The Inventivity Pod

Harold Fethe is the inventor of the Visual 360 Interface, a software tool to make rating employees more accurate and faster than traditional methods. Employees get to pick five colleagues who then rank the rated employees according to how they perform compared to other colleagues. Harold, an anthropologist by training, is also an accomplished jazz guitarist.  “I use music analogies all...

Is food just food, or is there a power behind the experience of eating that can bring people together? Hirofumi Leung, the Founder of Dragonfly Restaurant Group, creates restaurants that push Japenese cuisine beyond sushi, creating authentic connections and shared moments. Hiro shares his secrets for how he created one of Florida’s best restaurants.    TRANSCRIPT:   Intro: 0:0...

Cannabis and hemp. For years those substances operated in the shadows, and today they are at the center of a growing multibillion-dollar industry. How do you know what’s in them, and if they do the things they are supposed to do? Richard Miles interviews Adam Christensen, CEO of Botanica Testing, a company that tests cannabidiol and hemp.    TRANSCRIPT:   Intro: 0:01 Inventors...

Technology and farming always have mixed well in the United States, but in many other countries, particularly in the underdeveloped world, it’s a different story. Why does it matter, and what can be done about it? Richard Miles interviews Gbola Adesogan, Director of the Livestock Systems Innovation Lab at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS).&n...

In 1969, Professor Larry Hench developed a glass that can grow with bones. His close friend and colleague, David Greenspan, helped Professor Hench develop the material into BioGlass, a product that is used in orthopedic and dental bone graft materials. David, a native of Brooklyn, wanted to be a drummer but turned to glass blowing instead. His big insight into entrepreneurship? “Never lie to...

Jonelle Toothman has done a lot. A former Division 1 soccer player, Journalism major, and Army brat, she also co-founded NextGen Biologics and became its CEO. The company uses salamander tissue as an architecture for regenerative medicine to help burn victims and help repair wounds. As far as other applications, Jonelle says “our imagination is our only limitation.” * This episode was...

“Head, Heart, Hands, and Health,” otherwise known as 4-H, is all about developing young people, a mission that overlaps with the Cade Museum.  Host Richard Miles talks with Jennifer Sirangelo, President and CEO of the National 4-H Council about 4-H’s key role in promoting agricultural innovation in the U.S. for almost 120 years. Partnering with a national network of agricult...

Our 2019 Cade Prize winners, Greg Hudalla and Ben Keselowsky, have invented a new way to control inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. The method uses natural enzymes to suppress inflammation at the source, without the harmful side effects of medications.   Ben, a native of Tampa and a graduate of the University of South Florida, always enjoyed science and math and was inspired by his high...

Tony Barr has invented several computer programming languages, including the Statistical Analysis System, better known as SAS. He describes the concept of language, as “a mental model to think about the world.” Tony believes he has found the “concept of a concept” that will enable his new language, AMORE, to “redefine computer science.” As a child, he “liv...

Alex De Quesada Sr. is the classic American success story. Unable to complete medical school in Castro’s Cuba, he moved to the U.S. “with $5” in his pocket and ended up at a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1965, he joined the team in Gainesville that invented Gatorade and was given the task of researching “everything in the library about sweat.”   Later in...

Our food is brought to us from ever-increasing distances, but is this best for us? Anna Prizzia, the Founder of Working Food, views food as an entire ecosystem that must be cared for from seed to plate, farmer to consumer.  Prizzia tells us why she set out to make food more local, creating a community utilizing collaboration, economic opportunity, education, and seed stewardship.   ...

Lasers aren’t just for sci-fi movies, it turns out they can be used for the treatment of tumors and ultra-fast communications networks. Michael Bass, a professor at the University of Central Florida, is the holder of 34 patents and a 2019 inductee in the Florida Inventors’ Hall of Fame. Bass invented ways to use lasers to treat bleeding in the gastrointestinal system, detect nanopartic...

Animator Chance Glasco is famous for his work on video games, most notably the Call of Duty Franchise. His newest venture, Doghead Simulations, is using Virtual Reality to replace and improve conference calls, video calls, and screen sharing. Imagine being worlds apart, yet able to meet together face to face, sharing data and information in real-time, through a virtual reality environment that wor...

Probiotics for plants? Paul Zorner, CEO of Locus Agricultural Solutions in San Diego, explains how bacteria and fungi help plants grow faster and pull more carbon dioxide out of the air. Even better, agricultural companies that use probiotics see a 200% return on investment in crop yields and use fewer fertilizers. Paul grew up on a farm and “hated it” but later began to see the beauty...

How do ranchers know if their cows are healthy? One way is to use a quick and easy blood test to measure the strength of cows’ immune systems, a method that avoids the overuse of antibiotics. The test was invented by Treen Huo, a professor at the University of Central Florida and twice a Cade Prize finalist.  Treen, who grew up on a farm in China said she was a very curious kid.  &...

Running shoe technology hasn’t changed much in the last 30 years.   Cyle Sage of On shoes, a 2011 Cade Prize finalist, explains how On shoes “roll and stop,” offering both vertical and horizontal cushioning. Cyle, a former triathlete and coach, partnered with a Swiss engineer in 2003 to design and market the shoes to take on the shoe industry giants.  In the last few ye...

Once known as the “most beautiful woman in the world,” film star Hedy Lamarr also received a patent in 1942 for a “secret communications system” to safeguard U.S. torpedos from German radio jamming. The technology was the forerunner of “spread spectrum” which is now used in GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi. She was recently inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fa...

James Bates is bursting with creativity. A professor, sports broadcaster, and artist, Bates, a former college football player, “feels blessed” with three “dream jobs.” As a child and through college, all he wanted to be was an NFL star, a desire nurtured by his football coach father. Though some scratch their heads at his change from the pigskin to the paintbrush, Bates say...

Jeff Fitzsimmons, a professor of radiology at the University of Florida, invented a way to use RF antennas to capture detailed signals from body parts that are undergoing an MRI.   A native of Newark, New Jersey, Jeff moved to Florida as a kid, where his dad worked at the (future) Cape Canaveral in the early 1960’s. “One of my biggest thrills,” he says, “was going out...

One of nine children, Dr. Anthony (Tony) Brennan grew up in a small town in upstate New York. He invented a way to inhibit bacterial growth through plastic sheets that are comprised of millions of microscopic features arranged in a diamond pattern – much like shark skin. A voracious reader, Tony wanted to be an astronaut growing up, but had poor eyesight. His inspiration for Sharklet Technol...

How do you train people to talk to other people? For some professions, like nursing, communicating with others is a critical part of the job. Computer scientist Ben Lok developed software for nursing students to interview and examine a “virtual patient.”  The patients speak like actual people, have backstories, and don’t necessarily share information easily. The son of a pip...

Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency, a genetic disorder, is a common factor in lung diseases like COPD and emphysema. Dr. Mark Brantly’s research examines how AAT interacts with environmental factors that trigger the disorders. His findings are important because many physicians remain unaware of the genetic background of the diseases they treat.  Much of Brantly’s work has been f...

Dr. Christian Jobin, a professor of medicine, is an expert on how microorganisms behave in the intestine. When they behave badly, this can lead to conditions like inflammatory bowel syndrome and colorectal cancer. “Academically I wasn’t very gifted,” Jobin says, and at first he didn’t have the grades to get into college. Instead, he went to a community college and trained a...

The engineering part of Augi Lye helped solve a problem for his musician self. How to speed up the aging of wooden violins, which enhances their tone? Augi not only came up with an invention, he formed a successful company that sells devices to all string players. Â Now Augi is using artificial intelligence to help vision processing. The son of immigrant parents, Augi was thought to have a l...

George Sklivanitis, founder of Extreme Comms Lab, believes we can build underwater wireless networks. Using enhanced modems on existing nodes (such as ships and submarines), his team’s technology can boost signal strength under the sea by 10 times.   A native of Athens, Greece, George studied on the island of Crete before moving to Buffalo NY, and finally Florida Atlantic University. Hi...