More than 150 innovators and entrepreneurs attended an in-person event, while 40 joined via livestream to unveil a new, lighted floor-to-ceiling mural in the lobby of UF Innovate | Accelerate at The Hub.
All those related to the UF Innovate family – innovators, The Hub and Sid Martin Biotech resident clients, and some special guests – were invited to welcome the new artwork illustrating “The Flow of Innovation.” The 42-foot-tall mural depicts technologies and products birthed from UF inventions.
“This mural is intended to highlight University of Florida’s work from Gatorade to the present day that are making the world better,” said Jim O’Connell, assistant vice president of UF commercialization and the director of UF Innovate | Tech Licensing. “We hoped to capture the past, present, and future in our depiction of technologies and the products startups have created based on them. I think we achieved that.”
Kathy Kinsley-Momberger, art director of UF Research, is the artist behind the beautiful illustration. Kinsey-Momberger was also the artist of the previous mural centerpiece in the same location.
“I am honored to have been a part of this project – for the second time – collaborating with my colleagues at UF Research and UF Innovate. I hope that the mural will be enjoyed by those who work in The Hub and Gainesville’s Innovation District for many years to come,” said Kinsley-Momberger, who has worked at UF for over 20 years.
The curtain was dropped to reveal the new mural at 4:30 p.m. on October 26 at The Hub, a UF Innovate | Accelerate facility. “The Flow of Innovation” includes discoveries made at UF that have had positive, global impacts. From the top of the mural, perhaps the most famous UF invention and first UF technology transfer deal, Gatorade, flows over other UF innovations in engineering, medicine, and agriculture. The mural highlights the hard work and ingenuity of UF researchers and entrepreneurs.
Some of the most recent technological advances pictured are in gene therapies such as the adeno-associated virus. Vibrantly featured in the mural, AAV serves as a taxicab that can deliver DNA and therapeutics to specific targets in the body. Woven throughout the UF research innovations, UF startups and Accelerate residents are also represented in the mural. At the top right, SATLANTIS, a company developing high-tech services for earth observation and teledetection. Mattrix Technologies is represented under the Gatorade bottle by a series of colored panels. The company discovered a way to reduce OLED manufacturing costs for large screens and displays on top-of-the-line smartphones. Agriculture Intelligence, a precision agriculture science company that combines machine vision, machine learning, and AI to provide cloud-based, precision data for specialty crops is also represented at the bottom of the mural.
The new mural stands as a testament to the progress in science that researchers and entrepreneurs at UF have made.
“This new mural is a distinguished artwork that represents all of us, innovators, entrepreneurs, and those who support them,” said Karl LaPan, director of UF Innovate | Accelerate. “Innovation flows in our DNA.”
UF Innovate also announced the innovator and innovations of the year during an outdoor ceremony following the unveiling of the new mural, “The Flow of Innovation” which is now the centerpiece of The Hub lobby. After the curtain dropped, guests walked to Midpoint Park & Eatery, a food truck park located at the heart of Gainesville’s Innovation District and next to The Hub where the ceremony took place. (Details on the award ceremony here.)
