, offered through the as part of the Mid-South NSF I-Corps Hub, is an intensive course focused on , which helps innovators and entrepreneurs test their ideas or products in the real world and see if they have what it takes to stick. The regular eight-week program is hybrid and offered in spring and fall, while the new three-session ‘short course’ is offered virtually and in summer.��

“Entrepreneurs and innovators are nimble — they need to move fast to get their ideas from mind to market,” said Jessica Sharon, UofL senior director of innovation and new ventures. “With this new, shorter program, we’re able to offer training and coaching through a more flexible format that helps them move quickly and fits into busy schedules.”��

LaunchIt’s curriculum, taught by experienced and successful entrepreneurs from both the Office of Research and Innovation and UofL College of Business, includes coaching, mentoring and lessons on customer discovery, product validation and other considerations when preparing for market launch. The program is open to anyone in the region working to develop a technology-focused product or company.

UofL piloted the short course in summer 2024. A total of 13 teams participated, including 11 from UofL and one each from Northern Kentucky University and University of Kentucky. Connor Centner, a post-doctoral researcher in the UofL J.B. Speed School of Engineering, used the course to help further a cutting-edge therapeutic ultrasound technology meant to destroy cancer cells and unlock the body’s immune system to fight tumors.

“The LaunchIt Short Course was an incredibly unique experience—it gave me the opportunity to dive into customer discovery and product-market fit with guidance from experienced entrepreneurs who’ve been through it all,” Centner said. “It wasn’t just about learning the basics; it was about gaining real-world experience that offered valuable insight into the market and helped me truly understand customer needs to determine how my idea or product could succeed.”

From the short course, some teams may choose to go on to the more comprehensive eight-week course offered twice a year, or some may choose to focus on additional customer discovery. All participating teams are eligible for microgrants to support customer discovery once they graduate the short course or the full course.

LaunchIt course director, Jamie Rush, said everyone can benefit from entrepreneurial training. With this new short course, the team hopes to expand access to people who may not be able to attend otherwise. For example, the short course is now offered to UofL students in a partnership with the new Bluegrass Biodesign program, where multi-disciplinary teams work to develop innovations that save and improve lives.��

“Whether or not you plan to launch a startup, you’re an entrepreneur and can use LaunchIt tools like customer discovery and market research to focus your research or idea and make it impactful,” Rush said. “We want to equip everyone — students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs, corporate business leaders — with tools that help them advance not only important new products, but new community projects, business initiatives and more.”��

The next full session of LaunchIt, beginning in spring 2025, is now enrolling through Jan. 24, 2025. More information and registration is available at . The next short course will be offered in summer 2025.��

The program is a nine-month training course where students gain hands-on experience creating and testing their ideas in the real world. The curriculum includes opportunities to prototype new designs while participating in workshops and lectures led by faculty at the UofL School of Medicine, College of Business and J.B. Speed School of Engineering.��

“This is about training the next generation of innovators in health care and medicine,” said In Kim, a professor of pediatric medicine and program lead. “With Bluegrass Biodesign, we hope to equip UofL students with the tools they need to launch technologies that can save lives.”��

Students complete the program in multidisciplinary teams, each blending undergraduate and graduate students in medicine and engineering. The idea is that they each bring insights from their own area of expertise that could help them solve problems and innovate.

“What we find is that innovation is a team sport,” said Beth Spurlin, an associate professor and co-director of the program. “The best solutions come from different people with different perspectives working together. With Bluegrass Biodesign, we give students the opportunity to experience that before they even leave campus.”

Eight teams — a total of 58 students —participated in the 2024-2025 cohort.��Logan Davis, an M.D./MBA student, said the experience taught him just how much work goes into developing the innovations his patients will one day rely on. His team worked on a device to help patients who struggle with both urinary control and motor tremor and/or dexterity. The solution for the former is to self-catheterize, which can be difficult without full control of your hands or arms.��

“We wanted to target this set of problems to give back some comfort and autonomy to these patients,” said Davis, who also was co-president for the 2023-2024 cohort. “This is a process I am so thankful to have been a part of, and I plan on using the biodesign process Bluegrass BioDesign is based on for the rest of my career to design/improve care for all of my patients.”

