University of Notre Dame engineers Peter Kogge and Jay Brockman have been named recipients of the inaugural 1st Source Commercialization Award celebrating research that has made it to the marketplace.
Kogge, Ted H. McCourtney Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, and Brockman, associate engineering dean and concurrent associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, were honored for their role in developing the Enhanced Memory Utilization (Emu) hardware and software technology behind Emu Solutions.
Their patented work in computer architecture and systems design adds processing capability to memory, eliminating a bottleneck in the flow of data between the two functions. The solution allows more efficient data transfer while using less energy. Kogge and Brockman founded Emu Solutions in 2004 with California Institute of Technology researcher Ed Upchurch.
The inaugural award, which carries a $20,000 cash prize, was presented Tuesday (March 29) during a dinner in the Jordan Hall of Science. Established last year with a $1 million gift from 1st Source Bank, the award will be presented each year to faculty from Notre Dame or the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend who have successfully transitioned their technology from the lab to the marketplace.
“We are grateful for the support from 1st Source Bank, whose gift allows us to acknowledge and honor the entrepreneurial spirit,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. Father Jenkins co-hosted the awards event with Chris Murphy, president, CEO and chairman of the Board of 1st Source Bank. Notre Dame researchers who hold one or more United States-issued patents also were honored at the dinner.
The 1st Source Commercialization Award recipients were selected by a committee that included Murphy; John Glynn, founder and managing director of Glynn Capital Management and a Notre Dame trustee; Joseph Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer and COO of the Purdue Research Foundation; Robert Bernhard, Notre Dame vice president for research; and Greg Crawford and Peter Kilpatrick, deans, respectively, of Notre Dame’s Colleges of Science and Engineering.
“I congratulate Professors Brockman and Kogge for the excellent effort that has gone into their project,” Bernhard said. “Bringing research to the marketplace is an important element of the impact University researchers can make.”
In addition to the commercialization award, the 1st Source gift funds an annual lecture or symposium on technology commercialization, bringing to campus experienced entrepreneurs and investors, legal experts on company formation, and other university technology transfer professionals. The gift also permits small grants to help develop technologies that are well suited for commercialization through new commercial endeavors.
Contact: Richard Cox, director of technology transfer, 574-631-5158, rcox4@nd.edu