Dr. Sachin Shetty’s novel technology will enhance cellular network connectivity and access for improved medical care in rural and underserved regions.

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, February 20, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) today announced that Old Dominion University (ODU) Research Foundation has been awarded a Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) grant for $100,000 in support of research conducted by Dr. Sachin Shetty. VIPC’s CCF programs have distributed more than $54 million to Virginia-based startups, entrepreneurs, and university-based inventors since 2012 in support of critical early technology testing and market validation efforts.

Current identity management solutions for medical devices rely on centralized infrastructure that gives adversaries easy access to a main repository, allowing them to steal the identities of medical devices and compromise them. In response to current shortcomings, Dr. Shetty has developed a self-sovereign identity (SSI) management system for 5G-enabled medical devices. It offers secure distributed identify verification and management that will enable seamless and reliable connectivity, ensuring better access to medical care in rural and underserved areas. CCF will advance commercialization of the platform with architecture development and industry-grade testing with project partner Lockheed Martin.

“Rural populations prioritize basic connectivity because they deal with low and intermittent connectivity environments most frequently. Our solution improves communication in areas with low 5G connectivity, making it faster, more secure, and giving users the ability to connect with any service network,” said Sachin Shetty, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Executive Director, Center for Secure and Intelligent Critical Systems at ODU.

“Dr. Shetty is a respected expert in 5G technologies and has a good track record of attracting funding and industry partners. The collaboration with and ultimate commercialization of the proposed system by Lockheed Martin through this CCF grant is yet another example of an exciting public-private partnership between a university and industry, embodying the underlying spirit of the CCF higher ed program to launch technologies from the lab to market,” said Hina Mehta, VIPC’s Director for University Programs.

Old Dominion University is a public research university based in Norfolk, Va.

About Old Dominion University Research Foundation
Old Dominion University Research Foundation (“Research Foundation”) was chartered in 1965. Its creation was intended to “promote the educational objectives of the University by encouraging, fostering, and conducting investigation, research, and development in engineering, the physical and life sciences, the humanities, education, and all other branches of learning; and utilizing, publishing, and otherwise making known the results of such investigations, research, and development.

About Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
Connecting innovators with opportunities. As the nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), VIPC is the commercialization and seed stage economic development driver in the Commonwealth that leads funding, infrastructure, and policy initiatives to support Virginia’s innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, and market development strategies. VIPC also collaborates with local, regional, state, and federal partners to support the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy. 
 
Programs include: Virginia Venture Partners (VVP) | VVP Fund of Funds (SSBCI) | Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) | Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) | Petersburg Founders Fund (PFF) | Smart Communities | The Virginia Smart Community Testbed | The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center | Virginia Advanced Air Mobility Alliance (VAAMA) | The Public Safety Innovation Center (PSIC)| Entrepreneurial Ecosystems | Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) | Federal Funding Assistance Program (FFAP) for SBIR & STTR | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. 

For more information, please visit www.VirginiaIPC.org. Follow VIPC on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn.

About the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF)
VIPC’s Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) accepts applications and awards funding on a rolling basis to Virginia’s small businesses and university-based innovators. For Virginia’s academic and nonprofit research community, the competitive grant program seeks to fund high-potential Virginia-based academic research teams that are developing technologies with strong commercial potential. The grants support early technology and market validation efforts such as customer discovery, market research, business model validation, the development of prototypes or minimum viable products (MVPs), customer pilots, and intellectual property protection, team development, and more. For more information on funding opportunities and eligibility requirements, or to apply, visit the CCF pages from www.VirginiaIPC.org.

Angela Costello, Vice President of Communications
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
[email protected]
Visit us on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn