The new Kentucky Digital Health Tech and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Coalition is backed by one of 60 phase-one planning grants awarded through the . As a finalist receiving phase-one funding, the coalition now will compete for up to $100 million in phase-two implementation funding.

The coalition is led by the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council (LHCC) and includes UofL, the Academy of Music Production ����ֱ�� and Development, Greater Louisville Inc., Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency, Louisville Metro Government, the Louisville Urban League and Metro United Way.

“This work will be transformative for our city and our region,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for . “By bringing together a powerhouse research university and our community partners, we can build on our strengths and past success in health care, innovation and entrepreneurship to make a real impact.”

In phase one, the coalition partners will plan new workforce development, entrepreneurship, research, innovation and commercialization programming and supports centered on digital health care and artificial intelligence.

“Our goal is to establish the Louisville region as a national hub for digital health care and train a high-tech health care workforce,” said Tammy York Day, president and CEO of , which represents 14 of the region’s largest health care companies, including Humana Inc. and Kindred Healthcare.

This new effort builds on previous collaborations between UofL and LHCC to boost regional health care startups and innovation. Together, they run Aging 2.0, which supports programming, training and mentoring for aging and health care innovators and entrepreneurs.

“Louisville already has significant strength in all of these areas — in health care, technology and startups,” said Will Metcalf, an assistant vice president for research and innovation at UofL and a lead on the grant. “With this new funding from the EDA, we hope to build on that success and to promote economic development and equity.”

UofL supports entrepreneurs through its UofL New Ventures office, which works to launch and grow startups built around UofL intellectual property, through LaunchIt, a 10-week entrepreneurship and innovation boot camp and through a rotating roster of entrepreneurs-in-residence — seasoned founders who help guide the university’s research-backed technologies to market.

At LHCC, Aging 2.0 supports programming through the LHCC Corporate Innovation Center, housed on UofL’s downtown entrepreneurship and innovation campus. This includes LHCC’s Chairman’s Circle, a group of former health care executives available for entrepreneurial mentoring, and annual CareTech aging innovation pitch competition.

The testing lab, located in the W.S. Speed Building, now is a significantly improved facility for testing the performance of large-scale structural systems including bridge and building components. The lab renovations enhance learning experiences for Speed School students in the civil engineering program as well as research and testing that will provide community, state and federal entities important information for infrastructure needs.

“This is a wonderful addition to Speed School,” said Emmanuel Collins, dean of Speed School. “Facilities like this can really enhance our research and we appreciate that the Dahlem family worked with us to make this happen.”

The donation was the final gift from Dahlem, a UofL civil engineering alumnus who met his wife, Debby, while they were students at UofL. The couple’s children and grandchildren attended a on Sept. 17.

“Knowing my mom and dad, they would have been absolutely thrilled to have this state-of-the-art equipment for students,” said Charlie Dahlem, the couple’s son. “My mom and dad appreciated their experience at UofL. They were very, very thankful for the education they received from UofL and by giving back, they hoped others would have that same opportunity.”

The Dahlem family has provided a total of $3.5 million to UofL, supporting the Ralph Wright Natatorium, the Paris Simulation Center in the School of Medicine, athletics, scholarships and other programs in addition to the Speed School upgrades.

“Mr. Dahlem’s commitment to the university was significant, and yet he never sought personal recognition for his generosity,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “What an incredible way to give, to uplift other people, to honor other people, because none of us gets where we are without the help of family, friends, coaches, teachers and mentors.”

The centerpiece of the Dahlem Infrastructure Structural Testing Lab Facility is a two-actuator loading system manufactured by MTS. The system has the ability to test girders, beams, walls and columns with spans up to 24 feet both horizontally and laterally, with actuator loads up to 248,000 pounds.

“This testing system is the main feature of the laboratory, but the gift also helped us purchase a torsional testing system, a new environmental chamber and a visual strain measuring system and to renovate our construction laboratory and build an overhead crane to service this area,” said Mark McGinley, professor and Endowed Chair for Infrastructure Research in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “We very much appreciate the gift and look forward to using it to improve our teaching and research capabilities.”

In May, the researchers won $1 million from the (CESMII) to find cheaper, more energy-efficient ways to produce portland cement, which is a critical component of concrete.

Portland cement is made by heating limestone to high temperatures and grinding it into a fine powder. The cement is mixed with water to make a paste, then further mixed with sand, gravel or crushed stone to make concrete. Total U.S. production of portland cement in 2017 was over 86.3 million metric tons, with energy costs of more than $7 billion.

The project’s goal is to transform the U.S. cement manufacturing industry by incorporating state-of-the-art monitoring, simulation and control systems that will significantly lower energy use, said Mahendra Sunkara, PhD, chemical engineering professor and director of the Conn Center, who led the effort to obtain the funding.

CESMII is a Los Angeles-based consortium of nearly 200 partners across academia, industry and non-profits that partners with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office. The Conn Center project is one of 10 funded by CESMII for a total of approximately $10 million.

The team at the Conn Center will be headed by W. Mark McGinley, PhD, endowed chair in infrastructure research and professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Speed School. In addition to Sunkara, also on the team are Thad Druffel, PhD, theme leader for solar manufacturing research and development at the Conn Center; and Aly Farag and Michael McIntyre, professors of electrical and computer engineering.

“Energy is a significant portion of the cost of cement production,” said McGinley. “Controlling firing temperatures and times will reduce cost and environmental impacts. These improvements make this industry more viable through adoption of smart manufacturing technologies and processes, improve their product, and help the planet.”                                              

The project was one of 41 proposed to CESMII.

“This first set of projects will showcase the value and impact that smart manufacturing has across a broad set of industry opportunities” said Jim Wetzel, interim CEO of CESMII.  

Louisville’s areas needing improvement in this system are easy transportation or walkability to workplaces and availability of affordable housing across the city. Students approached this task by mapping out likely areas for transit oriented development or TODs. 

Check out more about their research below: