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Twenty-four companies were launched from technologies developed at the University with-in the last year, supporting what economists have long claimed - that the University of Utah is an economic engine for the state of Utah.
"The business of capturing and capitalizing on technologies from U.S. research universities has become a massive industry, with states spending billions of dollars on accelerating these efforts," said Brian Cummings, assistant vice president in charge of the Technology Commercialization Office (TCO). "The fact that the U of U has produced some of the highest metrics in the country is a great credit to the team at the TCO and their ability to engage both the business and financial communities throughout the state."
One of this year's start-up companies, Akadi, was developed by the IT group at the S.J. Quinney College of Law. Akadi offers the latest in digital signage technology. Its core product enables customers to generate advertising revenue and increase sales through a user-friendly signage system. It also includes an alert feature that can push out emergency alerts to every display. This type of technology has been long awaited by colleges, hospitals and other large institutions to help them improve security systems and get a little extra revenue from advertisers. The product is already in use in several locations.
Catheter Connections, another university start-up, has a very different story. The technology was originally developed by two nurses, Jim Mercer and Michael Howelett...