: Alumna LaToya Whitlock set out to increase access to literacy curriculum to students in need. Her passion project is helping children learn to navigate the world through words.

: A relationship that started with a dentist and an engineer is resulting in a bevy of 3D-printed medical devices born from innovation and designed to improve health care delivery and training.

: What happens when two of Louisville’s leading organizations join forces? Lives get better.

Through the pandemic, as people around the world searched for something to occupy time at home, the esports community boomed.

“Some people watch movies, some people go to the gym and some people play games as their outlet and I think that’s true for many of our students,” said Louisville Esports Club staff adviser Matt Banker.

In 2020, more than 14 million college students played video games — whether casually, socially or competitively — averaging about 8.2 hours spent gaming each week. Students at UofL are no different. In fact, nearly 200 students have found a home in the up-and-coming Louisville Esports Club.

But esports are more than a game. There are major benefits to being involved in collegiate gaming. For example, the National Association of Collegiate Esports has provided more than $16 million in esports scholarships and aid to players.

And with more than 50% of esports players interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors, according to GYO Score, a thriving UofL esports program can provide a unique, well-rounded experience as students prepare for jobs after school.

“The UofL esports co-curricular program opens up opportunities for students interested in careers such as sports management, gaming and computer science,” said Lori Stewart Gonzalez, executive vice president and university provost. “Joining the team is a great way to get involved with other students while honing computer skills.”

Finding a home

Though UofL’s Esports Club has been in existence for several years, it wasn’t until the current club president Braden Hensley’s freshman year that it really took off.

As part of an assignment for an English class in spring 2018, Hensley had to write about something he enjoyed. For a person who grew up playing video games with two older brothers, esports seemed like the simplest choice.

“Collegiate esports was kind of becoming a thing,” Hensley said. “I did a bunch of research on it and realized that this was going to be the real deal. I reached out (to the club at the time) and they said they were going to be closing down the club because of a lack of interest.

”Hensley saw the way esports was growing and knew that the club had potential. He knew how much he and his peers enjoyed playing video games, so how could there be a lack of interest?

His “simple choice” for a freshman English assignment morphed into a multiyear endeavor as he dove headfirst into the club’s growth as its president. That summer, the mechanical engineering major reworked the club’s constitution and entered the fall semester with the goal of creating an inclusive gaming space for students at the university.

Open to students with a variety of abilities, experience levels and interest, the club quickly grew as its leaders focused on building community.

“In the last three years we’ve had a new wave of interest from students,” Banker said. “We’ve used that time as an incubation period to learn and develop our priorities. We have two prongs to this — the competitive side and the casual gaming side for those who want to get together for fun on a Friday night.

”Although the in-person game nights have ceased over the last year, students have been able to stay connected through the club.

Meetings and competitions were hosted virtually and the club has amassed roughly 600 members on its Discord server, a group chatting app popular among the gaming community.

“It’s nice to be able to have a place to go to chat and ask if anyone wants to play (a particular game),” Hensley said. “It’s nice for those of us who can’t get to campus but want to interact.”

Game on

While the club attracts gamers of any level, about 50 members are involved in year-round competition against club teams from other institutions. With competition ranging from dual meetings to highly visible tournament play, the Cardinals have found quite a bit of success.

In fall 2020, esports clubs from 15 ACC institutions worked to form a student-run Atlantic Coast Esports (ACE) league, which coordinated game play around the ACC football schedule. The Cards can also boast last fall’s inaugural Esports Governor’s Cup win over the University of Kentucky.

“We played five games – League of Legends, Rocket League, Valorant, Madden and Minecraft – and won three,” Hensley said. “That was a big win for us and it bridges the gap between gamers and other college students because they understand the rivalry.”

The club also bridged that gap by hosting a collaborative Madden NFL 2021 event with Learfield, which has invested in esports nationally. The tournament brought UofL fans, alumni, students, faculty and staff together to apply their football fandom to competitive gaming, and it also attracted attention from a noteworthy former Cardinal athlete.

“Lamar Jackson, who is on the cover of the game, was cool enough to tweet about the tournament,” Banker said. “Ironically, the championship game teams were the Green Bay Packers with Jaire Alexander and the Baltimore Ravens with Lamar Jackson.”

