Lambert has spent his career applying his knowledge of equine physiology to predict performance in horses for equine industry owners and breeders. In the last decade, he also has developed a wearable biometric sensor technology to help identify horses at risk of serious injury to prevent catastrophic events, serious injury and improve overall safety for horses and riders.

A native of England, Lambert received his bachelor’s degree in veterinary science from Liverpool University. He came to the U.S. to conduct research at Cornell University and decided to stay. Lambert worked in private veterinary practice and with the United States Equestrian Team before founding Equine Analysis Systems in 1987 in Midway, Ky. The company consults with Thoroughbred owners and breeders to predict performance of individual horses and has advised clients in the purchase of Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup winners, top Thoroughbred sire Tapit and numerous graded stakes-winning horses.

In 2019, Lambert launched StrideSAFE, wearable sensor technology to document a horse’s movements at high speed and analyze that data to identify physical problems that could lead to catastrophic injury. StrideSAFE later incorporated advanced sensor technology and data from StrideMaster^SM of Australia. The current product is a fast, reliable and inexpensive screening test that can be run on every horse in every race that alerts trainers and veterinarians to horses at high risk of injury. StrideSAFE has been tested and utilized at 11 racetracks in the U.S., including its current use at all racetracks in Kentucky.

“I’ve spent my life studying racehorse physiology and have accumulated a tremendous amount of data and understanding during that time. As the issue of addressing the safety of the horse (and rider) became more and more prevalent, it just seemed like the right thing to do,” Lambert said. “This award is a significant compliment and great honor for me and my team who work hard and quietly behind the scenes to make a positive impact.”

In nominating Lambert for the award, Gwen Davis, owner of Davis Innovation, LLC and consultant for StrideSAFE, pointed out that his innovations’ success is ultimately driven by a passion for and love of horses.

“In my years of providing marketing support and services to clients throughout the Thoroughbred racing industry, I have never encountered someone with as much vision, intelligence and conviction for the Thoroughbred racehorse as Dr. David Lambert,” Davis said in her nomination. “I am proud to be associated with this effort and with Dr. Lambert himself. He is an inspiration to all who hope to keep horses and jockeys safe and ensure the future of the industry.”

“David Lambert has made significant contributions to quality and safety in the sport of racing,” said Amy Lawyer, assistant professor and chair of UofL’s Department of Equine Administration. “The Galbreath Award was created to recognize just this type of innovation and business efforts that move the equine industry forward. Dr. Lambert is a most deserving recipient of this award.”

Recipients of theÌęGalbreath AwardÌęare selected by a committee of faculty in the in the UofL . The award is administered by the UofL Equine Industry Program. The award is named for the late John W. Galbreath, a self-made man who distinguished himself in both business and as a horseman. A list of all Galbreath Award laureates and nomination information is available at the website.

For information on the award presentation dinner to honor Lambert to be held Thursday, Dec. 5, contact Kimberly Spear at kimberly.spear@louisville.edu or 502-852-7727. A video of the presentation of the Galbreath Award will be available on theÌę after the event.

Ford, who graduated fromÌęÌęwith his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2014, has been a self-proclaimed maker his entire life. Now, as a senior design engineer at with his Steady Scope technology moving to production, he can call himself an inventor.

Manzella, who graduated from with his master’s degree in business administration in entrepreneurship, is a senior digital marketing specialist at FirstBuild, where he established their revolutionary Blitz Process for idea development which helped Steady Scope become a reality. Manzella also is an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at UofL, where he mentors student-led start-ups, provides support for initiatives at the and teaches courses in management and entrepreneurship.

UofL News caught up with Ford and Manzella to learn more about their accomplishment and how their time at UofL helped fuel their passion for entrepreneurial creativity and innovation.

UofL News: What is Steady Scope and what makes it different from other fish-finding technology on the market?

Ford: Steady Scope is a gyro-stabilized transducer mount. And that’s just a complicated way to say, it’s a pole that turns. But what’s unique about Steady Scope is that it’s a solution to a problem that came about with the advent of forward-facing sonar in fishing around 2018. Traditionally, fish finders were just a cone that would go downward. I like to use the analogy of an underwater flashlight. If you just shine it straight down, it doesn’t really matter if you turn because your flashlight is just a downward cone, but when you face that flashlight forward, like the headlights on your car, they have to shine in the direction you want to see. So, Steady Scope keeps your sonar facing in the direction you are wanting to see no matter how much your boat is moving with the wind or the wave.

