Inaugural Chapter Event Induction of Founding Chapter Members

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 10:00 AM

The Commons Innovation, Science and Technology Building

Florida Polytechnic University Lakeland, Florida

Welcome

We welcome you to the inaugural event of the Florida Polytechnic Chapter of National Academy of Inventors. It is an honor to induct you as the founding members of the Florida Polytechnic Chapter. We congratulate you for your accomplishments in developing innovative technologies within your areas of expertise. We are starting with eight members who collectively hold more than 25 US patents. This is an astonishing achievement keeping in mind our small and young community. We have established an Honorary Associate Member category for Florida Polytechnic inventors who either have a published patent pending or hold at least one foreign patent. The idea here is to encourage innovation and allow future and foreign patent holders to participate in chapter activities.

The vision of the Chapter is to bring together Florida Polytechnic inventors and create an environment that encourages problem-driven applied research at the Florida Polytechnic University. In this aspect, the chapter carry forward Dr. Randy Avent’s vision to make Florida Polytechnic the “University of Innovation”. The Chapter’s goal is to build alliance with industrial partners that will foster innovation and entrepreneurship at Florida Polytechnic. The Chapter strives to promote creative thinking and the spirit of innovation among Florida Polytechnic faculty and students. The Chapter will actively support technology commercialization activities that are developed at the Florida Polytechnic.

We appreciate your support for this inaugural event and commend all of our present and future inventors in the Florida Polytechnic Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors.

Jaspreet Dhau, Chapter Liaison

Program

Welcome and Opening Remarks Dr. Jaspreet Dhau, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

President Randy K. Avent, Florida Polytechnic University

Honored Guest Speaker D. Yogi Goswami, PhD, PE

National Academy of Inventors National Fellow and Florida Inventors Hall of Fame Distinguished University Professor of Engineering

Director, Clean Energy Research Center USF Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation

Editor-in-Chief, Solar Energy Journal

“A Culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Academics” University education emphasizing practical thinking and encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship can

motivate students to achieve their highest potential. This is also the key to student success in life. In a culture of innovation, students and faculty become partners in solving problems and developing practical solutions that improve the quality of life for people around them. Students who are educated in such a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, create start-ups and employ other people rather than looking for jobs themselves. There are many successful examples of such thinking, most notably in the Silicon Valley, California. The talk will illustrate this educational philosophy through many examples and success stories.

Student Presentation Mark Hamilton

Graduate Student, College of Engineering “Challenges Associated with Patenting in the Field of Nanotechnology”

Induction of Founding Chapter Members and Honorary Members

(in alphabetical order)

Robert Austin Christopher Coughlin Jaspreet Dhau Wei Ding*

Nicoleta Hickman Richard Matyi Nahid Mohajeri Sesha Srinivasan

Closing Remarks and Open Q&A with Students and Guest Speaker

*Honorary Member

D. Yogi Goswami, PhD, PE

Dr. D. Yogi Goswami is a Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Clean Energy Research Center at the University of South Florida. He conducts fundamental and applied research on Solar Thermal Power and Cooling, Indoor Air Quality, Photocatalytic Detoxification and Disinfection, Thermodynamics, Third Generation Photovoltaics, and Hydrogen production and storage. Professor Goswami is the Editor-in-Chief of the Solar Energy journal, and Progress in Solar Energy. He has published as an author or editor 19 books and more than 400 refereed technical papers. He also holds 16 patents, some of which have been successfully commercialized.

A recognized leader in professional scientific and technical societies, Prof. Goswami has served as a Governor of ASME-International (2003-2006), President of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES, 2004-2005), Senior Vice President of ASME (2000-2003) and President of the International Association for Solar Energy Education (IASEE, 2000-2002). He is a recipient of the Farrington Daniels Award from ISES, Frank Kreith Energy award and medal from ASME, John Yellott Award for Solar Energy from ASME and the Charles Greely Abbott award and Hoyt Clark Hottel award of the ASES, and more than 50 awards and certificates from major engineering and scientific societies for his work in renewable energy. Dr. Goswami is a Life Fellow of ASHRAE, ASME, ASES and ISES and a Fellow of American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and a member of the Pan American Academy of Engineers.