Aside from the camaraderie and competition, there are more demonstrable benefits for universities to host esports and even to make them part of curriculum.

“The growth of esports has directly impacted our enrollment numbers, helping to make our computer science and engineering department one of the most popular majors among our incoming freshman class,” said Jonathan Hughes, director of admissions for the J.B. Speed School of Engineering. “Our students are not only interested in gaming but interested in learning how science and math can take the world of esports to the next level.”

Student interest also has driven the Speed School to develop degree programs that merge various academic passions, Hughes added. Starting in fall 2021 (pending Council on Postsecondary ����ֱ�� approval) UofL will offer a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science for students who want to combine their love for computer science with other majors like art design or a similar field. The degree could widen their knowledge and skills, better preparing them for careers in game design, for example.

“If I wanted to take my mechanical engineering degree and apply it to esports, trying to do both at the same time, there’s a lot of up-and-coming tech,” Hensley said. “Virtual reality can use hardware designs; it could definitely help me out going that direction.”

Hensley plans on blending his passion for esports and engineering, but whether a student is interested in using gaming to explore STEM career options or just playing Madden NFL, Rocket League or a classic like Mario Cart, he said the Louisville Esports Club has a home for them.

“It’s a community that anyone can be a part of,” Hensley said. “I encourage anyone that wants to get involved to get involved.” 

If you think those statistics are unacceptable, you’re not alone.

Alumna LaToya Whitlock ’14 made it her business to tackle those statistics and break down barriers for children who struggle to read. She is the co-founder and executive director of Decode Project, a Louisville nonprofit with a mission to eliminate inequities in education by fostering a diverse community of learners prepared to navigate the world.

To put it simply, Decode Project helps teach children to read.

“Essentially what we do is make sure all students — but especially students who live in the west end, Black and brown students and students who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds — have access to quality structured literacy curriculum,” Whitlock said. “This is so important because national statistics tell us if a child doesn’t learn how to read by third grade, there is a 90% chance they are not going to learn to read proficiently, ever.”

The value of reading

A lack of reading proficiency can lead to a plethora of other issues as children grow into adulthood, including an inability to participate fully in civic engagement, struggles with home ownership and negatively impacted overall health and well-being. Decode Project works with students primarily in kindergarten through eighth grade who are struggling or early readers to make sure they have the literacy tools needed to become skilled readers, or “decoders,” and to avoid negative outcomes later in life.

As a former school counselor, Whitlock saw firsthand how many students were sent to the office for social and emotional issues and bad behavior. But she says a lot of those issues stemmed from the students’ inability to participate fully in the classroom.

“I don’t believe in ‘bad’ kids or ‘bad’ students,” Whitlock said, explaining how some students would be sent to the office like clockwork during literacy instruction time. “I knew there was something to it and as a collective, they were all struggling readers. I didn’t want their first experience with education to be tainted because they were missing the fundamentals, especially if there’s something we can do to make sure they get it.”

Whitlock is dedicated to making sure all kids “get it” through the Decode Project’s individualized structured literacy programs that set it apart from typical tutoring programs.

“Our spin on this is that we don’t just use the curriculum,” Whitlock said. “Our gift is that we bring a full personality to the program that allows us to build relationships with our kids.”

Training tomorrow’s education leaders

The decoders aren’t the only ones doing all the learning, though. Decode Project strategically partners each child with a literacy mentor, who works one-on-one with the child to overcome literacy obstacles. At the same time, mentors – many of whom are from UofL’s Honors Program – are learning how to become leaders.

The literacy mentors are trained not only on structured literacy, but also anti-racist and anti-bias curriculum, trauma-informed care and resiliency-building techniques, and child abuse prevention, awareness and reporting. All of this helps better prepare the student mentors to make a difference wherever they go after college.

Nino Owens, one of the mentors from the Honors Program, is thankful for the learning and service opportunities he’s received.

“I chose to participate in Decode Project because it was a place I could make a real, tangible change for others,” Owens said. “Even though I’m teaching, I feel like I’ve learned more than I teach. I’ve learned so much about the disparities in literacy rates between white and Black Americans and how being illiterate can really limit you in your life. That became my motivation to keep doing this because I wanted to make a change for at least one person who could carry that on.”

