The Trask Innovation Fund is a Purdue Research Foundation-managed development mechanism to assist faculty with potential commercially-marketable technologies. TIF’s objective is to give short-term projects enough funding support to initially enhance commercial value through its intellectual property assets. The funds provided would go towards enhancing technological practicality, the acquisition of critical additional data, or the development of prototypes. The TIF encourages upstart technologies to push their technology to a more marketable product.

Ozan Akkus joined the Purdue faculty in January of 2006 as an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Prior to joining Purdue, he was an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Toledo, where he directed the Orthopaedic Bioengineering Laboratories (OBL). Dr. Akkus’ research lab has a general focus on mitigating the disease of injuries of the musculoskeletal system by the development of mechanically functional biomaterials and engineered tissues.