The student teams also complete business training via , the office’s accelerated entrepreneurial bootcamp that is part of UofL’s National Science Foundation program, housed in the . In the 2024 cycle, all eight teams received $3,000 in funding, along with mentorship and training, via the I-Corps program.

“We are thrilled to formalize the collaboration between Bluegrass Biodesign and UofL’s I-Corps program,” said Jessica Sharon, senior director of innovation programs and new ventures, who leads I-Corps and LaunchIt. “We are proud of these students’ hard work in the program to identify and validate market needs they are working to solve!”

Applications for the next cycle of Bluegrass Biodesign will be open for submission at the beginning of the spring 2025 semester. Learn more and apply .

LaunchIt, offered twice per year through the , is an intensive eight-week hybrid course focused on , which helps innovators and entrepreneurs test their ideas or products in the real world and see if they have what it takes to stick.

The program, taught by experienced and successful entrepreneurs, includes coaching, mentoring and curriculum including lessons on customer discovery, product validation and other considerations when preparing for market launch. The program is open to anyone in the region working to develop a technology-focused product or company.

Leads for the fourteen teams in the fall 2023 session were:

• Tom Alaimo: LifeStory Connection, software that personalizes the quality of care to their life and experiences, creating a person-centered approach to healthcare.
• Faisal Aqlan (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A UofL data-driven interactive virtual reality clinic (IVRC) that enhances cognitive function provides an accurate assessment of dementia level to providers.
• Shavonne Bass: Loc’n Key, offering community driven products focused on sustainable, eco-friendly organic hair care products specifically designed for customers with locs.
• Zachary Fowler (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A device for wearable continuous monitoring insulin biosensor to help physicians identify patients who are at risk for metabolic disease and Type II diabetes.
• Kelly Gibson and Jason Crist: Crison, an electrical infrastructure app for seamless integration of asset information and test result trending.
• Seokyoung Han (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A smart device for interpreting dog behaviors combines imaging of the animal’s expressions with biometric data to relay accurate status to the owner.
• Arpan Jain: Jain Energy Co., a biofuel cell that promotes a neutral-carbon-based circular economy and reduces dependency on fossil fuels for electricity generation.
• Young Hoon Kim (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): Building construction materials that consume zero-water used in drought regions.
• Hallie Osborne (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A device used for improved visualization when removing fluid from around the heart in emergent cardiovascular cases.
• Sumit Paul (J.B. Speed School of Engineering): A novel mechanical interlocking metamaterial that strengthens biomedical implants and increases durability after implantation.
• Farshid Ramezanipour (College of Arts and Sciences): A novel compound that efficiently generates hydrogen from water to provide a cheaper, environmentally friendly energy source.
• Nicolas Tehrani: Lode, a company creating full-flavor fermented non-alcoholic beverages for beer enthusiasts.
• Elton Thomas: Project Story ����ֱ��, a company using cutting edge biometric technologies to design and provide education, fitness and security solutions.
• Imelda Wright (School of Nursing): An assessment tool used in several high-risk industries by identifying weaknesses in their safety systems.

LaunchIt is offered by the team as part of its National Science Foundation program. All teams in this cohort received training, funding and other support from I-Corps to drive their innovation-backed technologies to market.

“LaunchIt was a window into the world of entrepreneurship,” said Ramezanipour, a UofL faculty member who participated as part of the I-Corps program. “It was a great experience and very helpful in understanding how to take your innovation to the next stage.”

UofL New Ventures works to launch and grow startups, and is supported in part by Amplify Louisville. LaunchIt coaches include the office’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, knowledgeable founders with an in-depth understanding of launching and growing a business.��

The next session of LaunchIt, beginning in spring 2024, is now enrolling. More information and registration is available at .

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.��

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.��

“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.��

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 national�� programs for technology-backed startups. They also participated in the Pandemic-Related Product Acceleration & Responsive Entrepreneurship Program, or��, 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.��

The team also completed��, UofL’s eight-week product innovation bootcamp, and received coaching from multiple UofL entrepreneurs-in-residence.��The 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.”��

LaunchIt, through the , is an intensive eight-week hybrid course focused on . The program includes coaching, mentoring and curriculum including lessons on customer discovery, product validation and other considerations when preparing for market launch.

