As fiscal year 2025 comes to a close, the University of Tennessee has reached incredible milestones in innovation and entrepreneurship. UTRF is proud to support the evolution of groundbreaking research into promising startups—driving progress across the state and beyond.
This year, a range of visionary faculty and alumni have transformed their discoveries into real-world solutions across diverse fields, from wireless power transfer and artificial intelligence to sustainability and pharmaceuticals.
Here’s a look at some of the standout startups that have defined University of Tennessee’s year in startups, so far.
VisualizAI: Harnessing AI to Transform Healthcare Claims
VisualizAI is a dynamic startup co-founded by Jian Huang, a professor at UT Knoxville’s Tickle College of Engineering, and CEO Mac Bartine. This AI-driven company is tackling one of healthcare’s most persistent challenges: the high rate of denied and underpaid insurance claims. VisualizAI’s flagship product, ClaimsAgent, uses artificial intelligence to analyze thousands of claims rapidly, detect patterns in denials or coding errors, and recommend corrective actions, streamlining claims processing and improving financial stability for providers.
“Artificial intelligence is a powerful ally – doing tedious jobs at a higher volume and more efficiently than staff teams of many healthcare providers,” said Huang.
The company’s journey was fueled by support from UT Knoxville’s Chancellor’s Innovation Fund and UTRF’s Entrepreneurial Fellows Program, which helped validate the technology and develop a minimum viable product. Most recently, UTRF’s Accelerate Fund invested $150,000 to help VisualizAI advance pilot trials and scale growth.
“VisualizAI is a great example of how UT-driven research can lead to real-world solutions that improve efficiency and outcomes in critical industries like health care,” said University of Tennessee System President Randy Boyd.
fLEX Standard Solutions: Engineering Safer, Smarter Playing Fields
Athlete safety and performance start from the ground up, and the ground is exactly what drives fLEX Standard Solutions, a University of Tennessee startup co-founded by researchers Kyley Dickson and Distinguished Professor John Sorochan in the Department of Plant Sciences. The company has developed a first-of-its-kind device that simulates a cleated athlete’s foot strike to measure how different sports fields respond in terms of traction, hardness, and energy return.
Rather than testing fields with vertical force alone, as many traditional methods do, the fLEX Standard device strikes the ground at realistic angles using a cleat-equipped foot, mimicking how real athletes move. This provides more accurate and granular data about surface consistency, slippage risk, and injury potential.
“The more consistent the surface, the lower the injury risk, and that’s the goal,” said Dickson. “This device allows us to detect even subtle inconsistencies that could impact safety or performance.”
With UTRF’s support, the startup has moved from research prototype to commercial product, attracting interest from professional sports teams and stadium operators. UTRF Executive-in-Residence Bob Vanderhoff, who initially mentored Dickson and Sorochin through UTRF, eventually joined the startup as CEO to help navigate business development, manufacturing, and scale-up efforts.
“John and I could build the tool, but we needed help with the business side,” said Dickson. “Bob brought that missing piece – understanding commercialization and how to take this to market.”
As fLEX Standard continues to test and refine fields across the U.S., it is setting a new standard in surface evaluation, helping ensure athletes stay safe and perform at their best on game day.
Elemental Composites: Redefining Custom Fiber-Reinforced Materials
Elemental Composites is a University of Tennessee startup co-founded by Materials Science Ph.D. alum Vinit Chaudhary and UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair Dr. Uday Vaidya.
The company specializes in nonwoven fiber mats that deliver lightweight, customizable, and durable composite solutions for industries ranging from automotive and infrastructure to sporting goods and medical equipment.
The technology, originally developed as part of Chaudhary’s thesis research, uses a novel nonwoven manufacturing method that enables precise fiber alignment and the integration of various reinforcement materials, including carbon, glass, and natural fibers. UTRF supported the innovation by filing patents and helping to secure a Chancellor’s Innovation Fund grant to Dr. Vaidya.
Currently, Elemental Composites is part of the prestigious Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where it will further develop and scale its product offerings.
Circular Biosciences: Accelerating Plastic Degradation for a Sustainable Future
Founded by Jordan Cannon, Circular Biosciences emerged from groundbreaking research in the Department of Microbiology at UT Knoxville, where Cannon and his team engineered enzymes that significantly accelerate the degradation of polylactic acid (PLA) plastics. Addressing the environmental challenge of plastic waste, Circular Biosciences aims to make single-use PLA products biodegrade within months in home and natural environments, not just in industrial composters.
