Goldberg will serve as an entrepreneur-in-residence, or EIR, through the . In this role, he will work with UofL to connect inventions to industry and startups.

Goldberg brings nearly 30 years of experience as a medical doctor and C-suite executive, previously working for major brands and startups including ExpressScripts and Aetna Inc. Goldberg recently retired as Chief Health Officer of clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics, where he also supported the enterprise investment fund and new ventures.

“UofL is doing some really interesting and impactful work in developing new diagnostics, treatments and therapies,” Goldberg said. “I’m excited to work with the team and with the university’s researchers to help drive those innovations to market and clinical settings, where they can help patients.”

Goldberg joins a class of EIRs that currently includes seasoned founders Alice Shade (healthcare), Tendai Charasika (software), Bill Dawson (health and biotech) and Chirs Bailey (manufacturing). Shade joined as part of the second round of EIRs in 2020, followed by Charasika in 2021 and Dawson and Bailey in 2023.

The EIR program is led by the Office of Research and Innovation’s UofL New Ventures team, which focuses on launching startups around research-born tech. The EIR program is in partnership with Amplify, an organization working to grow Louisville’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, with funding from the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

“We’re thrilled to have Dr. Goldberg join our team, and for the continued growth of the entrepreneurs-in-residence program in partnership with Amplify,” said Will��Metcalf,��a UofL associate vice president for research and innovation.��“Our EIRs bring incredible experience and connection to UofL – Dr. Goldberg is the perfect example of that, joining us through a connection with another EIR, Alice Shade. His experience in health and medical innovation is a powerful addition to our already strong team and will undoubtedly drive innovation forward.”

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 .

Funding for the effort, dubbed Generate Advanced Manufacturing Excellence for Change (GAME Change), comes via the U.S. National Science Foundation’s inaugural Regional Innovation Engines, or NSF Engines, program. GAME Change received one of just 44 type-1 NSF Engines planning grants, qualifying it to compete for a type-2 award worth up to $160 million — the largest award NSF has ever offered.��

“UofL is proud to help lead the GAME Change coalition and work to ensure regional next-manufacturing competitiveness through research, innovation and workforce development,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation. “Kentucky and this region are ripe with opportunity, and through this work, we can accelerate our strong manufacturing sector’s growth as a national leader.”��

The goal, he said, is to secure economic competitiveness throughout the Southeastern Commerce Corridor (SCC) of Kentucky and Tennessee, with a focus on next-generation and advanced manufacturing, supply chain and logistics, more durable and sustainable materials and more. Louisville alone more some 2,400 manufacturing firms in areas ranging from food and beverage to automotive, with a total workforce of more than 82,500.

As part of the coalition, UofL will leverage its manufacturing and technology expertise to provide research support and talent development to industry partners. This includes connection to the UofL-based statewide resource center, along with labs, inlcuding the multi-disciplinary Louisville Automation and Robotics Reseach Institute (), led by J.B. Speed School of Engineering researcher and GAME Change teammember, Dan Popa.��

UofL also will lead the development and launch of a manufacturing-centered venture studio, offering funding, mentoring and training to help new tech-based companies spin up and out. The venture studio will draw on programming and resources offered through , part of the Office of Research and Innovation, inclduing innovation training and funding via UofL’s eight-week startup bootcamp and a suite of focused on translating research into marketable products.��

“UofL already has a long track record of success in getting its research out into the world as new products, businesses, and more with the power to radically improve the way we live and work,” said UofL principal investigator Will Metcalf, an associate vice president for research and innovation who leads UofL New Ventures and the new venture studio. “With GAME Change, we can catalyze that earned expertise to help our regional manufacturing economy thrive.”

In addition to UofL, the GAME Change coalition includes research, education, economic development, industrial and manufacturing leaders of the SCC, spanning the I-65 and I-75 thoroughfares and the promising high-growth centers of Louisville, Lexington, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga that outline an Appalachian region in need of greater connectivity and economic resiliency.

Launched by NSF’s new Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships and authorized by the “CHIPS and Science Act of 2022,” the NSF Engines program uniquely harnesses the nation’s science and technology research and development enterprise and regional-level resources. NSF Engines aspire to catalyze robust partnerships to positively impact regional economies, accelerate technology development, address societal challenges, advance national competitiveness and create local, high-wage jobs.

“These NSF Engines Development Awards lay the foundation for emerging hubs of innovation and potential future NSF Engines,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “These awardees are part of the fabric of NSF’s vision to create opportunities everywhere and enable innovation anywhere. They will build robust regional partnerships rooted in scientific and technological innovation in every part of our nation. Through these planning awards, NSF is seeding the future for in-place innovation in communities and to grow their regional economies through research and partnerships. This will unleash ideas, talent, pathways and resources to create vibrant innovation ecosystems all across our nation.”

Both will serve as entrepreneurs in residence, or EIRs, through the . In this role, they will work with inventors to connect UofL technologies to industry and startups.

Dawson has extensive experience in healthcare and biotech, both as an executive and entrepreneur. He founded Renew Recovery, a drug addiction treatment facility offering structured intensive outpatient treatment for those suffering from substance abuse disorders. The company was acquired by Brightview Health in 2020.

“UofL has a long history of developing and launching health-related technologies and companies,” Dawson said.��“I’m looking forward to helping further that momentum and innovations that can improve the way we prevent, diagnose and treat disease.”

Bailey is a UofL alum who cut his teeth as a tech and manufacturing founder, launching companies like Revio, a powersports electronics, and Lucid Customs, a producer of induction heating equipment. Lucid was acquired by Dynavap, LLC in 2020.��

“As a proud Cardinal, I’m excited to work with researchers and the Office of Research and Innovation to get this cutting-edge tech to market,” he said.

Dawson and Bailey join a class of EIRs that currently includes seasoned founders Alice Shade (healthcare), Tendai Charasika (software) and Josh Nickols (biotech). Nickols joined as part of the first round of EIRs , followed by Shade��in 2020 and Charasika in 2021.

The EIR program is led by the Office of Research and Innovation’s UofL New Ventures team, which focuses on launching startups around research-born tech. The EIR program is in partnership with Amplify, an organization working to grow Louisville’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, with funding from the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

“We’re very excited to have Bill and Chris join us as EIRs, and to benefit from their knowledge and experience as founders,” said Will Metcalf, a UofL associate vice president for research and innovation. “This is such a strong team with broad expertise, and I can’t wait to work with them to further UofL-born innovations and startups.”

The awards honor “those who have made an impact on health care in our community through their concern for patients, research, innovation, management skills and rising stars in the field,” according to the publication.��

The UofL honorees are:

• Health Entrepreneur: Will Metcalf, associate vice president for research development and strategic partnerships in the . Metcalf leads UofL New Ventures, a team dedicated to furthering research-backed startups, including those in healthcare. He also leads UofL’s innovative collaborations with the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council, a group working to innovate and solve important problems in healthcare.
• Health Equity Champion: Edward Miller with UofL Health and UofL Physicians – OB/GYN & Women’s Health. In addition to caring for high-risk mothers with complicate pregnancies, Miller has a passion to improve health care in underserved neighborhoods and inspire Black youth to pursue health care careers. His leadership helped develop the Pre-Medical Magnet Program and JCPS’ Central High School. The program brings medical professionals into their classroom and brings the high school students into UofL Hospital for a hands-on shadow experience.��
• Health Innovator: Jessica Sharon, director of innovation programs in the Office of Research and Innovation. She leads UofL’s prestigious suite of programs that accelerate translation of research-born innovations to the marketplace, including the university’s new role as part of the NSF Innovation Corps MidSouth Hub.��UofL is one of only a handful of universities in the country to host each of these innovation-associated programs — and it’s the only one to receive��all��of them.��
• Health Manager: Melisa Adkins, CEO of UofL Health’s Mary & Elizabeth Hospital. Since joining UofL Health, two years ago, Adkins has combined her experience as a nurse and administrator to improve access to care in south Louisville. She led the efforts to open a 20-bed medical detox unit, women’s health center, and brought a Brown Cancer Center location to the Mary & Elizabeth hospital campus. She’s also recruited more medical specialists to the area and grew the family medicine practice to ensure residents from the UofL School of Medicine could better experience training in a community medicine environment.��
• Emerging Star (joint award): Mandi Walker, system executive director for the UofL Health Office of Professional Practice, Nursing Research and Nursing ����ֱ��; and Kelly Russell, the office’s director. Walker and Russell provided the oversight for UofL Hospital’s recent designation as a magnet hospital, the gold standard in recognizing professionalism and teamwork in nursing with superiority in patient care. It was a team recognition but could not have happened without these outstanding nursing leaders.

