By John Sullivan, Office of Engineering Communications, March 2, 2015

As an experienced researcher, Lei Tao knows science and he knows technology. But when stood before a panel of business experts at the Keller Center's Innovation Forum two years ago, he was launching himself into unknown territory.

"It was the first time I appeared before a big audience that had no idea what I was doing," said Tao, an associate research scholar in civil and environmental engineering. "I had to convince them that what we were doing really matters and would make a difference in the world."

Clearly, he succeeded. Tao's three-minute presentation, about a radically new type of environmental sensor, won first place at the 2013 Innovation Forum and received funding that helped turn the lab project into a developing company. Tao, working with Professor Mark Zondlo, has gone on to prepare the sensor for wide distribution as part of a federal Energy Department project.

"We just finished phase one, and we are working on deploying it in the field and delivering it to the end user," he said.

That is exactly the intended result of the Innovation Forum, an annual presentation of technology developed by the University's professors, graduate students and researchers, sponsored by the Keller Center and the Office of Technology Licensing. Now celebrating its 10th year, the forum has helped launch a wide range of projects from new biomedical devices to high-tech imagers and cameras. This year's forum, on Feb. 25, included presentations on a new treatment for cancer, a possible solution to widespread water contamination and a type of laser that could diagnose diseases before any symptoms appear.

"It is a way for University researchers to connect with the greater community," said H. Vincent Poor, the dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the founding director of the Keller Center. He said the central purpose of the forum, and the Keller Center itself, has been to forge new connections between engineering, the liberal arts and the world beyond the University. New ideas highlighted in the forum have become "the type of things that Keller has become famous for," he said.

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