Proof of Product (PoP) is designed to provide industry perspective and critical funding to promising research projects — validating and enhancing their appeal to industry and investors.
Researchers are awarded up to $100,000 in critical funding. Grants are utilized to perform activities that enable pivotal phases of development including customer discovery efforts, feasibility studies, prototype development and more.
Take Action in Advance:
- Submit a Record of Invention (PoP requires that submissions have an active case number)
- Review the proposal template and prepare your content
We encourage first time applicants to reach out to Matt Li, PoP Program Manager.
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Spring 2026 Schedule (Active):
March 20, 2026 Letters of Intent due
April 17, 2026 Proposals due
June 19, 2026 Awards announced
July 1, 2026 Project start date
December 31, 2026 Project end date
January 31, 2027 Project report due
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Researchers with questions, please see the FAQs or contact Matt Li, PoP Program Manager.
Donors interested in funding PoP, please contact Grace Han, Director of Development, or click Donate below.
Stacy Branham
Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences
ReadWithUs: Storytelling for All, With a Little Help from AI
Suellen Hopfer
School of Population and Public Health
AI Narratives for Health Behavior Change
Kai He
School of Engineering
Advancing Scalable Recreation of NMC Cathodes for Circular and Secure Battery Supply Chain
Dimitry Fishman
School of Physical Sciences
Unlocking Light in Silicon: First Ultrabroadband Light-Emitting Diode Made From Silicon
Christine King
Samueli School of Engineering
The OneSpec Vaginal Speculum to Improve Comfort and Visibility
Gulab Zode
School of Medicine
Validating an LNP-RNP Gene Editing Platform for Glaucoma Therapy
Rongsheng Jin
School of Medicine
Fast-acting Engineered Botulinum Neurotoxins for Treatment of Chronic Illnesses
Brian Wong
School of Medicine
Electrochemical clearing of the cornea post-chemical injury
Jianhua Yu
School of Medicine
Oncolytic virus armed with payloads that provide multiple mechanisms of action
David Kisailus
Samueli School of Engineering
Bulk Processing of Biologically Sourced and Eco-friendly Carbon-Metal Nanocomposite Materials for Water Purification
Andre van Der Hoek
Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences
The Daily Smirk: A Novel Self and Peer Assessment Tool for Improving Student Teamwork
Howard Lee
School of Physical Sciences
Hollow core optical fiber bundle for high power laser delivery for geothermal Drilling
William Tomlinson
Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences
An AI That’s a Better Friend
Catherine Loudon
Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences
Physical Insecticides: Harnessing the Power of Plant Defenses for Trapping Pests
Tony Givargis
Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences
Accelerating Terabyte-Scale Analytics Queries
Brian Paegel
School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Phenotypic DNA-Encoded Drug Discovery in Living Tissues
Shivashankar Othy
School of Medicine
Novel Combination of Biologics to Expand Regulatory T Cells for Multiple Sclerosis
Cristina Lopes
Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences
RAGMan: Aligned Conversational Assistants
Kylie Peppler
Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences
StoryAI: An AI-based storytelling app for literacy development
Shane Ardo
School of Physical Sciences
Demonstration of a green H2 production reactor design projected to meet aggressive DOE cost targets
Markus Ribbe
School of Biological Sciences
Generation of novel diazotrophic associative microbes for improved crop production
Vojislav Stamenkovic
Samueli School of Engineering
High Power Density Electrochemical Energy Conversion Devices
Yoonjin Won
Samueli School of Engineering
Sustainability toward The Future of Semiconductors
Jenny Yang
School of Physical Sciences
Coupling Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Capture and Concentration with HVAC Systems
Ralph Clayman
School of Medicine
A single-use treatment for all kidney stones: Development of a disposable flexible aspiration ureteroscope with multiple laser working ports to allow for simultaneous laser lithotripsy, irrigation, and fragment aspiration
Timothy Downing
Samueli School of Engineering
Targeting the cell adhesions for highly-efficient generation of aneuploidy-free iPSCs
Rongsheng Jin
School of Medicine
Novel botulinum neurotoxins with high selectivity towards autonomic and sensory neurons
Abraham Lee
Samueli School of Engineering
A droplet based microfluidic platform (ADOPT) that enables three-dimensional isotropic imaging of live suspensions through droplet microvortices
Shivashankar Othy
School of Medicine
Novel Combination of Biologics for Multiple Sclerosis
Amir Rahmani
Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing
ZotCare: A Flexible, Personalizable, and Affordable Mobile Health Service Provider
Manuel Gamero-Castano
School of Engineering
Silicon-Based Electrospray Thruster System for SmallSats.