Another Honors Program mentor, Madeline Martinez, came to the U.S. as a child and struggled to learn English in her English as a Second Language classes until a teacher pulled her aside and taught her via a structured literacy program. Martinez gasped with excitement when she began her literacy mentor training on structured literacy and realized this was how she learned to speak and read English herself.

“That was such a full-circle moment for me,” Martinez said. “I am so honored and grateful for the opportunity to impact a student in the same way that I was impacted when I was younger.”

Martinez fostered a relationship with one of her students who showed signs of dyslexia and lacked many foundational literacy skills. She helped him become student of the month in his school and reach only one reading level away from his target.

She described the relationship between decoders and their mentors as one similar to siblings.

“There is a mutual respect and guidance from mentors to decoders, yet we are still able to make jokes and build trust,” Martinez said. “Although mentors have the responsibility to work through content, it is also important to build a relationship with the decoders in order to give them a safe space for questions and learning.”

Empowering students beyond literacy

For the students, Decode Project doesn’t just give them the opportunity to become skilled readers but also creates an environment where they can see themselves succeeding in ways they might not have previously imagined.

“For the kids we’re working with, college doesn’t always seem like an organic option to them,” Whitlock said. “But through Decode, they now have a direct connection to college.”

Whitlock described Lucas Kennedy, a decoder who is 9 years old, adopted, of color and lives in a rural part of Kentucky, who was paired with Owens as his literacy mentor.

“His mom was intentional in putting him in our hands because he hated reading, has a specific learning difference around language and she wanted someone to mentor him that looks like him,” Whitlock said. “So, we found someone who could mirror him as his mentor.”

Owens fostered a virtual relationship with Lucas during the pandemic. However, Owens wanted to do something special and in person for Lucas, so he coordinated with Lucas’ mother to plan a surprise visit to UofL on his birthday.

While on campus, Owens gave Lucas a pair of lightsabers from Lucas’ favorite movie, “Star Wars.” The duo walked around campus and played soccer and Frisbee with each other, leading to Lucas’ declaration that this was his “best birthday ever.”

“That child believes he belongs at UofL now,” Whitlock said. “He can see that as his future because he has been on campus, he knows someone else who is a student on campus and he can aspire to that tangible goal.”

Sparking a light for education

For Whitlock, this work is personal. She struggled as a child in school and was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) through a UofL study when she was in fourth grade. Things finally turned around for her when her teacher began highlighting one task at a time for Whitlock to help out with in the classroom.

“She made me feel like I had a superpower and made me realize I could do my own work well but also help my friends,” Whitlock said. “I found my place as a helper in the classroom and I remember the feeling of being seen and understood by her.”

Whitlock hopes Decode Project can expand to help more students who need it and that it continues to provide quality education, resources, jobs and support for parents in western Louisville, allowing students to live happier, healthier lives.

“Part of the reason I started Decode Project is because I personally know the importance of feeling seen in the classroom and not learning the same way as everyone else,” Whitlock said. “I know what it’s like to feel like your difference is seen as a hindrance instead of a superpower. I felt compelled to spark that light for kids who need it most to find their own superpower.”

To alleviate this bottleneck, Bryan Glaenzer and Rian Holayter, assistant professors of interventional radiology at UofL, performed the first ultrasound and X-ray-guided lumbar puncture at the university. Ultrasound units are more portable and plentiful in the hospital, allowing spinal taps to be carried out successfully in nearly any hospital setting. This newer technique demands specific skills, however, so many physicians need additional training to use it. Glaenzer and Holayter needed a simulated spine to train them.

“We use ultrasound and fluoroscopy all day long and we could train other attendings and residents if we had a phantom for them to practice on,” Glaenzer said.

The solution came from INTERFACE, a pathway connecting medical professionals at the UofL Health Sciences Center with Speed School of Engineering faculty and students who have expertise in 3D printing at the Additive Manufacturing Institute for Science and Technology (AMIST).

Through INTERFACE, Glaenzer could print a practice spine.

