Carnegie Mellon medical device spinout awarded NSF grant

A Carnegie Mellon University spinout company has received a $650,000 National Science Foundation grant that could help make some surgeries easier and safer.

Advanced Optronics Inc., which has offices in Oakland, received the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator grant along with CMU to further develop tiny surgical devices that provide doctors with real-time feedback during implantation to assure proper placement. Cochlear implants, devices that help people with hearing loss or deafness, is the company’s first application for its platform technology, said Jay Reddy, Advanced Optronics co-founder and CEO.

“They’re small enough and flexible, so you can put them anywhere,” Mr. Reddy said.

As of 2022, there were 1 million people worldwide using cochlear devices, according to the Acoustical Society of America.

At the core of Advanced Optronics technology are flexible sensors that are 10 times smaller than a human hair. For now, the sensors are made in semiconductor fabrication labs at CMU and the University of Pittsburgh, but the company plans to switch to a contract manufacturer as Advanced Optronics scales up for commercialization, Mr. Reddy said

The sensors can be embedded in flexible medical instruments, such as catheters and endoscopes, to electronically “tell” the surgeon if the implant has become kinked or blocked during the procedure, reducing the risk of trauma and enhancing the chances of success.

Advanced Optronics was founded in 2021 by Mr. Reddy, who received a doctorate degree in electrical and computer engineering from CMU, and Maysam Chamanzar, professor of electrical and computer engineering at CMU. The pre-revenue company employs three full-time people and several others part time.

Participating in the NSF grant funding is Abraham Jacob, cochlear implant surgeon at the Center for Neurosciences in Tucson, Ariz., and Wenzhen Yuan, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Advanced Optronics has raised a total of $1.5 million grants and investments.

Kris B. Mamula: kmamula@post-gazette.com 
First Published February 16, 2024, 12:28pm
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The image is of the Carnegie Mellon University and Advanced Optronics Team. From left to right; Maysam Chamanzar, Jay Reddy, Harry Rosmann, Nikhila Simhadri, Hannah Mormer, and Rachel Maniet. (Advanced Optronics Inc.)