Professor Mo Li is engineering the materials and methods that will build the roads, bridges, buildings, energy infrastructure and defense structures of the future.

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SET 1, WAVE 6 / NOVEMBER 2019 / innovation.uci.edu/news

S P E C I A L F E A T U R E

The Cove Doubles Down on Innovation

S T A R T U P

Modulim Puts Best Foot Forward in the Medical Device Industry

D E E P D I V E

Landon Taylor Fills in STEM’s Diversity Gap

Mo LiBuilding a Better Tomorrow

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5 6 14

2 Events Past Tides • Dr. Petra Wilder-Smith’s

Tech in the Community• Industrial Internet Consortium• MedTech Mega Mixer...and more

4 Available Technologies Coming Down the Pipeline

5 Special Feature The Cove Doubles Down on Innovation

6 Startup Modulim Puts Best Foot Forward in the Medical Device Industry

10 Faculty Spotlight Mo Li

14 Deep Dive Landon Taylor Fills in STEM’s Diversity Gap

16 Listicle Key Funding Options UCI

Startups Should Know About

18 Cove Tenants In the Ecosystem

19 Q&A Employee Feature Casie Kelly

20 UCI Stories Across Campus • UCI Libraries• Henry Samueli School

of Engineering• School of Biological Sciences• UCI Institute for Clinical and Translational Science

• Donald Bren School of Informationand Computer Sciences

21 Tips Follow the Money Through the

Venture Capital Process, Part 3

Stay up-to-date with news about UCI’s innovations and commercially promising technologies. Find this issue of Rising Tide at innovation.uci.edu/news

If you have story ideas, contact the editor-in-chief: connorj@uci.edu

Rising Tide Editorial

Editor-in-Chief Jackie Connor

Senior Writer / Copy Editor Ethan Perez

Writers Luis Vasquez Grace Wood

Design Director Julie Kennedy

Designers Jesus Reyes Vivian To

Photographers Rthura Cevallos Jacqueline Kao Julie Kennedy Michelle Mar Ethan Perez Amy Vong

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“Stone Age. Bronze Age.

Iron Age. We define entire

epochs of humanity by the

technology they use.”– Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO

“STONE AGE. BRONZE AGE.

IRON AGE. WE DEFINE ENTIRE

EPOCHS OF HUMANITY BY THE

TECHNOLOGY THEY USE.”– Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO

1NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE

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Fourth Annual Sustain SoCal Water Solutions / September 2019As part of Sustain SoCal’s fourth annual event “Water Solutions,” a group features a map of cultural resources for sustainable water solutions during an event at the Cove @ UCI. Sustain SoCal accelerates clean technology’s economic growth and sustainability initiatives through innovation, collaboration and education.

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The Cove @ UCI is host to more than 700 events per year in support of innovation, entrepreneurship, industry and the community. Take part! Check out and register for upcoming events: innovation.uci.edu/events

Lunch & Learn DATE: Monthly TIME: Noon to 1 p.m.

Subject matter experts present on a particular topic relevant to innovation and entrepreneurship. Topics range in breadth from branding and marketing to avoidable pitching mistakes to working with investors.

Free to the public. Light beverages are provided.

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FRIevery

WED

Second Annual MedTech Mega Mixer / August 2019 Medtech industry professionals network during the second annual MedTech Mega Mixer at the Great Park in Irvine. Co-hosted by the Greater Irvine Chamber, the Small Business Development Center @ UCI Beall Applied Innovation and Applied Innovation, the event brings hundreds of medtech professionals together from across Southern California.

Dr. Petra Wilder-Smith’s Tech in the Community / August 2019 Dr. Petra Wilder-Smith and UC Irvine’s Beckman Laser Institute celebrate a community partnership with the Concorde College of Dental Hygiene, which provided free oral cancer screenings to patients at the Garden Grove campus. Wilder-Smith and team developed a nonsurgical approach to identify oral cancer risk and progression in underserved populations. With advanced imaging technologies, the team leverages the students and facilities at Concorde College.

1 Million Cups DATE: Every other Wednesday TIME: 8 to 9 a.m.

Two startups give a six-minute presentation after which the audience asks questions and gives feedback with the intention to help the presenting startups grow.

Free to the public. Coffee and tea are provided.

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How To Become a Better Entrepreneur / September 2019 Bart Greenberg, CEO of Pivotal Law Firm, Inc. and experienced angel investor, shares detailed information and case studies on common legal issues that startup companies experience, such as preserving and protecting intellectual property, and setting up the correct business structures and partnerships and much more during the first in a series of focused entrepreneurial events hosted by Applied Innovation.

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Industrial Internet Consortium / September 2019 Paul Myer, CEO of Veracity, a software startup company that connects and secures aging networks, pitches his company to a panel of judges during the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) Pitch Night event held at the Cove. The IIC brings together organizations and technologies through networking and pitching events, public contests, workshops, webinars and more.

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Wayfinder Pitch & Match / August 2019 Ayushi Patel, co-founder and CEO of UCI medtech startup company CenSyn, pitches her company to an audience of investors and fellow entrepreneurs during the Wayfinder program’s Pitch & Match event. The Wayfinder program is a structured incubator at Applied Innovation that connects UC-affiliated startups with essential resources to develop their ventures.

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VC Speaker Series / September 2019 Amit Shah, founder and partner at Artiman Ventures, an early-stage, sector-agnostic venture fund, and member of the UCI Samueli School of Engineering Dean’s Leadership Council, discusses his expertise and insights about investment in the startup sector to an audience of local business people at the Cove.

