Innovations at Research Park

Dr. Ken Suslick is a highly regarded chemist, professor, and entrepreneur whose scientific discoveries have repeatedly become real-world products. Dr. Suslick has a prolific scholarly record with more than 500 published scientific papers and 70+ patents, and induction in the National Academy of Sciences, among many other accolades. He's a longtime faculty member at UIUC, and he’s also a highly...

Nancy Sullivan is CEO, Managing Director, and Managing Principal of Illinois Ventures, one of the longest-running and most active university-affiliated venture capital firms in the nation. Illinois Ventures and Research Park were both created by the University of Illinois 25 years ago to launch the new economic development mission that was added to the University. Illinois Ventures' campus off...

Frenzy Ag is a company revolutionizing crop yields with breakthrough biological technology. Ken Paige is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois whose decades of research into how plants respond to stress laid the foundation for Frenzy Ag’s core science. Chris, an agtech entrepreneur and engineer, brings over 25 years of experience turning innovation into real-world solutions and is now...

This is a special episode to celebrate a great year at UIRP! Research Park’s Laura Appenzeller and Laura Bleill join the podcast to talk about important milestones from this year like the 25th anniversary of Research Park, 10th AgTech Summit, land expansions, startup updates, and more! VISIT researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for the full catalog of episodes.

Dr. David Ruzic is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, & Radiological Engineering at UIUC , founder of Starfire Industries-- a company born at the Research Park-- and Director of the new Illinois Plasma Institute. He has spent his career not just pushing the boundaries of plasma physics, but making science unforgettable. He has lit up classrooms—often literally—with his en...

Cara Bognar is the Founder of Top Tier Lessons, a sports technology platform that connects collegiate student athletes with parents looking for sports lessons for their children.  She’s an athlete herself, as a former team captain for Illini Swimming & Diving, and graduated from UIUC with dual degrees in Bioengineering and Innovation Leadership and Engineering Entrepreneurship (ILEE). Cara&#39...

This is a special episode to celebrate a great year at UIRP! Research Park’s very own Laura Appenzeller and Laura Bleill join the podcast to talk about startup and corporate highlights from the year, plans for 2025, industry trends, and more! VISIT researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for the full catalog of episodes.

Jack Cui is Co-Founder and CEO of Yummy Future, a Y-Combinator backed robotic coffee shop with roots, and stores, at the University of Illinois. Yummy Future’s mission is to “enhance the artistry of the human barista by the precision and efficiency of robotics.” Jack's LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-cui-5b8651b5/ Yummy Future- https://www.yummy-future.com/ VISIT http://researchpark.ill...

Dr. David Lomiashvili is the CEO of Identomat which has created an innovative AI-powered KYC and identity verification solution. Prior to his current venture, Dr. Lomiashvili has an extensive pedigree in entrepreneurship, not to mention a PhD in Astrophysics. Tune in to hear about topics like digital identity verification, his career journey, and his outlook looking ahead. David's LinkedIn- ht...

Matt Ahrens oversees performance and tools work for the Accelerated Big Data Platforms group at NVIDIA. He’s a long-time leader in the University of Illinois  community with a story that spans the 20-year history of the Research Park.  Tune in to hear about his career journey, his perspectives learned along the way, and what he sees as the future of AI. ADDITIONAL LINKS- Matt's LinkedIn- https...

Dr. Beth Conerty helps lead business development for the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Lab at the University of Illinois. She’s also the Regional Innovation Officer for the iFAB Tech Hub, an initiative created by the Biden administration to strengthen manufacturing innovation in America. Tune in to hear about the research area of bioprocessing and how it can transform the central Illinois econ...

Dr. Brad Miller is the Co-Founder and Chief Linguistic Officer of Puzzle Labs, a software platform that uses AI to make knowledge transfer easier.  Previously, he was the Site Director for P&G’s Smart Lab in the Research Park, and he’s also spent time traveling the world from Ecuador to India studying the impact of languages ADDITIONAL LINKS- Puzzle Labs- https://www.puzzlelabs.ai/ Brad Miller...

