RIO honored the 2024 Innovation Impact Case Award winners at a luncheon with Vice President for Research and Innovation Shashank Priya on September 12. This annual award recognizes University of Minnesota research that has had a significant impact outside of academia.
Two projects received awards this year: Michael Pitt, Pediatrics, and John Sartori, Electrical and Computer Engineering, for their project "Making Access to Hospital Rounds a Right, Not a Privilege with Q-rounds" and Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, Interior Design, for her project "Mobilizing Design in the Fight Against Sex Trafficking."
The luncheon began by welcoming award winners and their guests, along with a presentation of the awards by Vice President Priya. Among the event guests were Peter Crawford, Vice Dean for Research in the Medical School; Joseph Konstan, Assoc. Dean for Research in Human-Centered Computing; Prasad Boradkar, Dean in the College of Design; and Malini Srivastava, Assoc. Dean in the College of Design.
Over lunch, guests had the opportunity to participate in an open dialogue with the awardees about their projects. Michael Pitt and John Sartori, co-founders of Q-Rounds, discussed the dynamic of becoming entrepreneurs while maintaining their initial careers.
“The goal wasn’t to be an entrepreneur, the goal was to solve a problem and in order to scale the solution, we had to learn how to do this as a business,” expressed Pitt.
Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, founder of Design Against Trafficking, expressed her passion for her project, sharing the history along with the future aspirations for her work.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done, first of all with raising awareness,” said Hadjiyanni.
RIO is proud to recognize these life-changing research projects with the Innovation Impact Case Award. Included in this recognition is a $10,000 cash prize.