New UF tech for social media, cancer treatment looking for homes

The University of Florida Office of Technology Licensing has dozens of newly developed technologies waiting for an entrepreneur to turn them into a viable commercial product. Here are a couple:

New social media technology to help students gauge online reputation

College students could get a better feel for how their online behavior affects job prospects using new software available for licensing through UF’s Office of Technology Licensing.

Created by My T. Thai, an associate professor in UF’s department of computer and information science and engineering, the software gives users tighter controls on who views their posts and personal information.

It also assigns “scores” to students’ online reputations. The software recognizes words and images — for example, photos with alcohol in them — that trigger lower reputation scores, and it takes into account content that friends post, as well. Then, it ranks users by those scores so they can tell where their online reputations fall among peers.

The technology could also help connect high-scoring students with potential employers who are concerned with reputation. Using the platform, employers hoping to recruit new hires would be able to browse profiles of students who ranked well for reputation.

“The goal of the researcher was to have a platform that enables students to understand that what they do on social media will have an impact on applying for jobs and colleges,” said Wendy Zimbone, a spokeswoman for the project.

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Injectable gene helps boost some cancer treatment programs

A team of UF researches has rolled out a new method for inhibiting the spread of breast, lung and colon cancer while boosting the effectiveness of treatment patients are currently undergoing.

This method is a polynucleotide, which the researchers found acts as a tumor-suppressor gene. The treatment is injectable and works to strengthen patients’ treatment programs.

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