The startup, Immersive Hearing Technologies, is built on UofL research that uses VR to help patients test different models and program their hearing aids, all without leaving the comfort of the clinical setting.Ěý

As one of just selected for this year’s Vogt class by the Community Foundation of Louisville, the Immersive team — co-founders Jeff Cummins and UofL researcher, Matthew Neal — received $25,000 in non-dilutive grant funding, participation in a 10-week startup accelerator program, coaching, mentorship, strategic introductions and recognition designed to boost the growth of their business.

Cummins, a seasoned founder who previously served as an entrepreneur-in-residence in the , said he was attracted to the technology and ultimately came on-board to launch the startup because it tackles a problem he himself has faced.Ěý

“I wear hearing aids and I know the challenges faced by individuals with hearing difficulty,” he said. “The technology has an opportunity to be a platform that revolutionizes how hearing aids are provided by allowing patients/users to listen to the hearing aids before they purchase them.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, one in eight Americans over the age of 12 have some degree of hearing loss and about 28.8 million adults could benefit from using hearing aids.

With this tool, audiologists could use a VR headset, tablet computer or a wide screen display to demonstrate how specific hearing aid models and settings would perform in different, realistic environments, such as a school, noisy restaurant, grocery store or church. Neal and his research collaborators developed the technology to help patients find the right fit.

“We want to help people choose the hearing aid and get it programmed specifically for the specific environments where they have trouble,” said Neal, of the UofL School of Medicine. “With virtual reality technologies, you can do that without leaving your audiologist’s office.”

Neal and collaborators have worked closely with the UofL Office of Research and Innovation and its and teams, who help translate research into products and commercialize them by partnering with industry or launching new companies. The office provided support for intellectual property and product development, entrepreneurial training and coaching, and a connection to Cummins.Ěý

As part of that support, the team participated in several of UofL’s innovation and new venture programs, including both the UofL site and prestigious nationalĚý programs for technology-backed startups. They also participated in the Pandemic-Related Product Acceleration & Responsive Entrepreneurship Program, orĚý, which partners UofL researchers with companies and members of the community to scale up innovative ideas addressing health, economic and societal issues caused by pandemics.Ěý

The team also completedĚý, UofL’s eight-week product innovation bootcamp, and received coaching from multiple UofL entrepreneurs-in-residence.ĚýThe entrepreneur-in-residence program is a partnership with , an organization working to grow Louisville’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, with funding from the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

“The support of these programs and the Office of Research and Innovation team was invaluable in developing the technology to this point,” Neal said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the team to further develop, and ultimately launch, this product that could really improve the lives of those with hearing difficulty.”Ěý

The program provides training and $50,000 in funding that helps university researchers translate the ideas they develop in the lab into new, technology-backed startups. Participating teams complete an intense, two-month bootcamp learning about commercialization, engaging with industry and talking to potential customers.

Two projects from UofL were chosen to participate in recent bootcamp cohorts:

• BioCaRGOS, short for Capture and Release Gels for Optimized Storage (bioCaRGOS), uses a novel water-based stabilizer to enable storage of sensitive biospecimens like RNA, DNA or proteins at low temperatures for long periods of time, including during transport to remote locations. The project team includes: co-inventors Gautam Gupta andĚýRajat Chauhan, both in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, and business mentor Jeff Cummins, who also is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the UofL Office of Research and Innovation.

• ARNA, short for , an artificially intelligent health care robot created to provide round-the-clock patient monitoring and allow nurses to focus more on direct patient care by taking on some of their time-consuming tasks. The project team includes: co-inventors Dan Popa and Sumit Kumar Das, of engineering, and business mentor Mary Tapolsky, of the UofL Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship.

Chauhan, of the BioCaRGOS team, said the experience helped his team find an industry commercialization partner. They currently are seeking partners for an upcoming application NSF Partnerships for Innovation program, which allows NSF-backed projects like his to work with industry on research and development and accelerate the technology’s path to market.

“Vaccine stability (especially for COVID-19) remains a critical challenge and is the critical bottleneck for effective distribution of the state-of-art MRNA based vaccines to current population,” said Chauhan, BioCaRGOS entrepreneurial lead and a postdoctoral research scientist. “Our technology has the potential to advance the delivery of vaccines at room temperature, a feat that cannot be achieved currently.”

Teams must be nominated for the national I-Corps bootcamp, and must first complete a regional . Both the BioCARGOS and ARNA teams completed UofL’s I-Corps site program — part of UofL’s suite ofĚý, that also includes the UofL , NIH and NSF programs. I-Corps at UofL requires successful participation and completion of , UofL’s own 10-week entrepreneurial bootcamp.

“These programs support commercialization of the work being done by our researchers here at UofL,” said Jessica Sharon, UofL’s director of innovation programs. “We’re proud of the ARNA and BioCARGOS teams, and their work to accelerate product development of their innovations to address unmet needs in the market.”Ěý

The EIRs, under the UofL (EVPRI), will provide guidance on product development, business planning and other activities to accelerate the commercialization of university inventions. UofL’s EIRs are:

• Josh Nickols, PhD, MBA, a seasoned biotechnology entrepreneur and venture adviser with experience in commercializing technologies born at higher education institutions;
• Jeff Cummins, MBA, a finance and business development executive with experience in start-up and fast-growth companies;
• Charley Miller, MPS, a technology startup founder, product manager and game designer with a focus on systems and user journey.

UofL ranks as one of only 120 U.S. “Research 1” universities with “very high research activity,” according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher łÉČËÖ±˛Ą. The EIRs will amplify UofL’s existing efforts aimed at getting technologies born from that research to market, which include a “superfecta” of .

“UofL research has produced groundbreaking innovations that have impacted a great number of industries and could impact so many more,” said UofL PresidentĚýNeeli Bendapudi. “By pairing those innovations with seasoned, tested entrepreneurs, we can accelerate their journey from idea to the marketplace, generating new products and companies and making the world a better place.”

Each EIR will serve a six-month term, beginning in April, and will work with the and researchers. More information on the EIRs is available .Ěý

“UofL is full of potential game-changing technologies,” Nickols said. “I’m excited to work with faculty and staff at UofL to drive those innovations toward market.”

Funding for the EIRs comes from the , a public-private partnership, led by UofL and backed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, to grow Louisville’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.