalable modular devices which act as a common communications bus for other quantum systems to form larger quantum networks of varying size. INTRODUCTION Research in the field of quantum information processing and communication technologies has had a rapid and sustained growth over the past decades. The large diversity of emerging quantum technologies reveals the need for modularity to scale up to truly useful numbers of logical qubits for local quantum computation, widespread dis...

Monocular 3D Object Detection

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 06 May 2022 12:46:41 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION This technology is a novel end-to-end trainable Grouped Mathematical Differentiable NMS (GrooMed-NMS) for monocular 3D object detection. INTRODUCTION Modern 3D object detection methods have immensely benefitted from the end-to-end learning idea. However, most of them use a post-processing algorithm called Non-Maximal Suppression (NMS) only during inference. Although there have been attempts to include NMS in the training pipeline for other tasks such as 2D object detection, they have been less widely adopted due to a non-mathematical expression of the...

Magnetic Nanoparticles, Magnetically Activated Cell Enrichment, and Biosensing

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 09:47:27 GMT

Executive Summary Harmful microbes are present in a variety of sources including water, food, plants, environment, and through human-to-human transmission. The ability to detect them rapidly at low cost is important to protecting the health and safety of humans and animals and the security of food chains. MSU researchers have developed novel magnetic nanoparticles for quickly extracting pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes) from a variety of complex matrices. This allows enhancing the sensitivity of biosensors and other diagnostics for rapid detection of these path...

Web-Based Tool to Predict Information Bottlenecks

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 12:27:08 GMT

Executive Summary The execution of large projects involving multiple companies, teams and people is complex. Yet, good project management is essential to reducing cost and ensuring projects are completed on time. A variety of tools exist today, however, these tools generally focus on task scheduling, critical path determination and resource allocation. MSU researchers have recently developed a software tool that addresses project delays that that occur due to information bottlenecks. These bottlenecks occur as more and more project teams use electronic means of communicating including ...

Cost Efficient Process Generates a Stronger Titanium Alloy

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 12:06:45 GMT

Executive Summary Conventional Ti alloys are expensive and complex to develop, but remain coveted by the aerospace and nuclear power industries for their elevated heat properties and low density. MSU researchers have developed a new method for creating a durable, low-cost titanium alloy which is a lightweight alternative for nickel and cobalt alloys. Description of Technology The technology is a new light weight Ti alloy and thermomechanical process to produce it. The general formula of the alloy is Ti-xCr-yFe-zA1 with x between 10-16, y between 0-5 and z from 0-6...

I- DISC - Digital Initial Screening of Cognition - A Virtual Tool for Screening for Cognitive Function

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 11:52:13 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION When a person starts to experience memory loss and other forms of cognitive decline, it can be a stressful, uncertain, and a trying time for everyone involved, from the affected person to their family, friends, caretakers, and even healthcare providers. Cognitive function may decline as a result of specific risk factors (e.g. hypertension, elevated cholesterol, cardiac arrhythmias). This cognitive decline in turn could adversely impact the person’s physical functioning and quality of life. No matter what the cause of the cognitive decline, it’s importa...

Naturally Derived Inhibitors of Fungal Toxin Production

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 08:13:46 GMT

ToxBlox: NATURE-DERIVED COMPOUNDS THAT inhibit aflatoxin AND DON CONTAMINATION iNTRODUCTION Nothing ruins a crop of corn quite like the aflatoxin produced by fungi, such as Aspergillus parasiticus. This toxin degrades the food and makes consumption dangerous, especially in children and pets. If crops are found to be contaminated with an aflatoxin producing mold a recall may be required. A 2020 recall of dog food after the death of at least 28 dogs demonstrates that this is an ongoing problem. DON contamination is an ongoing problem in animal feed and for the brewing an...

Lichen Compounds that Inhibit Aflatoxin Production

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 08:13:05 GMT

Hybrid Gelatin Methacryloyl-Silver Bioactive Glass Bioink

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 12:35:20 GMT

Executive Summary Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting is an emerging field that involves producing tissue structures with 3D printing techniques. Examples include bone tissue/fillers, synthetic skin, scaffolds for drug delivery and tissues for dental repair. Common 3D bioprinting methods include extrusion, stereolithography and microfluidics-based techniques. For 3D printing hard tissues, osteopromotive elements are required and much research has focused on the addition of particles such as bioactive glass (BaG), hydroxyapatite and silica to these formulations. However, to date ...

Process for Depolymerizing Recycled Polystyrenes

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 12:52:05 GMT

Executive Summary Each year, billions of lbs of polystyrene and styrene copolymers are discarded as waste and very little is recycled. While some technologies have attempted pyrolysis in fluidized bed reactors or solvent processes to convert the polystyrene back to monomer, high costs, long process times and a myriad of reaction products have limited their commercial success. MSU researchers have recently developed a new technology for chemical recycling of polystyrenes that is fast and provides and economical route to monomer recovery. Description of Technology This invention...

Rapid Process for Depolymerizing Recycled PET

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 12:28:54 GMT

Executive Summary Each year, billions of lbs of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) are discarded as waste. While some of the material is separated, recycled and incorporated into new materials, the degradation of the polymers back to their original monomers (a.k.a. chemical recycling) remains prohibitive due to the cost. MSU researchers have recently developed a new technology for chemical recycling PET and PETG that is fast and provides and economical route to monomer recovery. Description of Technology This invention is a novel proc...

Recombinant Protein for Rare Earth Element Binding

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 07:44:17 GMT

Executive Summary Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential materials used in advanced technologies such as electronics, process catalysts, magnets, batteries and MRI contrast agents. Although used in small quantities for each application, they end up in surface water and soil during mining, processing and waste disposal. This presents growing environmental concerns such as bioaccumulation in plants and animals and increasing levels in fresh and drinking water supplies. MSU researchers have developed a new bio-based technology that selectively binds to REEs, permitting them to be seq...

Recoverable Liquid Nanofoam Energy Absorbers

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 11:54:08 GMT

Executive Summary Energy absorption and dissipation systems such as shock absorbers, springs, foams and padding are used in a wide variety of applications where protection is required. In the protective equipment segment, users continue to search for new technologies to increase impact resistance with reduced weight. Sports and military helmets in particular, require high direct energy absorption but also complex rotation performance as well, with stringent weight and volume limitations. MSU researchers have recently developed a new technology coined “liquid nanofoam” that offe...

Electrocatalytic Synthesis of High-Intensity Sweetener Dihydrochalcones

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 06:07:12 GMT

Executive Summary Converting flavonoids like naringin and neohesperidin to the high-intensity sweetener dihydrochalcone compounds offers challenges that are difficult to address. Our technology is a cost-efficient way to create naringin and neohesperidin dihydrochalcone compounds that can be used to make high-intensity sweeteners. Description of Technology The current methods for converting the flavonoids naringin and neohesperidin to dihydrochalcone compounds are expensive and require the use of strong base such as potassium hydroxide. In addition, some conversion methods have draw-backs t...

Method For Removing PFAS in Liquids

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 10:35:35 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a widely used but toxic and carcinogenic group of man-made chemicals. They are extremely resistant to degradation and will persist in the environment and in the human body. PFAS are highly water soluble, thus contaminated drinking water is the primary source of exposure. The most common method for removing PFAS from water is using Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) to absorb them. This technique is slow and is not useful at removing shorter chain PFAS. MSU’s PFAS removal system is adaptable for industrial and residential w...

Method for Separating Oil and Water

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 10:30:24 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Removing oil from water is an important process throughout the industrialized world for both water treatment and cleaning up spills. This biochar-based oil filtration system improves on existing biochar filters used for oil and water separation. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY This invention is an improvement on the biochar used in the oil-water filters. The biochar is functionalized (or activated) using a novel plasma, which creates a hydrophobic surface to which the oil is attracted to. There are two ways to utilize the functionalized biochar. First, a porous material can...

High Frequency Interconnect to Semiconductor Device

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 10:26:25 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION High frequency electronic devices are an important technology for a variety of applications ranging from biomedical imaging, photon lasers, and high-volume data transmission. As these devices become more complex, multiple integrated circuits (ICs) need to be connected. Interconnect systems have been developed to allow for interaction between the semiconductor devices. There are three major issues present for interconnect manufacturing: high-frequency ability, wide bandgap utility, and packaging. There are two current methods that address these issues; however, each contai...

Falling Bed Plasma Reactors

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 08:42:07 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION A large variety of applications require powdered materials to be treated by plasmas. Most applications used in the industry and research labs have a static configuration, where the powder samples are placed in a tray and stay still during the process. This is ineffective if the powders pile up in multiple layers since the plasma will interact more with the top layer compared to the bottom layer. In the Rotary Falling Bed Plasma Reactors all parts of the powders are treated and can be done on a large scale, uniformly and efficiently. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY This tech...

Smart Soft Actuators and Grippers Enabled by Self Powered Tribo-Skins

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 08:37:59 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION End effectors or grippers are an essential tool integrated with robotic arms for achieving grasping and manipulating functions in a variety of tasks, ranging from picking up and holding objects, to sorting, to locomotion and many other applications. Inspired by human hands, most traditional robotic grippers are made of assembled flexible joints and rigid links to obtain multiple degrees of freedom. To actuate for complex gestures or operations the grips are driver by cables like tendons. With traditional rigid grippers there are a lot of challenges in flexibility and dexte...

Blockumulus: A Scalable Framework for Smart Contracts on the Cloud

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 08:34:17 GMT

INTRODUCTION Blockchain with proof-of-work (POW) consensus effectively prevents data tampering by anyone with less than half of the total computational power of the network. The unique properties of blockchain soon attracted researchers and engineers to use the technology for a plethora of decentralized applications, commencing the era of smart contracts and a public blockchain. Public blockchains have spurred the growing popularity of decentralized transactions and smart contracts, especially on the financial market. However, public blockchains have significant limitations on the transact...

THIN DIELECTRIC COATED PLASMONIC PHOTOEMITTER

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 11:23:40 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION The Thin Dielectric Coated Plasmonic Photoemitter is a prescribed coating of a metal nano emitter with a dielectric material resulting in optical enchantments when pulsed by an ultra-fast laser. This new technology allows for an expansion in the electric laser field, by adding a thin dielectric coating to the nanotip. The image resolution in imaging applications such as time-resolved electron microscopy will improve immensely. With 4D electron microscopy becoming a major development in the visualization process this technology could provide key developments in resolution. T...

LIDAR AND CAMERA CALIBRATION USING MOUNTED SPHERE

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:50:14 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Combing data from multiple sensors has become an increasingly important part of robotic and autonomous systems. Cameras and lidars generate data that can be combined to improve overall accuracy. To have sensor fusion, precise extrinsic calibration between the sensors must be known. When sensors are adjusted or accidently shifted, the alignment needs to be estimated, which can be frequent during product development. Achieving extrinsic calibration in a fast and simple way is the goal of this technology. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY This technology is a simple...

COMPACT DESIGN FOR WIRELESS POWERED RESISTIVE SENSORS

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:48:30 GMT

VALUE PROPOSITION Wireless sensors are used to measure different parameters that could not previously be measured. Many wireless sensors on the market today use inductance to measure parameters but there are limited measures that can be done using inductance. Resistive measurements rely on a resistive circuit to measure temperature, currently accurate core temperatures can only be taken from the nose, bladder or rectum, all methods provide discomfort and room for error. MSU researchers have developed a simple cost-effective sensor to measure patient parameters with minimal invasiveness, is a...

Development of an artificial intelligence analysis method for magnetic particle imaging using a machine learning algorithm

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 08:43:36 GMT

INTRODUCTION A magnetic particle imaging (MPI) device uses a changing magnetic field to cause superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles to produce a signal upon exposure. The MPI device then detects these signals and produces a high contrast image. These images are useful in tracking SPIO throughout the body. This is useful in tracking transplanted cells modified with SPIO or with cells capable of SPIO uptake such as cancer cells. Image processing is done by selecting a region of interest and estimating the amount of SPIO nanoparticles in the area from pixel brightness in the images. ...

Engineered Shell Proteins to Enable Electron Transfer Across the Shell of a Bacterial Microcompartment

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 08:44:38 GMT

INTRODUCTION Bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) are organelles used by various bacteria to encapsulate metabolic pathways into a proteinaceous shell. Because of their attributes (self-assembling modules, optimization of the reactions in their lumen.) they have potential as catalytic bioreactors that can be customized to support new metabolic functions. The introduction in the shell of an electron transfer functionality would allow the encapsulation of oxidoreduction pathways of biotechnological interest, therefore expanding the functional repertoire of these BMCs. It has been demonstr...

Viridiflorol Production

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 06:29:08 GMT

INTRODUCTION: Viridiflorol is a terpene bioproduct that has been isolated from the essential oils of a variety of plants including Melaleuca quinquenervia (broad-leaved paperbark). Terpenes make up a large class of natural plant products with applications that range from fragrances, cosmetics, to agrichemicals, insecticides and pharmaceuticals. The wide range of uses corresponds to the wide range of structures of terpenoid compounds. Viridiflorol specifically is used primarily in fragrances and flavorings. Additionally, it has been shown to have antimicrobial activity. DESCRIPTION ...

Mesoporous MFI-Zeolite Catalysts for Aromatics Production

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 12:01:37 GMT

Executive Summary There is a need for a green, renewable, and sustainable route to produce chemicals currently made from petrochemical feedstocks. MSU researchers have developed a new catalyst system for converting biomass to aromatics. The aromatics can be further transformed into downstream chemicals such as terephthalic acid, which can be used in the production of bio-polyesters. Description of Technology Biomass is generated from a variety of sources including agriculture, forestry, sawmills, and food waste. The materials can be pyrolyzed to produce bio-oil, biochar, a...

Surface TSPO in blood cells: Biomarker of peripheral and brain inflammation

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:02:19 GMT

INTRODUCTION Translocator Protein 18kDa (TSPO) is a nuclear encoded outer mitochondrial membrane protein that is ubiquitously expressed by most host cells. Initially, TSPO was a diazepam target, but it has also been referred to as an ‘orphan protein searching for a function’. Since the generation of these knockouts, TSPO has been determined essential in steroidogenesis as well as proliferation, apoptosis, reactive oxygen species generation, cell differentiation, immune modulation and tetrapyrrole biosynthesis. Although there has been this increase in knowledge of TSPO, t...

Vapor Effect Reduction from Volatile Herbicides

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 07 May 2020 13:38:13 GMT

Introduction Dicamba and 2,4-D are growth-regulator herbicides that provide excellent broad-leaf weed control. Recently released trait genes allow for wide scale use of these herbicides over broad-leaf crops. Unfortunately, both dicamba and 2,4-D are known to have a high vapor pressure, which, under the wrong conditions, may lead to a cloud of herbicide vapors that may migrate off of the applied field. This herbicide vapor cloud may then contact sensitive plants in an adjoining field, leading to damage of the sensitive plants. Description of Technology&n...

Small Molecule Inhibitors For The Treatment Of Proteinopathies

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 06 May 2020 10:02:09 GMT

INTRODUCTION Protein aggregation that leads to plaque formation is a contributor in many degenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Type 2 diabetes, and other amyloidosis diseases. Once these plaques are formed, they are extremely difficult to degrade. Breakdown and even inhibition of oligomers before formation of these plaques is an important step in pre-disease treatments. A therapeutic is needed that can target the specific proteins involved in aggregation for each of these diseases and inhibit oligomer formation, slowing the progression of the di...

Tunable Luminescent Organic Salts for Enhanced Imaging and Photodynamic Therapy

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 10:34:43 GMT

Executive Summary: Theranostic nanomedicine, the medical application of nanobiotechnology, is an emerging area of cancer research. These nanosystems are capable of diagnosing, curing, or preventing diseases. One example of theranostic nanomedicine is photodynamic therapy which uses photosensitizing agents with light to kill cancer cells. However, a major problem with this therapy is the toxic reactive oxygen species generated. Most photosensitizing agents developed are focused on chemical modification of fluorescent probes which produce high energy levels, leading to off-target phot...

Biosynthesis of Chemically Diversified Non-Natural Terpene Products

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 09:51:05 GMT

Executive Summary Drug and chemical discovery is a lengthy, difficult, and inefficient process. The production of new drugs and chemicals is bottlenecked at synthesis or biosynthesis of complicated molecules, especially chiral molecules. Furthermore, diversification of current drug and chemical libraries is hindered by these difficult and inefficient synthetic processes. Description of Technology This technology diversifies and produces new terpene drugs and chemicals. This technology is composed of three parts: i) novel, non-natural enzyme substrates, i...

Stevia Variety '12-05-144'

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 07:25:55 GMT

Executive Summary MSU researchers have created novel Stevia varieties that produce a higher concentration of the steviol glycosides rebaudioside D and rebaudioside M than other varieties available on the market. Rebaudioside A and stevioside are currently the most abundant and most widely used compounds in the stevia-derived sweetener market. However, Rebaudioside D and M are desired by the stevia industry as they exhibit a superior taste profile. Applications and Benefits of the New MSU Stevia Lines Stevia rebaudiana (Stevia) is gaining agricultural importanc...

Stevia Variety '12-05-005'

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 07:25:21 GMT

Fiber-Optic Interferometric Sensors

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 12:10:38 GMT

Executive Summary Fiber-optic sensors using optical interferometers have application for sensing a variety of parameters such as acoustic waves, strain, temperature, and refractive index. The technology is a demodulation method that does not require laser wavelength tuning. The technology provides adaptive ultrasound detection with improved accuracy and high speed. Description of Technology In this system, the laser source is divided into two channels. One channel goes through an intensity modulator (IM) that keeps the original wavelength and the other channel undergoes a ...

Transcription factors to improve plant resistance to insects

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 08:13:04 GMT

Executive Summary As sessile organisms, plants must be able to adapt swiftly to biotic and environmental stimuli, and often do this through transcriptional reprogramming. Upon wounding by a ravenous insect, for instance, jasmonic acid (JA) increases in concentration within a cell and interacts with members of the JAZ family of repressor proteins. Ultimately, JA-response genes will be activated and direct plant resources towards defense. Attempts to keep these defense signals on, however, are met with many hurdles including strong growth repression resulting in stunted or small plant...

Tracking of Human-Object Interactions

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 11:01:08 GMT

Executive Summary Understanding how people interact with objects such as consumer products or tools is useful for the development of improvements, the creation of future products, and ensuring safety. Continuously monitoring these interactions is challenging, however, particularly when sensors such as video monitors are impractical or unwanted. This technology continuously monitors human-object interactions using low-cost, low-power wireless radio-frequency (RF) signals. By combining radar measurement of moving people with wireless radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies,...

Imaging with WiFi

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 10:38:58 GMT

Executive Summary The use of WiFi signals for sensing applications has seen significant interest in recent years, due in large part to the ubiquitous presence of WiFi signals. Using WiFi for localization of people and devices has been demonstrated in recent years. While these examples have shown that localization and tracking are possible using WiFi signals no systems have been demonstrated which can produce two-dimensional imagery using such signals. This is due in large part to the fact that WiFi signals tend to be spread-spectrum compared to radar signals, making traditional dete...

Zero-Energy Wireless Channel Capacity Enhancement

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 09:24:18 GMT

Executive Summary This technology is a set of novel packet position modulation (PPM) standards based on the modulation of inter packet intervals for zero-energy data transmission in transmit only sensor networks and Internet-of-Things applications with restrictive energy budgets. Packet data transmissions in wireless sensor networks are often scheduled in regular time periods to reflect sampling requirements, energy harvesting power availability etc. In such applications, especially in energy-constrained scenarios, very often the space between consecutive packets is much larger (>...

Novel, Multi-Impact, Energy Diverting, Energy Absorbing, Repairable Helmets

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 10:27:26 GMT

Executive Summary This technology addresses brain injuries while wearing a helmet. A novel technique adds an outer layer to helmet shells to absorb multiple impacts and divert energy away for the skull to reduce concussions. The innovation can also reduce projectile penetration in a way that is repairable and re-healable for low or multiple low-velocity impacts. In other applications, the energy dissipation advantage can be used in composite materials to improve impact resistance and durability. Description of Technology The technology in...

Method for Improved Production of Terpenoids Using Co-Engineered Lipid Droplets and Anchoring of Terpene Biosynthetic Enzymes on Their Surface

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 28 May 2019 13:29:24 GMT

Executive Summary This technology addresses one of the main hurdles of plant production and extraction of terpenoids by capturing desired terpenes in lipid droplets in plant cells. The lipid droplets are readily extracted using standard processes used in the vegetable oil and biodiesel industries, and the high-value terpenes can be easily separated from the lipids. The limited economic sustainability of formal (petro-) chemical synthesis and extraction and purification from the native plant source has motivated biotechnological approaches to produce industrially relevant terpe...

Method for Production of Novel Diterpene Scaffolds

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 28 May 2019 13:09:35 GMT

Executive Summary Many insecticides currently in use are problematic due to persistence in the environment and off target effects including accumulation in apex predator species. Therefore effective crop-protecting agents that are naturally sourced and that overcome some of these side effects are under increasing demand. This technology identifies biosynthetic pathways towards a number of plant derived chemicals with documented insect antifeedant activities. Description of Technology Diterpenes are 20-carbon molecules derived from 4 isoprene subunits. Clerodane diterpenes...

Stabilization and Upgrading of Bio-Oil Using Electrocatalytic Hydrogenation

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 28 May 2019 12:02:13 GMT

Executive Summary Pyrolyzing biomass into bio-oil is one option to convert biomass into a useable, easily transported form with minimal inputs. However, pyrolysis-derived bio-oil contains hundreds of reactive organic compounds that are corrosive to container materials and prone to polymerization. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to rapidly convert this bio-oil on site into a more stable form that can be transported and refined using metal containers and pipes. Description of Technology This technology rapidly converts fast pyrolysis-derived bio-oil into a more stable ...

A Plant-Based Chemical for Varroa Mite Control

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 28 May 2019 11:44:09 GMT

Introduction Honeybee pollination is essential to agricultural production contributes an estimated $12.3 to $16.4 billion annually to U.S. crops. The Varroa destructor mite is the most serious honeybee pest in the world, contributing to over-wintering mortalities and colony collapse. Current treatments suffer from declining efficacy due to resistance as well as causing honeybee mortality at sufficient doses to reduce mite population. This technology utilizes a plant derived compound as a highly effective varroacide that has little effect on honeybees. This will significantly increas...

Genetically Modified Plants for Increased Cell Wall Biomass

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 28 May 2019 11:06:38 GMT

Executive Summary Plant secondary cell walls are the bulk of plant biomass in woody plants. They are necessary for plant growth and are important for numerous industries, including pulp and paper, timber, and biomass feedstocks. Regulating secondary cell wall synthesis in trees and other plants could speed up biomass production for these industries. Description of Technology This technology is a genetically modified form of MYB46 that allows the gene to remain constitutively active, even in the presence of stresses (drought, etc.) that normally deactivate MYB46. Degradatio...

Isotope Tagging For Workpiece Authentication

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 07:19:49 GMT

Executive Summary Over the last 50 years, the U.S. Department of Justice has ranked art crime behind only drugs and arms in terms of highest-grossing criminal trades. While many incidents go unreported making it difficult to estimate the volume and total economic value lost, Interpol estimates have put the losses worldwide due to forgery and theft at $4 to 6 billion. Various methods have been implemented to authenticate forgeries such as carbon dating for antiquities, stable isotope signatures in marble pieces, and UV/infrared analysis of paintings. However, these techniques u...

Repulpable Omniphobic Paper Packaging Solution

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 06:21:15 GMT

Executive Summary Traditional grease- and water-resistant paper packaging solutions have significant environmental concerns. Water-resistant products using low-density polyethylene (LDPE) liners are not repulpable, increasing municipal waste footprint. Oil-resistance is often achieved using toxic per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which have been associated with various negative health outcomes, including cancer. MSU researchers are addressing these concerns through the development of a fully recyclable and repulpable fluorine-free omniphobic coating for paper packaging products.&n...

Radar Sensor for Autonomous Vehicle Velocity Measurement

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 14:09:26 GMT

Executive Summary Modern vehicles rely on an extensive platform of sensors to ensure quality performance. For autonomous navigation, continuous knowledge of vehicle velocity is crucial, especially in challenging weather conditions. A recent development by MSU engineers helps address deficiencies of current velocity sensors through use of an innovative radar sensor, allowing for accurate three-dimensional velocity measurements in all-weather conditions. Description of Technology This technology improves upon traditional Doppler radar velocity sensors, by measuring th...

Immunomodulation Strategy for Enhancing Memory T Lymphocyte Immune Responses

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 08:02:39 GMT

Introduction Cytotoxic T cells (T cells) are a type of immune cell that provide immunological protection by destroying cells that are perceived as abnormal. T cell exhaustion or inhibition is often observed in patients with chronic viral infections or cancer, resulting in a decreased ability of the patient to overcome such diseases. One strategy to enhance T cell responsiveness is to target inhibitory signaling pathways, such as the recently FDA approved PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab. This strategy has been shown to effectively reverse T cell exhaustion/inhibition and provid...

Pre-Treatment Method for Metals Determination in Aqueous Samples

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 08:53:44 GMT

Executive Summary Practical detection of heavy metals in aqueous samples is a challenge for many testing and monitoring stations around the world. Heavy metal poisoning is the cause of thousands of deaths and disabilities. Specifically, metals including lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury have a direct impact on global health and are listed as four of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “Ten Chemicals of Major Concern” due to their carcinogenic and toxic effect. Typically, blood samples are collected at a physician’s office or a local diagnostic cente...

100% Recyclable, Fluorine- and Plastic-Free Fat, Grease and Water Resistant Paper Coating

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 08:40:39 GMT

Executive Summary With a societal push to remove plastics from the food industry, there is a need for alternative packaging solutions. Governments and corporations alike have begun banning various single-use plastic products in favor of protecting the environment. This technology seeks to improve polymer coating materials for paper products. This technology allows for paper cups and plates to be more widely implemented in applications typically only satisfied with plastic products. Description of Technology This technology facilitates the repellency of both oils and water ...

A Multiband Sensing Unit

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 08:00:33 GMT

Executive Summary Wireless sensing can be utilized to monitor multiple targets in various fields, including biomedical, civil engineering, automation, aerospace, and defense. Conventional radio waves do not travel well through conductive mediums, such as metal and sea water. This poses an issue for certain applications, like monitoring the corrosion of metal structures. Instead, acoustic waves are used to probe and transmit information. However, current methods of acquiring information from acoustic transducers are active, which limits their usability, field-operability, and l...

Artificial Intelligence-Based Classification of Human Smiles

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 07:36:40 GMT

Executive Summary Smile classification and determining the relationship of smiles to other data such as another person’s reactions or an event occurring could be used to train any kind of customer-facing personnel such as front desk employees, trainers, and sales people. Currently no system exists that can both automatically detect smiles and classify individual smile episodes. Description of Technology This technology takes raw index outputs from the Google Joy Detection algorithm (or any similar algorithm with image processing capabilities) and produces a characte...

Advanced Intelligent Packaging to Prevent Misuse and Abuse of Prescription Drugs

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 12:03:58 GMT

Executive Summary The opioid epidemic in the United States has soared to new heights within the past ten years. In 2016, 215 million opioid prescriptions were handed out at pharmacies across the U.S. resulting in 64 thousands deaths due to overdose or misuse. The opioid crisis has a $193 billion annual impact on the economy with an overdose rate of 245.8 deaths per million of the population. The public health crisis of opioid abuse is also being addressed by packaging manufacturers to limit access of opioids to non-target users. The drug packaging industry can solve two problems at ...

Linearization and Efficiency Enhancement Techniques for Digital Wireless Transmitters

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 13:28:14 GMT

Executive Summary Wireless digital transmitters offer numerous benefits versus conventional analog systems, including reduced footprint and power consumption. A recent innovation developed at MSU can help further these advantages, while also enhancing performance linearity. Description of Technology Our novel design improves system performance for Class-G switched capacitor power amplifiers. Innovations include redesign of the conventional power supply switching structure, along with elimination of redundancy within the IQ functional block. Performance enhancements have b...

