How does your invention differ from what's already in the market?

Doshi: Right now, the state-of-the-art technology that is used involves an instrumented treadmill and motion capture cameras, which are limiting in that they are extremely expensive and complicated to use. Our goal is to develop low-cost, wearable sensors that provide easy-to-interpret data that can be used by PT clinicians and athletic trainers to inform patient care and recovery. Our fabric-based sensors are comfortable to wear, with high sensitivity and the ability to measure the key parameters that clinicians require, such as a person’s range of motion or force applied during walking.

What impact do you envision your invention having on society?

Doshi: Initially, we are focused on patients and athletes who are recovering from injuries, but eventually, we see our sensor technology having wider applications beyond human use. We consider it a platform technology. Depending on the type of fabric on which we deposit our nanomaterials and the processing conditions we employ, these sensors have wide-ranging applications from wearable technology to measure gait and human movement, all the way to materials for structural health monitoring of our civil infrastructure — to detect cracks in our bridges or leaks in our pipelines.

What support and guidance have you received from the UD innovation ecosystem?

Doshi: One of my mentors at Horn Entrepreneurship says it takes a village to make an invention or a startup successful. I’ve had many supporters and collaborators on my innovation journey. Notably, mechanical engineer Erik Thostenson, my Ph.D. adviser, played a key part in the initial fundamental research and encouraged me to focus on research translation; Jill Higginson, a biomechanics expert, provided input on end user needs and shared her lab for various studies; and being part of CCM gave me a mindset to think about how fundamental discoveries can translate into technologies with real societal impact.

Broadly, I leveraged Horn Entrepreneurship programs, early-stage startup grants that helped us show proof-of-concept results, and the Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships, whose technology transfer staff were instrumental in helping me understand what constitutes intellectual property and how to translate it, from filing the invention disclosure to developing a commercialization strategy, patenting and more. Resources from the State of Delaware and the Delaware Innovation Space, and mentorship from other innovators also helped.

What is your advice for scientists who are interested in research translation?

Doshi: If you are interested in or are curious about what it takes to translate research to society, go outside of the lab and talk to people in the real world. Seek to understand what challenges they are facing, and that will provide ideas about what type of research you can do inside your lab to address the issues in society. Also, one non-technical piece of advice is to remember that nine out of ten people in the world, in my opinion, are there to help you. If you ask for help, people will almost always make time and give you their feedback.

How have students benefitted from engaging in innovation?

Doshi: The students benefit in multiple ways. For example, participating in an NSF I-Corps program helps students get outside of the lab and talk with real people to understand their challenges. No matter what their field of research, this helps students become better communicators. Additionally, ours is a highly interdisciplinary research program where materials scientists collaborate heavily with biomechanics experts and, more recently, with artificial intelligence experts who are using machine learning to understand patterns in our data. Many of our accomplishments are a direct result of the hard work, curiosity and commitment of the undergraduate and graduate students who have collaborated and worked with me. And students have had the chance to learn how many different aspects of science and technology come together to make an interdisciplinary invention possible.

What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier?

Doshi: The University's innovation ecosystem offers a lot of resources to help researchers take risks, learn and adapt. For example, when we first made our sensors, I immediately thought about aerospace-related applications because of my role and CCM’s extensive aerospace work. However, enrolling in the regional I-Corps program forced me to talk to potential end users, including engineers working on aerospace products. I learned about the challenges of developing new materials for airplanes and the time and resources it takes to certify them. This helped me understand that I needed to explore other potential use cases first, to validate the technology, scale up the manufacturing and build a sustainable business around it, and then go after more ambitious end-use cases.