NJ Innovation Shines Bright at Edison Patent Awards

By Anthony Birritteri, Editor-in-Chief On Nov 16, 2023

The state’s innovative future shined bright last night as the Research & Development Council of New Jersey presented 14 Edison Patent Awards to 64 inventors. The 44th annual event, held at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, honored researchers from various companies and institutions of higher education who, according to R&D Council President Anthony Cicatiello, represent the new age of innovation, because scientists “are seeking new answers to make societies better, healthier and more productive.”

Robert Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) – who was the recipient of the R&D Council’s Chairman’s Award last night– said that he is extremely optimistic about the future of healthcare. He cited virtual nurse assistance, remote patient monitoring, and the delivery of acute care services in the home as things not imaginable in past years.

More importantly, Garrett discussed the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it is transforming healthcare. “There are so many AI use cases going on at HMH and throughout the country, that are showing the promise of diagnosing diseases much quicker than ever before and putting together treatment plans that are more personalized and effective,” Garrett said. “In the area of research, AI may be able to help us determine which drugs might be more successful going through clinical trials, which means drugs will come to market quicker and be available for patient care sooner.”

Overall, he said that the mission of HMH is “to transform healthcare and be the leader of positive change. Imbedded in this mission is … the spirit of innovation.”

The spirit of innovation was exemplified in Victor Lawrence, the recipient of the R&D Council’s Science & Technology Medal. Lawrence was recognized for his contributions to the global telecommunications industry, particularly his achievements that have enabled the rapid development of faster data communications technologies for a wide range of applications.

Lawrence, who had a five-decade career at Bell Labs and now teaches at Stevens Institute of Technology, said that the younger generation of upcoming innovators should not be afraid of failure because “from failure, you can achieve so many successes.”

He gave an example of one of his failures, which involved building the first modem while at Bell Labs. “To test the modem on an international network, we made a connection to British Telecom labs in the United Kingdom (today’s BT Group). What happened? We brought the network down. I thought I was going to be fired, but Bell Labs understood that sometimes you have to fail.”

He said that New Jersey must grow and expand its telecommunications industry, and that his dream is that every US citizen have access to affordable broadband internet service.

State Senator Andrew Zwicker, who was named Educator of the Year, stressed the importance of mentoring. As a physicist and now head of communications and public outreach at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Zwicker said he has mentored “dozens upon dozens of students.”

He told the audience, “Whether you work for a university, a private company, or a nonprofit, share what you do with young people because we are in a critical period. … The ability to think critically seems to be lost. It is getting harder and harder to just disagree. What is needed are scientists and engineers who will help develop the next generation of critical thinkers.”

In introducing the 14 patent winners, the R&D Council’s Cicatiello said that the changing speed of technology today is similar to the historic period when New Jersey’s own Thomas Edison was making his historic discoveries, holding more than 1,900 patents to his name.

Below is the list of patent winners. All recipients said that they were deeply humbled in receiving an honor that was associated with the Wizard of Menlo Park, as Edison was often referred to.

The 2023 Edison Patent Award Winners are:

Organization	Category	Patent Name and Number	Inventor Names
American Standard Brands	Public Health	Collection Systems for Use in Offset Pit Latrines Having Pour Flush Latrine Pans, Collectors, Offset Pit Latrines and Related Methods, US 2015/0026877	Daigo Ishiyama, Gregory M. Gatarz, James McHale
BASF	Environmental	Adsorbents and Methods of Making and Using Adsorbents, U.S. Patent 10,953,383	Artem Vityuk, Alfonse Maglio, Keenan Deutsch, Linda Hratko
Bristol Myers Squibb	Biotechnology	Phosphorous (V)-Based Reagents, Processes for the Preparation Thereof, and Their Use in Making Stereo-Defined Organophosphorous (V) Compounds, U.S. Patent 11,613,554	Michael Schmidt, Bin Zheng, Kyle Krouse, Justine DeGruyter, Martin Eastgate, Phil Baran, William R. Ewing, Richard Olson, Ivar McDonald
Consolidated Energy Design	Energy	Method and System for Automatically Adapting End User Power Usage, U.S. Patent 9,002,761	Rey Montalvo
Mentor Worldwide, LLC, a Johnson & Johnson Company	Medical Device	Directional Tissue Expander, U.S. Patent 9,463,087	Krasimira Hristov, Luis Alberto Davila, Anita M. Falcon, Michael Hoffman
Merck Research Laboratories	Pharmaceutical	Preparation of Cyclic Peptides as PCSK9 Antagonist Compounds, U.S. Patent 11,427,616 B2	Harold B. Wood, Hubert B. Josien, Thomas Joseph Tucker, Angela Dawn Kerekes, Ling Tong, Abbas M. Walji, Anikumar G. Nair, Fa-Xiang Ding, Elisabettta Bianchi, Danila Branca, Chengwei Wu, Yusheng Xiong, Sookhee Nicole Ha, Jian Liu, Sobhana Babu Boga
New Jersey Institute of Technology	Medical Technology	Method, System, and Apparatus for Treatment of Binocular Dysfunctions, U.S. Patent 10,335,342	Tara Lynn Alvarez, John Vito D’Antonio-Bertagnolli, Robert Gioia, Mitchell Scheiman, Chang Yaramothu
Nokia Bell Labs	Telecommunications	Method and Apparatus for Allocating Resources of a Frequency Band in a Wireless System Supporting at Least Two Radio Access Technologies, U.S. Patent 9,100,978	Harish Viswanathan
Princeton University	Biomaterials	Devices with Multiple Surface Functionality, U.S. Patent 8,993,117 B2	Jeffrey Schwartz
Rowan University	Sustainability	Asphalt Concrete Having a High Yield Recycled Content and Method of Making the Same, U.S. Patent 10,053,821	Yusuf Mehta, Aaron Nolan, Khyati Sonpal, Prashant Shirodkar
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	Forensic Science	Systems and Methods for Determining an Unknown Characteristic of a Sample, U.S. Patent 10,504,614	Catherine Grgicak, Desmond Lun, Muriel Medard, Harish Swaminathan
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	Agriculture	Downy Mildew Resistant/Tolerant Sweet Basil Varieties, U.S. Patent 10,159,212	James E. Simon, Robert Pyne, C. Andrew Wyenandt
Siemens Technology	Industrial Processes	Machine Diagnosis Using Mobile Devices and Cloud Computers U.S 2020/0356898	Tao Cui, Gunter Struck, Heiko Claussen, Ram Kuruganty
Stevens Institute of Technology	Information Technology	Systems and Methods for Quantum -Secured Private-Preserving Computations, WO Patent WO2021077021A1	Yuping Huang

To access more business news, visit NJB News Now.

Related Articles: