MSU Innovation Celebration: Past Events & Highlights
Explore stories, videos, and awardee spotlights from previous years of MSU’s signature innovation showcase.
The Future, Fueled by MSU.
The MSU Innovation Celebration is Michigan State University’s annual showcase of discovery in motion, where bold ideas, breakthrough research, and entrepreneurial energy come together in one place.
Hosted by the MSU Innovation Center, the event celebrates the faculty and student innovators advancing new technologies and building new ventures, alongside the partners who help turn promising research into real-world solutions.
The Celebration features an interactive exhibit experience where attendees can explore MSU-born innovations and startups, connect directly with inventors and founders, and see how MSU’s innovation ecosystem supports progress—from intellectual property and technology transfer to industry collaboration and venture formation.
Honoring Excellence
Each year, the program also highlights awardees whose achievements reflect the breadth of innovation at MSU, including Innovation of the Year, Innovator of the Year, Technology Transfer Achievement, Corporate Connector of the Year, Startup of the Year, and Student Startup of the Year.
2025 Innovation Celebration
The 2025 MSU Innovation Celebration saw a record turnout of over 460 attendees and 31 exhibits at the Kellogg Center, highlighting cutting-edge research and startup ventures.
Innovation of the Year: Dr. Tamara Reid Bush and Dr. Justin Scott for developing SitSense, a smart repositioning chair designed to prevent dangerous pressure sores in immobile patients.
Innovator of the Year: Dr. André Bachmann for repurposing an existing drug to treat a newly discovered rare genetic disorder and a pediatric cancer, dramatically improving patient outcomes.
Technology Transfer Achievement Award: Dr. Bruno Basso for translating decades of crop science into the GeoYields digital agriculture platform, helping farmers boost sustainable yields and launching the MSU startup CIBO Technologies.
Corporate Connector of the Year: Dr. Chengcheng Fang for forging research collaborations with leading automakers (GM and Ford) to advance next-generation electric vehicle battery technology.
Startup of the Year: EeroQ (an MSU-founded quantum computing company co-founded by Professor Johannes Pollanen and led by CEO Nick Farina) for a groundbreaking hardware approach using electrons on superfluid helium to scale up quantum computing power.
Student Startup of the Year: BRCĒ (founded by students Madhav Aggarwal and Tanvi Gadamsetti) for reinventing athletic shoelaces and braces with high-performance materials, propelling their venture to national attention.
2024 Innovation Celebration
The 2024 Innovation Celebration welcomed over 350 attendees to the Kellogg Center and showcased more than 30 faculty and student exhibits of cutting-edge MSU innovations.
Innovation of the Year: Dr. Bjoern Hamberger for bioengineering microbial “green factory” platforms that produce valuable plant-based compounds for medicine and industry.
Innovator of the Year: Dr. Wen Li for pioneering micro-scale sensor technologies—from neural implants for brain research to contact lens sensors for glaucoma—that advance healthcare and environmental monitoring.
Technology Transfer Achievement Award: Dr. Xuefei Huang for developing a versatile vaccine nanoparticle platform (Q‑Beta) to boost immune responses against diseases, leading to the formation of startup Iaso Therapeutics.
Corporate Connector of the Year: Dr. Mahmoodul Haq for spearheading major composite materials research collaborations with industry (including a U.S. Army autonomous-vehicle project), accelerating innovation in advanced vehicle design.
Startup of the Year: RedoxBlox for its breakthrough renewable-energy storage technology that captures surplus green energy as heat for later use, with the potential to decarbonize energy-intensive industries.
Student Startup of the Year: Reel Free (founded by MSU students Alexander and Austin Pollock) for inventing a remote-controlled oxygen-tube retraction device that improves mobility and safety for patients using oxygen therapy at home.
2023 Innovation Celebration
The 2023 Innovation Celebration drew over 350 attendees to the Kellogg Center and featured 20+ faculty and student exhibits of MSU innovations.
Innovation of the Year: Dr. Elad Harel for creating a “diffractionless” optical imaging technique that allows real-time observation of molecular and atomic processes at unprecedented resolution.
Innovator of the Year: Dr. Qi Hua Fan for developing a groundbreaking process to eliminate toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” using novel electric-field and plasma methods to purify contaminated water.
Technology Transfer Achievement Award: Dr. Anil Jain for pioneering biometric identification technologies – including a fingerprint system now powering India’s 1.3 billion–user Aadhaar national ID program.
Corporate Connector of the Year: Dr. Barry Bradford for forging industry partnerships to develop nutritional feed innovations (nutraceuticals) that improve dairy cattle health and sustainability in agriculture.
Startup of the Year: Indapta Therapeutics for its “off-the-shelf” cancer immunotherapy platform using donor-derived natural killer cells, an advance that secured significant venture funding to move toward clinical trials.
Student Startup of the Year: UniServices (founded by MSU student Adam Green) for launching a task-matching app that connects students with local residents who need help with everyday chores, resulting in thousands of jobs completed and new opportunities for student entrepreneurs.
2022 Innovation Celebration
The 12th annual Innovation Celebration returned to an in-person format on April 18, 2022, honoring MSU researchers in four major award categories (startup awards resumed in 2023 after a pandemic hiatus).
Innovation of the Year: Dr. Madonna Benjamin (along with Dr. Daniel Morris, Dr. Michael Lavagnino, and Mr. Steven Yik) for creating the Motion Grazer AI “Sows in Motion” system, which uses 3D scans of moving animals to monitor livestock lameness and body condition, improving animal welfare and farm productivity.
Innovator of the Year: Dr. Jetze Tepe for developing novel compounds that activate proteasomes to attack disease-causing proteins previously considered “undruggable,” a breakthrough that led to the founding of Portera Therapeutics.
Technology Transfer Achievement Award: Dr. Richard Lunt for co-inventing transparent solar cells that turn ordinary windows into electricity-generating panels and co-founding Ubiquitous Energy to bring this technology to market.
Corporate Connector of the Year: Dr. Matthew Daum for building robust partnerships between MSU’s School of Packaging and industry (including collaborations with companies like HP), integrating corporate expertise into cutting-edge packaging research and student training.