UAlbany Honors its Inventors

A group of faculty stand in front of the UAlbany Minerva logo in the ETEC building with recognition awards in hand.
UAlbany Inventor honorees stand with President Rodríguez, Provost Kim and Vice President Kesavedas following the recogniton ceremony. (Photo by Patrick Dodson)

By Michael Parker

ALBANY, N.Y. (July 7, 2022) – When Vice President for Research and Economic Development Thenkurussi (Kesh) Kesavadas first arrived at UAlbany, he was encouraged by the conversations he had with faculty, students, staff and researchers who were actively engaged in the discovery process.

Yet, with the COVID-19 pandemic having put a hold on many in-person gatherings and discussions, it was clear to Kesavadas that the University was overdue for an event recognizing the inventors at UAlbany for contributions to improving the culture of innovation in the classroom and on campus.

It was with this in mind that UAlbany hosted its first Inventors Recognition Ceremony at ETEC, honoring faculty, students and staff who have submitted their first invention disclosure, their first patent application, or have been granted their first patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office from 2019 through 2022.

“One of the top priorities I discussed when I came to the University was that I wanted to bring faculty and researchers from different disciplines together on securing extramural funding to tackle the biggest challenges of our day, such as climate change, cybersecurity, health disparities and access to care, energy and so on,” Kesavadas said. “Our honorees today embody what it means to inventors: They are fostering a culture of innovation, with a focus on discovery, education and building an entrepreneurship ecosystem on our campus.”

As noted by President Havidán Rodríguez in speaking to the inventors at the ceremony, it’s not just about advances in technology, but what is done with it.

“It’s about the broader impact that you are having and will continue to have, and the knowledge you can infuse in the classroom at both the undergraduate and graduate levels,” he said. “You are what truly makes a great University.”

The honorees of the first Inventors Recognition Ceremony include:

  • Alex Valm, Biological Sciences: Sparse Poisson Regression Approach for Unmixing Images of Fluorescently-Labeled Cells
  • J. Andrew Berglund, Biological Sciences/RNA Institute: Use of Quercetin and related flavonoids for the treatment of myotonic dystrophy types 1 and 2
  • Annalisa Scimemi, Biological Sciences: NRN-EZ: an application to streamline biophysical modeling of synaptic integration
  • Arnoldas Kurbanovas, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center: xCITE Mobile Application Network
  • Aveek Dutta, Electrical and Computer Engineering: RFEye in the Sky
  • Charalampos Chelmis, Computer Science: Community on Multimodality: Participatory Action, Service and Support (COMPASS)
  • Daphney Zois, Electrical and Computer Engineering: Community on Multimodality: Participatory Action, Service and Support (COMPASS)
  • Dola Saha, Electrical and Computer Engineering: RFEye in the Sky
  • Evan Cobb, Computer Science (Scimemi Lab): NRN-EZ: an application to streamline biophysical modeling of synaptic integration
  • Evan Davis, Biological Sciences: Gene-Specific Codon Analytics Pipeline Applied to Human and Mouse Genomes
  • Hormoz Mazdiyasni, Biological Sciences: New chemical entities that target myotonic dystrophy type 1
  • Huan Chen, Chemistry: Production of Cyclic Macrocycle Library for Rapid High Throughout Evaluations in Aqueous Medium
  • Jeannette Sutton, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity: Message Design Dashboard Prototype
  • Jeffrey Freedman, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center: Enhancing Predictability of Weather-Caused Power Outages with NY Mesonet Observations: Demonstration on the AVANGRID service territory
  • Jia Sheng, Chemistry: Photoswitchable DNA and RNA Nucleotides for the Light-driven Control of Base Pairing, PCR and CRISPR
  • John D. Cleary, RNA Institute: Use of Quercetin and related flavonoids for the treatment of myotonic dystrophy types 1 and 2
  • John Bradburn, Electrical and Computer Engineering: Ensemble Detector: A Novel Tool for Analysis of Non-Stationary Processes
  • Kaalak Reddy, Biological Sciences: Use of Quercetin and related flavonoids for the treatment of myotonic dystrophy types 1 and 2
  • Kara Sulia, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center: xCITE Mobile Application Network
  • Maqsood Abdul Careem, Electrical and Computer Engineering: RFEye in the Sky
  • Mark Muraven, Psychology: Design of Autonomous Agent that Adapts and Grows in Complexity
  • Matthew Szydagis, Physics: Lithium-7-Powered Nuclear Fission Subcritical Reactor: Safe Nuclear Power
  • Mengfan Yao, Computer Science: Proccoli Mobile Application
  • Mohammed Agamy, Electrical and Computer Engineering: Selectively Dimmable Multi-Channel LLC Resonant converter based LED Driver
  • Mustafa Aksoy, Electrical and Computer Engineering: Ensemble Detector: A Novel Tool for Analysis of Non-Stationary Processes
  • Nicholas Bassill, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center: Weather Risk Assessment Tool
  • Paolo Forni, Biological Scineces: Mouse line with Cre inducible tfap2e (AP-2ε): B6.Cg-Gt(ROSA)26Sortm(CAG-mTfap2e)For
  • Qiang Zhang, Chemistry: Production of Cyclic Macrocycle Library for Rapid High Throughout Evaluations in Aqueous Medium
  • J. Ramon Gil-Garcia, Public Administration and Policy, Center for Technology in Government: Toolkit for Conducting a Digital Government Maturity Assessment at a Subnational Level
  • Reza Feyzi-Behnagh, Educational Theory and Practice: Proccoli Mobile Application
  • Rickey Leung, Health Policy, Management and Behavior: Developing a Data Analytics Platform for a Mobile Device to Improve Pain Management
  • Rui Li, Geography and Planning: New York State COVID-19 Tracker
  • Ryan F. Schneider, Biomedical Sciences: Synergistic antibacterial interaction of aminoglycoside antibiotics and PKZ18 analogs against Gram-positive bacteria
  • Semih Bursali, Educational Theory and Practice: Proccoli Mobile Application
  • Shaghayegh (Sherri) Sahebi, Computer Science: Proccoli Mobile Application
  • Siqian Zhao, Computer Science: Proccoli Mobile Application
  • Song Mao, Chemistry: Photoswitchable DNA and RNA Nucleotides for the Light-driven Control of Base Pairing, PCR and CRISPR
  • Subodh K. Mishra, Biological Sciences: Use of Quercetin and related flavonoids for the treatment of myotonic dystrophy types 1 and 2
  • Thomas J. Begley, Biological Sciences, RNA Institute: Gene-Specific Codon Analytics Pipeline Applied to Human and Mouse Genomes
  • Ville Väre, Biological Sciences: Synergistic antibacterial interaction of aminoglycoside antibiotics and PKZ18 analogs against gram-positive bacteria
  • Weilan Zhang, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering: Phytoremediation of Sites Contaminated by Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) Followed by Complete Destruction of PFAS by Hydrothermal Liquefaction
  • Won Namgoong, Electrical and Computer Engineering: Close-In and Reciprocal Mixing Phase Noise Compensation
  • Wonhyung Lee, School of Social Welfare: Community on Multimodality: Participatory Action, Service and Support (COMPASS)
  • Yanna Liang, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering: Phytoremediation of Sites Contaminated by Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) Followed by Complete Destruction of PFAS by Hydrothermal Liquefaction
  • Yunlong Feng, Mathematics and Statistics: Sparse Poisson Regression Approach for Unmixing Images of Fluorescently-Labeled Cells