32 NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE

U C I B E A L L A P P L I E D I N N O VAT I O N ’ S N E W L O C AT I O N I S T W I C E T H E S I Z E O F P R E V I O U S S PA C E .

On November 18, UCI Beall Applied Innovation will move from its 46,000-square-foot facility into a three-story, 100,000-plus-square-foot building to better address the needs of campus innovators, entrepreneurs and the Orange County ecosystem.

“We are leading the UC system in how universities connect and work with the community,” said Richard Sudek, Applied Innovation’s executive director and chief innovation officer at UC Irvine.

The new location – still situated in UCI Research Park – was part of the former headquarters of Broadcom, and was completely renovated to offer new resources and to build upon the original space’s inviting atmosphere.

S P E C I A L F E AT U R E

The Cove Doubles Down on Innovation

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Tech ID #: 30538

Tech ID #: 30609

A MICROFLUIDIC ARRAY FOR STUDYING PAIRS OF CELLS IN ISOLATED COMPARTMENTS

Cell interactions are fundamental to biological processes. Researchers have developed a microfluidic array, which efficiently traps two single cells together in isolated compartments in an easy-to-operate manner to study how each cell interacts with the other, especially at a single-cell level.

Abe Lee, Ph.D. / UCI Engineering

Licensing Officer Alvin Viray, J.D. aviray@uci.edu

MRI REGISTRATION FOR 90+ AGE GROUP

MRI scans of patients can be compared to template scans to identify differences or changes in brain anatomy. However, the templates that are used are typically of young brains, which lack the atrophy that naturally occurs in an aged brain. UCI researchers have developed a template for the 90+ age group that takes images that consider the natural anatomical changes that can occur with aging.

S. Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, Ph.D., MRCP / UCI Health

Licensing Officer Maria Tkachuk, Ph.D. mtkachuk@uci.edu

1The first floor features enhanced versions of the state-of-the-art event spaces with which

longtime Cove visitors are familiar. This includes a larger Beach with seating for about 300 guests and a 134-foot-long Hiperwall screen, as well as a larger screening room, called Venture Cove, with seating for a combined 200 guests that can be split into three separate rooms of varying sizes. What’s more, the aptly named Tiki Lounge area can accommodate larger crowds or be used as multiple break areas, networking spaces and also to serve guests, in addition to the Tiki Bar, a fully designed entertainment space with indoor and outdoor seating. To make things more interesting, a revamped makerspace full of equipment and bench space now resides on the first floor for entrepreneurs to build prototypes.

2New to the Cove and split between the first and second floors is UCI’s

Convergence Optical Sciences Initiative (COSI), which aims to develop and commercialize biophotonics technologies for human health, research and medical devices. The space features 8,000 square feet of laser labs that include a linear particle accelerator and 2,000 square feet of office space.

Joining COSI on the second floor are offices and workspaces for ecosystem partners, tenants and Applied Innovation staff, as well as a large open coworking space for the many Wayfinder startups that spend time at the Cove developing their companies.

3More offices and workspaces for

Cove tenants are located on the third floor along with a UCI Esports training facility and one collaborative neighbor, University Lab Partners, a nonprofit program of the Beall Family Foundation. Here, all Southern California startups can more easily access much-needed wet lab space to conduct vital experiments and validation testing.

old location

new location

Research Translation Group Senior Director: Life Sciences Ronnie Hanecak, Ph.D. rhanecak@uci.edu

Associate Director: Physical Sciences & Engineering Alvin Viray, J.D. aviray@uci.edu

Assistant Director: Life Sciences Casie Kelly, Ph.D. casie.kelly@uci.edu

Senior Licensing Officer: Physical Sciences & Engineering Doug Crawford, MBA doug.crawford@uci.edu

Senior Licensing Officer: Physical Sciences & Engineering Richard Tun, J.D., Ph.D. tunr@uci.edu

Senior Licensing Officer: Life Sciences Steve Huyn, Ph.D. shuyn@uci.edu

Senior Licensing Officer: Physical Sciences & Engineering Benjamin Chu, Ph.D. ben.chu@uci.edu

Licensing Officer: Life Sciences Maria Tkachuk, Ph.D. mtkachuk@uci.edu

Licensing Officer: Physical Sciences & Engineering Michael Harpen, J.D. mharpen@uci.edu

Industry Sponsored Research Industry Contract Officer: Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences & Beckman Laser Institute Chris Abernethy christopher.abernethy@uci.edu

Industry Research & Material Transfer Officer: All UCI Departments Kelly Carlson kelly.carlson@uci.edu

Industry Contract Officer: Medicine & Pharmaceutical Sciences Angie Karchmer, J.D. angie.karchmer@uci.edu

Industry Contract Officer: Engineering & Information and Computer Sciences Natalie Tedford natalie.tedford@uci.edu

Industry Contract Officer: Medicine James Wang jamesw9@uci.edu

Find all UCI-available technologies at innovation.uci.edu/tech

Visit the Cove by attending an upcoming event and stay tuned for an official announcement on the grand opening in 2020. ///

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Coming Down the Pipeline

The Research Translation Group manages over 1,000 inventions from UCI researchers spanning the areas of engineering, medicine and life sciences, physical sciences, communications and computer sciences. These innovative technologies are available for licensing.

S O M E O F U C I ’ S T O P AVA I L A B L E T E C H N O L O G I E S C U R AT E D B Y U C I B E A L L A P P L I E D I N N O VAT I O N ’ S R E S E A R C H T R A N S L AT I O N G R O U P

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IN RESEARCH PARK

NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE 54

Ideas blossom into teams and subsequently startup companies, and in the case of UC Irvine (UCI) startup company Modulim, it all began when a team at the UCI Beckman Laser Institute’s Photonic Incubator melded two pieces of UCI intellectual property (IP) into one concept to develop a noninvasive technology with the intent to save more lives.

Among the team was David Cuccia, a physics undergraduate student transitioning into his graduate degree program, who had his sights set on incorporating this technology into regular medical practices across the nation.

“This technology has a wide range of applications, from surgery and neonatal monitoring, to fruit inspection and imaging through clouds,” said Cuccia. “It was a long road to get to this point, but we have focused our commercialization around the application of wound prevention for patients with diabetes. It is a huge unmet medical need.”

THE JOURNEY

Over the years, the startup’s management team has worked closely with UCI Beall Applied Innovation as mentors* and event* guest speakers, but the makings of Modulim pre-date Applied Innovation.

Previously known as Modulated Imaging, the team developed a technique, called Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SFDI), which uses light projectors and digital camera technology to examine tissue noninvasively. Through testing and research, they arrived at wound care and prevention.

“Using SFDI for wound prevention enables doctors to see where the blood is, and whether the blood has oxygen. This enables physicians to see circulation problems brewing beneath the surface and prevent them from getting worse,” said Cuccia, founder and chief technology officer at Modulim.

In 2005, as an undergraduate physics student working in UCI’s Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic (BLIMC) with Bruce Tromberg, the director of BLIMC at the time, Cuccia worked primarily on diffuse optical spectroscopy. Working on a variety of sensor types, such as ones that exist in an Apple Watch or Fitbit, or those that are used in breast cancer diagnostics and physiology, Cuccia was able to learn both measurement and computation technologies, resulting in SFDI, a proprietary technology that resulted in four UCI patents.

“What we’re doing today is really a strong marriage of the two,” said Cuccia. “Instead of just one fiber or laser spot, you could use a projector and blanket a whole area of skin or other kinds of tissue and be able to look beneath the surface quantitatively.”

By combining all those quantitative measurement approaches, the team developed SFDI technology to take millions of measurements at the same time with cameras and projectors. After some fine-tuning, the team received a Small Business Innovation Research* (SBIR) grant in 2007 to further develop the technology.

“We spent a long time looking at clinical and research applications

of the technology,” said Cuccia. “The original idea was ‘let’s create a new way to make measurements’ and, since then, we’ve spent the last 10 years working on how to take advantage of that to help save lives.”

In 2016, the Cove Fund, LLC* made one of its first investments when it participated in Modulim’s seed funding round. In 2017, Modulim raised $2.86 million in Series A funding to continue to build their technology and support the market interest for their device. Before this private investment, the company raised over $10 million in grant funds to develop the technology. Most recently, Modulim received a $1.2 million Commercialization Readiness grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and

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F O R M O R E T H A N A D E C A D E , T H E U C I S TA R T U P H A S A C H I E V E D

M A N Y M A J O R M I L E S T O N E S T H AT H AV E H E L P E D T H E M S E T U P S H O P I N I R V I N E

W H E R E T H E Y C O N T I N U E T O G R O W T H E I R C O M PA N Y.

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Modulim Puts Best Foot Forward

in the Medical Device Industry

T H E O R I G I N A L I D E A W A S

‘ L E T ’ S C R E A T E A N E W W A Y

T O M A K E M E A S U R E M E N T S ’

A N D , S I N C E T H E N , W E ’ V E

S P E N T T H E L A S T 1 0 Y E A R S

W O R K I N G O N H O W T O

T A K E A D V A N T A G E O F T H A T

T O H E L P S A V E L I V E S . ”

– David Cuccia

SPEC•TROS•CO•PY / noun

The study of the absorption and emission of light and other radiation by matter, as related to the dependence of these processes on the wavelength of radiation(source: britannica.com)

Left: Richard Oberreiter, Modulim CEO, and David Cuccia, Modulim chief technology officer, at Modulim headquarters off Barranca Parkway in Irvine.

“ T H I S P R E V E N T A T I V E

A P P R O A C H C A N R E D U C E

R A T E S O F A M P U T A T I O N

B Y U P T O 8 5 P E R C E N T . ”

– David Cuccia

7NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE6

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*Resources Mentioned in this Story Available Technologies innovation.uci.edu/tech

Cove Fund covefund.com

Events at the Cove innovation.uci.edu/events

Innovation Advisors innovation.uci.edu/programs/ innovation-advisors

SBIR innovation.uci.edu/programs/sbir-sttr

Skin Diseases – part of the National Institutes of Health – which supported clinical studies.

With funding to help refine their technology, the solution to the problem was becoming clearer: Clarifi.

THE SOLUTION IS CLEAR

In 2018, the company received FDA 510(k) clearance for their most updated imaging system, Clarifi, a medical device developed by Cuccia and team that measures tissue oxygenation and perfusion in patients with possible compromised circulation.

Earlier this year, they received $7 million in Series B funding and expanded their commercialization efforts with the Clarifi® Imaging System to help with diabetic foot ulcers.

Diabetic foot ulcers are one of the most common complications associated with diabetes, according to the American College of Physicians. More than 50 percent of diabetic foot ulcers become infected and 20 percent of those result in amputation. Mayo Clinic reports more than 80 percent of amputations begin with foot ulcers.

Modulim put a laser focus on SFDI, or according to Cuccia, a fancy way of shining patterns of light on skin or other tissue to see how they blur.

“It’s the culmination of all that we’ve learned,” said Cuccia. “Clarifi is compact and easy to use and designed to work well in the podiatrist’s office environment.

Our goal is to bring it to primary care offices, eventually, because part of our mission is prevention.”

Clarifi shows small changes in a patient’s microvascular circulation, which affects perfusion – or the passage of blood through the circulatory or lymphatic system to tissue – and makes tissue susceptible to complications. The device identifies specific areas of compromised circulation, which often correlates to lower limb complications in patients with peripheral artery disease and diabetes.

Diabetics often arrive at the doctor with an ulcer or wound already on their foot that will not heal because they are unable to get a fair amount of oxygen to their limbs. Until recently, there had not been a solution to determine if patients were at high risk of developing ulcers or wounds in the first place.

“We have the ability to see if there is good circulation in the limbs, and then clinicians can use this information to identify high-risk patients so they can intervene early;

research suggests this preventative approach can reduce rates of amputation by up to 85 percent,” said Cuccia. “That’s a huge impact.”

SMALLER, LIGHTER, FASTER

The future of Modulim’s SFDI technology includes smaller, lighter and faster handheld products and further developing the technology to provide realistic photo renderings of skin and other translucent materials.

Although the device’s application would remain the same, with a primary market focus on diabetic foot ulcers, it would include point sensors, which would measure a single point with no physical contact for the patient and very low cost for the medical professional.

“I think there’s a lot of potential for this technology platform and we want to make sure that we’re successful in this first market,” said Cuccia. “But there are other applications for this existing product, as well.”

Find more information on Modulim at modulim.com ///

Below: A clinician uses the Clarifi system to find small changes in the patient’s microvascular circulation. Clarifi uses spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) to provide insight into the delivery and extraction of oxygen to tissue.

Smaller, Lighter, Faster

OLD TESTING MODEL: OX-IMAGER

NEW TESTING MODEL: CLARIFI

of amputations begin with foot ulcers

80%

98 NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE

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Concrete is the most heavily used man-made material on earth.

Mo Li, Ph.D., UC Irvine associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and associate professor of materials science and engineering at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, sees the tremendous impacts of the mass consumption of concrete on the economy, environment and society. In her view, if the materials used to build the world around us can be made stronger, smarter and more resilient, the whole world aims to benefit. To that end, Li works on numerous research projects to develop next-generation infrastructure materials and technologies for building safer, more durable and energy-efficient structures.

GROUNDWORK

The way things are built has always fascinated Li.

“I was always interested in architecture and buildings and structures,” said Li. “So that’s how I picked civil engineering for my undergraduate studies. Not many girls picked this major at the time.”

Throughout her undergraduate and M.S. studies, Li’s background was more in structural engineering – like the design and analysis of bridges and buildings – but while working on her Ph.D., her work started to focus on structural materials as she saw the impact of materials innovation on civil, energy and defense structures.

“Every time we have major changes in human history, there’s always some advancement in materials,” said Li. “Think the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Revolution, and the ‘silicon age’ of the 21st century.”

The annual consumption of concrete is greater than all of the other engineering materials combined. Because such huge quantities are used, and the fact that cement production requires a significant amount of energy and contributes to about 8 percent of global CO2 emissions annually, sustainability has been a main focus for Li.

“Can we radically improve concrete performance while minimizing the environmental footprint and usage of energy and nonrenewable resources?” said Li. “This would lead to a more sustainably built environment, increase energy and national security, and greatly benefit our society and future generations.”

MATERIAL LIMITATIONS

In parts of Europe and Asia, the oldest structures were made with stone or masonry because those were the available construction materials at the time. Arches were often used in the construction of bridges and cathedrals, not only because they were aesthetically pleasing, but also because the arch structure allows materials to withstand greater forces.

Masonry, like concrete, is very strong under compression – or inward, pushing forces. However, masonry and concrete are much weaker, or brittle, under tension – or outward, pulling forces.

With the advent of steel, structures did not have to rely as heavily on specific architectural designs like arches because steel could provide the strength and ductility under tension that earlier materials

lacked. Steel-reinforced concrete – combining the tensile advantage of steel and compressive advantage of concrete – has become widely used in the construction of bridges, buildings, roads, dams, pipelines, sea walls, nuclear power plants, wind turbine towers and foundations, and defense structures.

Despite all these advancements, modern structures and infrastructure are still susceptible to aging and deterioration under service conditions, and safety concerns under extreme events. Under daily mechanical and environmental stressors, concrete cracks and deteriorates, becoming more vulnerable to aggressive ions that cause steel reinforcement corrosion. Under hazard events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, fires or impact loads, buildings can experience catastrophic failures. In the case of earthquakes, concrete

undergoes deformations that it cannot fully withstand, causing concrete failure and compromising the safety of the structure.

The root cause of these failures is due to the material limitations of concrete, namely its brittleness

P R O F E S S O R M O L I I S E N G I N E E R I N G T H E M AT E R I A L S A N D M E T H O D S T H AT W I L L B U I L D T H E R O A D S , B R I D G E S , B U I L D I N G S , E N E R G Y

I N F R A S T R U C T U R E A N D D E F E N S E S T R U C T U R E S O F T H E F U T U R E .

Mo LiB U I L D I N G A B E T T E R T O M O R R O W

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FAC U LT Y S P O T L I G H T

DUC•TIL•I•TY / noun

the ability of a material to have its shape changed without losing strength or breaking

(source: merriam-webster.com)

“ C H A N G I N G T H E M A T E R I A L S

O P E N S N E W D O O R S O F

T R E M E N D O U S P O S S I B I L I T I E S . ”

– Mo Li, Ph.D.

The damage left behind from earthquakes are a reminder of the limitations of today’s steel-reinforced concrete structures.

11NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE10

One such project centers on sustainability. Li is developing new self-healing cements from industrial waste – like slag, fly ash and metakaolin – and minerals that are abundant on earth. These byproducts are readily available, so the difficulty comes in making sure the resulting cements have the correct chemistry and mechanical properties – durable enough to be suitable alternatives to traditional cement. From there, Li also aims to create a new class of geopolymer-based infrastructure materials that can robustly and repeatedly heal and remove their own damage during infrastructure service life. As an alternative to cement, geopolymer production per metric ton only consumes 29 percent as much energy and generates 18 percent as much CO2. The self-healing functionality further reduces repair and maintenance needs, thus minimizing life-cycle costs, energy consumption and carbon footprint. This can lead to vast opportunities for sustainable development.

Li is also involved in accelerating bridge construction. The California Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration wanted to explore faster ways to build bridges, which is a relatively slow process that often causes disruptions to traffic and the environment. The approach is to prefabricate bridge segments at a plant and assemble them on site. A major challenge has been obtaining durable and seismically resilient connections between the prefabricated

components. Li’s group is tackling this challenge by developing ultra-high-strength and ultra-high-ductility cementitious – or cement-like – materials for constructing the connections. This allows for faster construction, high quality of structural members, minimal onsite falsework and improved durability, which leads to lower maintenance and life-cycle costs.

Another project underway has Li working with the California Energy Commission, developing innovative materials and manufacturing solutions for land-based and offshore wind energy generation. With the next generation of wind turbines expected to be significantly taller than the current ones, the problem again is how to construct such ultra-tall, highly loaded structures. The idea is to move away from large prefabricated sections that become impossible to transport to wind farms and move toward an on-site, automated additive manufacturing method. To enable this, Li is developing innovative 3D-printable concrete and additive manufacturing methods using large robot arms – similar to the ones used in automotive production lines. The new 3D-printable concrete must be suited for rapid additive manufacturing without conventional formworks while still maintaining its high strength and durability for highly loaded structures. According to Li, this new approach can potentially unlock up to 3,700 gigawatts of new land-based and offshore wind energy

technical resource potential, with significantly reduced capital costs.

ONWARD AND UPWARD

Li, who received the 2019 Emerging Innovation/Early Career Innovator of the Year award, is passionate about making an impact with her work by changing the materials that will make the structures of tomorrow safer, smarter and more resilient.

“Changing the materials opens new doors of tremendous possibilities,” said Li.

Materials influence how humans interact with the world, and from her office and lab on the UC Irvine campus, Li works toward changing the world one material at a time.

Learn more about Li’s areas of research: imri.uci.edu/content/mo-li ///

under tension. This can lead to a number of durability and safety issues, according to Li, which is why her Ph.D. focused on reengineering concrete so that it performs in a ductile and strong manner under tension, like metal.

INFRASTRUCTURE HEALTH

After her Ph.D., Li began her independent work as a faculty member and started to think about how to diagnose the health of aging infrastructure.

Although inspections of large structures, like bridges, are done by experienced engineers, little more than visual inspections of exposed surfaces are conducted because that is all that can be done.

To address this problem, many have thought to install sensors to monitor a structure’s health. The problem, Li states, is that these sensors only monitor the limited locations in which they are installed and do not measure what is going on between the sensors within the structure. The sensors do not directly measure damage either. Additionally, these sensors are expensive, difficult to maintain and do not last long.

Monitoring the health of structures goes beyond bridges, too. The Department of Energy (DOE) wanted to fund research that could ensure the integrity of nuclear power plants and spent nuclear fuel storage systems. The spent nuclear fuel storage structures, particularly, need to last many hundreds of years – much longer than the average bridge lifespan.

Li has a solution to this problem – which was funded by the DOE – and has filed a patent with help from Michael Harpen, licensing officer* at

UCI Beall Applied Innovation. Her approach is twofold.

The first part is a new, durable and highly damage-tolerant concrete that is able to dissipate energy to withstand greater loads and, when under large deformation, produces only self-controlled microcracking with extraordinary ductility that maintains its structural integrity instead of larger fractures.

The second part is that the damage-tolerant concrete is also encoded with novel electromechanical properties to function as a spatial sensor within structures. This multifunctional concrete, coupled with advanced frequency-difference impedance tomography techniques – both developed in Li’s lab – offers a solution for monitoring a structure’s health. Through electrical probing only from the structural surfaces, damage and deterioration everywhere within reinforced concrete structures can be visualized in three dimensions with spatially continuous resolution. This approach does not require installation of sensors; rather, it makes structures behave as sensors themselves. This material is referred to as a self-sensing structural material.

By understanding how the nanostructures and microstructures of concrete respond to a wide frequency range of electrical currents, Li and her team tailor the nanostructures and microstructures of concrete to achieve a strongly coupled electromechanical behavior. This allows mechanically and chemically induced strains, cracks and damage to be identified, located and visualized through electrical probing under different electrical frequencies. With the information gathered, a comprehensive approach to inspections would be possible and result in a more thorough understanding of a structure’s health and integrity. Engineers could more accurately decide if the structure needs to be repaired or retrofitted or if it is close to failure and might collapse.

STRONGER, BETTER, FASTER, TALLER

As if developing new multifunctional concrete and advanced imaging technologies to assess and protect structural health wasn’t enough, Li is also busy with other research projects that will improve the structures of tomorrow.

IM•PED•ANCE TO•MOG•RA•PHY / noun

an imaging technology that passes electrical currents through an object and interprets changes in the electrical signals as structural differences within the object

GE•O•POL•Y•MERS / noun

compounds made from inorganic materials, like alumina and silica

FALSE•WORK / noun

temporary construction work on which a main work is wholly or partly built and supported until the main work is strong enough to support itself

(source: merriam-webster.com)

AD•DI•TIVE MAN•U•FAC•TUR•ING / noun

a manufacturing technique (e.g. 3D printing) where successive layers of material are added to create the final product

FORM•WORK / noun

a set of forms in place to hold wet concrete until it sets

(source: merriam-webster.com)

*Resources Mentioned in this Story Research Translation innovation.uci.edu/about/research-translation

Large Cracks Versus Microcracking

LARGE CRACKS IN CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE

SELF-CONTROLLED MICROCRACKING IN REENGINEERED CONCRETE

images provided by Mo Li, Ph.D.

Li with Enrique Lavernia, UCI provost and executive vice chancellor, and

Richard Sudek, UCI chief innovation officer and executive director of UCI Beall Applied Innovation, at the 2019

UCI Innovator Awards ceremony.

100 mm 10 mm

In her lab, Li and her Ph.D. student conduct tests on samples of next-generation infrastructure materials.

1312 NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE

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And he has the experience to make a difference. Taylor has held senior executive roles at many companies, including First American Financial Corporation, where he implemented housing programs and guidance to help marginalized communities. Now, he continues that legacy through Base 11, an organization that helps women and minorities enter the STEM fields.

Base 11, a STEM workforce and entrepreneur accelerator, provides students at the middle school through college levels with programs, mentorship and access to lab space at locations like the Cove @ UCI*.

“If you have diversity of thought and diversity of perspectives, then you have a greater opportunity to create innovation, new products and breakthrough solutions that are solving some of the world’s biggest problems,” said Taylor.

Taylor founded Base 11 in Orange County in 2014 after a friend approached him about the lack of diversity in the STEM industries. Since then, he has opened locations in Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Bruno, Compton and Irvine.

All of Base 11’s regional locations include the STEM Entrepreneurship program, which teaches students to apply classroom knowledge to the business sector and make their innovations profitable. Taylor has also formed partnerships with organizations like the Deloitte Foundation and Pier 70 Ventures, which support diversity through programs like a data analytics

training curriculum for high school students.

Taylor’s second Base 11 Innovation Center*, an MIT- inspired fabrication laboratory (“Fab Lab”), opened at the Cove in 2017 after talks with Richard Sudek, UCI chief innovation officer and executive director at Applied Innovation. At this location, students from across Southern California have access to 3D printers, a laser cutter and lab space to experiment with and develop projects.

“To give students the opportunity to come into a place like the Cove, it’s transformational,” said Taylor. “It was clear to me when I saw the facility and the leadership that we wanted to have a partnership with Applied Innovation.”

In addition to the lab space, Base 11’s partnership with Applied Innovation includes access to Cove events* and workshops.

Taylor hopes student entrepreneurs will pursue this opportunity with a sense of passion – much like he does with Base 11.

“When you’re trying to create companies, it’s hard and, in most cases, you don’t get it right the first time,” said Taylor. “The only way that you’re able to have the conviction and the energy and the ‘stick-to-it-ness’ to persevere through those roadblocks is if you’re passionate about it.”

Learn more about Base 11 at base11.com ///

Base 11’s MIT-inspired Fab Labs are state-of-the-art facilities with hands-on project-based learning programs for high-potential, low-resource college

and high school students in the STEM field.

Landon Taylor Fills in STEM’s Diversity GapB A S E 11 ’ S C E O H A S M A D E I T H I S PA S S I O N P R O J E C T T O H E L P U N D E R R E P R E S E N T E D S T U D E N T S E N T E R T H E S T E M F I E L D S – O N E L O C AT I O N AT A T I M E .

Although the business and science sectors have taken steps to improve diversity issues, there is still a gap when it comes to inclusion. Landon Taylor, CEO of Base 11, understands the need for minorities in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industries.

Landon Taylor, Base 11 CEO, in front of the Base 11 lab at the Cove @

UCI Beall Applied Innovation.

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*Resources Mentioned in this Story Cove @ UCI innovation.uci.edu/the-cove

Base 11 Innovation Center innovation.uci.edu/the-cove/facilities-info

Events at the Cove innovation.uci.edu/events

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1514 NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE

I F Y O U H A V E D I V E R S I T Y O F

T H O U G H T A N D D I V E R S I T Y

O F P E R S P E C T I V E S , T H E N

Y O U H A V E A G R E A T E R

O P P O R T U N I T Y T O

C R E A T E B R E A K T H R O U G H

S O L U T I O N S . ”

– Landon Taylor

SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATIVE RESEARCH (SBIR) GRANT

The SBIR program, part of the Small Business Administration (SBA), is funded by participating federal agencies. Eleven federal agencies currently participate in the program, with each agency designating research and development (R&D) topics they are open to funding. This competitive awards-based program offers funds to small businesses for R&D on projects that have the potential for commercialization. Applied Innovation can help you understand and apply for these and other government-funded commercialization grants.

sbir.gov/about/about-sbir

L I S T I C L E

Key Funding Options UCI Startups Should Know About

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equity-based funding – where investors provide funding in exchange for owning part of your company – receives a lot of attention, it is not the only option available. Non-dilutive funding allows companies to receive money without giving up any ownership of the company and could be an attractive alternative for early-stage startups. Read on for more information on several non-dilutive funding options.