As a fisherman myself, I was adopting this new technology, which led me to look for something to buy and put on my boat, but there wasn’t anything that actually solved the problem. The options that were out there for what was essentially a pole that turned were $700 to $900, which were ridiculous prices for the technology. So, we immediately identified that there was room for a high margin product in the space where the technical feasibility was pretty easy to accomplish.Ìę

UofLNews: FirstBuild is typically known for its home appliances, so how did the idea for a fishing product come to fruition?

Manzella: Something that’s amazing about FirstBuild is that we are here to explore new markets for GE appliances. While Steady Scope is definitely not a typical appliance, it kind of fits into GE’s mission to “enable happiness and wellbeing in every home.” Gus was able to use our Blitz Process, which is how we validate that anyone cares about these new invention ideas. It involves a lot of what we call customer discovery, or going out and talking to real customers at the very early stages of idea development to make sure that these people actually care about what you’re working on.

I’ll be honest, when Gus first explained Steady Scope to me, I didn’t understand it at all, but he did such a great job of going out and performing customer discovery and engaging with the fishing community that the data he gathered was irrefutable. The people were so excited about this product that Gus knew that he had a winning idea early on.

UofL News: What was your process for customer discovery and what kind of response did you receive?

Ford: At FirstBuild, our whole mission is co-creation. So, I initially put out some Facebook posts with some CAD (computer-aided design) drawings and kind of verbally described what the idea was, and the response was lukewarm. But then I posted a video of me just holding a 3D-printed prototype in my kitchen and rotating it and – Boom! – people actually understood it. Once the idea was understood, it kind of went viral. That rough video shared on my personal Facebook page – not even backed by FirstBuild – was liked and shared with hundreds of comments on it.

UofL News: Does the feedback you receive during customer discovery influence product development or design?

Ford: Absolutely! When we shared it on the FirstBuild YouTube channel, we started getting a lot of feedback about different control options and mounting applications. That feedback drove us to try to create a universal product that would work for multiple applications beyond my initial scope. That is FirstBuild’s process of co-creation. Being very open and forthright with your development process let’s people kind of guide you and help identify a market that you didn’t initially target.

While Steady Scope started as a 20-foot bass boat type product, it has grown into a product that is more or less universal. Kayak fishing is growing to be a pretty big market segment, so coming up with a solution that fit all those different consumers not only expanded our markets and sales potential, but also helped us develop our product to be more of a universal fit for everyone.

UofL News: At FirstBuild, what is the process for launching new products, like Steady Scope?

Manzella: When we launch new products, we want to have confidence that there is enough demand for the product to justify launching it. So, we try to understand how large the market is through some very in-depth data and analytics and then set an appropriate crowdfunding goal from there. Part of the goal is usually used to justify the cost of tooling up the product – ‘What is it going to take to manufacture this product?’ And then another part of the goal is that we really want the community to pull this product into the market, not just us pushing it into the market. So, we want to make these goals kind of challenging to the point where there is a high enough volume that customers are pulling the product from us.

UofL News: Now that Steady Scope met its crowdfunding goal, what’s next?

Ford: We are moving toward production. We’re finishing our validation and starting to work with our micro-factory, which is largely student labor. It’s basically any college-age students, but we get a lot of UofL students. We do low volume production and house. The unique thing about FirstBuild is we can take an idea from prototype to production right here. So, that’s where we are now. We are putting together our manufacturing plan, shipping and logistics, starting to cut tools and get the manufacturing process ready, so that we can start delivering these this year.Ìę

UofL News: Is there anything else you all would like to mention?

Manzella: Sure. We have a fully functional micro-factory at FirstBuild and many students, specifically UofL engineering students, come to FirstBuild to work in our micro-factory, which provides a lot of hands-on experience. We’d love to see more UofL students working on projects in our free Makerspace, because it is a resource right here on campus.

Ford: Go Cards! And go fishing!

by Karen Coombs, Office of Communications & Marketing

It’s part of a new student-led UofL event called , that asks teams to create innovative solutions to health care problems and build startups around them in just 48 hours.

