VCU news

By Frances Dumenci

Making a splash in 2004, the SwiMP3 allows swimmers to enjoy listening to music through bone-conducted technology. And it was invented right here at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Sheldon Retchin, M.D., CEO of the VCU Health System and VCU vice president for Health Sciences, and Martin Lenhardt, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, collaborated on the invention that brought music to the swimming masses. Their invention safely conducts sound through vibrations from the cheekbone to the inner ear. Today, the SwiMP3 comes in a 1-gigabyte version that holds approximately 240 songs and sells for between $115 and $150.

The two inventors were honored with the Billy R. Martin Award for Innovation during the 6th annual Invented at VCU reception on Oct. 24. Billy Martin, Ph.D., who died in 2008, was the former chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and internationally renowned for his research in understanding addiction and drugs of abuse and how they affected the brain.

“Thank you so much for this award,” Retchin said after receiving the award with Lenhardt. “It especially means a lot to me to have Billy Martin’s name on it. He meant a lot to me and to everyone here.”

“What’s the patenting all about? It’s a mindset. You open your mind to patenting using the opportunities around you,” Lenhardt said. “What’s the real joy? Teaching your students so that they go out and they patent technology more than what you would. That’s the joy. So patenting is really part of our academic life.”

VCU Tech Transfer, which hosted the reception, fosters a culture of innovation at the university and helps inventors to protect and commercialize their inventions. VCU researchers created more than 100 inventions last year. Approximately 50 percent of the inventions were filed as provisional patent applications with 10 to 15 inventions being licensed each year.

“The economy continues to impact the world of commercialization, but you would never know it from the past year. We had a fantastic year,” said Ivelina Metcheva, Ph.D, director of Tech Transfer. “Our numbers were up across the board – increases in the number of patents, patent applications, invention disclosures and our licensing revenues are up.”

Commercialization and licensing of inventions is a major goal of the university, evidenced by its inclusion in the new strategic plan, Quest for Distinction.

 “The value of research lies in its application to real-world problems, and it’s this spirit in which we operate,” said Francis Macrina, Ph.D., vice president for research at VCU. “It’s captured in VCU’s strategic plan, Quest for Distinction, where one of the goals under the theme of research is that of commercialization. We are working together with Ivelina and her staff to make sure that an idea from the laboratory and from the minds of our inventors makes its way to benefit society.”

With its core objective to help VCU inventions move into the marketplace, Tech Transfer has also expanded its role in building and strengthening partnerships with business and funding communities.

“Our relationship with business is very, very good,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “You’ve given us lots of opportunities to partner. We need to do more and will certainly do a lot more to expand our relationships. It’s been a great year this year. One of the things I am pleased to report is that we have had significant increases in the number of licenses and patents as well as revenue from patents. This is a really important part of our mission.”