Petra Wilder-Smith
Beckman Laser Institute / School of Medicine
Integrated Intelligent Intraoral Camera for Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancer Screening and Management to Achieve Early Detection and Better Outcomes.
Jeff Krichmar
School of Social Sciences
CARLSim: A Framework for Large-Scale Detailed Spiking Neural Network Development.
Mark Warschauer
School of Education
Papyrus AI: an intelligent Writing Coach for K-12 Schools
Huolin Xin
School of Physical Sciences
Toward commercialization of an ultrathin polymer electrolyte for high energy density, all-solid-state lithium batteries
David Kisailus
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Development of Nanoporous Graphitic Carbon-Metal Nanocomposite Materials for Water Purification
Xiaoyu Shi
School of Biological Sciences
Single-cell spatial proteomics for Alzheimer’s therapeutics
Abe Lee
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
An acoustic-dielectrophoretic transducer (ADEPT) platform for high throughput and precision cell sorting in cancer immunotherapy
Krzysztof Palczewski
School of Medicine
Use of systems pharmacology to prevent age-related macular degeneration
Daniele Piomelli
School of Medicine
A medical food that prevents the emergence of chronic pain after surgery
Maksim Plikus
School of Biological Sciences
Bio-manufacture of face and neck cartilage from Human Pluripotent Cells
Eric Potma
School of Physical Sciences
Sensors to detect biomarkers from exhaled breath
Houlin Xin
School of Physical Sciences
Doped Ultra-High-Nickel Layered Cathode for Advanced Lithium-Ion Batteries
Hung Cao
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Cloud-enabled Passive Wireless pH Monitoring in Small Vials
Peter Kaiser
School of Medicine
Small Molecule Correctors for Mutants of the Tumor Suppressor
Mathew Blurton-Jones
School of Biological Sciences
Patient-specific Cell Therapy for a Lethal Genetic Disease of the Brain’s White Matter
Ralph Clayman
School of Medicine
Development of a Novel Modular Wireless Large Bore Vacuum Universal Endoscope a.k.a. Vacuumscope
Jesse Jackson
Claire Trevor School of the Arts
CUBITS: The Commercialization of Marching Cubes Made Physical and Tangible
Ichiro Yuki
School of Medicine
Development of a Novel Liquid Embolic Material Used for the Treatment of Stroke Patients
Caryn Bradley
School of Medicine
Pedi-Sync: An Integrated Biomedical Platform with Clinical Algorithm for Determining Optimum Feeding Protocols for Preterm Infants
Hung Cao
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Novel Patches for Fetal and Maternal Monitoring in the Home Setting
Arash Kheradvar
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Helix Cardia: A Minimally-Invasive Whole-
Heart Assist Device
Dan Cooper
School of Medicine
A Novel Noninvasive Method to Assess Asthma Inhaler Compliance and Lung Function Through Aerosol Detection in the Exhaled Breath in Children and Adults
Gamal Ghoniem
School of Medicine
DENERA: DEtrusor NErve Radiofrequency Ablation: Pre-clinical Study on Safety
Michelle Khine
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Non-Invasive Continuous Blood Pressure Band-Aid© Sensor
Regina Ragan
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Culture-free Diagnostics for Antibiotic Stewardship
John Chaput
School of Physical Sciences
P(V) Reagents for the Scalable Synthesis of Natural and Modified Nucleoside Triphosphates
Albert Siryaporn
School of Physical Sciences & School of Biological Sciences
Benchmarking of a Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy Device for Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (FLIM-AST) of Clinical Samples
Brett Sanders
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Product Market Fit of Flood Hazard Data in the Facilities Maintenance Industry
Mohammad Al Faruque
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Physical Layer Key Generation Protocol for Secure V2X Communication Architecture in the Era of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
Ralph Clayman
School of Medicine
Development of a Novel Pressure Sensing Device to Determine the Force Applied During Ureteral Access Sheath Deployment
Enrico Gratton
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
A Particle-Sorting Device for the Separation, Isolation, and Enrichment of Particles at Ultra-Low Concentration
Abraham Lee
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
High-Efficiency Cell-Bead Encapsulation Platform for Droplet-based Genomic Screening
Chang Liu
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
A Platform Technology for the Rapid Evolution of Therapeutic Antibodies
Joseph Rinehart
School of Medicine
Closed-Loop Vasopressor Infusions: Peripheral Connectivity
Brian Wong
School of Medicine
Electrochemical lysis of FAT (ELF)
Arash Kheradvar
Henry Samueli School of Engineering: Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering
Feasibility Studies of a Bio-Inspired Transcatheter Atrioventricular (Mitral and Tricuspid) Valve Technology in Sheep
Michelle Khine
Henry Samueli School of Engineering: Department of Biomedical Engineering
ASPIRE: Asthma Sensing Predictive Intuitive Respiratory E-alert Monitor
Harrison Lin
School of Medicine: Department of Otolaryngology
Auditory Neural Prosthesis: the Next Generation Cochlear Implant
Hamid Moradi
School of Medicine: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
Developing a Treatment to Improve Survival in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)
Bruce Tromberg
Henry Samueli School of Engineering: Biomedical Engineering; Beckman Laser Institute
Laser Scanning Multiphoton Microscope (MPM) for in vivo Clinical Skin Imaging
Hamid Djalilian
School of Medicine: Department of Otolaryngology
Clinical Investigation of a New Direct Drive Micro Hearing Aid: A Clinical Trial
Michelle Digman
Henry Samueli School of Engineering: Department of Biomedical Engineering
An Imaging Device to Assess the Developmental Potential of Pre-implantation Embryos
Catherine Loudon
UCI School of Biological Sciences: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Physical Insecticides: Entrapment of Bed Bugs
Rongshen Jin
School of Medicine: Department of Physiology & Biophysics
Novel Anti-cancer Biologics Targeting Wnt Signaling Pathway
Maksim Plikus
UCI School of Biological Sciences: Department of Development and Cell Biology
Stimulation of Hair Growth by Senescent Cell-Derived Factors
Kumar Wickramasinghe
Henry Samueli School of Engineering: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Rapid Diagnosis of Ocular Infections at Point-of-Care – Validation of Handheld ChAmpionSeq PCR Technology
Aileen Anderson
Associate Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Title: C3a neutralization to target cancer stem cells and glioblastoma
An approach using C3a neutralizing antibodies for glioblastoma treatment
Christopher Hughes
Professor & Chair, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry School of Biological Sciences
Title: A vascularized tissue platform for personalized anti-cancer drug screening
Commercial development of a vascularized tissue platform for drug screening
Tibor Juhasz
Professor for the Henry Samuel School of Engineering and the School of Medicine
Title: Two-photon, non-linear corneal cross-linking for treatment of low refractive errors
Development of a device based off optical photodynamic therapy for vision correction applications
Mark Madou
Chancellor’s Professor for the Henry Samueli School of Engineering; Joint Appointee for Chancellor’s Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering and Chemical Sciences
Title: (Hummingbird) Rapid uropathogens identification and antibiotic susceptibility test for point of care applications
A cell phone and tablet compatible point-of-care system for bacterial and antibody detection
Athina Markopoulou
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Title: AntMonitor for mobile data transparency and privacy
A software tool to intercept network traffic in and out of a mobile device
Weian Zhao
Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences; Joint Appointee Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Title: Digital detection of pathogens in unprocessed blood using one-step blood droplet PCR
Prototype development of a one-step droplet device for amplification of nucleic acids
Jeffrey Krichmar
Professor of cognitive sciences
Technology: an interactive robotic device used as therapy for children with developmental disorders
Kumar Wickramasinghe
Nicolaos G. and Sue Curtis Alexopoulos Presidential Chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The Henry Samueli Endowed Chair, Professor of electrical engineering & computer science, Professor of biomedical engineering, Professor of chemical engineering and material science
Technology: a smartphone-controlled rapid DNA test
Aimee Edinger
Associate professor of developmental & cell biology
Technology: anti-cancer therapeutics
Elliot Botvinick
Associate professor of biomedical engineering, Associate professor of Surgery, Associate Professor of Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic, Associate Professor of the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology, Associate Professor of chemical engineering and materials sciences
Technology: an integrated diagnostic device for acute middle-ear infection and a continuous analyte sensor device to improve healthcare (two projects funded)
Anand Ganesan
Associate professor of dermatology, Joint appointee biological chemistry
Technology: small-molecule drugs to inhibit growth of early-stage melanomas.
