“Student Innovation @ the U” is an annual publication celebrating student innovators and entrepreneurs from across campus. Read to see what students are inventing, and get inspired!
Making bioreactors cheaper is an important hurdle to making better drugs. Chemical engineering Ph.D. student Tram Nguyen is addressing this need by helping University of Utah startup Applied Biosensors create disposable sensors for single-use bioreactors. This will allow companies to reduce their capital and operation costs as well as improve their production times, safety and […]
This class is not for the faint of heart,” reads the end of the course description for a new, nationally recognized course developed by professor Michael Gills of the Honors College at the U. Gills, an accomplished novelist, originated and led the course based on his own methodology. Selected from a group of 40, 10 […]
How many of us have lost a pair of sunglasses while out on the water? U students Chase Maires (marketing) and Stuart Jardine (entrepreneurship) are no strangers to this problem. Both love to be on the water and have spent lots of time boating. Their solution? Aurora Sunglasses, a startup company providing wooden sunglasses that […]
For her entire life, U student Madelyn Stafford was told she didn’t need to participate in art the way other students did. Despite her desire to do so, teachers in Stafford’s life weren’t sure how to approach a student who was legally blind. It wasn’t until she came to the U to study special education […]
Using algae as an alternative biofuel is not new, but two undergraduates in chemical engineering may have found a way to commercialize it on a large scale — something that researchers have not yet figured out how to do. Sophomores Tyler Lee and Samuel Doane are developing a bioreactor system capable of extracting oil from […]
The fourth state of matter in the universe is called “plasma.” It can be created in the laboratory by breaking down gases, the third state of matter, using extreme voltage. A lightning strike is plasma created by nature. Laboratory-generated plasmas, under ordinary conditions, are hard to control. However, thanks to the work of electrical engineering […]
After hearing his aunt, a primary care nurse, tell stories of catheters causing clotting and infections, Nate Rhodes, a recent graduate, decided to come up with a solution. With a few classmates, he developed a new type of catheter — a tube inserted into patients to remove and deliver fluids — that emits bacteria-killing light […]
Did you know the Great Salt Lake could become a huge source for clean energy? A team of student researchers at the U are working to make this a reality, with help from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Ph.D. students Thomas Tran, Carlo Bianchi and undergraduate Joseph Melville of the Mechanical Engineering Department are working […]
Advanced computing is typically only a tool for scientists and engineers, but some U researchers decided to crank it up a notch. Under the guidance of English professor Katharine Coles, scientific computing professor Miriah Meyer and a postdoctoral scholar in English literature, Julie Lein, a team of students from humanities and computer science are collaborating […]
Mechanical engineering student Carter James has been designing and selling real products for almost as long as he’s been studying at the U. He started his first project designing a minimalist bottle opener several years ago. James raised $11,409 for that product through crowdfunding and fulfilled about 450 orders. “Most bottle openers are pretty much […]