System for Coating Inner Diameter Surface

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 10:19:13 GMT

Executive Summary Diamond-like coatings offer a coating solution rivaled by few technologies available today. Capable of improving the durability and extending the lifetime of many metallic products, these coatings are typically applied in Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) chambers. PVD processing is a line-of-sight process, meaning the distance between the surface of the material and the vapor source must be unobstructed. In high-aspect ratio internal structures, such as tubes and pipes, this is extremely difficult due to the size of the applicator and length of the structure. ...

Methods to Manufacture Large Area Single Crystal Diamond Substrates

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 09:55:44 GMT

Executive Summary The innovation of manufacturing silicon-based semiconductors led to a boom in the electronics industry, allowing for computer chips to be created. While cleanrooms, improved processing, and other advancements led to even more powerful chips, they are still inherently limited to the material properties of silicon. This suite of MSU technologies seeks to improve the manufacturing process of diamond, ultimately to support diamond-based electronic components. Description of Technology Due to the superior properties of diamond such as conduction of heat, large...

Position-Sensitive Radiation Detector

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 07:28:02 GMT

Executive Summary Gaseous ionization detectors are capable of measuring the energy and location of ionizing radiation. MSU researchers have developed an improved method of integrating multiple detection methods into a single parallel plate detector. By a novel means of arranging these various sensing methods, the x, y, and z coordinates of the ionizing radiation as well as the deposited energy and time are determined. Description of Technology This technology is the integration of a scintillator and a gaseous ionization in a dual mode parallel plate detector. The pe...

System for Identifying Brain Functional Area

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 06:35:10 GMT

Executive Summary Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI, has revolutionized non-invasive diagnostic methods used in modern medicine. Furthermore, functional MRI (fMRI) has allowed researchers and technicians to observe neuron activity directly by monitoring blood oxygen levels within small areas of the brain. However, steady states of activity must be established prior to analysis, and even then noise of typical physiological functions can contribute to significant error in fMRI analysis. This technology is a novel statistical analysis of neuronal activity that determines areas of the ...

The Living History Project: Stories Told by Michigan’s Oldest Old

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:14:33 GMT

Executive Summary The “oldest old” is a term used to describe people 85 years of age and older. This group is the fastest-growing age cohort in the world, and their lives span a century of history. In this documentary, award-winning director Geri Alumit Zeldes and her team at MSU have captured the individual histories of Michigan’s oldest old. ‘The Living History Project’ captures ethnographic interviews of these Michigan residents to provide a unique window into the state’s cultural history and aims to understand older adults’ thoughts on t...

Novel Coronatine-Based Herbicide Treatment Platform with Increased Pathogen Resistance for Crop Plants

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 10:08:33 GMT

Executive Summary Despite best efforts and current technology to enhance agricultural productivity, it’s estimated that insect pests and disease reduce the value of several major world crops, including rice, wheat, and corn by 20-37% annually. Considering more and more pests are becoming resistant to common agrochemical treatments, a crop plant that offers increased resistance to certain pathogens would be very valuable. Michigan State University has successfully developed a method for increasing plant resistance to coronatine, a necrosis-inducing plant toxin produced by...

Controlled Wetting and Spreading of Silver on Ceramics Using Porous Nickel Interlayers

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 08:10:47 GMT

Executive Summary Ceramic substrates such as alumina, aluminum nitride, or beryllium oxide are highly thermally conductive and can dissipate heat quickly across a surface, preventing heat build-up and improving the life of the semiconductors junctions on a printed circuit board (PCB). Therefore, ceramic substrates are ideal for high amperage and high temperature devices. Nickel is often used in industry as a connector for the screen printing process and bridges the gap between circuit material and ceramic substrate. Description of Technology The patent p...

Nest DNN, a Pruning-and-Recovery Paradigm for Deep Neural Networks

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 07:36:04 GMT

Executive Summary Neural networks are employed ubiquitously in our lives today. Found in applications such as video games, face identification, autonomous vehicles navigation, and medical diagnostic tools, these algorithms require a hefty amount of computer resources. In instances where resource demand is greater than availability, accuracy and computational speed may be significantly impacted. This MSU-developed technology allows for superior optimization of accuracy of neural networks based on resource accessibility. Description of Technology Whil...

Reactors for Activating Biochar

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 07:32:12 GMT

Executive Summary Conventional techniques for biochar activation are characterized by notable disadvantages, including limited yield, excessive temperature requirements, and lengthy treatment intervals. Using their expertise in plasma-based materials processing, MSU researchers have proposed a concept for substantially enhancing the efficiency of biochar activation. By integrating plasma processing within a falling-bed reactor architecture, the proposed innovation promises a highly customizable, conveyor-free solution for continuous materials processing. Desc...

RFID Tag-Reader System for Long Range Remote Sensing and Identification

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 06:58:06 GMT

Executive Summary RFID tags are employed in a multitude of applications and industries, such as transportation, animal identification, retail and many others. However, these applications are typically limited to instances where there is free access to the location of the RFID chip. This MSU developed technology allows a RFID tag to be implemented in a location that will be permanent and traditionally inaccessible while providing a reader to access the RFID tag’s identification and sensing information. Modified transmission allows versatility in application. Descript...

Tunneling Electrical Contacts

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 08:13:40 GMT

Executive Summary The demand for smaller and more efficient electronic devices has driven semiconductor innovation over the past decade. Researchers have studied the nano and sub-nano scale Metal-Semiconductor, Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor, and Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) junctions to develop high performance contacts for integrated circuit design. Factors such as contact resistance, tunneling, and current transport have the largest effect on contact efficiency and reduction of heat buildup within the system. As electrons flow through a contact interface, contact resistance creates...

A Gating Grid Driver for Time Projection Chamber

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 10:11:47 GMT

Executive Summary Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) are uniquely useful in analyzing nuclear reactions and resulting particles. These devices rely on fast gating systems to allow or deny entry of particles into the detection area; without which they would not be functional. MSU researchers have developed a novel gating grid driver system for TPCs. Due to its novel device design, this driver system can rapidly open and close the gating grid in .35 µs and 3 µs, respectively. This improvement to the gating grid system ultimately minimizes the lost drift length associated with...

Couple-Compression Technology

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 09:57:36 GMT

Executive Summary With increasing emphasis on energy efficiency and alternative sources of energy, researchers continually search for methods of energy generation and storage that increase efficiency and reduce costs. One such method of recovering otherwise wasted energy is the implementation of thermoelectric devices. Thermoelectric devices operate most efficiently when there is significant temperature differences, which over time may generate fractures and failures due to dissimilar thermal expansion within the material. This is particularly detrimental in applications th...

Implantable Neural Microelectrodes and Fabrication Method

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 09:43:04 GMT

Executive Summary Microelectrodes have become vital in the current-day attempt to map and understand the human brain, as well as delivering unique therapeutic solutions. These microelectrodes are able to work as biosensors, picking up changes in potential and electrophysiology. In particular, extracellular sensors can record data on neurotransmitter concentration and other differences in cell potential. While typically used for data recording and scientific studies, microelectrodes can also be utilized as a therapeutic device. Two of the most common forms of electrode design are met...

RF Detection of Analytes

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 08:32:51 GMT

Executive Summary Due to public health concerns since the 1920’s, the U.S. dairy industry is federally required to be monitored and treated for bacterial contamination. Most municipalities mandate pasteurization to reduce the number of viable pathogens likely to cause disease. Pre- and post-pasteurized milk is often tested for contamination via an indirect enzymatic test (alkaline phosphatase activity). Similarly, dairy farmers use another indirect assay called the California Mastitis Test that qualitatively shows excessive presence of somatic cells (white blood cell leukocyte...

Ambient Cured Omniphobic Polyurethanes Coatings

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 08:12:31 GMT

Executive Summary Researchers at Michigan State University have developed a new omniphobic polyurethane coating with the ability to repel many types of liquids (such as ink, water, and oil) and other contaminants. This technology is Fluorine-free and cost effective to manufacture. The coating not only repels liquids, but is mechanically durable once applied to a surface. At several microns thick, this coating is optically clear, making it an ideal choice for windows, mirrors, or screens. Since liquids bead up and roll off the surface this coating has a ‘self-cleaning’ pr...

Lignin Extraction Solvent and Process

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 07:22:23 GMT

Executive Summary This MSU technology was developed to remove lignin from woody biomass in order to simplify further downstream processing of the purified cellulose and hemicellulose. This innovation is particularly relevant to those in the sugar and biofuel industries who already utilize woody biomass and are seeking to either reduce operating costs or build a new pretreatment facility having the benefits of ammonia-based processing for less than the cost of ammonia-based processes. Description of Technology Our researches sought to improve the lignin extraction process w...

Novel Chemical Inhibitors of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Targeting the DosRST Pathway – Tuberculosis Treatment

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 24 May 2018 08:33:03 GMT

Executive Summary Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially fatal infectious disease caused by the bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), TB is one of the world’s deadliest diseases and responsible for upwards of 1.5 million deaths annually. TB is also a leading killer of HIV-infected patients. One of the critical challenges in fighting the disease is that Mtb can establish a dormant, non-replicating persistence state during chronic infection, which becomes tolerant to many anti-mycobacterial drugs. Furthermore,...

Mobile Phone App for Real Time Pill Recognition

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 10:52:33 GMT

Executive Summary The ability to quickly and reliably be able to identify both prescription and non-prescription medications is not only important for a patient and his caretaker, but also important for pharmacists, nurses, and law enforcement agents. Despite unique FDA-approved identifiers for each pill, distinguishing the differences can be difficult and are often exacerbated by poor lighting, worn edges, and fading imprints. Current pill-recognition software is often resource intensive and performance is unreliable. MSU researchers have addressed these issues with a new technolog...

Omniphobic coating

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 10:37:18 GMT

Executive Summary Hydrophobic coatings can be observed in an abundance of industries. From anti-corrosion ship hulls, smudge and water protection of touchscreen devices, and linings of distillation columns the immense dissemination of protective coatings for polymers has driven the research field towards more efficient and hydrophobic compositions. Characteristics such as optical clarity, durability, and practical application are key when distinguishing the best hydrophobic coating. Description of Technology The invention described is a process for generating an opticall...

Virtual Reality Training for Self-Mitigating Hand Tremors

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 11:26:40 GMT

Executive Summary Every individual exhibits some degree of hand tremors simply due to human physiology. While this does not typically affect daily routines even the slightest tremor is significant in fields requiring millimeter-level precision, such as eye surgery. This MSU-developed technology allows for persons to practice their hand manipulation skills in an environment free of consequences and train themselves in whichever manner suits them best. Description of Technology Using a Virtual Reality (VR) headset and controllers, this technology allows for users to see the...

Lens with Electronically Controlled Optical Properties

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 11:20:27 GMT

Executive Summary This MSU-developed device allows for electrical control of the optical properties in a liquid lens and other optic devices. Capable of altering light’s focal point, this technology lends itself into many applications such as displays, microscopes, telescopes, interferometers, and many more. Description of Technology By controlling the molecular movement of the liquid within the lens, the interactions of light as it transmits through the liquid is altered from its natural state. This allows for a change in refractive index, and therefore the change ...

Growing Up Hmong at the Crossroads (documentary)

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:20:08 GMT

Executive Summary Four children of former Hmong refugees embark from their home in Minnesota on a milestone journey to trace their family history in Laos, Thailand and France. In their earnest search for their cultural roots, Justin, Joshua, Bella and Maipa open a door into the world of children born to former war refugees and what it means to grow up Hmong in the diaspora. A sequel to the award-winning Hmong Memory at the Crossroads, Growing Up Hmong at the Crossroads gives a glimpse of the unique struggles that the children of this generation work through to relate to the...

Hmong Memory at the Crossroads (documentary)

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:10:42 GMT

Executive Summary Liachoua Lee, a Hmong-American from Rochester Hills, Michigan, revisits his past as a former refugee and son of Hmong veterans of the French Indochina War (1946-1954), and of the American Secret War in Laos (1961-1975), by revisiting places that carry traces of his personal history and the emotional scars left by the war. Lee’s story begins in Detroit, Michigan, then takes him to France, a place where he and his family sought asylum before immigrating to America, and ends in an emotional return to the homeland Laos for the first time in 40 years. The film do...

Surgical Device to Measure the Softness/Hardness of the Pancreas

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 11:17:23 GMT

Executive Summary A common problem for pancreatic surgeons is the prevention of pancreatic leaks in the post-operation phase of pancreatic surgery. Pancreatic leaks can cause serious health problems for the patients and are sometimes fatal. Researchers at MSU are addressing this problem using the state of the art technology and engineering. Description of Technology The invention is an instrument that can objectively measure the softness/hardness of the pancreatic tissue with a numeric value. An objective measurement can give the surgeon an indication of how soft the panc...

Simplified Manufacturing of Ink, Water, Oil, and Grime Repelling Coating

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 09:00:02 GMT

Executive Summary Researchers at Michigan State University have developed a new omniphobic polyurethane coating with the ability to repel many types of liquids (such as ink, water, and oil) and other materials. This technology is Fluorine-free and cost effective to manufacture. The coating not only repels liquids, but is mechanically durable once applied to a surface. At several microns thick, this coating is optically clear, making it an ideal choice for windows, mirrors, or screens. Since liquids bead up and roll off the surface this coating has a ‘self-cleaning’ prope...

Adsorbed Polymer Coatings to Create Protein- and metal-Adsorbing Membranes

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 10:07:12 GMT

Executive Summary To rapidly purify proteins, one might derivatize membranes through growth of polymer brushes, however direct polymer adsorption is much simpler and essentially as effective. In this invention, MSU researchers deposit polymers that already contain metal-binding ligands, which greatly simplifies the procedure and reduces the waste of expensive ligands. This innovative adsorption procedure is a new way to modify membranes to either facilitate rapid protein purification with membranes or immobilize proteins to create an enzymatic reactor. Description ...