The eight innovator team leads in the spring 2023 session were:

• Leanne Bledsoe, a researcher at Western Kentucky University, who works with fluorescent dye tracing products and services for investigating potential contamination to groundwater.*
• Rachel DeWees, a doctoral student at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, who’s developing lightweight, long-lasting lithium-ion batteries meant to improve the mileage capability electric vehicles.*
• Saba Gray, founder of BioGLITZ, who’s developed a biodegradable, hemp-based glitter, while exploring her product application for environmentally-conscious textile manufacturers, artisans and consumers.
• Candace Harrington, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing who’s developing “iCanDriveSafely”, an AI-driven mobile app helping those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias make smarter driving choices.*
• Caleb He, an undergraduate student who’s developing a tool to help doctors in developing countries with an easy and reliable way to provide quantitative measurement of tissue rigidity for earlier detection of breast cancer.*
• Laura Leon Machado, a researcher at UofL’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, who’s developing a pediatric postural control chair meant to improve spinal conditions.*
• Ryan G. Nazar, a neurosurgeon, developing a software application, Practical Healthcare, creating a community of health care consumers to empower a patient-first approach to health care engagement.
• Melissa Smith, an assistant professor in the UofL School of Medicine, who’s developing genomics and bioinformatics tools for predicting individual responsiveness to viral vaccines or infectious disease.*

Starred participants received LaunchIt tuition funding and support through UofL’s NSF I-Corps site program, which pairs innovative UofL faculty, staff and students (undergraduate and graduate) with entrepreneurial mentors to drive research-backed technologies to market.

Harrington, who had no business experience prior to LaunchIt, said the experience changed her perspective on the potential impact of her research.

“I started LaunchIt with a good idea and no business knowledge,” she said. “Over eight weeks, I developed the acumen to pitch a business and commercialization plan to over 100 people, with potential investors expressing interest in supporting our innovative start-up!��What an amazing program!”

The LaunchIt program is offered by , a group within the UofL Office of Research and Innovation that works to launch and grow startups, and is supported in part by Amplify Louisville. LaunchIt coaches include the office’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, knowledgeable founders with an in-depth understanding of launching and growing a business.��The program also taps into the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem for its speaker lineup, bringing in real-world experience and insights of local innovators, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

“The participants in this cohort represent such a breadth of industries, each working to turn a good idea into a good product,” said Will Metcalf, an associate vice president of research and innovation who leads UofL New Ventures. “I’m proud of their progress this session and the connectivity this program creates between industry and our campus, helping to launch new companies, ideas and economic development.”

The next session of LaunchIt, beginning in fall 2023, is now enrolling. More information and registration is available at .

LaunchIt, through the , is an intensive 10-week hybrid course focused on . The program includes coaching, mentoring and curriculum including lessons on customer discovery, product validation, marketing and other considerations when preparing for market launch.

The nine innovators/teams in the spring 2022 session are:

• Michelle Browning Coughlin, founder of Invested in Equity Alliance, focused on helping businesses to make data-driven, strategic investments in policies and��practices to accelerate equity;��
• Amy Shah, who’s working on Brain Code, an app and website for��seniors who want to�� sustain their brain health by learning computer literacy��and computer��science;
• Tucker Jewell, student,��and Dennis Evans, a long-time UofL machine shop staffer who invented the DoorKeep, a lockdown device to ​prevent forced entry;
• Jane Applegate, founder of Exit Zero Communications, which helps companies with planning events, projects and programs;��
• Ian Norris, an American Council on ����ֱ�� Fellow at UofL who’s working on the Interactive Cycling��Route Planner, an app meant to facilitate route planning and logistics for adventure cyclists in the Appalachian region;��
• Karen Krigger, a UofL physician and faculty member, who’s working on Genesis, facilitating access to the internet for improved health outcomes;��
• Raven Williams, owner of Robust Marketing, who’s launching Gateway, a sponsored content marketplace for the cannabis industry;��
• Scott Ramser, who’s working on of Staylonger, a platform that provides older adults with information, resources and vetted professionals to help them age in place;��
• Saumya Gulati, a UofL chemical engineering student working with researcher Joshua Spurgeon to develop cleaner, hydrogen-based energy with water and sunlight.��

Karen Krigger, UofL’s Endowed Chair in Urban Health Policy whose background is in predominantly in medicine, said the program helped her to see her ideas through a business lens. Her idea was a good one, she said, “but I’m a doctor, and without having a business background, I didn’t really know where to start. I think the 10 weeks of going through LaunchIt helped me to work through those components, breaking it down into manageable pieces, and find a way to take my idea and make it fiscally sound, sustainable and scalable.”