Judges selected three winning teams, each of which receive support to help them refine their ideas ahead of a finals competition in spring:Ìę

• MAC-BIO’s new cell-based therapy for the treatment of aggressive solid tumors. Team: Jordan Noe, MD/PhD student.
• Mean Business, with aÌęUofL research-born Ìępatented through the UofL Commercialization EPI-Center. Team: Krishawna Dupin, Stephanie Frank, Michelle Anderson and Alex Godfrey, all Innovation MBA students.Ìę
• Mend Corp’s software that uses machine learning to optimize nurse workflow. Team: Noah Wilding, electrical engineering student, and Katya Kovatsenko and Shah Tarun, both bioengineering students.Ìę

Each winning team receivesÌęmentorship and coaching, modest funding to develop their prototype and free registration (an $895+ value) for theÌę2021 spring cohort ofÌę, UofL’s 10-week entrepreneurial training boot camp. CardStart is backed by the ,Ìę and the .

“This event really helped us create a foundation of how a start-up company actually starts up,” said Tarun, of the Mend Corp team. “That weekend felt quite long and short at the same time, but the overall results really got us by surprise. Mend Corp’s next aim is to procure the solution that we had presented for CardStart for our enigma of a problem.”

Students worked on their ideas in between a jam-packed schedule of keynotes, coaching and workshopsÌęÌęand other experts, including Liberate Medical’s AngusÌęMcLachlan, UofL’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and CardStart’s faculty mentors, Mary Tapolsky, of business, and Tommy Roussel, of engineering.

Samantha Morrissey, a medical student and member of the CardStart student organizing committee, said the event is meant to encourage students to think outside the box and gain hands-on experience innovating.Ìę

“This is a great and unique event at UofL that affords students the opportunity and possible financial support to explore entrepreneurship,” she said. “We want students to get creative and transform their ideas into real world technologies that could ultimately be developed into their very own startup.”

Four years later, several generous donors stepped forward to help the center expand as it continues to explore the role of entrepreneurship in advancing the well-being of society.

Donations announced at the end of 2019 totaling more than $5.7 million will allow the center to add two tenure-track faculty members in entrepreneurship and up to five doctoral fellows, plus staff for the center. The center will also partner with the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship to examine ideas related to free enterprise through the lens of principled entrepreneurship.

The donors are:

• John Menard Jr., founder and owner of the chain of home improvement stores, $3 million
• Joseph W. Craft III Foundation, $2 million;Ìę
• , a founding donor continuing its support, $737,000.

“Our students benefit from the rich experiences the Center for Free Enterprise provides,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to inspire our community’s future business leaders through these generous gifts.”Ìę

Since the center , it has hosted speakers on topics such as criminal justice reform, the transformation of China, crypto-currency and entrepreneurship in Senegal. Beginning in the Spring 2020 semester, the speaker series has been renamed the Menard Family Speaker Series.

“We will continue to reach a breadth of students, alumni and the public with our speaker series,” said Stephan Gohmann, director of the center. “Additionally, I’m excited the center is expanding into entrepreneurship, as many of our students are interested in starting businesses and innovating within their companies.”

The center also hosts reading groups that attract students from across the university.

Menards is a privately-owned and family-run home improvement business with 325 stores and 41 manufacturing facilities located in 14 Midwestern states.ÌęRead an open letter from the Menard Family .Ìę

Craft, a native of Hazard, Kentucky, and a graduate of the University of Kentucky, is president, CEO and chairman of Alliance Resource Partners LP, the second largest coal producer in the eastern United States.

The Charles Koch Foundation has funded over 400 programs at more than 250 U.S. colleges and universities. Its goal is to “break barriers that stand in the way of people realizing their potential through grant funding to scholars, students and partners developing creative solutions that empower individuals to transform their lives and to improve society.”

The Menard Family Speaker Series begins Jan. 30 with author James Otteson, Thomas W. Smith Presidential Chair in Business Ethics and economics professor at Wake Forest University. His talk will be, “Honorable Business: A Framework for Business in a Just and Humane Society.”

On Feb. 19, the center will present Clifton Taulbert, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated co-author of the book “Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur.”

The series closes April 8 with a panel discussion and debate on school choice featuring Corey DeAngelis, Cato Institute Center for łÉÈËֱȄal Freedom; Angela Dills, Western Carolina University; Peter Greene, The Progressive; and Helen Ladd, Duke University.

Check the Center’s for times, locations and more information.

The Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Business, has launched ShareIt, a speaker series that encourages researchers to learn from UofL peers who have successfully done this sort of thing before.

“I’ve worked with a lot of researchers who are commercializing innovations developed at the University of Louisville,” said Dr. Mary Tapolsky, the center’s assistant director for external programs. “And it seems like there are a lot of unknowns when navigating this process.”