CH12F3 Cell Line with Various Knock-Outs

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 10:02:51 GMT

Executive Summary The CH12F3 mouse B lymphocyte cell lines are useful tools to study the role of DNA metabolism in modulating immunoglobulin genes and DNA repair. Since enzymes involved in DNA metabolism play essential roles in embryogenesis, knockout of these proteins often resulted in lethality in mouse embryonic stem cells. MSU researchers have developed various enzyme-deficient CH12F3 cell lines compatible with cell viability. Key enzymes involved in DNA repair processes, such as ligases, endonucleases, deaminases and more, have been targeted for selective knockouts. Descr...

Viscosity-Corrected Shear Speed Estimates and Shear Speed Images

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 08:38:53 GMT

Executive Summary Ultrasound imaging relies on sound waves to develop ultrasound images, which are used in diagnostics for a wide variety of medical conditions affecting organs and soft tissues. Current approaches to estimate shear wave speed for shear wave elastography imaging in viscoelastic soft tissue consistently overestimate the shear speed, due to the fact that the shear viscosity is ignored in their estimations. Researchers at MSU have collaborated with researchers at the Mayo Clinic to address this issue and have developed a new method to accurately measure shear viscosity....

An Intelligent Home-Based Sensing System for Indoor Air Quality Analytics

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 08:32:26 GMT

Executive Summary AirSense provides homeowners with a tool to monitor and mitigate indoor air pollutants. This intelligent indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring and analytics system works with air quality sensors to automatically detect pollution, identify its sources, determine its risk level and provide actionable suggestions to improve air quality. Description of Technology Existing IAQ monitors focus on measurement and data visualization but do not empower users to address indoor air pollution in real-time. A research team from MSU has filled this critical gap with AirSe...

Device for Treatments of Visually Triggered Migraine Headaches and Seizures

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 08:25:28 GMT

Executive Summary Over 37 million people suffer from migraines in the United States alone. In many cases stressful visual images can trigger migraines and epileptic seizures, and patients who suffer from migraines have a lower threshold for visual discomfort than patients who do not suffer from migraines. MSU researchers are working to combat the issues that migraines present. Description of Technology The invention consists of a software application that can determine at what spatial frequency patients find images visually discomforting, and then generate a preventative ...

Hydrogel Based Synthesis of Complex Ceramics

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 08:19:42 GMT

Executive Summary Ceramics are being widely used in a growing number of applications, such as thermoelectric devices, batteries, and nuclear reactors. However, the same desirable properties of ceramics (high melting point, high strength, chemically inert) make it highly difficult to produce ceramics with consistent material properties. Our technology uses non-toxic hydrogels to produce ceramics with a consistent composition in a simple and economic process. Description of Technology This invention describes a procedure for synt...

Nanocluster Based Light Emitting Device

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 08:14:33 GMT

Executive Summary The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2015, about 10% of total U.S. electricity consumption were used for lighting by the commercial sector and the residential sector. State of the art white organic light emitting devices (WOLEDs) are currently poised to reduce the consumption rate for lighting as they demonstrate greater power efficiencies than fluorescent lighting. However, WOLEDs are limited by high external quantum efficiencies at low overall brightness and are reliant on high-cost precious metal materials. Researchers at Michigan State U...

DeepASL: A Wearable System for Unobtrusive End-to-End American Sign Language Translation

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 07:48:59 GMT

Executive Summary There is a large community of Americans (roughly one million persons in the US) with vocal communication disabilities, who would benefit from technology to improve non-verbal communication. MSU researchers have developed an unobtrusive hands-free device capable of tracking hand motion and provides sentence level translation in real time. In addition the device can be configured to translate spoken English into written text. In regards to language learning, this device may be paired with a Virtual Reality (VR) headset to provide tutoring capabilities for those wishi...

A Smart Device-based Depression Behavior Monitoring Platform for Enhancing College Counseling Services

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 10:26:16 GMT

Executive Summary Depression is the leading health issue on college campuses in the U.S. Today, college students are dealing with depression at some of the highest rates in decades. Unfortunately, university counseling centers (UCCs), which are the primary access points for students to receive mental health services, are facing significant challenges in meeting the increasing demands. Specifically, clinicians at UCCs still rely on patients' self-reported symptoms for depression assessment. To address these issues, researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have designed and deve...

Ultra Low Power Data Transfer

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 10:17:58 GMT

Executive Summary The number of devices connected to the internet (smartphones, tablets, sensors, etc.) is estimated to grow to approximately 50 billion by 2020. In addition to the devices that the user interacts with directly (phone, PC, etc.) there is a large number of autonomous entities including temperature sensors, home security systems, garage doors, etc., which all gather and act on collected information (i.e. internet of things). One major challenge is to design low power sensors that require little or no battery power and low power means to transmit their data. Researchers...

Software for Real-Time Control of a Single or Multi-Axis Vibration Table

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 10:11:22 GMT

Executive Summary This software developed by MSU researchers allows for a superior vibration table simulation of packages that are shipped via truck trailers. Using conventional data capturing devices and vibration tables, this technology has the ability to drastically reduce time capturing road and trailer data. In particular, road events where package damage is more likely to occur are better replicated, such as traveling over railroad tracks or potholes. Description of Technology Compatible with both single and multi-axis vibration tables, this software is capable of c...

User Authentication via Keyboard Typing Behavior

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 10:00:44 GMT

Executive Summary Biometrics (the measurement and analysis of physical or behavioral characteristics) can be used to identify and authenticate an individual, and to manage access to sensitive information or resources. A limitation with use of a single-point physical biometric (such as a fingerprint) is that access may be granted indefinitely, even after the user is no longer present. This problem can be overcome by use of continuous authentication. However, continuous or repeated authentication using a fingerprint or other physical characteristic is intrusive and c...

User Authentication via Keyboard Typing Sound

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 09:59:07 GMT

Improved Facial Mapping and Modeling

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 09:48:47 GMT

Executive Summary Improving facial recognition and facial mapping is an area of research which has been rapidly advancing in the last decade in order to improve both security and entertainment products. This MSU developed technology has the ability to improve both high-quality 3D face fitting and facial recognition technologies allowing for the improvement of video identification and tracking, computer generated models, and face swapping software. In addition to increasing the resolution of mapping, this software has the ability to recognize expressions of a facial image. &nbs...

Real-Time Speech Enhancement in Noisy Environments

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 09:01:22 GMT

Executive Summary This technology, developed by MSU researchers, allows for a superior hearing aid device when compared to devices that filter audio signals by frequency only. A hearing-impaired individual using this technology will be able to tailor their device to key in on persons they wish to be able to hear with high accuracy and with insignificant delay. Description of Technology By training this technology to recognize variances in audio signals produced by background noise and human speech, this software is able to enhance the speech of an individual while reducin...

Regenerating Code uses Rate-matching to Improve Retrieval from Hostile Networks

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 08:40:11 GMT

Executive Summary A combination of two new regenerating algorithms increases the ability to recover information in a hostile network. This layered approach yields a more efficient and reliable way of detecting and correcting malicious nodes. Description of Technology In a hostile network, conventional regeneration codes struggle to restore corrupt nodes and reconstruct original files. MSU researchers have developed two new code regenerating algorithms to improve the recovery rate of critical data in a malicious network. When combined, the 2-layer and m-layer rate-mat...

Flexible Hybrid Diamond Biosensor

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 09:16:31 GMT

Executive Summary A unique fabrication method creates a new flexible and implantable thin film sensor for the biochemical, medical and neural engineering fields. This diamond-polymer hybrid demonstrates improved biocompatibility, durability and chemical sensing capabilities. Description of Technology The rigidness and attachment incompatibilities of boron-doped polycrystalline diamond (BDD) limits its use as an implantable biosensor on soft tissue. A hybrid polycrystalline diamond/polymer thin film developed by MSU resolves these fabrication issues while improving ...

Advanced Ceramic-to-Metal Brazing

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 13:25:55 GMT

Executive Summary Joining dissimilar materials has been an area of study for many decades, with many challenges still being addressed. Our invention allows for a superior brazed joint between ceramic and metal components, with an end product that has less defects – and therefore a stronger bond – than typical brazing methods allow. Description of Technology The manufacturing of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) offers unique challenges, such as the need to join metals to ceramics. Additionally, due to the nature of conditions which SOFC’s op...

Biodegradable Slow Release Pesticide Plugs and Mechanized Injection System

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 08:30:00 GMT

Executive Summary Profitability in domestic and global fruit markets requires meeting high food quality standards, often through the judicious use of pesticides. Currently, these pesticides are applied using airblast sprayers up to 10 times per growing season. Airblast sprayers deliver only 29 to 56% of the sprayed solution to the tree canopy. A new application system is needed that minimizes the number of pesticide applications and greatly reduces insecticide drift. Trunk injection is now a viable solution for the fruit tree industry. A safe and effective solid plug mechanically in...

Interference Remediation Technology Strengthens Network Service Quality

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 08:43:44 GMT

Executive Summary Resource Management with Interference Pre-cancellation (RMIP) mitigates signal interference in a cellular network before it reaches the mobile device. This new technique improves the quality of network service while increasing the data transfer rate. Description of Technology Mobile station (MS) signal interference has increased with the expansion of heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNet). Conventional technologies used to resolve signal interference slows data transfer rates and depletes battery life. MSU researchers have developed an algorithm to dec...

Chemical Recycling of Polylactic Acid

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 08:34:46 GMT

Executive Summary A new environmentally friendly process developed at Michigan State University derives clean-use plastics from contaminated Polylactic Acid (PLA). This new method of recycling PLA yields clean-use plastics using inexpensive green solvents and lower temperatures. Description of Technology Current chemical recycling of PLA uses toxic solvents at high temperatures to reduce plastics to the lactic acid monomers needed to create clean-use products. MSU researchers have discovered a new method for deriving clean use products from contaminated material. This meth...

Video Summarization Algorithm

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:27:27 GMT

Executive Summary Explosive growth in video content demands optimal methods of summarizing information for efficient data management and processing. Heterogeneity image patch indexing is method of rapidly summarizing video content by identifying key video frame images for differences in features. Description of Technology Identifying key information from videos makes categorizing and organization of information easy for consumers and companies to understand large quantities media content. The technology developed at Michigan State allows for efficient method of aggre...

Process to Improve FDCA Manufacturing

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:56:03 GMT

Executive Summary As global markets and governments are pushing to reduce fossil fuel dependencies, novel manufacturing methods of bio-based plastics are being pursued. However the cost and conversion efficiencies of creating environmentally-friendly plastics hinder the conversion from petroleum-based plastics to bio-based plastics. This novel process aims to reduce the price and increase the conversion efficiencies of manufacturing key precursors necessary for making Polyethylene Furanoate ester (PEF), a bio-plastic analogue for Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE). Description o...

Health and Disease Monitoring in the Heart and the Aorta Based on Model-Based Ballistocardiogram Analysis

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:26:42 GMT

Executive Summary Ballistocardiogram (BCG) is a recording of cardiac force exerted on the body due to the ejection of blood by the heart. Researchers at Michigan State University, University of Maryland, and Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new method to analyze the BCG signal to detect abnormalities of blood pressure associated with proximal and distal arteries. This novel method allows for a more effective, low-cost, and non-intrusive assessment and screening of diseases in the heart and arteries. Description of Technology This invention concerns a...

Active, Tailorable, Reversible Adhesives for Structural Multimaterial Joining and Facile Repair, and Re-Assembly

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 06:43:50 GMT

Executive Summary Lightweight material joining is of special interest in automotive, aerospace, defense and marine industries. The structural joining of similar and dissimilar materials utilizing conventional fastening techniques require drilling holes, increasing weight and inviting stress concentrations. Adhesive joints have gained popularity due to their cost efficiency, light-weight designs, decreased stress concentrations, and their ability to join dissimilar materials. They provide a large contact area and thereby exhibit efficient stress distribution. However, these ...

Chemical Treatment for Osteoporosis

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:22:58 GMT

Executive Summary Currently available therapeutics for osteoporosis have the potential to produce severe negative side effects or are required to be administered via injection. Researchers at Michigan State University have developed a new therapeutic that overcomes these challenges. Description of Technology This novel MSU technology uses high molecular weight polyethylene glycol (HMW-PEG) to treat osteoporosis. HMW-PEG has been previously shown to enhance GI mucinous and cytoskeletal barriers that prevent pathogenic gut bacteria from interacting with or invading the gut w...

Reducing Cultivation and Harvesting Costs for Cyanobacteria

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 07:14:03 GMT

Executive Summary Our technology enables physical plant managers to control cyanobacterial flocculation, which significantly reduces recovery and dewatering requirements. These requirements alone account for up to 40% of operating costs in production of biofuels, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals from cyanobacteria. This technology works by inducing cyanobacterial cells to grow to a size that makes cells easy to dewater without sacrificing biomass accumulation rates. Description of Technology This technology is a modification to cyanobacterial cells that causes the cel...

Medicinal plant compound reduces mycotoxins and sporulation

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 07:49:22 GMT

Executive Summary Economic losses due to mycotoxins in the United States are estimated to be between $0.5 and $1.5 billion annually. Fungicides are only partially effective against mycotoxin-producing fungi because such fungi are naturally tolerant to many fungicides, and because when stressed by fungicide applications, fungi can respond by producing more of the mycotoxin. Durable host plant resistance is not available, despite many years of intensive breeding. An alternative to these solutions would be a compound or compounds that block mycotoxin biosynthesis, especially when mycot...

Metal Coating of Hydrophobic Polymer Surfaces

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 09:12:25 GMT

Executive Summary As the plastics industry has begun to reach the limits of mechanical properties, specialized applications are beginning to turn to composites instead. Metallic plating of materials offers many benefits such as increased abrasion resistance and improved mechanical properties, but is time consuming, costly, and manufacturing is potentially hazardous with many current techniques. This invention allows for the metallic coating of neutral surfaces such as plastic in a time efficient manner with minimal specialized equipment. Description of Technology The manuf...