This year’s Health Care Heroes will be profiled in the Feb. 17��edition of Louisville Business First, and will be honored at an in-person event the day before at The Olmsted. You can find more details and register to .

The Louisville Entrepreneurship Summit, presented by the , brought together more than 300 innovators, entrepreneurs, investors and supporters from throughout the region for a fireside chat, startup expo, networking and signing of Case’s new book, “.”��

“Entrepreneurship and innovation is so core to what we do and who we are as a university, whether that’s by educating the next generation of founders, developing research-backed products or launching new companies,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation, who leads the organizing office and gave opening remarks. “We’re proud to work with Case and our community partners to support startups here and beyond.”

In addition to Case, speakers included Elliott Parker, CEO of Indianapolis venture firm, High Alpha Innovation; Jonathan Webb, founder of Kentucky-born agtech startup, AppHarvest; and Monique Quarterman, executive director of KY Innovation. Selected entrepreneurs also participated in a roundtable and had the chance to pitch their ideas to Case’s venture capital firm, Revolution LLC, which invests in early-stage companies located outside of major startup hubs, like New York City or San Francisco.

This event, held at the university’s newly renovated Angel’s Envy Bourbon Club, marked Case’s third visit to UofL and the region; in 2016, he toured UofL engineering facilities and FirstBuild makerspace, and in 2018, he heard pitches from Louisville startups that resulted in a $100,000 investment in a company born from UofL research. Case said Louisville’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has huge potential.

“Louisville has so many of the right elements in place for a robust startup ecosystem, including a great research university,” Case said. “I’m excited by what I’ve seen here, and look forward to following the city’s startups and future success stories.”

At UofL, the Office of Research and Innovation has launched a number of key supports driving regional entrepreneurship. That includes , a new team led by Will Metcalf, associate vice president for research development and strategic partnerships, dedicated to launching and growing innovative new companies to move research-backed technologies to market.

“We’ve had a lot of success and built momentum with these efforts to spur entrepreneurship and innovation on our campus and beyond,” said Metcalf, who emceed the Louisville Entrepreneurship Summit. “Our work at UofL, and this event, are meant to accelerate that momentum throughout our regional ecosystem, creating meaningful impact through translational research, innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development.”

Metcalf said those seeking to become more engaged can contact the UofL New Ventures team directly or to learn more about resources for entrepreneurs, such as the eight-week product innovation bootcamp (enrolling now for the spring 2023 session).����

The Louisville Entrepreneurship Summit was powered by Donna and Charles Denny, the Dan Jones Family,��Frost Brown Todd,��AppHarvest, AMPED, PNC, Blue Sky Ventures and��UofL.

The new , one of only 10 across the U.S., is part of the operational backbone of the NSF’s National Innovation Network, which helps translate academic research for the marketplace. The Hubs are charged with providing experiential entrepreneurship training to researchers across all fields of science and engineering while working to build diverse and inclusive regional innovation ecosystems.

The MidSouth Hub is a collaboration among nine regional research universities, led by Vanderbilt University and including UofL, George Mason University, Jackson State University, Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Tennessee – Knoxville and the University of Virginia. As part of the Hub, UofL will receive $1 million over five years to support focused product development and training.��

“As a top-tier, Carnegie Research-1 university, UofL has a strong track record as a driver of technological innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Kevin Gardner, executive vice president for research and innovation. “We are excited to work with our Mid-South Hub partner institutions to accelerate that work, furthering important and often life-saving technologies, launching new growth-focused companies and creating opportunity here and beyond.”��

UofL’s role in the new hub follows years of leadership as a member of NSF’s I-Corps Site Program. UofL was named an I-Corps Site in 2015, the first in Kentucky, and has since awarded product development training and microgrants to more than 250 innovative faculty, staff and students.