Biographies of Chapter Member Robert Austin

Dr. Robert Austin has attended the University of Chicago and Purdue University, where he received his PhD in physics in 1990. As a graduate student at Purdue, he was part of the Haleakala Gamma Ray Observatory collaboration. The title of his thesis was “Upper limits for the flux of very high-energy gamma radiation from Cygnus X-3 and for the explosion rate of primordial black holes obtained by the Haleakala Gamma Ray Observatory.” In his thesis Dr. Austin obtained the first upper rate limit on the rate of primordial black hole explosions using the air Cherenkov technique.

Professor Austin has a very broad background in pure research (NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center), industry (Pixtech, Proportional Technologies, Constellation Technology, and Field Forensics, Inc.,), and education - in the classroom (North Harris Community College, St. Petersburg Community College, and Florida Polytechnic University) and online (12 years teaching astronomy for the University of Phoenix). He has over 20 years of experience in radiation detector development for Astronomy, medical imaging, and homeland security. In the early 1990’s, while at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Prof. Austin developed an innovative imaging polarimeter for hard x-Ray astronomy. In 2011, Prof. Austin developed a radiation detection system (detector, data acquisition system, and software) for detecting, identifying, and locating illicit nuclear materials that was flown on a helicopter UAV during a successful demonstration at the Nevada Test Site. He has also worked as a reliability engineer, developing methods to reduce aging effects in field emission displays. Professor Austin has most recently built and successfully tested an NMR-based bottled liquids scanner for homeland security. Christopher Coughlin

Dr. Christopher Coughlin is an Associate Professor in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Florida Polytechnic University. He has held a variety of positions in both government and private industry prior to coming to Florida Poly including basic materials research, pharmaceutical regulatory affairs, and consumer product development. His most recent research efforts have been in applications of polymer based materials for naval aircraft, especially structural composites, transparencies and radomes including self-healing ionomers, the electrospinning of organic/inorganic composites, and the development of conductive nanowire networks for use in optical transparencies. He has also

supported a variety of aircraft acquisition programs including the analysis of polymer based composite materials for aircraft applications with respect to cure conditions, mechanical property development, and environmental suitability. He holds a B.S.E. in Polymer Science from Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Jaspreet Dhau Dr. Jaspreet Dhau is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Florida

Polytechnic University. He has over 13 years of teaching and research experience both in academia and industry. He holds seven US Patents, has filed eight patent applications, including one PCT application, published over 30 journal articles, and commercialized two technologies. One of these commercialized technologies involves fabrication of adhesiveless flexible circuits by employing a fully additive process. The fabrication technology is eco-friendly as it reduces the waste generation by more than 90% when compared to the current state-of-the-art technologies. The process developed by him results in a

roll-to-roll manufacturing process by which flex circuit materials with custom metal thickness can be produced at volume production price. The technology is currently being used by Averatek Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, USA. Dr. Dhau is the technical co-founder of Averatek Corporation, spun-off by SRI International to bring this innovative product to market. He has also developed a technology that generates chemically bonded molecular layers on a variety of metal surfaces for corrosion protection. Fabricated metal parts have survived more than 1000 hours of salt spray and sulfur fog test. This is product is being manufactured by CSL in Santa Clara, CA. A US patent has been granted on this technology.

Currently, Dr. Dhau is working on developing thermal energy storage systems for storing energy from renewable and non-renewable energy resources. He has developed a technology that stores solar energy in the form of heat in salt filled polymer, metallic and ceramic balls. The new coating materials developed by him can withstand highly corrosive environment of molten inorganic salts even at a very high temperature. The energy storage system containing salt balls takes up little space, reduce costs and last longer than other technologies so far. The present technology costs as low as $15 per kWhth, which is less than ¼ of the present commercial system costs. The technology is now being considered for a pilot scale demonstration by a leading utility company in the region. His contribution in this field has led to the filing of two patent applications, including one PCT application. Wei Ding

Dr. Wei Ding’s recent research has covered wireless networks and cyber security in general, and cyber-physical systems, future Internet architecture, soft defined networks, the Internet of things, and security and energy issues in sensor networks, in particular. Dr. Ding takes an independent approach in research, which has resulted in two books, five book chapters, and many peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. Dr. Ding has a total of nine years of full-time teaching experience at four-year U.S. universities. He can teach most undergraduate courses in the areas of computer science, information systems, and information technology, as well as many graduate courses in and beyond his specialty areas. His most experienced areas in teaching include programming, computer networks, cyber security, databases, operating systems, computation

theory, artificial intelligence, and information retrieval. He has served as technical program committee member for many IEEE/ACM conferences.