“We envision a world where single-use PLA products degrade quickly after disposal without relying on industrial composting facilities,” Cannon said.
UTRF has been a vital partner since the startup’s inception, helping secure intellectual property, refine business strategies, and secure funding through programs like the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Corps and the University’s Chancellor’s Innovation Fund. They are part of the current Innovation Crossroads cohort, further accelerating their development through access to resources and expertise. Vanderhoff has mentored Cannon in entrepreneurship, helping to strengthen the company’s value proposition.
“Jordan’s pioneering work with degradation enzymes is truly at the forefront of the field,” said UTRF Technology Manager Tyler Newton. “We’re proud to support his mission to tackle plastic pollution.”
RAMiller, LLC: Advancing Life-Saving Drugs Through Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
Duane Miller, professor emeritus at the UT Health Science Center’s College of Pharmacy, continues his extraordinary legacy of innovation through RAMiller, LLC, a startup co-founded with Ramesh Narayanan, professor and Muirhead chair of excellence in the College of Medicine at UTHSC.
With over 100 patents and three drugs advancing to clinical trials, Miller’s work spans treatments for aggressive cancers like metastatic prostate cancer and glioblastoma.
“People who have brain cancer know that if they get diagnosed, their life is going to be over in about 11 to 12 months,” Miller said of his efforts to develop therapeutic-enhancing drugs (TEDs) for glioblastoma, backed by a $2.56 million National Cancer Institute award and a UTRF Maturation Grant.
Miller credits UTRF’s guidance, mentorship and culture of collaboration as pivotal in navigating the path from academic discovery to commercialization. “You’re not going to solve the problem alone,” Miller said. “You have to work with others to bring drugs to the market.”
With UTRF’s continued support, Miller and Narayanan’s startup is poised to advance critical therapies that could save lives and transform patient outcomes.
Watson Electronics: Revolutionizing Wireless Power
Daniel Costinett, associate department head of electrical engineering and computer science at UT Knoxville, is at the forefront of wireless power innovation. Costinett and his team reimagined the fundamental design of the wireless power coil, creating a novel resonant coil structure that is thinner, lighter, more efficient and cost-effective. This breakthrough holds potential not only for consumer electronics but also for electric vehicles, where efficiency directly impacts range and performance.
“We developed a new way to design that coil,” Costinett said. “Usually, it needs that coil plus some additional components to make it work well, and we found a way to integrate all those components into one structure.”
Supported by a UTRF maturation grant, Costinett’s team developed prototypes that showcased the highest power density recorded under comparable constraints in electric vehicle charging. UTRF facilitated licensing the technology to Watson Electronics, an Alabama-based startup, helping bridge the gap from academic research to commercial viability.
“Costinett is very good at communicating what makes his innovations different,” said UTRF Technology Manager Gregory Sechrist. “Our goal is to demonstrate the real-world feasibility of his research across various markets.”
Certaus: Real-Time Quality Insights for Additive Manufacturing
Certaus is a startup originating from years of collaborative research between UT Knoxville and the University of Sydney, focused on improving the qualification of 3D-printed components. Founded by Dr. Suresh Babu (UTK) and Dr. Simon Ringer (University of Sydney), Certaus aims to bring in-situ monitoring technology to additive manufacturing, enabling real-time prediction of defects, mechanical properties, and microstructure.
UTRF has played a critical role in protecting UTK’s intellectual property and supporting development through a UTRF maturation grant to produce a demonstration component. The technology is being commercialized by OTB Ventures, with the potential to significantly reduce the scrap rate in additive manufacturing and simplify component qualification – a major barrier to adoption in aerospace and advanced manufacturing.
Catalyzing Innovation
UTRF’s unwavering commitment to empowering innovators and startups continues to drive innovation across Tennessee and beyond. By providing crucial funding, intellectual property management, mentorship, and commercialization support—including through initiatives like the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund, which supported four of these startups—UTRF turns transformative ideas into impactful realities.
As these startups demonstrate, the future is bright, and it’s being built right here at the University of Tennessee.