Those awards have supported the creation of at least 16��new companies, eight intellectual property��licensing agreements and more than $8 million in follow-on funding secured to further product development. Several UofL teams also have been selected to participate in the competitive I-Corps National TEAMS program, each receiving $50,000 to further develop technologies that could improve health care through artificial intelligence, extend the shelf-life of donated blood and more.��

“Our goal is to take these brilliant research-backed ideas out of the lab and develop them into full-fledged, market-ready products that can improve the way we live and work,” said Will Metcalf, an associate vice president for research and innovation and a lead for the UofL program. “Participating in the new Mid-South Hub dramatically expands our ability to support the development and growth of scalable companies that bring ideas to life.”����

UofL’s I-Corps programming is led by UofL New Ventures in the , and includes entrepreneurial mentors, prototyping support and , UofL’s eight-week product innovation bootcamp. The office strives to launch and scale innovative companies that can bring technologies to market and solve big problems.

I-Corps is part of UofL’s unique suite of prestigious, grant-backed programs aimed at supporting the translation of research into viable commercial products. UofL is one of only a handful of universities in the country to host each of these innovation-associated programs — and it’s the only one to receive��all��of them.

“These programs have helped support a wide range of technologies and teams, helping them learn the product development process and lens,” said Jessica Sharon, director of innovation programs and a lead on the UofL Hub program. “Through this new Hub, we are very excited to work with our regional partner universities to train more innovators and get research-backed products to market.”

Backed by a new roughly $500,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the center will provide research, assessment, recommendations and workforce development to industries looking to adopt — or adapt to — the disruptive technology at the core of the fourth industrial revolution.��

UofL researcher Faisal Aqlan, who runs the center with colleagues Lihui Bai, Kunal Kate and Will Metcalf, said this revolution — also known as or Enterprise 4.0. — has the potential to radically transform a number of industries, and the benefits will go to companies that plan ahead.������

“Think of a smart factory, where all the machines can talk to each other and anticipate or even address problems,” said Aqlan, a center co-director and associate professor of industrial engineering at the . “Similar changes have happened in logistics and healthcare, where smart, connected technologies have helped increase productivity and accuracy, lower labor costs and improve safety. These technologies can greatly improve operations, but they have to be implemented correctly.”��

According to a recent , just 10% of companies had a long-range strategy for integrating these technologies — and those companies were innovating and growing faster. A full two thirds of companies surveyed had no formal strategy at all.������

“Strategy is absolutely critical to success in leveraging these technologies,” said Bai, a center co-director who also leads UofL’s Logistics and Distribution Institute (LoDI). “Our goal is to help companies understand where they are in terms of readiness —�� maybe they’re missing infrastructure or the workforce that’s needed to integrate and maintain. Then, UofL researchers will give them a solid roadmap to where they want to go.”����

CORE4.0 will engage three industry sectors including manufacturing, logistics and healthcare, through partnership with Western Kentucky University, Metals Innovation Initiative (Mi2) and Louisville Healthcare CEO Council. The center draws on the combined research strength of the UofL’s LoDI and the , with the industry expertise of the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council and the Metals Innovation Initiative (MI2).��

“UofL and its partners represent significant earned experience and strength in each of these sectors, and with cutting-edge technology,” said Metcalf, a co-investigator and associate vice president in the UofL Office of Research and Innovation. “We look forward to working with industry to leverage that strength to enter Industry 4.0.”������

Industry leaders interested in working with the Center for Organizational Readiness toward Enterprise 4.0 can contact uofllogistics@louisville.edu.����

The funding comes via through the UofL Office of Research and Innovation: the Jon Rieger Seed Grants and Programmatic Support programs.��

“This internal funding provides critical support for groundbreaking research and scholarship,” said Will Metcalf, associate vice president for research and innovation. “I’m excited for the strong and diverse projects funded in this round, and look forward to seeing what these researchers accomplish.”��

Jon Rieger Seed Grants provide up to $7,500 to assist full-time, active-status early career researchers in the initiation of new scholarship, creative activities and other research approaches. Winners this round were:��

• Collaborative��multimodal sensor fusion with edge intelligence for connected and autonomous vehicles (Sabur Hassan Baidya, J.B. Speed School of Engineering);
• Assessing and responding to psychosocial and health equity needs of immigrant and refugee communities through library partnerships (Rebecka Bloomer, Kent School of Social Work);
• Evaluation of the physicochemical properties of a new bioceramic endodontic sealer: an initial approach (Eduardo Antunes Bortoluzzi, School of Dentistry);
• Emotions, context and alcohol use (Konrad Bresin, College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development);
• Developing 3D-printed lattice nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 tests (Yanyu Chen, J.B. Speed School of Engineering);
• The impacts of drought on hemp physiology, chemistry, and the microbiome (Natalie Christian, College of Arts and Sciences);
• Multi-pathogen wastewater surveillance system to improve health and stop pathogenic outbreaks within low- and middle-income country communities (Rochelle Holm, School of Medicine);
• Reactions to experiencing discrimination (RED) study (Yara Mekawi, College of Arts and Sciences);
• Quantifying the controls of streamflow permanence and sediment connectivity in urban headwater streams (Tyler Mahoney, J.B. Speed School of Engineering);
• A��physics-based machine learning framework for smart self-adaptable multi-stage manufacturing systems��(Luis Segura Sangucho, J.B. Speed School of Engineering);
• Homing��in: community engaged research on LGBTQ+ youth houselessness��in Louisville, Kentucky��(Cara Snyder, College of Arts and Sciences); and
• Eliciting��expert knowledge in empirical selection of machine learning methods��(Xiaomei Wang, J.B. Speed School of Engineering).

The Programmatic Support grant provides up to $3,000 of funding to assist full-time, active-status faculty with the completion of a project where other funding sources are not available. Winners this round were:��

• Human��mate-copying and the popularity of Halo in an online venue (Michael Cunningham, College of Arts and Sciences)��
• Development of a gastric reflux simulator for the analysis of teeth and dental materials (Grace DeSouza, School of Dentistry)
• Youth/young adults of color responding to racial inequities and COVID-19 in listening sessions��(Melanie Gast, College of Arts and Sciences)
• Validating techniques for collecting vocal and listening effort during remote and in-person speech-language intervention (Maria Kondaurova, College of Arts and Sciences)
• On the border, between empires: A bioarchaeological examination of health, diet, and biological relatedness in individuals from the cemetery of Oymaağaç during the Roman to Byzantine transition (Kathryn Marklein, College of Arts and Sciences)��
• Chance��designs recording��(John Ritz, School of Music)
• Development of expertise in perception of speech and music (Christian Stilp, College of Arts and Sciences)
• Automating emotional safety and post-traumatic growth: An exploratory study to investigate gender-based violence survivors’ user experiences on social media (Heather Storer, Kent School of Social Work)
• Campus sustainability, community context��(Angela Storey, College of Arts and Sciences)
• Antibiotic��bone cement intramedullary nails for treating orthopaedic infections��(Michael Voor, School of Medicine)��
• Exploring��the relationships between student behaviors and special education teachers’ physical well-being and instruction: a pilot study��(Jeremy Whitney, College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development)��
• Effect of powder feedstock on the material characteristics of small-size Ti6Al4V geometries fabricated by laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (Li Yang, J.B. Speed School of Engineering)
• Translation of the Chinese��fashion industry: an ethnographic approach (Jianhua Zhao, College of Arts and Sciences)

In addition to the programmatic and Rieger grants, two more internal grants programs accept applications annually in fall: Collaborative Mentoring Grants (up to $10,000) and Capacity Building Grants (up to $25,000). Open applications will be announced in September with application deadlines in late October. More information is available on the Office of Research and Innovation .��