In addition to research and teaching experience, Dr. Ding has 10 years of industrial experience in IT-related businesses in China that involved several successful applications of IT theories in the real world. He is proficient in 10+ programming languages as well as multiple web languages, parallel/high-performance computing languages and various operating systems and network technologies. He is a registered engineer in China, where he patented his design for an electronic ear.

Nicoleta Hickman Dr. Nicoleta Hickman is an Associate Professor of Physics in the College of

Innovation & Technology, where she has been a faculty member since 2015. Prior to joining Florida Poly, she was an Associate Professor in the Thermoelectric and Photovoltaic Hybrid Laboratory at the Florida Solar Energy Center at UCF, Orlando. Dr. Hickman completed her Ph.D. and her master’s degree in Physics at Clemson University. She holds a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in Physics from at “Al. I. Cuza” University in Romania. She has one patent and four provisional patents.

Her major research interest is in photovoltaic and thermoelectric materials and devices. The interdisciplinary philosophy of research within her lab combines the disciplines of physics, nanotechnology, materials science, chemistry and electrical

engineering leading toward attractive research opportunities. The background of students and researchers within the lab reflect this breadth, and as a result, the laboratory is vertically integrated in its activities, straddling from basic to applied research. She is heavily engaged in teaching physics and materials for renewable and sustainable energy.

As part of her effort at Florida Poly, she is working on strategic planning, implementing and measuring sustainability programs throughout campus. This includes work within curriculum, student life, campus operations and campus governance. She has served on many conference and workshop program committees. She currently serves as Chair of the Short Classes and Tutorials at the 43th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference. Dr. Hickman is the CEO and Director of Research at HybridaSol, a power generation and thermal management based on thermoelectric materials company she co-founded in 2013. Richard Matyi

Dr. Richard Matyi has had a successful and productive career in academia, government and industry. He has over 30 years’ direct experience in the growth, characterization and utilization of the major materials classes – metals, ceramics, semiconductors and polymers – with hands-on experience in the application of a variety of characterization tools. His record of scholarly work includes over 180 scientific publications, over 120 technical presentations, six books or book chapters, three U.S. patents issued, two Standard Reference Materials created and one ISO standard published. He is an internationally recognized expert in X-ray methods used in materials analysis, with documented leadership in high resolution X-ray diffraction

and X-ray reflectometry approaches to the structural characterization of materials. Earlier in his career, Dr. Matyi was a technical staff member at Texas Instruments in Dallas. At TI he was involved in the growth of materials for ultra-small electronics, including the first three terminal device based on resonant tunneling and the first controllable three dimensional quantized structure (“quantum dot”) in an epitaxially grown heterostructure. He also demonstrated the integration of GaAs and silicon materials and device technologies for the first time in a single integrated circuit, and executed a parallel program to develop the GaAs/Si materials technology required for the co-integration process.

He holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University. His master’s degree is in materials science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering is from Northwestern. His professional affiliations include the American Crystallographic Association, the American Society of Engineering Education and the Materials Research Society.

Nahid Mohajeri Dr. Nahid Mohajeri is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Florida Polytechnic

University (FlPoly) and Founder/CEO of HySense Technology LLC with more than twenty years of experience in R&D, education, academic mentorship and entrepreneurship.

Prior to FlPoly, Dr. Mohajeri was an Associate Research Professor at University of Central Florida-Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC). During her 12 years tenure at FSEC, she had worked on variety of projects ranging from hydrogen storage and detection to proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Dr. Mohajeri’s main area of research interest is in soft materials for energy applications, self-healing materials, and heat/fire resistant polymers. Furthermore, she is also interested in color-changing detectors and sensors for hazardous gases and liquids used/produced in industrial and biological applications. Dr. Mohajeri’s research has resulted 11 patents and more than two dozen peer reviewed publications.

In 2013, Dr. Mohajeri founded HySense Technology LLC with an ambitious goal of commercializing a chemochromic hydrogen leak detection technology that was jointly developed by a team of FSEC’s and NASA-KSC’s researchers in which she was one of the team members. Her business plan for HySense Technology landed a $10K prize as a top ten finalist in Department of Energy 2013 Mega Watt competition, a first place $100K award winner in 2014 Space Florida CAT5 competition and 2014 R&D100 award.

Dr. Mohajeri is an active member of American Chemical Society (ACS) both at national and local level. She was the 2007 chair of ACS-Orlando section, the ACS-Orlando Chemistry Olympiad Coordinator from 2008-2014, and an associate in ACS-Women Chemist Committee since 2013.

Dr. Mohajeri obtained her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Amir Kabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) in 1989 followed by her Master and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Florida Institute of Technology in 1994 and 1999 respectively.

Sesha Srinivasan Dr. Sesha Srinivasan is one of the inaugural faculty at Florida Polytechnic

University who is currently teaching Physics and Engineering courses. He has served as a tenure track Assistant Professor of Physics at Tuskegee University in the State of Alabama from fall 2009 till spring 2014. Prior to his teaching endeavor, Dr. Srinivasan worked in various capacities such as Research Assistant Professor, Senior Researcher and Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of South Florida, Clean Energy Research Center (USF-CERC) Tampa, FL from 2004 to 2009 and at University of Hawaii, Department of Chemistry from 2002 till 2004. Dr. Srinivasan and his co-inventors have received two US Patents (US 8,153,020, US 8,440,100) and were issued to University of South Florida in the years 2012 and

2013 for the “hydrogen storing hydride complexes and their unique manufacturing methods.” He has two other provisional patent disclosures; one from Tuskegee University filed in 2013 on and the other in collaboration with Dr. Jaspreet Dhau at Florida Polytechnic University filed in 2014. Dr. Sesha Srinivasan, is currently serving as a full member of Sigma-Xi, Physics congress committee member of Sigma-Pi-Sigma, faculty liaison of Florida Academy of Sciences and faculty advisor of FL Poly chapter, Society of Physics Students. Dr. Srinivasan has published five book chapters, more than 75 peer reviewed journal publications and many more conference proceedings. He was awarded several research grants from federal and private industries.

Graduate Student Poster Presentations

Accelerated Patent Examination Procedures Available at USPTO

Langley Payton & Michelle Powell

Patenting Computer Software Programs Christopher Didier & John McCormack

Natural Products and Living Things: Issues & Challenges Everton Jackson & Maya Wilson

Challenges in Patenting 3-D Printing Technologies & Processes Aswini Indukuri & Sanat Varasada

About the National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors® (NAI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit member organization comprising U.S. and international universities and governmental and non-profit research institute, with over 3,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 200 institutions, and growing rapidly. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society.

NAI Fellows Election to NAI Fellow status is a high professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society. The NAI Fellows Program has 582 Fellows worldwide representing more than 190 prestigious universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions. Collectively, the Fellows hold more than 20,000 issued U.S. patents.

With the induction of the 2015 class, there are now more than 80 presidents and senior leaders of research universities and non-profit research institutes, 310 members of the other National Academies (NAS, NAE, NAM), 27 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 36 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation and U.S. National Medal of Science, 27 Nobel Laureates, 14 Lemelson-MIT prize recipients, 170 AAAS Fellows, and 98 IEEE Fellows, among other awards and distinctions.

www.AcademyofInventors.org

Mission The mission of Florida Polytechnic University is to prepare 21st century learners in advanced fields of science,

technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to become innovative problem-solvers and high-tech professionals through interdisciplinary teaching, leading-edge research and collaborative local, regional and global partnerships.

Vision Florida Polytechnic University will be a world-renowned “University of Innovation” for producing a dynamic pool of info-tech talent with real-world solutions and the capacity to lead global high-tech industries through customized undergraduate and graduate STEM-enriched academic curriculum, operating space and facilities, entrepreneurial

research and interactive business industry partnerships.

www.floridapolytechnic.org