ShareIt aims to give new researcher-entrepreneurs a map. The program launched with a pilot event in late May, but will resume in fall with a full lineup of speakers talking all things entrepreneurship and innovation.

“Sometimes, it can be overwhelming and scary,” Tapolsky said. “This is a forum for them to hear first-hand about the experiences of their colleagues and learn from them.”Ìę

The pilot event featured Drs. Mahendra Sunkara, of , and Thad Druffel, of . Both are with the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research at the UofL J.B. Speed School of Engineering.

They talked about effectively transferring product development from academic labs to companies, and the various issues that need to be considered. For example, how to navigate university policies and build a good team.

“The success will depend up on the way you structure the company in the early stages,” said Dr. Sunkara, also a professor of chemical engineering. “It is also important to understand COI-related issues specifically for those based in the university.”

The goal of the ShareIt program is to give new researcher-entrepreneurs a primer on things like that straight from their colleagues who have done it before – for example, Drs. Druffel and Sunkara.

Druffel’s Bert Thin Films through a phase I STTR award through the National Science Foundation in 2015, and a phase II SBIR award in 2017. And Sunkara’s Advanced Energy Materials a large, roughly 20,000 square-foot production facility on the north side of UofL’s Belknap campus.

Dr. Druffel said there were plenty of commercialization role models at the Conn Center.

“The culture at the Conn Center is highly translational and entrepreneurial,” Dr. Druffel said. “Several colleagues have launched new ventures, including our director, Mahendra Sunkara. Center benefactor Hank Conn has ensured this spirit and guidance is built in the center.”

Future topics for ShareIt include the importance of team chemistry, finding a business partner and structuring this deal, exploring different applications through customer discovery, value of going through LaunchIt, and the value of participating in the national NSF I-Corps program.

Those interested in learning more about ShareIt, or being notified of upcoming speakers, can email Tapolsky.Ìę

The students, grades 9 through 12, created new products, including ways to clean hot tubs from your smart phone, unlock your car with your fingerprint and laser-cut cheaper musical instruments.

Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton said she started this competition, now in its second year, to introduce high school students to the mechanics of starting their own business, and “plant the seed” that they can one day become entrepreneurs.

“When kids are exposed to things, they tend to do it,” she said. “They can see it; they know they can do it themselves.”

The UofL event was one of five regional competitions to determine which teams would advance to the statewide finals at the end of April. There, they will compete for thousands of dollars in scholarships.

The two teams advancing from this region are: BluSpark, which created a bluetooth remote for safely lighting fireworks, and The Helping Tree, which created a new device for carrying multiple bags of groceries without smashing anything.

“An event like this gives young, creative spirits the encouragement and empowerment to change the world – whether through entrepreneurship or though other paths,” said Dr. Todd Mooradian, dean of the College of Business. “And that is our mission and our passion.”

The Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business co-sponsored the UofL event, along with the Office of Admissions and the Office of Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation.

Judges from the EVPRI also selected a team to win the UofL Product Innovation Award, given to a student startup whose product is particularly innovative and has the potential to advance its industry.

The winner of that award was the CCHS Tardy System, a team of freshmen from Carroll County Schools that created a system to help their teachers more easily take attendance.

“It was very rewarding to see the work that my students put into developing their idea and pitch be recognized by the judges,” said Will Yager, the students’ adviser and teacher. “I am very excited and Kennedy (Daigle) and Luke (Heveline) are very eager for the opportunities to come as part of their award, being back on campus and working with entrepreneurial, business, and engineering professionals.”

The team will get time with UofL experts to talk about prototyping and intellectual property, as well as the opportunity to attend a taping of “Dream Funders,” the Forcht Center’s pitch competition show.

“We believe in planting the seeds of entrepreneurship at a young age, and these students certainly seemed excited about it,” said Suzanne Bergmeister, the center’s entrepreneur-in-residence and assistant director. “We wish them all the best of luck in the future and sincerely hope to see some of them back here as UofL freshmen in the coming years.”

The University of Arkansas team won first place with a plan for Lapovations LLC, a medical device company. WeavAir of the University of Toronto took second place, while UofL’s team, Mindful Mix, came in third. Fourth place was won by Hansel of UCLA.

, maker of medical devices for laparoscopic procedures, was awarded the grand prize of $15,000 and the chance for $100,000 worth of services if it locates in Louisville through the “Launch in Louisville” program.