Algae/Fungi Endosymbiosis Platform for Lipid Biosynthesis

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 08:21:56 GMT

Executive Summary Bioethanol and biodiesel are produced primarily from terrestrial plant material rich in sugar and starch such as corn, sugarcane, or sweet sorghum. However, producing fuels using food crops is not optimal in the long term since they require premium land, abundant water, and large inputs of energy in the form of agricultural machinery and fertilizer. To combat these issues, researchers and industry have turned to alternative sources for energy production including microbes such as algae and fungi. While promising, current methods of harvesting and dewatering algae c...

Green Polymer Analog manufacturing

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 06:46:00 GMT

Executive Summary This invention allows for the synthesis of polybutadiene copolymer analogs; including but not limited to ABS, SB rubber, butadiene rubber, SB latex and high-impact polystyrene. Not only are the mechanical and chemical properties of the copolymers nearly identical, they are manufactured from partially green raw materials, resulting in a partially green end-product. Description of Technology As a societal push for green energy and products grows the demand for green polymers and copolymers increases as well. As such, our researchers at MSU sought to copolym...

Wireless Intraocular Pressure Sensor to Monitor Glaucoma Patients

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 17 May 2017 09:12:06 GMT

Executive Summary Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness that affects up to 3 million people in American. It can remain undetected until permanent vision loss is present. Measuring eye pressure during an office visit is a standard diagnostic tool. However, this measurement can only report on pressure during a brief time sample. Patients with variable eye pressure can still be at risk independent of the office visit pressure. A more accurate method would involve measuring pressure over an extended period of time. Description of Technology MSU has develo...

Device for removal of metal particles during surgical burring

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 17 May 2017 09:04:57 GMT

Executive Summary Surgical implants, such as screws, often must be removed from a patient via the process known as surgical burring. Surgical burring releases small metal particles into the patient’s body, potentially causing joint pain. Surgical burring also generates heat, which can cause soft tissues damage. Currently, copious saline solution is used during burring to rinse the area, but this can further exacerbate swelling and potential infection. Prior to the development of this technology, a better approach to the problem did not yet exist. ...

Pretreatment of Biomass for Improved Sugar Yield

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 08:31:13 GMT

Executive Summary Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have developed a new pretreatment technology for lignocellulosic biomass that results in increased sugar yields at a reduced cost and increased speed, and generates a separate lignin stream. This larger, faster, and cheaper yield in sugar directly correlates to improved fuel and chemical conversion processing. Description of Technology MSU inventors have found a way to improve the pretreatment process that releases sugars from plant material; these sugars are then converted into fuel. Compared to other techniques, ...

Improved Facial Recognition and Rotated Facial Modeling

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 10:12:17 GMT

Executive Summary This software exhibits many improvements to current facial recognition technology. When compared to current state-of-the-art technology against standard databases, this invention showed a 15% improvement. Additionally this invention includes novel features such as the possibility of multiple image and still frame inputs, as well as facial reconstruction available from profile-to-frontal view with 1 degree increments of rotation. Description of Technology Surveillance technology has consistently experienced exponential improvement from one generation of t...

Exhaled Breath Analyzer for Lung Transplant Monitoring

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 09:05:21 GMT

Executive Summary Lung transplantation is a therapeutic option for patients suffering from the end stage of various lung diseases. Monitoring for signs of rejection is an invasive process that requires biopsies of a small portion of the lung. A new MSU technology allows for the monitoring of lung transplant rejection through biomarkers in the patient’s breath. Description of Technology This MSU technology is a combined sensor that detects peroxynitrite and nitric oxide levels. The patient breathes into the portable device and a multichannel potentiostat allows for t...

Powder Composition to Achieve a Near Full Density with Stainless Steel in 3D Printing

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 08:52:57 GMT

Executive Summary Currently, 3D printing of stainless steel yields a porous product that requires infiltration with another metal, such as bronze, to increase its density. This infiltration process can drastically alter the mechanical properties of the 3D printed part, rendering it unusable for most industrial applications. MSU’s innovative technology avoids this porous issue outright by using a unique powder composition and process that enables existing metal 3D printing systems to produce near full density stainless steel products. Description of Technology...

14-3-3 Protein Overexpression to Enhance Plant Oil Production

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 09:24:59 GMT

Executive Summary Vegetable oils are used for nutrition, biofuel, industrial applications, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. To meet the growing demand for vegetable oils, production of oilseeds has increased steadily in recent years. Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have discovered a method to significantly increase the content of oil in plant seeds. Description of Technology MSU researchers have discovered a novel way to increase production of oil in plant seeds. WRINKLED-1 (WRI1) is a transcription factor that regulates plant oil biosynthesis in maturing see...

Time-Release Miticide for Varroa Destructor in Bee Hives

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 09:14:06 GMT

Executive Summary Starting in 2006, global beekeepers reported unusually high losses of 30-90% of their hives, which has since been termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The U.S. experienced a loss of nearly one third of the honey bee colonies each year over the last decade. One primary cause has been identified: an infestation by the mite, Varroa destructor. To combat this pest, many apiaries use organic acids as “natural miticides”. However, current treatment products tend to be very volatile making them potentially toxic to the bees themselves as we...

Inhibition of the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Virulence Using Ethoxzolamide

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 06:57:49 GMT

Executive Summary To address the pitfalls of traditional antibiotic tuberculosis therapies, such as the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacterial strains, alternative treatment strategies are currently being pursued. Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have developed a promising anti-virulence treatment strategy for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infections, involving a loss of the pathogen’s environmental adaptation. This technology has the potential to selectively inhibit growth and viability of pathogens, while allowing natural and beneficial microbiota to pe...

Nanoparticle-DNA for Anti-Counterfeiting

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 09:05:06 GMT

Executive Summary A 2008 report by the International Chamber of Commerce valued the counterfeit market at $650 billion and was expected to rise to $1.7 trillion in eight years. There is large safety concern with many counterfeit products, especially pharmaceuticals and toys manufactured with toxic agents. Researchers at Michigan State University have developed a simple and inexpensive nanoparticle DNA-based barcode system to track and reliably confirm the identity and authenticity of items such as pharmaceutical products, imported foods, electronics, textiles, currency, cre...

Extracting Rare Earths with Bacteria

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 09:10:41 GMT

Executive Summary The mining, extracting, and recovery of lanthanides, or rare earth elements (REEs), is currently limited by the expense to separate the REEs from heterogeneous sources, their sparse distribution in the earth’s crust, and the toxic and radioactive waste products released from harsh extraction conditions. Currently, China sources 86% of the world’s lanthanide supply and no US-based mines are operational due to the many hazards, costs, and regulations relating to REE production. Meanwhile, the demand for REE-containing products and the accumula...

Uranium Removal with Protein Nanowires

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 14:10:50 GMT

Executive Summary Soil and groundwater contamination with uranium and radioactively contaminated waste pose serious environmental problems for human and animal consumption. Researchers at MSU have discovered that protein nanowire-expressing microorganisms are highly effective at precipitating and immobilizing heavy metal elements, including uranium, without compromising the organism’s viability. This process can be harnessed to clean heavy metal contaminants more effectively and sustainably than other available technologies. Description of Technology Microorganisms like Ge...

A Minimized Cyanobacterial Microcompartment for CO2 Fixation

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 09:24:37 GMT

Executive Summary Carboxysomes form an essential part of the cyanobacterial CO2 concentrating mechanism which reduces losses from photorespiration and increases the tolerance to low external CO2 concentrations. This efficiency-enhancing mechanism cannot be found in algae or higher plants, where it may be used to increase photosynthetic efficiency or improve production of secondary metabolites. Carboxysomes are multi-protein complexes, which makes them difficult to transfer out of the cyanobacterial host into, for example, higher plants. Our technology crea...

Novel Monoclonal Anti-NonPhosphoSer9 Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Beta Antibodies

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 11:30:58 GMT

Executive Summary Glycogen synthase kinase 3beta (GSK3beta) is a serine/threonine kinase initially described for its role in regulating glycogen synthesis by phosphorylating and inactivating glycogen synthase following insulin exposure. This enzyme is expressed ubiquitously and is a critical downstream effector of the PI3K/AKT cell survival pathway. GSK3beta is widely studied across many fields of biology as it is involved in several cellular processes including cell proliferation, development, cancer, diabetes, inflammation, bipolar disorder and several neurodegenerative d...

Knocking Sensor and Prevention for Internal Combustion Engine

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:42:11 GMT

Executive Summary Effects of knocking in spark-ignition internal combustion engines range from inconsequential such as an annoying noise to completely destructive such as blasting holes through cylinder heads or pistons. With the rise in turbo charged engines, high efficiency engines, and high performance engines in everything from lawnmowers to automobiles, knock detection and prevention has become absolutely critical. Researchers at Michigan State University have created a novel sensor for knock detection that does not add to the complexity of the engine and that is...

Blueberry Variety - MSU 67 - Osorno

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 07:30:41 GMT

Breeding Procedures Emasculated flowers of ‘Draper’ were pollinated in 2002 with pollen from ‘Legacy’. The seeds were germinated, grown in a greenhouse for 1 year and then field planted at the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center (SWMREC) in Benton Harbor, Michigan. MSU 67 was first selected from a group of 103 siblings in 2006 by Jim Hancock (MSU). The original selection of MSU 67 was evaluated at the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center at Benton Harbor, Michigan from 2003 – 2007. Softwood cuttings were also set in advanc...

Novel Stevia Varieties with Superior Taste Profile for Sweeteners

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 06:01:23 GMT

Dynamic Environmental Photosynthetic Imaging Apparatus and Methods

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 10:35:28 GMT

Executive Summary Due to the complexity of measuring photosynthetic rates of plants, research in improving crop yield has placed little attention on photosynthesis thus far and instead relied on traditional parameters such as crop architecture and growth cycles. Thus, there is a significant unexploited potential to increase the food and biomass output of individual plants. MSU researchers have developed a technology that provides a high throughput, real-time monitoring of photosynthetic activity of complex plant canopies. The observed traits are then related to genotypes...

“Relief of Repression” Strategy to Improve Plant Pest Resistance and Maintain Growth Rate

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 13:10:30 GMT

Executive Summary Plants are vulnerable to pathogen and insect attack. Typically, pathogen or insect attack elicits a defense response from the plant. Normally, plants choose between new growth and defending against insects or pathogens, and growth is slowed or stopped while the plant is defending itself. Our technology enables plants to grow with activated defenses. MSU researchers have discovered a way to engineer plants so that the plants have robust growth together with well defended leaves. This allows growers to reduce or eliminate pesticide applications while obtaining ...

Maria(TM) "Linda" Sweet Cherry

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 12:15:05 GMT

Breeders: Sandor Brozik and Mrs. Erika Apostol Owner: Research Institute for Fruit Growing and Ornamentals, Erd, Hungary History in the U.S.: Introduced to the U.S. in 1995 to the Plant Quarantine Center, Beltsville, MD, by Prof. Amy Iezzoni. Upon its release, it has been tested in Michigan. Decision to commercialize made in 2013 in consultation with the Hungarians. Budwood of ‘Linda’ was sent to the Clean Plant Network Fruit Trees in Feb. 2013 to provide virus certified budwood for U.S. nurseries. Description: Suitable for fresh market and freezing. Maturity ...

Nondestructive Eddy Current Probe for Tube Inspection

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 07:48:33 GMT

Executive Summary A particular issue of interest to industry is the inspection of tubular goods and systems. A variety of eddy current probes have been developed for inspecting structural components for controlling quality as well as part of maintenance procedures. Current probes have a number of limitations including; inability to detect flaw in all orientations, producing spurious responses that can obscure signal, time-consuming, complex mechanical control and being susceptible to failure. Array probes offer high inspection speed and resolution but need sophisticated excita...

Identifying and Monitoring Neurological Diseases through Speech

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 12:37:23 GMT

Executive Summary Early detection of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease is critical to a successful treatment and management of the condition. Scientists at Michigan State University, University of Florida and University of Georgia have devised a way to identify whether patients suffer from Parkinson’s disease and to monitor their progression through speech patterns. This type of early detection could be used for multiple neurological diseases. Description of Technology Using human factor cepstral coefficients (H...

Single Image Resolution Enhancement

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 12:29:18 GMT

Executive Summary Super-resolution is the process of increasing the resolution of a low-resolution image. Manifold techniques have been used for super-resolution to enhance image, photo, or video quality, but they are often computationally demanding due to the complexity of the underlying algorithm. MSU researchers have developed a novel method for single image super-resolution, requiring little computational complexity and meeting highest quality standards at a significantly lower cost. Description of Technology This technology is an algorithm for linear appro...

A Remedial Action Tool with Real-Time Stability Screening for Power System Operators

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 12:48:47 GMT

Executive Summary Independent system operators who control the North American electric power grid need real-time or near real-time remedial action screening tools. Current systems do not allow system operators to evaluate and respond to incidents, such as downed powerlines or power generators coming offline, in real-time. This can and often does lead to unnecessary electrical power disruption. Technology developed at MSU provides a new analysis system for real-time remediation. It runs in parallel with current standard operating procedures to keep the grid in its proper ...

Laser for Fluid Dynamics

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 12:31:05 GMT

Executive Summary One of the hallmarks of turbulence is the formation of rotating currents known as vortices. Measuring the vorticity is of great importance in fluid dynamics, especially for aerodynamic design and control of air flight. MSU researchers have developed a novel high precision technology to permit the use of a laser for direct measurement of vorticity in fluid flows. Instead of following the flow of particles using a laser grid and the resulting flow vectors to indirectly determine vorticity, the novel approach provides direct, real-time measurement of vorticity with mi...

Cost-Aware Secure Outsourcing of General Computational Problems

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 06:34:25 GMT

Executive Summary Cloud computing provides end-users on demand access to a shared pool of computing resources, such as computational power and storage. It enables the end-users to utilize those resources in a pay-per-use manner instead of purchasing expensive equipment and maintaining an IT staff. The end-users outsource their computational tasks to the cloud servers where the tasks are processed and then solutions are returned to the end-users. Security has become one of the major concerns that prevent computation outsourcing from being widely adopted. There is a need for more secu...

