Connecticut has a long history of innovating in the field of manufacturing. UConn drives this innovation through collaborations with industry leaders, federal defense agencies, and local businesses to fuel the manufacturing renaissance in Connecticut and beyond. Through longstanding relationships, our industry and government partners access comprehensive expertise and specialized instrumentation to move their products and manufacturing processes forward. From prototyping to advanced powder bed manufacturing technologies and high-end simulation and modeling technology, UConn has the manufacturing expertise and infrastructure to move technologies forward.

Advances in materials science fuel the growth of new products, or even new industries, and allow existing sectors to continue to innovate and optimize. From biomaterials for clinical therapies to novel materials used in additive manufacturing, breakthrough discoveries in materials science could impact the future of countless technologies and industries. With strong partnerships with businesses of all sizes, UConn’s preeminent, multidisciplinary materials science faculty are leading the way to tackle present and future challenges.

UConn researchers and educators are focused on a broad range of innovative approaches in bioinformatics. This include aras such as human genome, biomarker development, computational and in silico modeling. Faculty members from UConn Health and Schools of Engineering, CLAS are actively collaborating internally and externally.  According to CSRankings, an organization which compiles a metrics-based rankings of the top computer science programs in the world, UConn  ranks among the top 10 when it comes to research output in the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology.

The state of Connecticut is on the forefront of biomedical innovation, and UConn is a key driver of this activity. With an $864 million state investment to strengthen bioscience infrastructure, research, and academics, the Bioscience Connecticut initiative supports innovation, entrepreneurship, commercialization, and education in this growing sector to generate long term, sustainable economic growth and treatments for society’s most challenging health conditions.

At UConn, our history of preeminence in energy and sustainability plus longstanding collaborations with industry and government partners allows us to be at the forefront of these fields. Efforts at UConn are geared toward catalyzing the transformation of “Science-to-Systems” for a global sustainable energy economy. Alongside industry partners, UConn faculty are advancing leading-edge interdisciplinary research and technology to solve real-world problems associated with climate change, energy, and sustainability.

Agriculture has been a central part of UConn’s identity since it was founded as the Storrs Agricultural School in 1881. Many of the University’s best known inventions stem from hybrid plant cultivars like the flowering sandcherry and hardy rhododendrons developed by professor Gustav “Gus” Mehlquist (1906-1999) beginning in 1958. Throughout his 70-year career, Mehlquist sought the best plant crosses, and inspired future horticulturists to do the same.

In fact, Mark Brand, professor of horticulture in UConn’s Department of Plant Science, worked as a summer helper in Mehlquist’s lab when he was a student at E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield. Now an internationally renowned inventor in his own right, Brand has created sterile versions of invasive plants like the Japanese barberry. He also kept Mehlquist’s legacy alive by commercializing several of his most promising crosses in the early 1990s. He even chose to pay homage to UConn’s athletic dominance by naming the plants “Slam Dunk,” “Huskymania,” “March Madness,” and “Hoopla.” Many of the hybrids Brand and Mehlquist created are distributed through Monrovia nurseries, Prides Corner Farms, and Spring Meadow Nursery. They can be purchased at garden centers around the country.

Regenerative engineering can be defined as the convergence of advanced materials sciences, stem cell science, physics, developmental biology, and clinical translation, for the regeneration of complex tissues and organ systems. Regeneration, specifically in regards to musculoskeletal tissue, is a groundbreaking field pioneered by Dr. Cato T. Laurencin, UConn researcher and CEO of UConn's Connecticut Convergence Institute for Translation in Regenerative Engineering. The Institute's collaborative, interdisciplinary research teams have patented dozens of inventions, with an eye to one day regenerating human limbs.

UConn supports the commercialization of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical therapeutic agents through our experience in and relationships with industry and industry partners.  We understand the requirements associated with bringing a drug to market, including timelines, approvals, funding, etc. and can help to navigate these challenges accordingly.

UConn also helps to support inventors and innovators whose work focuses on the development of biomedical-relevant tools and measurement devices that aim to meet growing need in the areas of diagnostics, imaging, therapeutics, mobile health and personalized medicine.  Often interdisciplinary in nature, UConn works to manage the convergence of life sciences and engineering that is often required for medical device development, testing, regulatory approval, and commercialization.