The LaunchIt program is offered by , a group within the UofL Office of Research and Innovation that works to launch and grow startups, and is supported in part by Amplify Louisville. LaunchIt coaches include the office’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, knowledgeable founders with an in-depth understanding of launching and growing a business.��The program also taps into the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem for its speaker lineup, bringing in real-world experience and insights of local innovators, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

“I’m extremely pleased with the bold ideas represented by this cohort, and the progress we’ve seen them make in this session,” said Will Metcalf, an associate vice president of research and innovation who leads UofL New Ventures. “This program creates important connectivity between industry and our campus, helping to launch new companies, ideas and economic development.”

The next session of LaunchIt, beginning in fall 2022, is now enrolling. More information and registration is available at .��

Historically, LaunchIt training had been done in person in downtown Louisville, but in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, program leaders took the bootcamp online. This allowed innovators to participate remotely — and from farther away. The spring 2020 virtual pilot cohort included entrepreneurs from Michigan, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia and across Kentucky.

“We’re excited to invite these regional entrepreneurs into our LaunchIt family,” said program director Mary Tapolsky, assistant director of external programs at the UofL Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship. “Each class brings fresh ideas and perspectives, and this expansion will amplify that while accelerating the launch of innovative new products and startups that energize our regional economy.”

Since 2011, more than 600 entrepreneurs and university researchers have completed the program. The curriculum includes lessons on customer discovery, product validation, marketing and other considerations when preparing for market launch.

Participants normally would attend classes in person once per week in the iHub co-working space on UofL’s downtown JD Nichols Campus for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In the virtual program, the meetings and content are entirely online.

One attendee in the spring 2020 virtual pilot cohort was Brad Profitt, assistant professor in the Marshall University School of Physical Therapy in West Virginia. Profitt’s participation in LaunchIt was sponsored by UofL’s NSF-designated , part of the UofL’s suite of prestigious innovation programs aimed at commercializing university-born research. Profitt hopes to further develop a patent-pending therapeutic device used to regain knee extension after an injury or surgery.

“The ultimate goal is to get this device in the hands of patients for home use to promote carryover between their physical therapy visits,” he said. “I learned a lot about how to effectively commercialize my product during LaunchIt and I highly recommend it to other researchers looking to do the same.”

Registration is open through Feb. 9 for the spring virtual cohort, which again will accept researchers from partner institutions and universities across Kentucky. More information on registration and grant funding opportunities is available .

• First place went to the team that is working on Gluconfidence, a concentrated, convenient source of glucose for Type I diabetics.
• A Louisville Water Company team took second place with its product, a drinking fountain spout with a build-in filter to eliminate lead contamination from old or damaged pipes.
• Third place went to WMK Safety Solutions, which is developing an electric vehicle charging station safety device called EV Charg-Guard that disconnects power to a charging station if it is damaged.

The LaunchIt program, newly housed in the Forcht Center, trains entrepreneurs to evaluate the viability of their business opportunity and helps them validate key aspects of their business model.

“The Fall 2018 cohort comprised 26 business opportunities, including UofL researchers and graduates supported by UofL’s NSF I-Corps Site Grant, military veterans supported by , under-represented entrepreneurs supported by , and entrepreneurs from the community,” said Mary Tapolsky, assistant director of external programs at the Forcht Center.

LaunchIt has been offered 16 times and has graduated 480 entrepreneurs, many of whom continue to grow their businesses locally and achieve milestones including acceptance into local and national accelerators, securing investments, launching products, realizing revenues, hiring employees and successful exits. The next cohort will be in the spring.