Methods for Estimating Remaining Life of a Monitored Structure

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 10:38:01 GMT

Executive Summary Understanding how structures are deteriorating over time is critical to preserving safety and functionality while establishing a cost effective maintenance program. Recently, self-powered sensors have been developed for sensing fatigue in mechanical structures. It is desirable to develop robust data interpretation techniques that are able to use this data to achieve reasonable predictive capabilities regarding the damage to a monitored structure. This technology allows the determination of damage progression in the monitored structural or mechanical system us...

New Quinoline-Based Proteasome Inhibitors

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 06:47:50 GMT

Executive Summary There are several existing cancer treatments that are effective at inducing cell death by decreasing proteasome activity: Velcade® (bortezomib) and Kyprolis® (carfilzomib). Due to undesirable side effects and pharmacodynamics properties, these agents have been limited to treating blood cancers. MSU researchers have developed a new class of therapeutic compounds with a unique mode of action and more promising pharmacodynamics. Description of Technology This technology uses a new class of quinoline-based proteasome inhi...

Novel Drug Regimen for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 06:29:00 GMT

Executive Summary Alzheimers’ disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia is a very complex disorder with a variety of molecular and cellular pathological alterations. For many patients, the current pharmacological treatment proves ineffective. Current research suggests that changes in the polyamine levels are a possible factor in causing Alzheimer’s disease and other mental and neurodegenerative disorders. MSU researchers are proposing a novel drug regimen for the treatment of AD based on an approved cancer pharmaceutical that affects the polyamine system, poss...

A Method for Predicting Therapeutic Response in Parkinson’s Disease

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 06:23:04 GMT

Executive Summary MSU and Vanderbilt researchers have found a method for predicting therapeutic response in Parkinson’s disease. The leading treatments, levodopa and deep brain stimulation, are generally effective in treating the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but the clinical response is highly variable depending on the disease’s genotype. This technology allows doctors to customize medical treatments for Parkinson’s patients, increasing the therapy’s effectiveness for the individual patient. Description of Technology ...

Nurr1 as a Genetic Target for Treating Levodopa-induced Dyskinesias (LIDs) in Parkinson's Disease

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 06:16:42 GMT

Executive Summary Patients afflicted with Parkinson’s disease often develop severely debilitating movement disorders as side effects from currently available treatment options. Researchers at MSU propose to use a new gene therapy approach that will both reduce these side effects and prolong the effectiveness of treatment by targeted gene silencing. Description of Technology L-Dopa induced dyskinesia (LID) is a side effect of prolonged chronic use of L-Dopa medication. A hyper-expression of Nurr1 protein in affected brain areas might underlie these si...

Use of Sprr1 A-like Protein as a Neurorestorative and Neuroprotective Agent against Neurodegeneration in Parkinson's Disease

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 06:06:00 GMT

Executive Summary Although the precise causes of Parkinson’s disease (PD) remain unclear, it has been long observed that those afflicted with the disease show widespread neurodegeneration of the central nervous system accompanied by a striking loss of dopamine producing neurons in the brain. Recent research suggests axonal degeneration of dopamine neurons may be a critical event in the early stages of PD. Researchers at MSU have developed a novel gene therapy approach for promoting regeneration of dopamine neurons in the central nervous system, which may be the ...

Power Source Inverter for Use with a Photovoltaic Solar Panel

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 06:34:04 GMT

Executive Summary Photovoltaic (PV) developers desire to make PVs more efficient and cost effective. PVs generate power as direct current, however to power a home or connect to the grid, the power must be converted to alternating current using an inverter. Micro-inverters are typically mounted on the solar panel, making maintenance and replacement of worn components very difficult and expensive. PVs typically possess a 30 year life span, while the capacitors used in most micro-inverters have a lifetime of around 5 years. A micro-inverter with a lifetime comparable to that of the PV ...

Improved Method for Finding Subimages with Maximal Property

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 06:24:04 GMT

Executive Summary Image analysis and pattern recognition are rapidly developing and fruitful disciplines.Evaluating images to locate a subimage with maximal property is a frequent operation.For example, an object of a certain color is searched for within an image of many objects. This operation is currently very costly in terms of computing time and, therefore, computing power. There is a need for a method that improves upon existing methods with significantly increased computational speed. Description of Technology Currently, evaluating images to locate a subimage w...

Defense Against Primary User Emulation Attacks In Cognitive Radio Networks

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 13:27:44 GMT

Executive Summary Cognitive radio (CR) networks take advantage of unused bandwidth through which secondary unlicensed users may share the spectrum with the licensed primary users to better utilize the spectrum at any given time. Primary user emulation attacks (PUEAs) are malicious attacks in which a malicious user mimics the signal of a primary user over the unused bandwidth making the unoccupied space inaccessible to legitimate secondary users. This causes low spectrum utilization and inefficient CR network operation. Description of Technology Michigan State University h...

Drought-Inducible Utility Promoters

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 07:26:56 GMT

Executive Summary Many advances have been made in plant biotechnology regarding pesticide resistance, but little has been done to improve drought resistance. In times of global climate change and more extreme weather conditions, technology to increase drought resistance is much needed to prevent crop shortages that reduce food security, drive up food prices, and increase production costs for many other industries that rely on major field crops. In 2012, the corn industry alone saw a loss of $4 billion due to drought conditions. Our technology is a key development i...

Chemical Efficacy, Environmental Safety, and Operational Design Improvements for the SandSprayer "Spreader Apparatus for Sand Based Formulations" (Patent No. 8,028,928)

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 07:19:52 GMT

Executive Summary Currently, as a part of turfgrass installation and maintenance, topdressing sand and active ingredients (fungicide/growth regulators) are applied sequentially, requiring two passes over the turf. Carrying out these processes separately requires additional time to make two identical passes, leads to spray drift when spraying chemicals, and results in over-compaction of the soil. Our technology enables groundskeepers at places such as golf courses, to precisely apply sand and chemicals with variable control of both components in only one pass. Description...

Sprayer/Top Dresser Machine for Application of Treated Sand to Golf Course Turf

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 07:17:34 GMT

Quasi-Static Self-Powering, Sensing, and Data Logging

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 14:10:51 GMT

Executive Summary Slowly acting events can be very difficult to sense, especially for self-powered sensors. Most sensors require an external energy source in order to detect the desired property and report results. For some applications however, a self-powered sensor is desirable that uses energy from the object being sensed in order to record the data. Piezoelectric and other devices have been developed for sensing applications where the property being sensed is as low as 5-10 Hz. However for applications that occur slowly, such as <1 Hz or very slowly <<1 Hz, a piez...

Smart Water Bottle Converter

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 10:04:34 GMT

Executive Summary A more accurate awareness of an individual’s hydration could help motivate them to stay hydrated in a variety of settings. Quantifying the intake would provide meaningful feedback to aid in hydration. To address this need this technology converts a normal water bottle into a “smart bottle” capable of tracking and measuring fluid intake of a user. The smart bottle is able to; identify and track the sips taken from the bottle, compute the water intake statistics, show such statistics on a local display, and send corrective feedback to the bott...

Superconducting Computer Memory

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 07:44:21 GMT

Executive Summary Large-scale supercomputing installations use a tremendous amount of power. An attractive alternative would be to develop superconducting computing, which would operate at cryogenic temperatures. While superconducting logic circuits exist, a serious bottleneck is the lack of a superconducting computer memory. A high-density, high-speed, ultra-low power, cryogenic computer memory is needed for use in conjunction with superconducting computer logic circuits. Our solution is a unique memory cell architecture that provides for a practical solution to ...

Recognizing Keystrokes Using Wi-Fi Signals

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:42:00 GMT

Executive Summary When a user moves their fingers to type, it creates a disturbance in the Wi-Fi signal that is unique and can be determined by analyzing the CSI-Waveform from the Wi-fi card. Our technology is able to detect and identify small movements of the hand by using a commercial Wi-Fi router and laptop. This technology can be used to determine what is being typed on a computer, user identification by typing patterns, and many other applications of movement detection beyond finger movements. Description of Technology The unique disturbances ...

Self-Powered Timer

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:20:35 GMT

Executive Summary Remotely powered sensors are used in a wide variety of fields from medical devices to structural health monitoring. Most applications need to know the what, where and when of the recorded data. Currently sensors have limited ability to time-stamp events without incorporating power consuming peripherals. There is therefore a need to develop a method to monitor time with little or no extra power required. Description of Technology Michigan State University has developed a novel self-powered timer driven by ambient thermal energy. The technology...

An Automated Cheating Detection System for Online Exams

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 07:10:56 GMT

Executive Summary The growth of online courses offered for credit heavily depends on innovations in the online proctoring industry to provide accurate, yet flexible remote examination. Current software-based online proctoring systems do not sufficiently monitor and inhibit cheating behavior in high stake online exams as they only rely on the narrow field of vision from the test taker’s webcam. Our new tested and patented system for automated detection of cheating behavior in online exams uses an additional small camera attached to the test taker’s headset, wh...

Gliding Robotic Fish Navigation and Propulsion

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 13:30:18 GMT

Executive Summary Autonomous robots provide a means to remotely perform a wide variety of tasks. For underwater robots an energetically passive mode of movement is important as well as a platform capable of a variety of sensors. We have developed a bio-inspired robotic vehicle based on the body of ray-finned fish. The robot has a reconfigurable sensor bay, and a control algorithm that optimizes maneuverability and battery efficiency. Description of Technology Michigan State University has developed a semi-autonomous robotic vehicle for underwater use. The interior is equip...

Transparent Electrode Array for Optogenetics

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 26 May 2016 13:43:34 GMT

Executive Summary The development of brain-machine interface technologies offer a host of opportunities for basic research, real-time therapeutic devices, and neural prosthetics. Our bi-directional communication channel provides for a more robust brain-machine interface with greater accuracy. The bi-directional communication channel is also critical for making use of adaptive feedback. In a neural prosthetic example, a quadriplegic may use this brain-machine interface to trigger a signal specific to movement direction, which can be recorded and mapped to a virtual environment....

Transceiver Rotating Field Nondestructive Inspection Probe

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 24 May 2016 07:56:18 GMT

Executive Summary Eddy Current Testing (ECT) is a method for in-situ determination of defects in conductive materials. A particular issue of interest to industry is the inspection of tubular goods. Current bobbin coils probes are not suitable for detecting circumferential defects in tubes. Rotating probe lift-off could obscure defects. There is a need for a fast, robust, highly efficient nondestructive inspection probe, which avoids the limitations of the current art. Description of Technology Michigan State University has developed a fast, robust, highly efficient w...

GPU-Based Eddy Current Nondestructive Evaluation System for Steel Plates

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 20 May 2016 13:24:28 GMT

Executive Summary Eddy Current Testing (ECT) is a well-established method for in-situ determination of defects in conductive materials offering the ability to perform nondestructive evaluation without compromising equipment. Simple ECT can detect defects but often does not provide enough detail to determine whether or not a defective piece of equipment needs to be withdrawn or simply monitored for future maintenance. Withdrawal of the equipment may not be necessary if the defect is functionally insignificant. Our solution is a portable system that will characterize defects quickly i...

Electromagnetic Design and Analysis Method Based on Subdivision Iso-Geometric Representation

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 19 May 2016 11:22:12 GMT

Introduction Computational methods have become a cornerstone in many scientific disciplines, including electromagnetics. CAD/CAM/CAE (CAD) is the leading methodology for engineering design and solving higher order equations for systems of interest. CAD for electromagnetics primarily focuses on generating 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional representations of curves and surfaces by subdivision and fitting (meshing). Its goal is to divide the surface into single common units such as triangles and build a physical representation of the object’s surface with this common uni...

Nanocomposite Polymeric Films with Enhanced Properties

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 19 May 2016 06:35:10 GMT

Executive Summary Polymeric films are used in a variety of applications for various markets including packaging, food and beverage, industrial, appliance, graphics, electrical and automotive to name a few. Each application requires a unique balance of physical properties, barrier, appearance and cost. One challenge with current film technology is to achieve sufficient properties at lower film thicknesses. Thinner films are often desired for applications where cost or sustainability is a concern, however, as thickness decreases, important properties such as water vapor transmis...

Liquid Activated Textile Biosensing Platform

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 19 May 2016 06:26:09 GMT

Executive Summary Wearable devices have found considerable market success, in part, due to advances in affordable technology. One area of significant interest is in the area of wearable medical devices for consumers for monitoring an individual’s physiological condition. While devices for monitoring heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature exist, there remains a need for an affordable technology for monitoring other biofluids. MSU researchers have developed a new electrochemical sensor for biomolecular detection that is embroidered on a textile. The sensor...

Ultrafast Square Pulses

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 19 May 2016 06:06:52 GMT

Executive Summary It is desirable in many applications to precisely control the output pulse shape for high speed and high power laser systems. A flat top, fist rise and fast fall pulse is a desired pulse shape. In the case of a bandwidth-limited Gaussian pulse, the peak of the pulse is near the threshold but the rest of the pulse is well below the threshold. A square pulse shape would be able maintain the important maximum peak intensity while occupying a smaller temporal footprint. Description of Technology This technology is a laser add on system that provi...

Non-Volatile Memory with Linear Hot-Electron Injection Technique and Strain Gauge

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 17 May 2016 10:28:09 GMT

Executive Summary A linear hot-electron injection technique is developed that simplifies the programming procedure for a non-volatile computer memory as well as a self-powered strain gauge enabled by this technique. Description of Technology A linear hot-electron injection technique is provided for a non-volatile memory arrangement. The non-volatile memory is comprised of: a floating gate transistor; a capacitor with a first terminal electrically coupled to the gate node of the floating gate transistor; a current reference circuit electrically coupled to the source node o...

System for Food and Drink Intake Monitoring

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 16 May 2016 08:16:52 GMT

Executive Summary As chronic health problems related to obesity continue to grow, better monitoring of and treatments for these types of disorders continue to grow as well. This technology is a technique for monitoring food intake in real-time. The inventors propose a wearable solution that involves a stretch sensor mounted at the chest on a belt for the purpose of monitoring the process of swallowing. Data is filtered on-chip, and then downloaded via Bluetooth to a mobile device application. Description of Technology The technology consists of a wearable sensor suite that...

