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Inventor Recognition Program

The UC Santa Cruz Office of Research has created the Inventor Recognition Program (IRP) to acknowledge researchers on a quarterly basis for their U.S. patent awards and to showcase the groundbreaking research that is conducted on the UCSC campus every day. Launched in December 2016, the IRP is meant to recognize the hard work of UCSC faculty, students, and staff and to help them realize the value of their inventions by commercializing their inventions and discoveries.

January to March 2022 IRP Award Winners

COLLISION AVOIDANCE IN MULTI-HOP AD-HOC NETWORKS USING HALF DUPLEX TRANSCEIVERS

Patent Numbers: US 11,251,933

Current UCSC Inventors:
JJ Garcia-Luna-Aceves, Professor - Computer Science and Engineering

In network routing, the traditional collision avoidance handshake consists of a request-to-send (RTS), clear-to-send (CTS), a data packet, and an acknowledgment (ACK). This invention augments that process using pilots, which are sent by a receiving node after it sends a CTS or by a sending node after it sends its data packet. The result is that multiple access interference between data packets or ACKs is avoided.

This solution is particularly effective in a system that relies on single half duplex channels which can fail due to hidden terminals, exposed transmitters, and exposed receivers.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EFFICIENT COMMUNICATION PACKET GENERATION IN INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)

Patent Numbers: US 11,252,263

Katia Obraczka

Current UCSC Inventor:
Katia Obraczka, Professor - Computer Science and Engineering

This invention resulted from a collaboration with investigators from the University of Brasilia and the Federal Univesity of Pernambuco in Brazil.
The Internet’s TCP/IP protocol architecture is a layered system design. As such, the functions performed by the TCP/IP protocol suite are implemented at different protocol layers, where each layer provides a specific set of services to the layer above through a well-defined interface. Using this interface, data being received or sent is passed up or down the stack on its way through the network.
However, layered design approaches can increase overhead, as each layer incurs additional communication (e.g., additional header field) and processing costs. Furthermore, limiting the flow between layers to data plane information restricts the sharing of control information across layers and may lead to functions being duplicated at different layers.
The technology described in this patent is referred to as the IoT Unified Services framework, or IoTUS for short. It involves generating communication packets for use by IoT nodes. The packets are generated by presenting an API to each protocol in a protocol stack. A single packet buffer is configured to hold headers for all the protocols that are directed to a destination node. Then memory pointers are stored in tables maintained by the porotocols. When a input from the first protocol reaches the API, the single packet buffer is updated, as is the table in the second protocol.
It has the effect of facilitating and promoting information and functional sharing among the layers of the network protocol stack, resulting in more energy and storage-efficient IoT networks.

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Honorary Mentions

Patent(s) Issued as Continuation of Patent Previously Recognized

FUNCTIONALIZED NANOPIPETTE BIOSENSOR

Patent Numbers: US 11,255,814

UCSC Inventor: Nader Pourmand

Inventors previously at UCSC: Miloslav Karhanek, Chris Webb, Senkei Umehara

NANOPORE DEVICE FOR REVERSIBLE ION AND MOLECULE SENSING OR MIGRATION

Patent Number: US 11,243,188

UCSC Inventor: Nader Pourmand

Inventors previously at UCSC: Boaz Vilozny, Paolo Actis, Adam Seger

See all IRP award winners

The IRP is managed by Jeff Jackson, Director of Innovation Transfer in the office of Industry Alliances and Technology Commercialization (IATC).

For more information about the IRP, the honorees, their patents, other campus inventions and discoveries, or IP portfolio management services, please contact the IATC.

Would you like to be an IRP award winner?

If you are doing research and you invent something new and useful, that other people need, you likely can be an IRP award winner. Start by using UCSC IATC's new Invention Disclosure Form (described here). Once you have submitted that, IATC's IP Management team will work with you to determine if your invention is suitable for protection with a patent. Inventors who have patents issue receive the award at the time the patent grants.

Check out the list of technologies available from the University of California.

University of California, Santa Cruz
Industry Alliances & Technology Commercialization
Kerr Hall — Room 413
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Tel: 831.459.5415
innovation@ucsc.edu