The “Launch in Louisville” package is provided in conjunction with Greater Louisville Inc. To be eligible for the services, the winning team must locate and operate its business in Louisville within a year of the award. Among the contributers are Business First (an advertising package), UofL’s Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship (consulting), Frost Brown Todd (legal services) and Mountjoy Chilton Medley LLP (tax services).

The second place prize of $5,000 was awarded to , maker of sensors for heating and air conditioning systems that reduce energy consumption and improve indoor air quality.

UofL MBA students Eric Wentworth and JD Mitchell won $3,000 for third place for theirÌęÌębusiness plan. The startup makes all-natural, vitamin- and electrolyte-infused cocktail and mocktail mixers.Ìę

Van Clouse, director of the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship and associate professor of entrepreneurship, and Suzanne Bergmeister, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and entrepreneur-in-residence, are the team’s UofL advisors.

In fourth place for business plans, travel advice app team members took home $1,500.

The Cardinal Challenge, first held in 2008, features 12 teams of students from the world’s leading university entrepreneurship programs. It is one of eight regional or national competitions in which UofL participates each year.

The competition took place Feb. 16-17 at the Louisville Downtown Marriott. Other universities participating were the University of Kentucky (two teams), University of Oregon (two teams), University of Manitoba (Canada), University of Delaware, University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan.

In addition to the business plan competition, the Challenge includes a 1-minute Fast Pitch competition. SalvePeds of Notre Dame won the first place prize of $1,500, with Sustainable Products Co. of UK coming in second with a prize of $1,000.

Photos from the competition are .ÌęÌę

The app, MoveMe, was created by a team in the Entrepreneurship MBA program at theÌę. The idea is pretty simple —Ìęlike a sports version of Match.com or eHarmony, the app matches people with others who share their schedule, interests and level of fitness.Ìę

“It’s not just pairing you with anyone,” said co-founder Eric Reskin. “It’s pairing you with the most compatible partner to help achieve your goals.”Ìę

Reskin and partner Andy Ortegon came up with the idea after surveying about 100 people around Louisville about pain points that might keep them from getting a good workout. They found that most people needed a buddy for accountability, but had trouble finding others who were compatible.Ìę

The team developed their product and business plan in the Entrepreneurship MBA program, which walks students through launching a startup step-by-step. They’re given guidance, legal services and practice pitching to investors.Ìę

“By the time many of our students graduate, they already have investors lined up, too,” said Dr. Van Clouse, chair of the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship. “They know what investors look for, they know how to pitch to investors and they and they’re designing their businesses to enable them to raise money to support their dreams.”Ìę

Teams also compete for funding at competitions.ÌęMoveMe, for example, won Kentucky’s statewide 2016ÌęÌęcompetition, and took home $25,000 to continue work on their app and company — which Reskin says they certainly plan to do.Ìę

“MoveMe started just as an academic thing, but we really fell in love with the idea,” he said. “And we tried day after day to find someone to tell us we’re idiots and we need to stop, but it hasn’t happened yet. So, we’re going to continue and now we get to really focus on the true development of the app and the business itself.”Ìę

Check out more about the app:Ìę

Jennifer Williams, founder and CEO of Cuddle Clones, was part of a panel discussion March 30 on investors and entrepreneurs that also included investor Christina Bechhold of Empire Angels. The discussion, moderated by Suzanne Bergmeister, entrepreneur-in-residence and assistant director of the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship, was the final event in the 2017 Spring Speakers Series for the John H. Schnatter Center for Free Enterprise.

Cuddle Clones makes stuffed animals and other products from photos of customers’ pets. Williams said she had the idea one day when she was resting her head on her Great Dane, and brought it to fruition when she was going through the entrepreneurial MBA program a few years later.

When it comes to seeking investors, Williams said, “You never know who is going to give you money,” encouraging students to be persistent.

Williams told students gathered in the PNC Horn Auditorium that her company has skyrocketed from $135,000 in revenue in 2013 to $2.3 million in 2016.

Bechhold told students that the most important part of building a business is having the right team, and investors look for strong teams with members that fill in each other’s gaps when evaluating an opportunity.

She said entrepreneurs need to be ready to accept rejection graciously and to always remember that honesty is the best policy.

“There will be people who say ‘yes,’” she said.

The event marked the end of the second year of programming for the Schnatter Center.