Low Cost Hydrogenation of Bio-oils

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 16 May 2016 07:39:22 GMT

Introduction There is a strong need for reliable and efficient energy alternatives to non-renewable petroleum. One renewable alternative for energy is bio-oil derived by biomass pyrolysis. However, bio-oil is impractical because it is corrosive to containment materials, self-reactive, and prone to polymerization, making it unfit for use within existing U.S. energy infrastructure. A solution to the corrosive and self-reactive nature of pyrolysis oil is to convert the bio-oil to a more stable, reduced form with decreased oxygen content by using a technique known as electrocatalytic hy...

Systems and Methods for Ultrasonic Pulse Communication in Solid Substrates

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 05 May 2016 07:09:53 GMT

Introduction Information exchange with ultrasonic pulses offers an energy efficient approach for event monitoring in wireless sensor networking. Since the purpose of this wireless sensor network is to detect the occurrence of a certain event, the information is binary in nature – a single ultrasonic pulse represents the detection of such an event. In contrast to this, traditional radio communication requires multiple bits, due to radio packet structure, to represent the same information. Hence, the traditional model of communication in wireless sensor networks for binary event...

Turfgrass Biostimulant/Adjuvant Compositions

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 07:50:47 GMT

Introduction Agricultural adjuvants are commonly used in conjunction with pesticides to enhance their efficacy. An adjuvant does not actively fight fungus or pests, but it improves the ability of a fungicide to prevent or cure disease. One popular adjuvant used in turfgrass applications is made of mineral oil, combined with a surfactant, emulsifier and dye. There are a few concerns with this particular adjuvant, specifically its effect on heat tolerance and adverse environmental impacts. In high heat, this adjuvant can kill the turf, resulting in a complete loss for the season...

Engineered WRINKLED1 Transcription Factor with Increased Stability and Enhanced Oil Production

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 08:21:58 GMT

Introduction Plant oils, primarily seed oils, are major agricultural commodities. The world consumption of plant oils in 2013 was 165 million tonnes, which represents an increase of 100 million tonnes since 1995. The majority of vegetable oils are produced from just four crops, oil palm, soybeans, rapeseed, and sunflower, which together accounts for approximately 79% of the total plant oil production. The majority of plant oil production (>80%) is consumed in the food industry (cooking oils, nutraceuticals). There are emerging markets for plant oils such as lubricants...

Variable Optical Attenuator with Integrated Control Based on Strongly Correlated Materials

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 07:04:11 GMT

Introduction Accurate optical attenuation in optical network systems and optical devices is currently achieved through the use of expensive, complex and bulky external sensors in combination with a linear controller. Description of Technology This technology is a variable optical attenuator that attenuates infrared wavelengths. This attenuator does not require external optical sensors because it is controlled by a closely correlated electrical sensing system. Attenuator materials are able to be adjustable by relating the electrical properties under various condition...

A New Paradigm for Video Streaming

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 08:53:27 GMT

Introduction HTTP-based Adaptive Streaming (HAS) has emerged as the dominant framework for video streaming mainly due to its simplicity, firewall friendliness, and ease of deployment. HAS solutions rely on popular protocols, such as HTTP and TCP, and on standard network services. Some of the primary challenges include inefficiency in using network resources, and its inherent delays and a highly undesirable oscillatory behavior that changes the streamed video bitrate and its quality profile rather frequently. These issues have resulted in problems in degrading the end users’ Qu...

Compression of Image Ensembles Using Tensor Decomposition

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:58:28 GMT

Introduction Large still-image databases are often used for e-commerce, medical imaging, technical drawing, biometrics, and security-related applications. Efficient compression and retrieval methods are needed to store these images over the long-term. A key requirement for still-image compression is the ability to access and decode individual images within a collection, without having to access/decode other images in the database. The individual access requirement eliminates popular video coding techniques as potential candidates for still-image database compression. Often the...

Collision Detection and Bitwise Arbitration for Multicarrier Wireless Networks

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:55:37 GMT

Introduction The two main tasks that occur during wireless-communication data transmissions are the transmission of the data, and the resolution of conflicts caused by data collisions. Current data-transmission technology can only handle one data packet at a time. Data collisions occur when two or more data packets attempt to simultaneously use the same network segment. Conventional methods used to resolve collisions have the disadvantage of being unbounded in time with the possibility that the collision resolution (or back-off) time being significantly longer than the transmission ...

A Secure Near Field Communication System for Mobile Devices (comb'd w/TEC2013-0124 technology)

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:54:29 GMT

Introduction Mobile devices have become a technology much relied upon for many computational tasks on a daily basis. The most recent use for these devices has been information sharing, contactless payment, and device pairing. These utilities are made possible by a near field communication device, or an NFC. Although these tasks are fast and efficient, there is a possibility that private information can be eavesdropped by a third party a few meters from the devices that are transferring data. Because this information is sensitive and can sometimes lead to identity theft or wrongful u...

RF-Enabled High-Brightness Ultrafast Electron Microscope

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:48:16 GMT

Introduction Spatial and temporal resolution in electron microscopy depend on the electron source. To achieve nanometer resolution on a femtosecond time scale, electrons from the source must be produced within a femtosecond and closely bundled spatially. These requirements lead to space-charge limitations, i.e. the repulsion of like charges confined into a small space. In order to advance nanometer spatial and femtosecond temporal resolution for electron microscopy, the space-charge issue must be resolved. Description of Technology The RF-enabled high-brightness ult...

Laser Assisted SiC Growth on Si Substrates

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:47:04 GMT

Introduction As the demand for energy production shifts from non-renewable sources to renewable sources the market for those renewable energy sources will grow. Solar cell technology is a leading contender in the renewable arena. Enough energy comes from the sun in 1 hour to power the global population for a year. Although renewable technologies such as solar have low operating costs, the cost to implement this technology is still substantial. Current industry leaders are focusing research and development efforts on reducing manufacturing and deployment cost of solar cells.&nb...

Quantifying Cell Number in MRI

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:43:01 GMT

Introduction Cell therapy is a rapidly growing medical technology that involves transplanting cellular material into an individual to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a standard medical imaging instrument, can be used to track transplanted cell material. The transplanted cells are labeled with a magnetic nanoparticle which causes the cells to be detectable on the MRI. No technology for accurately quantifying the number of transplanted cells in vivo currently exists. Manual counting of MR...

Adjuvant Compositions and Related Methods for Reducing Herbicide Volatility

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 05:47:45 GMT

Introduction Herbicides are applied to crop fields to prevent the growth of weeds. This helps to increase target crop yields. These herbicides act by preventing plants from photosynthesizing, growing, or by directly killing the plant. While extremely useful in reducing weed pressure in crop fields, weeds are continually being selected for herbicide resistance. One solution to maintaining herbicide efficacy is the use of multiple herbicides with different modes of action. The seed industry is in the process of releasing crops that are resistant to 2,4-D and/or dicamba, wh...

Xerico Drought Tolerance Gene

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 11:36:35 GMT

Introduction Drought is a costly natural disaster that causes approximately eight billion dollars in crop losses annually. With a need to provide food, feed, and fuel for nine billion people by 2050, as estimated by the USDA, continuous crop losses due to drought will continue to have a serious impact on food quantities and prices. Additionally, crops, particularly corn, have had increasing utility in the production of biofuels and ethanol. However, high temperatures and rainfall shortages continue to impact crop growth and yields. Therefore, farmers need an economic solution to gro...

Method for Creating High Yield Plants Using the K-Domain of a MIKC Type MADS-Box Gene

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 06:22:08 GMT

Introduction While transgenic plants are commonly associated with possessing herbicidal and insecticidal resistant traits, many transgenic plants are developed for the purpose of raising high yielding food crops from increased seed/fruit production. Crop yield characteristics of plants are genetically controlled through the complex interaction and expression of multiple genes responsible for regulating plant growth and flowering. Gene expression plays important roles in determining floral development and architecture, which ultimately effects timing of plant maturity. A way to enhan...

Thermoelectric Materials Based on Tetrahedrite Structure for the Thermoelectric Devices

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 09:59:57 GMT

Introduction Growing concern with energy independence and sustainability has initiated research into methods that can help to increase energy efficiency. One method, thermoelectric devices, converts waste heat from current processes into energy. These devices take advantage of a temperature gradient across the device, creating a voltage from the temperature difference. The materials that produce thermoelectric devices with the highest figure of merit, or ability to produce thermoelectric power, require rare or toxic materials (e.g. Te, Ag, Co, Pb). This prevents thermoelectric from ...

Composite Thermo-Hydroforming Manufacturing Process for Thermoplastic Composite Laminates

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 07:43:09 GMT

Executive Summary In hydroforming, a metal blank is formed into a desired shape with the use of fluid pressure impinging on the blank which in turn impinges on a die that gives the blank its final shape. Hydroforming has a number of advantages when compared to other shaping processes, including reduced tooling cost, increased drawability, and enhanced stability. However, currently, there has been little or use of hydroforming in the production of composites. MSU innovators have developed a process for hydroforming that that can produce complex composite structures with as l...

Scanning interferometry technique for through-thickness defect/damage evaluation in multi-layered transparent structures

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 08:22:38 GMT

Introduction High-strength, impact-resistant windshields, security components, and other multi-layered transparent composites (TC) are often constructed with glass and polymer laminates. Precise measurement of flaws in these structures, in all three dimensions, has not been possible. As a result, manufacturing costs include unnecessary scrap, and components in operation may be replaced prematurely. Description of Technology Due to the thicknesses of some transparent composites, measurement techniques provide two-dimensional reading in the XY.&n...

Asphalt Foam Collapse Test (AFCT)

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:12:49 GMT

Executive Summary Warm mix asphalt (WMA) has been growing in use, and currently comprises over 40% of the asphalt used in the US. This product is made by foaming the binder before the aggregate is added, to produce a workable material that can be applied at much lower temperatures than hot mix asphalt concrete (HMAC). The foam bubble quantity and size in the foamed binder are important parameters to control, and this is typically done by manual adjustment of the bubbling process at the production site. MSU researchers have developed a simple asphalt foam collapse test (AFCT) and an...

Voltage-controlled Resistor Device Based on Phase Transition Materials

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:12:40 GMT

Introduction Circuit designers often require a resistor that consistently alters its resistance based upon an input control voltage. A voltage-controlled resistor (VCR) is a three-terminal device that varies the resistance between two terminals relative to voltage in the third terminal. VCRs are commonly used in the following electronics: variable gain amplifiers, voltage-controlled oscillators, automatic gain controllers, low-distortion tunable filters, dynamic range compressors, and electronically-controlled phase advance/phase retard circuits. In all of these applications, it is essent...

Methods and Apparatus for Determining Cuff-Less Blood Pressure

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:12:34 GMT

Introduction Blood pressure provides health care professionals with basic, yet essential information about a patient's health and well-being. For some high risk patients, blood pressure must be consistently and in some cases constantly monitored, usually requiring an intra-arterial catheter. Traditional blood pressure cuffs are insufficient for these patients as well as elderly who are subject to arterial collapse and military personnel injured in battle which defines the need for the development of alternative methods to consistently and/or constantly monitor a patient’s bloo...

Materials with Optically-Addressable Compression Memory

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 12:04:22 GMT

IntroductionThere is a need for recording compressive incidents in areas such as head injuries, or packaging. Concussion prevention and increased head protection for athletes has become a focus in all levels of sport. Football is one sport in particular that has recently come under fire for the many head injuries sustained by athletes, and their possible life-long impact. Increased knowledge of the effects of concussions or accumulated head injuries over a long period of time has encouraged a push for more protective helmets. New helmets with increased padding, additional equip...

U.S. v. Narciso, Perez & the Press

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 11:16:11 GMT

Description of Technology Using interviews, archival video and photos, and FBI documents obtained via FOIA, U.S. v. Narciso, Perez & the Press is a half-hour documentary that reconstructs the trial of two Filipina nurses convicted of poisoning patients in the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI in the 1970s. During a six-week period in the summer of 1975, 27 patients experienced respiratory failure and 11 patients died at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Ann Arbor. In June 1976, after an intense FBI investigation, two Filipina nurses, Filipina Narciso and Leonor...

The Kings of Flint

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 11:15:51 GMT

Description This documentary film follows Karate Masters Jacky and Dora King (who are also Master Gardeners,) as they teach students to grow their own food in urban gardens around Flint, Michigan. They see farming as a means of self-defense. When you grow your own food, the Kings say, you know what’s going into your body. The Kings also see farming as a way to revitalize Flint. At their Harvesting Earth Educational Farm, and each weekend at the local Farmer’s Market, they sell the fruits, vegetables and eggs they harvest. The Kings grow food; they also grow hope.&...

Natural Mineral Tetrahedrite as a Direct Source of Thermoelectric Materials

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 06:58:56 GMT

Introduction Thermoelectric (TE) materials make possible the direct conversion of waste heat into electricity, potentially improving energy efficiency or providing an alternative energy source. TE materials experience the thermoelectric effect, whereby voltage is generated when there is a temperature gradient within the material. Since 1995, advances in engineering have generated materials with marked improvement in their ability to convert heat into electricity. Unfortunately, many of the materials developed are not suitable for large scale applications, due to complex synthesis re...

Laser for Standoff Detection

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 06:58:52 GMT

Introduction Standoff detection is used to identify specific, usually hazardous, materials at a distance. Hazardous materials may be of an explosive, chemical, biological, or nuclear nature, and so mitigating a potential threat is extremely important. The global market for hazard monitoring equipment has grown significantly in recent years and this growth is projected to continue into the future. Challenges to standoff detection include extending the effective range, reducing the impact of atmospheric and environmental interference, and increasing the sensitivity of the application ...

Imported from China

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 11:04:48 GMT

Description of Technology This documentary, created by a team of Michigan State University Journalism and other College of Communication Arts and Sciences students and led by Academic Specialist Troy Hale and Associate Professor Geri Zeldes Alumit, follows several Chinese international students who are grappling with finding a place in American universities and within the larger U.S. context. The film demonstrates how relationships are nurtured and shaped across cultural boundaries. “Imported from China” is also a snapshot of the largest demographic shift in the universi...