F I N A N C I N G W I T H O U T G I V I N G U P E Q U I T Y I S

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There is no one-size-fits-all solution for startup funding, so it is incumbent upon entrepreneurs to seek guidance before pursuing any sort of funding opportunity. To learn more about funding opportunities and other resources and services available through Applied Innovation, visit: innovation.uci.edu/resources ///

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION-GUARANTEED LOANS

The SBA works with lenders by setting guidelines for loans, which both reduces risks for lenders and makes it easier for small businesses to access much-needed capital. While many lenders require borrowers to personally guarantee their loans by putting up assets as collateral, these loans are tailored for small businesses and offer unique benefits like lower down payments, flexible overhead requirements and competitive terms. Some loans even come with counseling and education support. The Cove @UCI Beall Applied Innovation is home to an SBA Small Business Development Center (SBDC) whose staff can help you learn about and pursue SBA loans and other services including expert consultants.

sba.gov/funding-programs/loans

Loans

FOR STUDENTS: STUDENT STARTUP FUND

UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s Student Startup Fund provides micro-grants to UC Irvine students and recent alumni who are engaged in UCI’s entrepreneurial programs, competitions and centers. The Student Startup Fund can provide financial support of up to $1,000 to pay for prototyping, market research, specialized software, project-related events or conferences, and more.

innovation.uci.edu/programs/studentstartupfund

FOR FACULTY: PROOF OF PRODUCT (POP) GRANTS

Applied Innovation also offers POP Grants, a funding program that gives up to $100,000 to faculty innovators for the purpose of accelerating the development of UCI’s commercially promising intellectual property.

innovation.uci.edu/programs/pop-grants

Grants

SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) GRANT

The STTR program, much like the SBIR program, is funded by participating federal agencies. Five federal agencies currently participate in the program, with each agency designating R&D topics they are open to funding. This competitive awards-based program offers funds to small businesses for R&D on projects that have the potential for commercialization. STTR grant awardees must collaborate with a research institution to conduct their R&D efforts. Applied Innovation can help you understand and apply for these and other government-funded commercialization grants.

sbir.gov/about/about-sttr

Federal Grants

NEW VENTURE COMPETITION

The New Venture Competition, hosted by the Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UCI Paul Merage School of Business, offers UCI students, staff members and researchers, as well as community members, the opportunity to take a startup idea from concept to reality over seven months. Teams compete for prizes awarded to those in the top spots in five categories: consumer products, consumer services, business products and services, life sciences and social enterprise.

merage.uci.edu/research-faculty/ centers/innovation-entrepreneurship

Competition Prizes

PRODUCTS FOR PREORDER

For product-based startups, offering products for preorder is another way to gather funds. The money received from preorder sales can provide early-stage startups with the funds to cover manufacturing and other costs that would otherwise come from loans or investors. While this option is not suited for every industry or company, a number of startups have achieved success through rewards-based crowdfunding and other preorder platforms.

Customer Funding

1716 NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE

&

Monet NetworksMonet Networks launched a new product: the Ultimate Long Form Content Testing Solution, an AI-powered technology that humanizes data to understand audience reactions at scale, fast. They had successful proof-of-concept tests with one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies that enabled real-time creative decision-making, resulting in an ongoing agreement for long-form pilot testing. For more information, visit monetnetworks.com

Sustain SoCalSustain SoCal Water Solutions 4 Conference in August featured a standing room-only turnout to hear industry specialist presenters and panelists at the Cove @ UCI Beall Applied Innovation. Special guest speakers included Jeffery Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; E. Joaquin Esquivel, Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board; and U.S. Rep. Harley Rouda, who represents California’s 48th congressional district. The event also included a co-located California Water Data Challenge Datathon conducted by Moulton Niguel Water District and UC Berkeley’s West Big Data Innovation Hub.

R E S I D E N T S O F T H E C O V E

@ U C I B E A L L A P P L I E D

I N N O VAT I O N AT A G L A N C E .

C OV E T E NA N T S

In the EcosystemProject LEAFpackProject LEAFpack has settled into the Cove and is working with business consultants from the Small Business Development Center @ UCI Beall Applied Innovation as well as beginning conversations with UCI faculty for faculty/alumni collaborations.

RTConfidence, Inc.The RTConfidence team recently launched its first publicly available software as a service (SaaS) project management product, Chrono™. This licensable product is a Wizard-based add-in to Microsoft Project that helps you create a validated Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) that seamlessly integrates with embedded Schedule Risk Analysis (SRA) and Earned Schedule (ES – a practical alternative to Earned Value Management) subsystems. Together, they are designed to make the complex simple and users project management superstars.

AG ToolsAiViva BiopharmaAuctus Global CapitalBase 11Beckman Coulter Brightlands Maastricht Health CampusCellular Nanomed

Cove FundDocbotExecutive Next PracticesElyda PharmaceuticalsGate 5 Energy PartnersINBRACEJeniVisionKolkin

Laser Associated SciencesLearning OvationsMark IV CapitalMETAseismicMonet NetworksNew Enterprise Associates

Novoheart NXT BiomedicalPier 70 VenturesPolgenix Project LEAFpackRebeccaTech RTConfidence

SBDC @ UCI Beall Applied InnovationSeason Two Ventures ManagementSustain SoCalSyntrTech Coast AngelsUniversity Lab Partners

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For more information on community partners, visit: innovation.uci.edu/the-cove/ecosystem

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Casie Kelly, assistant director of licensing for life sciences at UCI Beall Applied Innovation, manages several facets of the licensing process, including the patent prosecution group, the negotiation of licensing agreements and about 10 Research Translation Group fellows. To counter her busy work schedule, Kelly enjoys the peace brought by music, old architecture and the beach. Here, she considers her top desert island essential, talks about competing in the Olympics and the secret to baking the perfect cookie.

Q If you could compete in any Olympic sport, which sport would you choose?

