TCO Innovation Competition

GW’s Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) hosts its Innovation Competition to give GW researchers the opportunity to network with investors and collaborators that can help move technologies from the university to the marketplace. 

The event is typically attended by GW researchers, early stage investors, entrepreneurs, and sources of technical, legal and financial support for startups. Inventors pitch their unlicensed patent-pending GW technologies. Finalists give oral presentations and other inventors participate in poster presentations. A featured keynote speaker shares their entrepreneurial experiences. In 2022, Benjamin Holmes, CEO of Nanochon, shared his journey from GW graduate student and inventor to leader of an investor-backed startup.

2022 Innovation Competition Winners

$10,000 Finalist prizes

3D Bioprinted Anisotropic Cardiac Patch for the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI). Lijie Zhang, Haitao Cui, Timothy Esworthy*

Pipe Dream: Low-cost Renewable Jet Fuel. Adelina Voutchkova-Kostal*, Diana Ainembabazi, Darren Dolan, Jonathan Horlyck

$5,000 Finalist prizes

Plasma Discharge Tube (PDT) for Brain Tumor Treatment. Michael Keidar*, Li Lin, Jonathan Sherman, Vikas Soni, Dayun Yan, Xiaoliang Yao

A Hardware-based Cyber Deception Framework Against Malware. Guru Venkataramani, Preet Derasari*, Kailash Gogineni*

Audience's choice posters ($5,000 prizes)

CytoCapture of Immune Cells to Detect Internal Infections. Richard Wargowsky*, Faisal Al Munajjed*, Timothy McCaffrey (accepted award but declined prize money). Prize went to runner-up: Apoptosis resistant stem cell therapy in diabetic kidney disease. Sabyasachi Sen*

AI-Driven Real-time Nerve Detection and Visualization for Surgical Precision. Chung Hyuk Park*, Baijun Xie*, Gary Milam Jr.

* Presenters