Innovation Academy Tempts Researchers to Turn Out Real-World Solutions

On a chilly afternoon earlier this month, the Club Level at Dowdy-Ficklin Stadium looked less like a football venue and more like a chamber of commerce affair. Faculty filed in with laptops and prototypes, ready to pitch a small group of investors and commercialization consultants. Among the concepts: a patient portal to reduce hospital errors, an AI tool for language learners, and a curriculum designed to curb gambling addiction among college students.

This was the capstone event for East Carolina University’s Innovation Academy that began in September with the first of four sessions on how to transform academic work into market-ready solutions. Neither a Shark Tank-style showdown nor a traditional business accelerator, the academy is designed to help faculty navigate the pathway from intellectual property to successful commercialization.

“Universities stand at the center of discovery, turning curiosity into knowledge and knowledge into innovations that can solve the more pressing challenges of our time,” said Dr. Carlyle Rogers, director of ECU’s Office of Licensing and Commercialization and the architect of Innovation Academy. “Our job is to give those ideas and innovations the structure and support they need to make an impact.”

In the audience at the Innovation Academy earlier this month sat Vin McCaffrey, managing partner of 113, a firm specializing in market analysis and commercialization consulting. “At ECU, you have subject-matter experts who know the IP, but they don’t always have the business experience to take it to market.”

This impact is measurable. Rogers’ office has generated more than $8.5 million in revenue, helped secure over 200 patents, and guided 1,100 faculty innovations toward disclosure. Over 30 university faculty members now hold membership in the National Academy of Inventors.

At the stadium, faculty took turns at the lectern, outlining their concepts, market conditions, and competitive advantages. They spoke candidly about obstacles — regulatory unknowns, market penetration and the steep learning curve of entrepreneurship.

Dr. Eduardo “Edu” Leorri, associate professor in geological sciences, introduced EduAI, a tool that integrates with the learning platform Canvas and uses artificial intelligence to provide real-time feedback to second-language learners.

“In earlier programs like ECU’s I-CORPS, it was more theoretical,” Leorri said after. “This one brings in actual CEOs and entrepreneurs who give us actionable input — clues that make you go, ‘Oh, yeah, I should have done that.’”

For the first time, ECU Health joined the lineup. Dr. John Hanna and nurses Charlene Turnage, Kara Overstreet, and Crystal Gorham pitched My Journey Board, a patient portal feature designed to empower patients and reduce communication failures — a leading cause of clinical errors in any hospital.

“We realized quickly it’s not the technology we need to solve for,” Hanna said. “It’s that we’re missing the patient voice. There’s a huge opportunity to transform communication from one-way updates to two-way conversations.”

Defining the Unmet Need

In the audience sat Vin McCaffrey, managing partner of 113, a firm specializing in market analysis and commercialization consulting.

“At ECU, you have subject-matter experts who know the IP,” he said. “But they don’t always have the business experience to take it to market.”

He engaged presenters with questions: What’s your go-to-market strategy? Will it integrate with electronic health records?

Just over his shoulder was Tim Alcorn, managing director of medical devices, diagnostics and healthcare for the management and consulting multinational Sia.

“It will come down to how well you define the unmet need — if that unmet need is strong, you’re going to find the right people to invest in it,” he said.

Then he offered this.

“The real differencemaker is persistence.”

A Painkiller, not a Vitamin

The final pitch came from Dr. Michelle Malkin, assistant professor and director of ECU’s Gambling Research & Policy Initiative (GRPI). Her project, Gamblytics, aims to reduce gambling harm among young adults — a demographic at high risk for addiction, financial ruin, and in the extreme, death.

Studies show more than half of 17-year-olds have gambled in the past year. Among 20- to 24-year-olds, the figure is two-thirds. This group is particularly vulnerable to what may be called “intoxicated gambling” —chasing losses and betting more than they can afford.

Gamblytics offers a gambling microcredential in partnership with the International Problem Gambling and Gaming Certification Board that would equip campus professionals to recognize and respond to gambling-related harm. Currently in a pilot phase, Malkin is proposing a university system model that allows for use on all campuses.

In 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down federal laws regulating and prohibiting widespread sports gambling, Malkin began her pitch, “and today, even before they’re in college, we’re seeing gambling on the rise in our young people, but we’ve done no work to ensure they’re … gambling in lower-risk ways” that do not lead to addiction and suicide.

Gamblytics grew out of research at the GRPI. The university licenses the institute’s findings to Malkin for commercialization, bridging the divide between academic research and practical solutions for gambling harm prevention.

McCaffrey was impressed. In startup culture, he explained, products are sometimes categorized as “vitamin or painkiller.”

“If you imagine, there are things on campus that are nice to offer students … those are vitamins. This [product] is a painkiller, because bad things will happen to these kids without” this intervention because “gambling is an epidemic.”

From Lab to Market

Other pitches carried similar urgency. Dr. Alex Vieira, professor in the School of Dental Medicine, presented research on a novel protein that could lead to a fluoride alternative for cavity prevention.

“I want something I discover in the lab to impact populations positively,” Vieira said.

Alcorn, the health care industry expert, said whether Dr. Vieira and all of this cohort succeeds will ultimately come down to grit and determination.

“There are a lot of good ideas that never get off the ground because people get tired of the process,” he said. “And there are ideas you never think will make it, but the inventors are so darn persistent, they make it work.”

For Rogers, the determination of the faculty, and the brilliance of their ideas being tested and refined in the Innovation Academy is what makes universities such powerful engines for enterprise investment.

“Universities sit at the heart of discovery. They help spark innovation and translate ideas into real products and services,” he said. “The more successful we are at growing and nuturing these innovations, the greater the impact ECU can have on our campus, our communities, and far beyond.”

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