Innovation Crossroads

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  • Three people wearing safety glasses and lab coats work together at a laboratory station. One person is adjusting equipment inside a fume hood while the others observe. A green and blue graphic overlay with an oak leaf logo runs across the bottom of the image.

    Energy Department Seeks Energy and Manufacturing Innovators for 2026 Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program Cohort

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the opening of application portals for the Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP) 2026 Cohort, a two-year, funded fellowship that supports the next generation of energy entrepreneurs. Selected fellows will work to advance technologies that make energy more affordable, bolster national security, and give American manufacturers a competitive edge in

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  • U of I grad’s company ‘turning poop into profit’ featured image

    U of I grad’s company ‘turning poop into profit’

    While she didn’t grow up on a farm, Bianca Bailey always had a fascination with agriculture and engineering. The summer before sixth grade, the Texas native attended a research apprenticeship program at Kentucky State University where she took soil samples from a tomato farm and examined pesticide infiltration in groundwater. Fast forward to when she

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  • Innovation Crossroads companies join forces, awarded U.S. Air Force contract featured image

    Innovation Crossroads companies join forces, awarded U.S. Air Force contract

    The U.S. Air Force awarded startup SkyNano, led by Innovation Crossroads alumna Anna Douglas, a $1.25 million contract to advance its CO2-to-carbon nanotube technology as part of a project to develop low-cost, battery-grade graphite. SkyNano’s partners include American Energy Technologies Company and Eonix, led by Innovation Crossroads alumnus Don DeRosa. SkyNano and Eonix were recruited to Knoxville through Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded

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  • Portrait of Kevin Roccapriore, founder of AtomQ and Innovation Crossroads Cohort 2024 fellow, against a dark blue and gray background with the Innovation Crossroads logo. Logos of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, and Tennessee Valley Authority appear at the bottom.

    Kevin Roccapriore: The quantum leap of startup AtomQ

    From the world of research papers and cubicles, Kevin Roccapriore has made a leap into the entrepreneurial arena with Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program node at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that provides support for startups like Roccapriore’s AtomQ. 

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  • Portrait of Vinit Chaudhary, founder of Elemental Composites and Innovation Crossroads Cohort 2024 fellow, against a dark blue and gray background with the Innovation Crossroads logo. Logos of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, and Tennessee Valley Authority appear at the bottom.

    Innovation Crossroads supports composite entrepreneur-Fellow Vinit Chaudhary

    Vinit Chaudhary, founder of Elemental Composites and a member of Cohort 2024 in the Innovation Crossroads program, comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has long been interested in business. His focus sharpened when he discovered an interest in composite materials during his mechanical engineering studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and saw the potential to scale and

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