Field-Operable Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-Based Biosensor with Embedded Temperature Control

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 07:55:03 GMT

Introduction Innovators at Michigan State University developed a portable Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-based biosensor that utilizes magnetic nanoparticles as a biomarker for label-free isolation and detection of target bio-materials from complex sample matrices. The NMR-based biosensor operates at 0.47 Tesla, utilizing an embedded magnet and electrically-active nanoparticles for extracting and labeling the target. A robust temperature control system controls power and frequency to compensate for temperature fluctuation. The small size enables in-field testing and ...

A Blueberry-derived FT-like (FLOWERING LOCUS T) Gene

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 11:46:29 GMT

Introduction The United States is the world’s largest producer of blueberries, a crop valued at $863.9 million in 2011. Demand for blueberries has continued to grow as a result of their well-marketed health benefits. Two principle types of the crop are grown for human consumption: lowbush and highbush. Highbush blueberries, able to grow and flower in more temperate climates, are the more frequently cultivated of the two. Both varieties require sustained exposure to cold in order to develop the ability to flower, a span of time known as the vernalization period. An extended har...

Method to Increase Calorific Content and Enhanced Nutritional Value of Plant Biomass

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 07:00:06 GMT

Introduction Production of alternative fuels such as biodiesel is on the rise around the world and in the U.S. due to a strong and growing desire to reduce dependency on petroleum-derived diesel fuel. The acceptance of biodiesel has been slowed due to its higher cost relative to petroleum-derived diesel. The higher cost of biodiesel is directly related to the cost of feedstock used for biodiesel production, which is often derived from crops also used for food. The displacement of food crops by energy crops causes higher food prices and is fueling a rapidly growing social, environmental, e...

Trait Gene for Highly Digestible Forage

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 07:00:04 GMT

Introduction Production of fuels and value-added chemicals from plant biomass often requires pretreatment of the biomass. Pretreatment increases the capital equipment needs and costs of the final product. Additionally, the use of seeds as a feedstock has been controversial, with some claiming that use of seeds for chemical production is increasing the cost of food. What is needed is non-food plant material such as stems or leaves that requires less pretreatment. Description of Technology This technology is a method and composition for improving the digestibilit...

Gene for p-Coumarate Knock Down

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:40:25 GMT

Introduction Lignin, an abundant polymer of vascular plants that provides structural integrity to the plant cell wall, is the second most abundant polymer on earth and critical to the strength and survival of terrestrial plants. Unfortunately, its mechanical strength and resistance to chemical degradation, which is so essential for plant health, are problematic when trying to use plants as feedstocks for certain industrial and feed applications. Description of Technology Michigan State University (MSU), in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin and the University of Brit...

Increase Of Cellulose Biosynthesis

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:25:23 GMT

Introduction Cellulose is a complex carbohydrate that serves as the basic structural component of plant cell walls. It accounts for roughly one-third of all vegetal matter, making it the most common organic compound on earth. Due to its ubiquitous nature, cellulose and its derivatives are key resources for the agriculture, forestry, textile, and paper industries. For these industries that rely on plant biomass, profitability is directly related to the quantity and quality of cellulose harvested from crops. However, until now, there have been no known methods of genetically controlli...

Immortalized Chick Fibroblast Cell Line for Production of Human and Veterinary Vaccines

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:38:44 GMT

Introduction Cell-culture-based technology for vaccine production is robust, reliable, and could become a practical alternative for the pharmaceutical industry. Once the virus is propagated and harvested, the downstream processing parameters for purification, filling, and packaging of the vaccine are similar to current pharmaceutical methodologies and egg-based methodologies. However, there are no lead times involved because typical cell-culture processes use cell lines. Once a cell line is infected with the seed virus in a fermenter, the process can begin. The critical aspect is th...

Symptom Management Toolkit for Caregivers of Cancer Patients

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:09:29 GMT

Introduction Cancer patients have numerous symptoms, both from the cancer itself and from the side effects of its treatments. Since many cancer treatments are delivered as outpatient procedures or via oral medicines, cancer patients and their caregivers often are dealing with symptoms from treatment and/or disease progression at home. They have significant needs for information regarding diagnosis and treatment, help with symptom management, assistance with communication and coordination of care, and support for surveillance and prevention of further problems. Unc...

Microbial Rectifiers and Uses Thereof

heguangm@msu.edu — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:00:57 GMT

Introduction When grown in vitro under various conditions, Geobacteraceae bacteria produce conductive protein filaments known as microbial or pilus nanowires. These microbial nanowires show promise for applications in nanoelectronics and bio-electronics. Current methods for producing microbial nanowires are limited by an inability to produce microbial nanowires in pure form, and the ohmic behavior limits uses to applications that require symmetric conductance. This excludes many nano-electronic and nano-medicine applications that require asymmetric conductance (rectification) for na...

Symptom Management Toolkit for Cancer Patients

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:42:18 GMT

Introduction Cancer patients have numerous symptoms, both from the cancer itself and from the side effects of its treatments. Since many cancer treatments are delivered as outpatient procedures or via oral medicines, cancer patients often are dealing with symptoms from treatment and/or disease progression at home. They have significant needs for information regarding diagnosis and treatment, help with symptom management, assistance with communication and coordination of care, and support for surveillance and prevention of further problems. Uncontrolled symptoms can delay cancer trea...

Anti-Biofilm Compound 1 (ABC-1) and Associated Derivative Molecules

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:42:08 GMT

Introduction Bacteria commonly attach to living and nonliving surfaces in the form of biofilms. In this morphology, the bacteria synthesize a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that provide the biofilm with protection and structural support. The EPS also gives the biofilm resistance to antibiotics and immune system clearance, making biofilms very difficult, if not impossible, to treat. Biofilms are responsible for billions of dollars in expenses every year. They have been estimated to cause more than 17 million human infections and 550,000 deaths an...

Microbial Fuel Cells for Efficient Bioenergy Conversion

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 19 May 2011 09:07:05 GMT

Introduction Microbial fuel cells (MFC), or electrochemical or biological cells, are used to convert biomass material into liquid fuel and ultimately into electricity. They convert chemical energy into electrical energy through the catalytic reaction of micro-organisms. This process occurs in nature, and researchers have had difficulty effectively and efficiently duplicating the process. Description of Technology MSU’s invention is an electrochemical cell that can be used to convert biomass material to liquid fuel electricity. The invention provides an economically ...

Radial Wave Rotor (Wave Disc)

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 11 May 2011 08:18:47 GMT

Introduction Traditional attempts to use depressions or pockets to control wave reflection of off-design operation in internal combustion engines undesirably reduce the sensitivity of axial wave rotors to engine speed changes. Nevertheless, there still exists a need to improve the performance and reduce the size of traditional wave rotors to enhance their commercial viability or adapt a different geometry for more convenient implementation. Description of Technology Michigan State University’s invention uses an axial wave rotor as a supercharger in internal co...

Hazardous Gas Sensor Using Ionic Liquid Films for Enhanced Detection

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:01:42 GMT

Overview This innovative hazardous gas sensor developed at Michigan State University leverages the unique properties of ionic liquid films to detect flammable and/or toxic hazardous gases with high sensitivity and selectivity. Designed for environments where hazardous gas detection is critical—such as industrial safety zones, biomedical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring—this sensor offers a robust and scalable solution for real-time hazardous gas detection. Key Features Ionic Liquid-Based Detection: This hazardous gas sensor utilizes no...

Gene For Zipped Lignin Production In Plants

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:01:41 GMT

Introduction Lignin, an abundant polymer of vascular plants that provides structural integrity and resistance to chemical and enzymatic damage to the plant cell wall, is the second most abundant polymer on earth and critical to the strength and survival of terrestrial plants. Unfortunately, its mechanical strength and resistance to chemical degradation, which is so essential for plant health, are problematic when trying to use plants as feedstocks for certain industrial and feed applications. Description of Technology Michigan State University’s invention is a new te...

A High-Speed Grammar Aware Application Protocol Parsing Algorithm for Networking and Security Devices

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:01:39 GMT

Introduction There is an increasing desire to create content aware networks that can improve data delivery by classifying and controlling messages based on content, application, and individual subscribers. There is also a need to improve network security via content-based monitoring and filtering. Building content aware networks requires both advanced application policies specified over application protocol fields, not just host IP addresses and port numbers, and high performance network devices that can parse inter-application message contents to extract the appropriate fields in r...

Insect Cell Lines for Use in Baculovirus Expression Vector System (BEVS)

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 08:04:09 GMT

Introduction Most membrane proteins are not sufficiently abundant in nature to purify and crystallize, and gene expression systems have been unable to reliably express membrane proteins in sufficient quantities. The baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) is one of the most widely used gene expression systems for eukaryotic proteins and is optimal for glycosylated protein expression in a cost-effective manner. BEVS has also been used to express some membrane proteins. Despite some success, however, many membrane proteins cannot be expressed at high enough levels for structural s...

Using Ammonia Treatment to Make Biomass Pellets

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:39:07 GMT

Introduction Cellulosic biomass is not dense enough to be transported economically over long distances. The treated biomass must be compressed to increase its density. However, when compressed, the biomass tends not to bind sufficiently. Additionally, current additives used to increase binding characteristics of the biomass are expensive. Description of Technology Michigan State University’s invention allows for the inexpensive binding of cellulosic biomass. This invention adds value to the Gaseous Ammonia Pretreatment (GAP) process (090068) developed by the invento...

Lignocellulosic Biomass Pretreatment Using Gaseous Ammonia and Combinations with Hot Inert-Carrier Gases (AFEX)

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:35:11 GMT

Introduction To achieve high yields of glucose and other products for use in biofuels and bio-based chemicals, lignocellulose must first be pretreated. The goal of pretreatment is to decrease the crystallinity of cellulose, increase the biomass surface area, remove hemicellulose, and break the lignin seal. Current pretreatments use liquid ammonia, dilute acid, organosolvents, and steam, among others. Each of these methods has drawbacks in its ability to effectively and efficiently pretreat and process lignocellulosic biomass. Description of Technology Michigan State Unive...

Utility Promoters for Biomass Feedstock Biotechnology

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:51:29 GMT

Introduction Genetic optimization of biomass is necessary to improve the rates and final yields of sugar release from woody biomass. Areas that would benefit from genetic optimization include growth rate, environmental stress tolerance, yields of easily fermentable polysaccharides, total lignin content, lowering biomass recalcitrance to fermentation, and wood density. Successful application of biotechnology requires both gene discovery and a proper means for gene expression control. However, commercial use of biotechnology in crop improvement programs is severely limited by the lack...

Engineering Functional Groups into Electrospun Nanofibers for Cell Culture

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 13:57:22 GMT

Introduction Cell culturing is the process of growing cells in an artificial environment under controlled conditions in an effort to cause the cells to behave as they would in vivo. This is difficult to achieve because, in addition to the conditions such as temperature, pH, and gas concentrations, nutrients and energy requirements must be supplied in cell culture media. Additionally, for some studies, substrate materials are required for cellular adhesion to enable proliferation of cells to form tissues, and growth factors are needed to promote growth and differentiation of...

Making Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) from Glycerol

heguangm@msu.edu — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 07:00:08 GMT

Introduction Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) is used as an ingredient in sunless tanning products and in the food preparation industry. DHA’s skin coloring effect has also been examined to determine if it may benefit vitiligo patients (an uneven pigmentation of the skin); several DHA-containing products for this condition are now on the market. In recent years, the cosmetics industry has become interested in using DHA in its formulations for customers seeking enhanced skin tones. This technology is suitable for direct application to consumer products such as “glow” cosmetic...

Conductive Sheet Molding Compound (SMC)

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:21:35 GMT

Executive Summary Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) is used in a myriad of applications including automotive, aerospace, industrial and consumer markets. In some applications the SMC needs to be or be made conductive, but this can require expensive ingredients or process steps. MSU researchers have developed a SMC composite which is conductive and may be electrostatically painted without the need for a conductive primer. The composite has superior mechanical and conductivity properties, low permeability, scratch resistance, and reduced flammability. Description of the Technolog...

Master Electronic Key for Multi-Purpose Authentication

heguangm@msu.edu — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:21:31 GMT

Introduction People carry numerous keys, including physical keys, key cards for doors, parking and other use, garage door openers, and wireless fobs for cars, and they also use passwords or physical tokens for unlocking laptops and cell phones. It would be a great convenience to consolidate these into a single electronic key that could gain access to all of these things. This is akin to a hardware master key that can open multiple locks. Description of Technology This technology provides a novel user-authentication approach for pervasive computing environments. A person us...

Functionalized Poly(glycolide) Polymers for Biomedical Applications

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:50:50 GMT

Executive Summary Polylactic acid (PLA) and polyglycolides are attractive alternatives to petroleum-derived plastics for biomedical applications. They are biodegradable, thermoplastic, and derived from renewable resources. However, there are functional characteristics associated with these polymers that limit their use for some biomedical applications. These include their hydrophobicity and their lack of chemical functionality along their backbone. MSU researchers have developed a poly(glycolide) polymer that has pendent alkynyl groups along the backbone. This allows the at...

Method and Apparatus for Autonomous Self-Powered Integrated Piezo-Floating Gate Sensors

heguangm@msu.edu — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:50:45 GMT

Introduction Each year, hundreds of thousands of hip and knee replacement surgeries are performed in the United States. Most of these prosthetic implants are expected to last for at least 20 years after which revision and replacement surgery will be required. In many cases, however, excessive wear and loosening of artificial joints leads to joint swelling, bone loss, pain and eventually the premature need for replacement surgery. Such cases often prove to be more traumatic and less successful than the initial implant. Long-term monitoring of biomechanical implants for excessive wear and f...

High Yield Glycerol to Propylene Glycol Conversion Process

heguangm@msu.edu — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:33:09 GMT

Introduction The increased production of biodiesel has resulted in a concomitant increased availability of glycerol, a byproduct of the production process. As a result the price of glycerol has experienced a sharp downward spiral. Challenges have confronted biodiesel producers who have pursued Glycerol conversion to the Propylene Glycol, a more desirable and higher priced chemical that is used in a wide range of industrial and consumer products. Attempts to convert Glycerol in a cost effective manner have thus far been plagued by low yield and the presence of undesirable contaminant...