Partners
UT Research Park hosts a steadily growing number of partner companies leveraging their presence in the park to forge stronger collaborations with the University of Tennessee.
The Joint Institute for Advanced Materials (JIAM), founded in 2005, is a 140,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility dedicated to the research of materials science and/or advanced manufacturing at the University of Tennessee. JIAM is a joint facility shared by a multidisciplinary team of scientists from UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and operates at the forefront of modern materials science. It represents one of the world’s premier centers for advanced materials research.
JIAM/UT is home to more than 80 faculty members, spanning two colleges, across 11 departments
UT Medical Center uses a cardiovascular information system to improve the care of Heart Lung Vascular Institute (HLVI) patients. Quality and research-driven care integrates the latest evidence-based practice into the institute’s service lines, which include cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, pulmonary and vascular surgery.
With evidence-based data and research, UT Medical Center helps design, implement and improve HLVI clinical pathways. The institute also monitors and studies overall outcomes of clinical pathways, including length of stay, mortality, complications and readmissions for heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, myocardial infarction, cardiac devices, coronary artery bypass grafting, vascular services and more.
University Health Pharmacy, a specialty pharmacy owned by UT Medical Center, focuses on specialty care and care of patients with rare diseases. Through UH Pharmacy, UT Medical Center participates in phase II and phase III clinical trials, which enables a more straightforward process for FDA approval of developed medications.
Established in 1955, Volkswagen Group of America is a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, with headquarters in Herndon, Virginia. Volkswagen’s operations in the United States include research and development, parts and vehicle processing, parts distribution centers, sales, marketing and service offices, financial service centers, and its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Volkswagen’s first innovation hub in North America will be housed at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm. The collaboration involves research opportunities for doctoral students and space in the Innovation North building. Initial work will focus on developing lighter vehicle components made from composite materials and the electrification of vehicles.
Volkswagen has been a valued partner of the University of Tennessee since opening its Chattanooga Assembly plant in 2011. UT Chattanooga and Volkswagen developed an MBA program allowing Volkswagen employees to earn the degree by taking classes at the plant or on campus.
Volkswagen also is a member of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI)—The Composites Institute. IACMI has supported UT researchers, Volkswagen engineers and their collaborators in the creation of a novel composite liftgate for the Volkswagen Atlas that reduces weight by 35 percent as well as reducing investment cost.
Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc., provides innovative design solutions and integrated expertise in the primary practice areas of civil engineering, ecological sciences, environmental engineering and sciences, survey, waste management and water resources.
The firm is consistently ranked among the Top 500 Design Firms and Top 200 Environmental Firms by Engineering News-Record and has more than 20 offices across the United States, including Nashville and Sevierville in Tennessee.
Because of the continued relationship with UT, Chris Foster, assistant project manager in the survey department, has worked on two engineering senior design projects with UT students. Foster provided land survey support and mentorship. He also assisted in the computer-aided design (CAD) of the plan sets.
The first project involved the stream and bank stabilization and bridge design at the historic Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee. The second project addressed the replacement of a bridge crossing on a local farmer’s property in Blount County in Tennessee.
CEC secured a valuable intern who was an undergraduate student at UT and is now pursuing a master’s degree in environmental engineering. He worked for CEC over summer break in the company’s Nashville office.
In addition, CEC Knoxville has worked on multiple projects with UT providing survey, ecological and civil engineering services.
Founded in 2013 as Smokie Robotics, AUBO Robotics manufactures lightweight collaborative robots for industrial and academic use.
The company was developed as a collaboration with three PhD professors from the United States and China in order to make a lightweight, intelligent robot. The robot was specially designed to combine state-of-the-art technology with user friendliness to make a collaborative robot: a Co-bot.
AUBO Robotics holds several core patents and has strategic cooperation with several public companies leveraging the best of all new technology.
C2 Labs, an enterprise-wide compliance and security software company, has decades of experience in national security and highly regulated industries and moved to the UT Research Park for the numerous collaboration and growth opportunities. C2 Labs specializes in automation to solve complex digital transformation challenges, lower operating costs and increase digital security and has already begun collaborations with the Haslam College of Business and Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
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Spark Innovation Center
The Spark Innovation Center assists early stage technology companies gain their footing. We provide startups with the right kinds of support they need to become successful companies and continue to grow here in East Tennessee.
American Nanotechnologies Inc. is developing technology to isolate high-value semiconducting carbon nanotubes from raw sources which contain a mixture of metallic compounds.
CEO Will Fitzhugh is participating in ORNL’s Innovation Crossroads program, is working with the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and has submitted several SBIR grant proposals.
Chem Chip, LLC produces working electrodes based upon carbon nanospike innovation developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Chem Chip has an exclusive license from ORNL, a CNMS User Agreement, and has built a team that includes the co-inventor of the technology and the founder of Reactwell. They are now building a Joint Industrial Partnership to facilitate continued materials synthesis prototyping and future activation of a U.S. manufacturing line in the Knoxville, TN region.
Eonix reduces the time and cost to develop new materials for lithium batteries and ultracapacitors using a novel high throughout, semi-autonomous technique. Founder and CTO Don DeRosa has completed ORNL’s Innovation Crossroads fellowship program, and has also been awarded grants from the State of New York, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Army.
Neptune Fluid Flow Systems has developed a novel method for preparing thin films of soft material solution for cryo-TEM work, a new analytical tool of great interest to the scientific community. While they work at ORNL’s Innovation Crossroads program on material science applications, Drs. Trevor McQueen and Winnie Liang will be also working with researchers in UT’s Biology Department and at JIAM to prepare biological samples for structural characterization. Neptune has also been awarded a Department of Energy SBIR Phase I grant, a National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I grant, and a RevV! grant from the State of Tennessee.
Sky Nano, LLC produces high purity carbon nanotubes from ambient CO2 for use in multiple markets. An Innovation Crossroads graduate, Dr. Anna Douglas has also won a National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I grant, a $2.5 million Department of Energy award, and has her first commercial customer. She will be utilizing the SEM tools at UT’s Joint Institute for Advanced Materials as she continues to scale up her technology.
Qubit Engineering is a quantum computing company that has developed new optimization methods for micro-siting for wind turbines. The quantum powered micro-siting software will considerably improve the efficiency of wind farms and reduce the overall cost of the projects. Qubit was founded by Drs. Marouane Salhi and George Siopsis.