News
Welcome to the Innovation News page. This is where all the top and recent news articles will be displayed, as well as all the news from 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Top News
LSU and Kenyatta University will work together to drive innovation, research and job growth in STEM-related fields in Kenya and globally under a first-of-its-kind partnership funded by a federal grant.
In 2021, sophomore computer science majors Darrin Lea, Blake Bollinger, John Bajor and Trevor Baughman wanted to attend CES. The problem? The country's biggest tech show was only open to business professionals. So, they created a website for what was then a fictitious company, Zenith Software.
An LSU-patented circuit breaker could slash costs for industrial plants and sharply limit injuries from arc flash, the lightning bolt created when high voltage equipment fails and electricity jumps from one conductor to another.
Recent News
LSU, Kenyatta University Partnership Will Accelerate Innovation, Research
LSU and Kenyatta University will work together to drive innovation, research and job growth in STEM-related fields in Kenya and globally under a first-of-its-kind partnership funded by a federal grant.
From Imaginary Company to Real Success: LSU Students' Zenith Software Empowers Small Businesses
In 2021, sophomore computer science majors Darrin Lea, Blake Bollinger, John Bajor and Trevor Baughman wanted to attend CES. The problem? The country's biggest tech show was only open to business professionals. So, they created a website for what was then a fictitious company, Zenith Software.
Hybrid Circuit Breaker Could Reduce Injuries from Electric Arcs
An LSU-patented circuit breaker could slash costs for industrial plants and sharply limit injuries from arc flash, the lightning bolt created when high voltage equipment fails and electricity jumps from one conductor to another.
Short and Sweet: I-Corps Teaches Professor to Abbreviate Presentations to Potential Customers
LSU Biological Sciences Professor Roger Laine established his startup bonafides in Silicon Valley well before he enrolled in the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps.
LSU Invention Could Accelerate Hypersonic Aircraft and Spacecraft Design
Just about everyone has seen the black-and-white photos of a bullet in flight, the projectile surrounded by layers of shock waves. That is a Schlieren image. Schlieren images capture light deflection, and the technology has been used for more than 150 years to examine high-speed airflows invisible to the naked eye. Now, an LSU researcher has patented an easy-to-use version of the system that gives engineers vastly more information about high-speed airflows' effects on rockets and supersonic aircraft.
I-Corps Helps Schwarz Lay Foundation for Startup Success
Andrew Schwarz knew exactly who his startup's customers were. A professor of information systems and decision sciences in LSU's College of Business Administration, Schwarz had worked in market research for Fortune 500 firms and built trend-forecasting models for the credit card and food-and-beverage industries.
Monitoring System Could Save Lubricant, Food Industries Millions Each Year
LSU researchers have invented an automated sensor that could drastically reduce waste for grease and food manufacturers, saving each U.S. industry millions of dollars a year. "Making grease is a very complicated process, as much an art as a science. It's not as simple as following a recipe," said Koottaparambil Lijesh, co-inventor and a postdoctoral researcher in the LSU Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. "Grease exhibits the properties of a solid and a liquid. Grease is formed through complex chemical reactions where its consistency evolves over time. Slight variations in the factory temperature, raw material quality, when mixing in additives and adding ingredients can lead to differences in the final consistency - how thick or fluid the grease is - across batches."
New Antibiotics May End Chronic Infections, Slash Billions in Health Care Costs
An LSU-led research team is developing a new class of antibiotics capable of bypassing the defenses of drug-resistant bacteria, which otherwise make it difficult to cure chronic infections.
Pitch Perfectors: How LSU Louisiana Small Business Development Center Helped FarmSmart Win the Venture Challenge
Colin Raby had a problem. He and fellow engineering students Grant Muslow and Julius Pallotta were creating FarmSmart, an AI-powered virtual assistant that combines LSU AgCenter research with thousands of other agricultural documents to accurately answer any crop management question. Their idea powered FarmSmart into the semifinals of the J. Terrell Brown Venture Challenge, but now the partners needed to craft an executive business plan to reach the finals and a shot at the $20,000 first prize. "We had some rough cost projections, but they were mostly technical expenses. We're going to need this software, this equipment, this much to train our AI engine using the AgCenter data," Raby said. "We were engineering students, not MBA graduates.... We recognized that we don't know what we don't know."
How I-Corps Helped LSU Researcher Find New Business Path
One of the hardest lessons researchers learn from the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (I-Corps) training is that their brilliant invention, the sector-disrupting innovation they spent years developing, may not be exactly what their customers want. That's what happened to Tammy Dugas, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Professor in the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.
LSU Researchers Create Low-Cost Method to Recycle Plastic
LSU researchers have created a new, low-cost way to break down plastic, a potential breakthrough that could save billions of dollars and eliminate billions of tons of plastic pollution.
FUEL Names Four Directors
BATON ROUGE - Future Use of Energy in Louisiana (FUEL), the LSU-led statewide effort with more than 50 public and private partners, has named directors for key strategic areas: Ashwith Chilvery, use-inspired research and development Lacy McManus, workforce development Stephen Loy, technology commercialization Girard Melancon, strategic partnerships
National Academy of Inventors Selects Gartia as Fellow
Associate Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Manas Ranjan Gartia has been elected a fellow to the National Academy of Inventors, or NAI. He is one of 170 newly elected fellows. "Our researchers' work advances scientific knowledge and leads to inventions with real-world applications. Supporting these pioneers can open the door to life-changing discoveries and innovations that help shape the future," said Andrew Maas, associate vice president for research, Office of Innovation & Ecosystem Development.
LSU Researchers' Handheld Device Could Save 1.4 Million Cancer Surgery Patients' Lives a Year
BATON ROUGE -- LSU researchers have invented a handheld device that can tell surgeons where cancerous cells end and healthy tissue begins. The device reduces the chances of tumors growing back and could save over a million people's lives a year.
FUEL Creates Fund for Clean Energy Projects
Future Use of Energy in Louisiana, designed to position the state as a global leader in energy transition, is offering grants of $100,000 to $125,000 to help entrepreneurs prove their clean energy projects can be commercialized