If I could do it, probably gymnastics. I really enjoy dance and, in the floor routines, they incorporate a lot of dance. Also, I admire the amount of strength that it takes to accomplish those routines. Just how strong those athletes are is really impressive.

Q Do you have a history with dance?

I took ballet and jazz growing up and into high school and continue doing it in limited quantities now. It’s another way to express your emotions and connect with music. I think it’s really good exercise for your body.

Q If you could travel somewhere in the next hour, where would you go?

If I could drive really, really fast I’d try to go to the Hotel Del in Coronado. I have an appreciation for older, classic buildings, and the Hotel Del is just a really gorgeous old hotel and it’s on the beach. Whenever I get to go there, it’s a really peaceful environment.

Q What is your top desert island essential?

Probably the Bible. I think it’s an important document. It’s also very long. It would take me awhile. I’d have no excuse not to spend time reading it.

Q What’s something about you that would surprise your coworkers?

I have not shared my chocolate chip cookies with the office. The secret is to bake them while the dough is still really cold – not frozen, but definitely not room temperature – which works out nicely because I’m really busy and I can prepare the dough, freeze it, and then use it when I’m ready. ///

A P P L I E D I N N OVAT I O N L E A R N E D A B O U T

C A S I E K E L LY ’ S L OV E O F D A N C E , T H E

B E A C H A N D I N N OVAT I O N S O F T H E

S C I E N T I F I C A N D G A S T R O N O M I C S O R T.

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U C I B E A L L A P P L I E D I N N OVAT I O N E M P L OY E E F E AT U R E

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19NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE18

SCHOOL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Researchers discovered that, unlike humans, grapes take different gene

amounts from their parent fruits, which could mean grapes of the

same variety, among other plants, have distinct nutritional values.

bio.uci.edu

U C I S T O R I E S

Across CampusS O M E O F T H E L AT E S T S T O R I E S F R O M T H E U C I C A M P U S

UCI LIBRARIES

Fredric Jameson, director of the Institute for Critical Theory

at Duke University, donated his personal and professional

papers to UCI Libraries’ Critical Theory Archive, where researchers can access them.

lib.uci.edu

HENRY SAMUELI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

The National Science Foundation awarded

researchers $1 million to design a brain sensor that

measures social behaviors of sleep-disrupted rodents, which could illuminate the link between sleep

and brain health.

engineering.uci.edu

UCI INSTITUTE FOR CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE

The National Institutes of Health awarded the UCI Institute for Clinical & Translational

Science $24 million over five years as part of its Clinical & Translational

Science Awards program.

icts.uci.edu

DONALD BREN SCHOOL OF INFORMATION & COMPUTER SCIENCES

Students in UCI’s Machine Learning and Physical Sciences program combined machine

learning with physical sciences to predict wildfire movement in Alaska and hope to

expand to areas like the Amazon.

ics.uci.edu

Throughout this series, we have provided insight into howthe venture capital process works from a financial perspective – essentially, where venture capital money comes from andhow it moves through the venture capital system.

In this final article, we will follow the money and the ways that venture capitalists (VC) invest in startup companies.

After a VC decides to invest in a company, they prepare a “term sheet” that includes:

When all the terms of an investment have been agreed upon and approved by the VC and the startup company’s board of directors and stockholders, the actual legal documents are then signed and the money is sent via wire transfer from the VC fund to the startup company’s checking account. The money will be used to achieve milestones that increase the value of the company.

When do the VCs get their money back? Not through dividends, as venture-backed companies rarely pay dividends to stockholders. When VCs make an investment they agree to not sell their stock until there is a liquidity event, such as a sale, merger or initial public offering. After a liquidity event, the money is returned to the VC based on the number of shares and the price per share of the stock. ///

T I P S

Follow the Money Through the Venture Capital ProcessI N T H I S F I N A L I N S TA L L M E N T, W E F O L L O W V E N T U R E C A P I TA L I N V E S T M E N T S I N T O S TA R T U P C O M PA N I E S .

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VC investments are ultimately intended to be equity investments, which means the VC investors will purchase stock in the company. However, some VC investments, especially for very early-stage companies, may be notes, or debt instruments, that will later convert to equity once a future equity investment is made. A relatively new innovation in early-stage investment is “SAFE,” which stands for “Simple Agreement for Future Equity.”

The pre-money and post-money valuations are determined by these formulas:

1) pre-money valuation plus investmentamount equals post-money valuation

2) investment amount divided by post-moneyvaluation equals ownership percentage

Investors in startup companies (including VCs) will determine the investment amount and target ownership percentage and, using the above formulas, will calculate the pre-money and post-money valuations.

The price of a VC investment may be the total amount invested (in return for a certain percentage of the startup company) or the stock price. The stock price is the post-money valuation divided by total number of shares in the company.

In the event of a low-value company sale, merger or bankruptcy of a startup company, the VC’s investment is returned prior to proceeds being distributed to the common stockholders in the company. This is known as a liquidation preference and the type of stock covered by this liquidation preference is known as Preferred Stock.

Luis Vasquez has 15 years’ experience in the startup and venture capital space. He has worked with a startup, a VC firm, a venture development organization and a venture studio/venture firm. He is now UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s Associate Director of Venture Capital Collaboration.

TERM SHEET / noun

a legal document that lists all the financial and legal terms of the investment

LIQ·UI·DA·TION / noun

the process of converting securities or commodities into cash

TYPE OF SECURITY PRE-MONEY AND POST-MONEY VALUATION

PRICE LIQUIDATION PREFERENCE

NOVEMBER 2019 / UCI BEALL APPLIED INNOVATION / RISING TIDE 2120

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