At the University of Alberta, creating impact through innovation is not just something we do—it's central to our identity.
However, innovation doesn’t happen by chance. Granted, there’s an element of luck involved in inventing something, but it’s important to recognize the dedication, collaboration and significant efforts that go into navigating the process from idea to innovation.
Originally started in 2013 by TEC Edmonton, the Innovation Awards have now become an annual celebration of U of A innovators and their accomplishments. The awards are now hosted by the Technology Transfer Services team, part of the Vice-President (Research and Innovation) portfolio.
This year, we were pleased to highlight more than 50 individuals who are working to drive social, environmental and economic impact from across the university community, including our College of Health Sciences, College of Natural and Applied Sciences and College of Social Sciences and Humanities.
“On behalf of the Technology Transfer Services team, congratulations to all of this year’s award recipients. There are so many exciting innovations happening here at the U of A, and I’m very pleased that we have this opportunity to celebrate these achievements.” - Joanna Preston, director, Technology Transfer Services
The awards recognize University of Alberta researchers and innovators who have received issued US patents and formed spinoff companies (meaning those formed based on patentable IP) in 2023-24.
Awards for US Patents (2023-24)
- Hyun-Joong Chung, Jana Reiger, Thanh-Giang La, Shide Qiu, Dylan Scott – Elastic Printed Conductors
- Japan Trivedi, Madhar Sahib Azad – Quantification of Polymer Viscoelastic Effects on Sor Reduction Using Modified Capillary
- Thomas Hobman, Chris Power, Zaikun Xu – Use of Peroxisomes as Biomarkers for Predicting HIV Disease Progression and Peroxisome Activating Drugs as Adjuvant Therapy for HIV Patients
- Xing-Fang Li, Zhongshan Liu – Silica Composite Monolith as a Solid Phase Extraction Material
- Darren Freed – Apparatus and Method for Ex Vivo Lung Ventilation with a Varying Exterior Pressure
- Christopher Cairo, Tianlin Guo – Methods of Preventing or Treating Atherosclerosis with Inhibitors of Specific Isoenzymes of Human Neuraminidase
- Toshifumi Yokota, Yusuke Echigoya – Antisense Oligonucleotide that Bind to Exon 51 of Human Dystrophin Pre-mRNA
- Jack Jhamandas, Lorne Tyrrell, Michael Houghton, Alexandr Belovodskiy, Appan Kandadai, Bing Bai, James Nieman, Kamlesh Sahu, Mostofa Hena, Ryoichi Kimura, Wen Fu – Compounds for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease
- Frank Wuest, Melinda Wuest, Ralf Schirrmacher, Stephanie Mattingly, Eugene Fine – Fluorinated Beta-Hydroxybutyric Acids For PET Imaging
- Ali Khajehoddin, Navid Shabanikia, Ahmadreza Tabesh – Aggregated Model of Large-Scale Wind Farms for Power System Simulation Software Tools
- Warren Finlay, Andrew Martin, Scott Tavernini, Cagri Ayranci, Conor Ruzycki – Filters for Mimicking Regional Lung Deposition
- Robert Wolkow, Jason Pitters, Bruno Vieira Da Cunha Martins, Marco Taucer – Treating a Silicon on Insulator Wafer in Preparation for Manufacturing an Atomistic Electronic Device Interfaced with a CMOS Electronic Device
U of A Spinoff Companies (2023-24)
- Egeiro Pharmaceuticals Inc. – Michael Houghton, Jack Jhamandas, David Tyrrell
Focused on the continuing development of small molecule compounds that have the potential to prevent and reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. - ZAFA Biorefinery Inc. – Aman Ullah
Specializes in converting lipids, fats and oils into high-performance biodegradable materials through advanced microwave-assisted processes. - Augment That – Gregory Kawchuk, Jacob Versluys
Harnessing the power of LiDAR technology to enable the accurate, dimensionally-correct projection of 2D images onto a curved surface.