Kenneth Shea
Distinguished professor of chemistry
Technology: a therapeutic bandage for treating venom-induced tissue necrosis.
While there is no hard and fast rule on the maturity of the project, the ideal PoP application has a solid technology foundation, has a good idea of what target customers and needs they will help fulfill, and understand the next step in proving their technology can better meet those needs.
How many projects are funded?
The number of proposals funded each Round depends on the quantity and quality of proposal submitted, but we anticipate from 4 to 8 per Round.
How much funding does an awarded project receive?
Funded projects can receive up to $100,000. The exact amount will vary by proposal and awarded projects are not guaranteed the full funding requested. Final decision on amount of funding per proposal will be made by UCI Beall Applied Innovation with input from external Reviewers with domain expertise.
What are appropriate use of PoP funds?
PoP funds can be used for animal testing and services, subcontracted studies (including animal research facilities), reagents, tools, and personnel cost that serve the aims and objectives of the project. Funds cannot be used for personal computers, faculty or administrative salaries, and patent costs. Budgeting for equipment is generally discouraged unless the equipment is essential to the development of the project and not available elsewhere at UCI.
What’s the expected outcome of a PoP-funded project (short-term and long-term)?
The short-term expectation is for the project team to achieve the aims and objectives and provide a report of accomplishments laid out in their proposal during the 6 month performance period. Teams should have a much better understanding of the commercial value of the technology after completion of the PoP project. As for long-term expectations, see “What comes after PoP?”
Can I apply for PoP multiple times? Can I submit multiple proposals per round?
Yes, you can apply for PoP multiple times (especially if it’s associated with different UCI case numbers). Yes, you can submit multiple proposals per round if they are associated with different UCI case numbers.
What comes after PoP?
If you’ve completed BAI’s regional I-Corps program, we encourage teams to pursue National I-Corps. If your PoP-funded project is successful, you could work with BAI’s Research Translation Group (RTG) to patent your invention. From there, you could either license it to an existing company or start your own, with support from BAI’s New Venture Group (NVG). NVG can also help you apply for SBIR/STTR grants and seek funding from investors.
To provide faculty researchers with industry insights and validation of product/market fit through expert understanding of unmet market needs so researchers can accelerate the commercialization of their technology.
What stage, generally, are PoP projects?
Technologically mature but still commercially early. Generally, projects looking to derisk the next relevant commercial milestone (including R&D work) but the feasibility of the underlying technology has already been demonstrated in a university research lab
What’s the expected outcome of a PoP-funded project (short-term and long-term)?
Short-term expectation is to bring the technology and/or product closer to market by addressing an immediate commercial concern. Long-term expectation is for PoP to accelerate the time to market for promising technologies that might otherwise languish due to lack of resources.
How are PoP funds used?
PoP funds are used by the research lab to enable additional development work that can help address concerns for future investors. This might include, but are not limited to, showing basic product capabilities, developing a prototype device/product, or demonstrating manufacturing scalability.
Can I offer my paid services?
Not as a part of the review. Keep in mind that reviews are provided on a single-blinded basis so the proposal author(s) are not aware of the reviewer’s identity. Should there be a fruitful collaboration opportunity, both parties may agree to un-blind to pursue the partnership. If a business relationship is initiated between a Reviewer and an Applicant, UCI BAI requests the Reviewer notify the PoP Grants Program Manager immediately to ensure all parties avoid conflicts-of-interest.