The team took down four other teams in the 5 Across finals, each with five minutes to pitch their big idea. That earned Pascal , plus the $500 earned for winning a preliminary round in February.

Pascal Tags is led by engineering student Brandon Young, and recent grad Haley Pfeiffer. The company is based on a that can help track inventory, which Young invented with UofL’s Dr. Thad Druffel.

“This prize money will help us get our pilot programs started faster and really accelerate our growth,” Pfeiffer said. “The competition also allowed us to gain some great connections and tell more people about our innovation.”Ěý

She said Pascal hopes to begin its first pilot programs within the next three to six months. The team also is working to better understand their customers, and continuing its research and development.

The team worked with UofL to protect and commercialize the technology, and participated in UofL’s entrepreneurship training and theĚýNSF Ěý(I-Corps) site programĚýfor translational research.Ěý

Since then, they’ve gone on to and Young competed .Ěý

Pfeiffer also has recently been accepted into theĚýĚýat UofL, aimed at helping women and underrepresented entrepreneurs submit more competitive applications for SBIR and STTR grant funding.

“We are so excited to see the community supporting and believing in Pascal Tags,” Pfeiffer said. “We can’t wait to see what the future holds.”Ěý

“I like to work in science that can improve health care, especially if the patient is a relative.” El-Baz said.

The project has now been funded by the Coulter Translational Partnership, NSF I-Corps and NSF AWARE:ACCESS, three funding programs aimed to get entrepreneurs and their inventions to the marketplace more quickly and successfully. The group has applied for patent protection and is collaborating with the University of Michigan on a clinical study. Louisville and Michigan are two of just 16 schools in the U.S. to receive funding from the Coulter Foundation.

“We would not have been able to do this without the Coulter funding ($223,000),” El-Baz said.

The money from I-Corps and AWARE:ACCESS has gone to support Isaac Gebru, a UofL Speed School of Engineering graduate who worked with El-Baz and has created a start-up company to commercialize and market the technology. Last year, I-Corps paid for Gebru to complete a UofL Foundation-sponsored training course for upstart businesses called LaunchIt while the AWARE:ACCESS program helps minority entrepreneurs, like Gebru, write more competitive grant proposals and hone their customer relations skills.

“I think this kidney project demonstrates the clear and distinct value of each of these three funding mechanisms,” said Rob Keynton, director of Research Initiatives in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and lead investigator of the three awards. “Together, the awards help UofL faculty and students figure out their potential customer base, secure funding and get their innovations to the marketplace.”

It’s part of a pilot program called , or Accelerating Women and Underrepresented Entrepreneurs: Accelerate Entrepreneurial Success, which is in its first year of providing networking, training and other support.

Speakers with UofL ties, including some founders, were highlighted at the program’s Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit in Indianapolis on Oct. 5.

One of those presenters was Maggie Galloway, CEO of Louisville-based health tech company , which she co-founded as a UofL MBA student. She said programs like AWARE:ACCESS are important because “the odds are against female and minority founders.”

reports that just 2 percent of venture capital went to female startup founders in 2016. According to , a recent study of more than 60,000 startups found just 88 were led by black women — about 4 percent of the 2,200 total women-led tech startups in the U.S.

“Women and underrepresented researchers have great innovations, but have lagged in successful federal grant funding programs for early stage startup companies: SBIR and STTR awards,” said UofL’s Dr. Rob Keynton, lead investigator. “We’re trying to change that with this program.”

Galloway said the program isĚý an extension of UofL’s current support for entrepreneurs, such as technology licensing, the FirstBuild makerspace and the LaunchIt business accelerator.

“UofL’s involvement in this program shows that UofL is not only committed to the commercialization of great UofL technologies, but also supportive of the entrepreneurs driving the commercialization,” she said.

Another presenter is Dr. Angelique Johnson, who founded her health-tech company, MEMStim LLC, . She said programs like AWARE:ACCESS also support women and minorities who want to found companies in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.

“This program is important, because too few women and minority entrepreneurs are going into the STEM space,” she said. “We need more attention placed on this critical issue.”

The AWARE:ACCESS program, funded through a National Science Foundation grant, is a partnership between UofL, Indiana University and Missouri University of Science and Technology.

NSF program director, Dr. Jesus Soriano, said he hopes AWARE:ACCESS “will enable more underserved groups to get entrepreneurship training and achieve their technological and commercial potential, as well as help enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering.”

MEMStim is now working to translate its technology to the clinical marketplace. After its founding, Inscope went on to win , and soon, will launch its first device into the market at the American College of Emergency Medicine conference.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $225,000 grant for a , called AWARE: ACCESS: Building Innovation Capacity through Diversity. UofL is the lead institution for the grant.

“Women and underrepresented researchers have great ideas that need to be translated into the marketplace” said Rob Keynton, UofL’s director of research initiatives and lead investigator of the program. “Unfortunately, these innovators have had limited success in securing federal business grants and other funding. We hope to change that with this new program.”

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, woman-and minority-owned small businesses receive less than 16 percent of federal grants (SBIR/STTR) to move their research and technology to the marketplace.

“Increasing the participation of women, African-Americans, and other underrepresented groups in the technology industry is an important social and economic challenge in America. AWARE: ACCESS will help lay the foundation for making significant progress on this issue,” said Malcolm Townes, associate director of Missouri S&T’s Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development.

The pilot program has four major goals for women and minority academic innovators:

• Identify, engage and mentor them to pursue entrepreneurship as a career
• Expand educational, experiential and networking opportunities
• Enhance their competitiveness for federal grant applications
• Create a regional ecosystem for entrepreneurs and sharing of best practices by UofL, IU and Missouri S&T

“We are thrilled to help Midwestern female and minority entrepreneurs become better equipped to compete for federal funding through this regional grant from the NSF,” said Padma Portonovo, program manager at the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.

NSF Program Director Jesus Soriano said “The National Science Foundation recognizes the tremendous potential of women and underrepresented groups in innovation. We hope the AWARE: ACCESS program will enable more underserved groups to achieve their technological and commercial potential and enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering discovery.”

AWARE: ACCESS is an acronym for Advancing Women And UnderRepresented Entrepreneurs: ACCelerating Entrepreneurial SucceSS.