INTERFACE is the brainchild of Gerald Grant, professor in the School of Dentistry and associate director of AMIST, and Ed Tackett, director of engineering solutions and industrial relations in the Speed School of Engineering. They envisioned the program as a collaborative space for UofL’s dental, medical and engineering schools in the design and fabrication of medical and dental devices.

Grant, Tackett and undergraduate engineering student Justin Gillham worked with Glaenzer to refine his concept. Then Gillham created a three-dimensional design for a device dubbed the “spine box,” a life-size, 3D printed segment of spine surrounded by ballistics gel, a medium used to mimic the properties of tissue.

“We can train other physicians using this spine box to hone the technique so the first time somebody does a lumbar puncture by ultrasound guidance they will be steady at it, they will know what it’s going to look like and know all the landmarks,” Glaenzer said. 

Bridging the gap

The spine box is one example of how INTERFACE helps medical or dental professionals solve problems with help from engineering students and 3D printing.

Grant and Tackett have a wealth of experience in prototype modeling projects and 3D printing, so they can help idea generators like Glaenzer bypass some of the wheel-spinning of not knowing where to turn to execute their projects and can provide learning experience for engineering students as well.

“We have a lot of engineers interested in getting into the medical and dental field because of the digital technologies being used there. We have physicians and dentists and other health care workers who want to use engineering technology to design things,” Grant said. “The idea here was to put a program together where either side can say, ‘Hey, I have this great idea to develop.’”

Once they receive an idea, Tackett and Grant build a team to design the product and meet with the idea generator. The two provide expert input and an engineering student takes the project back to the design lab to further develop the idea and create a 3D printable file. With feedback from the team, the design is refined and optimized for 3D printing.

With a final design, which can take just a few weeks to prepare, a prototype can be printed on one of AMIST’s array of 3D printers using plastic resin or metal materials. The result is a proof of concept for the idea generators, allowing them to decide whether to move forward with the project, as well as a valuable opportunity for the engineering student.

“I really enjoy doing these projects. It feels like it could be work that really helps people,” said Gillham, also a co-op student at AMIST. “One thing I’ve gotten really good at is design. I think that the opportunities I’ve been given to work on these projects have developed my skills a lot more than students who didn’t have these opportunities.”

Since its start in late 2019, the INTERFACE team has worked on several dental and medical products, including 3D printed coronavirus test swabs developed to meet a need by local health care providers. Gillham created the digital design for the swab and refined it dozens of times in response to feedback from health professionals and others before the final product was completed.

“We could change the design and try something totally different one day and come back to another one if it didn’t work. The speed of it was really awesome,” Gillham said.

Bringing ideas to life

Sundar Atre, director of AMIST, said the fast turnaround of 3D design and printing makes it a game changer for industry and engineers and demands education that allows engineering students to learn in that environment.

“In the past, you had five or even 10 years to come up with a new product,” Atre said. “Now, because anything you draw on the computer can be printed immediately, the hats the engineers have to wear are not only designing but fabricating and troubleshooting. How do we prepare them for that future?”

The answer may lie in real-world projects like the ones INTERFACE brings to the students.

The INTERFACE concept is not limited to medical applications. It could be a pathway to develop ideas from students or staff in engineering, art, business or anywhere ideas arise. On the flip side, an artist or dentist could provide insight to make a product appealing and easy to use.

“If you leave it up to an engineer, it will work but it’s going to be square or round,” Tackett said. “I’ve developed medical devices for companies and the way the handle is designed is very important. A mechanical engineer has no idea what that is, but a dental resident knows what that is. Then the artist can make it look the way that someone wants to buy it.”

Ultimately, Tackett and Grant plan to create a network of univer-sity resources to help inventors take the next steps – whether it is obtaining grant funding for further development, protecting the intellectual property with a patent or even developing a spinoff business opportunity.

“We are trying to create a pathway for those ideas that are marketable. We do a proof of concept and if it looks very promising, we could connect them with other resources within the university to help them move it forward,” Tackett said.

Not every project with value has marketable potential, however. As in Glaenzer’s spine box, INTERFACE can help create one-off training tools or a device tailored for an individual patient.

“We know who we need to bring to the table. We can very quickly put together an ad hoc multidisciplinary team to execute a project,” Tackett said. “We can actually make that device exactly the way you want.”

