Smart Probes for Improved Biopsies

When faced with adversity, instead of becoming frustrated, Nathan Knighton innovated. Knighton has always had the desire to be in STEM, as well as help people. When he and his wife had a child that needed extra medical attention, Knighton gained a unique perspective on the impact his work had the potential to achieve.  Knighton […]

Continue reading


Making a Real ‘Luke Skywalker Arm’

A team that includes many students and is led by Gregory Clark at the University of Utah is researching DEKA’s LUKE robotic arm, which is named in part after Luke Skywalker and developed through a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional project. The U team is working in cooperation with other groups and companies, such as Blackrock Microsystems, […]

Continue reading


Protecting Against Cyber-Attacks

Ethan Melvick has been interested in security since he was 12 years old. Now a sophomore in computer engineering at the U, Melvick is part of a lab developing programs that will protect engineer’s systems against cyber-attacks. Melvick and professor Armin Tajalli’s work targets a specific type of side-channel attacks called “power analysis.” These attacks […]

Continue reading


Connecting the LGBTQ+ Community and STEM

Only two years into her graduate degree in developmental biology at the U, Andy Sposato has not only become a stellar researcher but a champion for underrepresented groups in STEM. She and fellow grad student Dylan Klure founded the LGBTQ+ STEM Interest Group at the U, which is an organization of LGBTQ+ students and faculty […]

Continue reading


Sustainable and Collapsible Utensils

Rachyll Faeth, a marketing and entrepreneurship student at the University of Utah, and her brother Jonny Faeth, a design student at the U, are “helping the Earth in every way they can” through their startup company, PureWare. As they were sitting in the Miller Cafe at Lassonde Studios one day, they watched as people grabbed […]

Continue reading


Modern, Customizable Caskets

Matt Henke and Tanner Curtis, master’s of architecture students at the University of Utah, are bringing a unique industry into the modern era — caskets — with help from the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. “In almost all industries, contemporary design takes a portion of the market — whether it’s cars, phones, or even into the more […]

Continue reading