More Like this

1. The Freshman Year Innovator Experience (FYIE): Bridging the URM Gap in STEM

   Vargas_Hernandez, Noe; Ortega, Javier; Lozano, Karen; Marquez, Eleazar; Fuentes, Arturo (June 2023, ASEE Conference)

   The project focuses on increasing “effective STEM education and broadening participation” in underrepresented minority (URM) STEM students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) to successfully face academic and professional challenges, recently exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Freshman Year Innovator Experience proposes the development of self-transformation skills in freshman mechanical engineering students to successfully face academic and professional challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic while working on two parallel projects of technical design innovation and academic career pathways. The authors will present the work in progress and preliminary results from a pilot implementation of the Freshman Year Innovator Experience. This project is funded by NSF award 2225247. 

   more » « less
2. Low-field 0.55 T MRI evaluation of the fetus

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-023-05604-x  

   Ponrartana, Skorn; Nguyen, HaiThuy N; Cui, Sophia X; Tian, Ye; Kumar, Prakash; Wood, John C; Nayak, Krishna S (June 2023, Pediatric Radiology)

   Abstract Fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important adjunct modality for the evaluation of fetal abnormalities. Recently, low-field MRI systems at 0.55 Tesla have become available which can produce images on par with 1.5 Tesla systems but with lower power deposition, acoustic noise, and artifact. In this article, we describe a technical innovation using low-field MRI to perform diagnostic quality fetal MRI. 

   more » « less
3. How does regulatory uncertainty shape the innovation process? Evidence from the case of nanomedicine

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-022-09980-8  

   Kwon, Seokbeom; Youtie, Jan; Porter, Alan; Newman, Nils (January 2022, The Journal of Technology Transfer)

   This study investigates the effect of regulatory uncertainty on the translation of scientific discovery on emerging research topics to technical applications in science-driven industry. Our empirical analysis using the case of the US Federal Drug and Food Administration’s release of the report on the regulatory approach to nanomedicine in 2007 shows that; (1) the regulatory uncertainty decelerated the translation of nanomedicine research to technical applications, (2) this effect was particular for the nanomedicine research on emerging topics in the field. Our further analysis suggests that the effect of the regulatory uncertainty originated from the suppressed business activities in the field where the regulatory uncertainty presents. Our study elaborates on how regulatory authority actions shape the innovation process by shedding light on the impact of regulatory uncertainty on the development of technical applications of an emerging scientific area. 

   more » « less
4. Assortment Planning for Recommendations at Checkout Under Inventory Constraints

   https://doi.org/10.1287/moor.2023.1357  

   Chen, Xi; Ma, Will; Simchi-Levi, David; Xin, Linwei (February 2024, Mathematics of Operations Research)

   In this paper, we consider a personalized assortment planning problem under inventory constraints, where each arriving customer type is defined by a primary item of interest. As long as that item is in stock, the customer adds it to the shopping cart, at which point the retailer can recommend to the customer an assortment of add-ons to go along with the primary item. This problem is motivated by the new “recommendation at checkout” systems that have been deployed at many online retailers, and it also serves as a framework that unifies many existing problems in online algorithms (e.g., personalized assortment planning, single-leg booking, and online matching with stochastic rewards). In our problem, add-on recommendation opportunities are eluded when primary items go out of stock, which poses additional challenges for the development of an online policy. We overcome these challenges by introducing the notion of an inventory protection level in expectation and derive an algorithm with a 1/4-competitive ratio guarantee under adversarial arrivals. Funding: This work was supported by the Adobe Data Science Research Award and the Alibaba Innovation Research Award. L. Xin was partly supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) [Award CMMI-1635160], X. Chen was supported by the NSF [CAREER Award IIS-1845444]. W. Ma and D. Simchi-Levi were supported by the Accenture and MIT Alliance in Business Analytics. 

   more » « less
5. Innovation Practices: Co-Creation in Technology Sectors in North American Cities

   Katlyn Turner, Kristi Acuff (October 2023, Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress)

   The process of technology design and innovation directly shapes society and who benefits or is burdened by said technology. This project is a descriptive and explanatory research undertaking aiming to understand innovation practices in specific tech sectors–space sector, robotics, and urban energy–in two North American metropolitan areas: Greater Boston and the Detroit Metro. This study analyzes co-creation facilities and living labs in these technical and geographic domains and aims to understand what innovation practices these organizations are using, why they are using these practices, what their standards of success are, and why. The role of cultural embeddedness, geographical embeddedness, and technological embeddedness is examined in this project as well as that of inclusive innovation as a concept and practice. In order to address these research aims, a mixed methods approach is used for data collection–including stakeholder interviews, site visits, and technical analysis. Data is analyzed using a systems architecture and enterprise architecture framework. This paper focuses on the space sector in Greater Boston, both in comparison to other previously analyzed sectors in the region—robotics, urban energy, and biotechnology, and in reference to other important space innovation hubs in the United States. In particular, we focus on a comparison of innovation objectives and stakeholders, and how this informs the types of innovation practices used in these regions. 

   more » « less