“For nearly half a century, the University of Louisville and Kosair Charities have been working together and improving the lives of children in the community,” UofL President Neeli Bendapudi said. “This is just the beginning, and we look forward to the next 50 years to continue this enduring partnership with Kosair Charities.”

The combined effort dates to 1923 when the charity was founded by a group that included UofL physicians. Decades of cooperation inevitably resulted in many inspirational stories. Take Luke Madson and Kailee Peters. Both benefited from the power of the partnership in ways that allowed them to experience all life has to offer.

Proving ‘never say never’

Luke Madson was born prematurely at 33 weeks. Early on his parents started to notice he was different. He wasn’t holding his head up the way his older sister had, and he seemed to move his arms and legs less. Eventually his parents discovered that Luke had been born with a spinal cord injury. Initially, his parents were told he would never walk and would likely end up using a wheelchair for life. Rather than simply accepting the prognosis, his parents set out to find therapies that would improve Luke’s mobility. Ultimately, this search led them to relocate to Louisville from Minnesota to participate in a groundbreaking therapy at UofL’s Kosair Charities Center for Pediatric Neurorecovery. The decision was one that would change their family and Luke’s life forever.

“When we arrived, Luke couldn’t sit at all,” said Sarah Madson, Luke’s mother. But that changed once Luke began the rigorous new therapy spearheaded by Andrea Behrman, professor of neurological surgery and executive director of the center. “Now he can crawl around this entire house so quickly that I have to watch,” Sarah said.

At 15 months, Luke was the youngest patient to undergo the therapy at the center that began in 2014 with a $7.3 million investment by Kosair Charities. The therapy uses simulated movement to train the spinal cord and help patients regain some of their lost abilities. Through tears, Sarah described the difference this therapy has had on her son and her family.

“He’s riding a tricycle, which has been so amazing,” she said. “Even if he never does walk, he can ride a bike and he can be active with our family… and he can move himself alone.”

“It’s life-changing for these children and their families…this is a very unique program,” Behrman said. “Parents look for hope and look for care because you can’t get this kind of therapy at your local pediatric outpatient clinic.”

Providing treatment that lengthens lives

Kailee Peters was diagnosed with cancer at 17 years old and came to Louisville for treatment at the UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center at age 19. The center and Kosair Charities partnered together to establish the Kosair Charities Pediatric Oncology Research Program. This program is focused exclusively on drug development for pediatric cancers for patients like Kailee.

Kailee was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in 2018. After receiving the diagnosis, the family traveled four hours to meet with Jason Chesney, director of the UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center. She underwent a series of immunotherapy and combination treatments. By the end of July 2019, her tumors had decreased and her pain was resolved, something her mother, Christy Looney, calls a miracle. As Kailee became stronger, she had her goal set on becoming an oncology nurse and was accepted into nursing school.

However, an MRI revealed a tumor in April 2020, resulting in more surgeries and immunotherapy treatments. Despite her health concerns, Kailee refused to put her life on hold and became engaged to her boyfriend, Noah Peters, and they married that year.

By December 2020, Kailee’s aggressive melanoma had progressed. Kailee spent Christmas Day at home surrounded by loved ones before being flown back to Louisville. Two days later, Kailee lost her battle with cancer. But the treatments she received at the center were able to extend her life to allow her to realize her dreams of starting a degree and getting married.

“Kailee said there were times she didn’t know if she would get to share this day with her family. We were so happy to see Kailee have the wedding she talked about since she was a little girl,” her mother recalled.  

Forging forward

There are many more stories that could be told about the impact of this partnership. There are stories about how Kosair has helped transform the mission of the UofL School of Medicine through the support for faculty, clinical care, pediatric research and community engagement. And there are stories of fighting child abuse through programs in pediatric forensic medicine.

The organizations honored their dual purpose at a celebration this past spring, with UofL recognizing over $50 million in lifetime giving by Kosair Charities.

“This relationship is so important to not only the community but to the world… because we change lives worldwide,” Kosair Charities President Keith Inman said. “With the Kosair Charities and UofL partnership, we have to continue to look upstream, find those issues that affect children before they become problems, and fix them.”