UF Innovate Reveals New Display in Lobby of The Hub
The mural represents ‘The Flow of Innovation’ at UF
Gainesville, FL – More than 150 innovators and entrepreneurs attended an in-person event, while 40 joined via livestream to unveil a new, lighted floor-to-ceiling mural in the lobby of UF Innovate | Accelerate at The Hub.
All those related to the UF Innovate family – innovators, The Hub and Sid Martin Biotech resident clients, and some special guests – were invited to welcome the new artwork illustrating “The Flow of Innovation.” The 42-foot-tall mural depicts technologies and products birthed from UF inventions.
“This mural is intended to highlight University of Florida’s work from Gatorade to the present day that are making the world better,” said Jim O’Connell, assistant vice president of UF commercialization and the director of UF Innovate | Tech Licensing. “We hoped to capture the past, present, and future in our depiction of technologies and the products startups have created based on them. I think we achieved that.”
Kathy Kinsley-Momberger, art director of UF Research, is the artist behind the beautiful illustration. Kinsley-Momberger was also the artist of the previous mural centerpiece in the same location.
“I am honored to have been a part of this project – for the second time – collaborating with my colleagues at UF Research and UF Innovate. I hope that the mural will be enjoyed by those who work in The Hub and Gainesville’s Innovation District for many years to come,” said Kinsley-Momberger, who has worked at UF for over 20 years.
The curtain was dropped to reveal the new mural at 4:30 p.m. on October 26 at The Hub, a UF Innovate | Accelerate facility. “The Flow of Innovation” includes discoveries made at UF that have had positive, global impacts. From the top of the mural, perhaps the most famous UF invention and first UF technology transfer deal, Gatorade, flows over other UF innovations in engineering, medicine, and agriculture. The mural highlights the hard work and ingenuity of UF researchers and entrepreneurs.
Some of the most recent technological advances pictured are in gene therapies such as the adeno-associated virus. Vibrantly featured in the mural, AAV serves as a taxicab that can deliver DNA and therapeutics to specific targets in the body. Woven throughout the UF research innovations, UF startups and Accelerate residents are also represented in the mural. At the top right, SATLANTIS, a company developing high-tech services for earth observation and teledetection. Mattrix Technologies is represented under the Gatorade bottle by a series of colored panels. The company discovered a way to reduce OLED manufacturing costs for large screens and displays on top-of-the-line smartphones. Agriculture Intelligence, a precision agriculture science company that combines machine vision, machine learning, and AI to provide cloud-based, precision data for specialty crops is also represented at the bottom of the mural.
The new mural stands as a testament to the progress in science that researchers and entrepreneurs at UF have made.
“This new mural is a distinguished artwork that represents all of us, innovators, entrepreneurs, and those who support them,” said Karl LaPan, director of UF Innovate | Accelerate. “Innovation flows in our DNA.”
UF Innovate also announced the innovator and innovations of the year during an outdoor ceremony following the unveiling of the new mural, “The Flow of Innovation” which is now the centerpiece of The Hub lobby. After the curtain dropped, guests walked to Midpoint Park & Eatery, a food truck park located at the heart of Gainesville’s Innovation District and next to The Hub where the ceremony took place. (Details on the award ceremony here.)
About Standing InnOvation:
Standing InnOvation is an annual event to honor University of Florida innovators who have disclosed, licensed, or optioned a technology in the fiscal year just ended. The name of the event intentionally hints at giving a “standing ovation” to UF “innovators” for the work they have done. The event is also a reminder of the “standing invitation” inventors have to work with UF Innovate | Tech Licensing, which protects and licenses research discoveries.
About UF Innovate | Accelerate:
UF Innovate | Accelerate includes Sid Martin Biotech, the globally recognized biotechnology incubator headquartered in Alachua, Florida, at Progress Park, and The Hub, the award-winning mixed-used incubator in the Gainesville, Florida, Innovation District. The incubation programs have been honored with nine national and international awards for incubator excellence and achievements in technology commercialization, funding access, job creation, and technology-based economic development. UF Innovate | Accelerate is dedicated to mentoring and accelerating the growth of innovative early-stage bioscience and biotechnology companies and supporting the economic growth of the North Central Florida region. For more information, visit UF Innovate.
Media contact:
Sara Dagen
UF Innovate
Marketing & Communications Manager
saradagen@ufl.edu
(352) 294-0998
By Veronica Talavera, Public Relations Specialist, UF Innovate