This is a special episode to celebrate a great year at UIRP! Research Park’s very own Laura Appenzeller and Laura Bleill join the podcast to talk about startup and corporate highlights from the year, plans for 2024, industry trends, and more! See you back in 2024 for Year 4 of the podcast! VISIT researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for the full catalog of episodes.

Arpit Dwivedi is the Founder and CEO of Cache Energy. Cache is developing energy storage systems that can be safely installed anywhere and transported everywhere . In the past two months, Arpit and his team have raised a whopping $4.5 million which will accelerate them on their mission of decarbonizing industrial processes so that we can look forward to a cleaner and safer future for our planet. E...

Alex Kosyakov is the Co-Founder and CEO of Natrion. Natrion is creating safe, high-performance, and highly scalable solid-state batteries with the goal of powering mass market electric vehicles and renewable energy. With more than $2 million in seed funding and the backing of giants like Mark Cuban, Alex is on a mission to create batteries without compromises. Visit researchpark.illinois.edu/podca...

Susan Hinrichs is Chief Scientist at Aviatrix, a cloud networking and security company based in Silicon Valley. Prior to Aviatrix, Susan held prestigious leadership roles at a number of top tech companies including Blue Ridge, Cisco, and Yahoo. She's also been a Computer Science professor at UIUC and is a strong advocate for women in tech. Visit researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for the full c...

Brandon is the CEO of DeepWalk, a tech startup born and raised in Champaign. Brandon and his team are on a mission to create AI-powered solutions for the city planners and engineers that build important public infrastructure that we rely on every day. Visit researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for our entire catalog of episodes.

Paul is the Co-Founder and CEO of Flats or Spikes. Flats or Spikes is building a "community of expertise and science in running in a brand new way". With their product, athletes of all levels can benefit from science and analytics-based expertise. Tune in to the episode to hear about Paul's successful career in agtech, his transition from academia to entrepreneurship, his pivot into...

Welcome to a new year of the Innovations at Research Park podcast! We are so excited to continue bringing you new conversations, new insights, and new perspectives from the Research Park community.  This episode highlights conversations held on-location with several panelists from the Research Park’s 8th annual AgTech Summit held on March 7, 2023: Kim Kidwell - Associate Chancellor for Strategic P...

As 2022 wraps up, we'd like to highlight the outstanding students that made this another great year for Research Park. Tune in to hear from David An and Natalie Xiong, two winners of this year's Research Park Intern Awards. They discuss their perceptions of RP, memorable moments, skills gained, and advice for students listening who are curious about what Research Park has to offer. From the team b...

Jack is the Managing Director of the Illinois AgTech Accelerator, a 12-week program designed for early-stage agtech startups to gain traction and improve business models. Tune in to hear Jack share fascinating success stories, the importance of AgTech innovation, how you can get involved as a student founder, and more! Visit researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for other podcast episodes.

This is a very special episode of the series, and a bit different than our usual podcasts. The Cozad New Venture Competition is an annual event at University of Illinois which attracts student teams looking to get funding and support for their innovative ideas. There were some incredible winners this year, and this episode profiles the 3 top place finishers-- all who received thousands of dollars...

Chinmay is Co-Founder and CEO of EarthSense, an agricultural robotics and AI company that is developing a technology platform to support the next generation of sustainable and large-scale agriculture. Tune in to hear the fascinating origin story of his company, his perspective on agtech trends, and more! Visit researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast for other podcast episodes.

Dr. Mani Golparvar, Co-Founder, and Scotty Greenburg, Head of Marketing, join the podcast to share how their company Reconstruct is using AI to revolutionize construction planning & management for thousands of projects around the world.   Reconstruct is a tech company founded in Champaign and now based in Menlo Park, California. Their AI powered Visual Command Center has revolutionized mo...

Eli is the Co-Founder and CTO of SNOOZ, a consumer electronics company that focuses on controlling airflow and acoustics to turn a bedroom into a haven for sleep. SNOOZ’s flagship product is a white noise machine and they are currently in 2000 hotel rooms around the country. Tune in to this episode to hear about Eli's journey from UIUC student to CTO, his inspiration to create this product, and wh...