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Team RapidSense members hold their award certificate after winning first place at Auburn’s Launch Your Societal Impact! workshop.

First place was awarded to Team RapidSense, including Assistant Professor Jia Wu, postdoctoral researcher Lang Zhou and undergraduate student J. Brendan Baker. Their prototype integrates textile-based biosensors into period underwear to support menstrual management for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

A new summer workshop at Auburn University is helping researchers move their work beyond the lab by focusing on one central question: Who does this help?

Launch Your Societal Impact! — a workshop developed as a partnership between the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM) and Auburn’s New Venture Accelerator (NVA) — brought together 12 interdisciplinary teams to explore how research can translate into real-world solutions. Over six weeks, participants built the skills and mindset to conduct stakeholder discovery, validate ideas and design projects that create measurable impact on societal needs.

“It provided an opportunity to explore how research and technology could translate into meaningful, real-world impact, especially for underserved populations,” said Lang Zhou, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, working under the mentorship of Pengyu Chen and leading Team RapidSense. “The workshop helped us shift from a purely scientific focus to a more human-centered, implementation-ready approach.”

Team Aerosol Mitigation members hold their award certificate at Auburn’s Launch Your Societal Impact! workshop.

Second place went to Team Aerosol Mitigation, led by Assistant Professor Paul Ohno and graduate student Angel Gibbons in COSAM’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who examined how fluorescence-based aerosol analysis could improve air quality monitoring and disease prevention.

Zhou’s team, including — Jia Wu, an assistant professor in the College of Human Sciences, and College of Engineering undergraduate student Brenden Baker — developed a prototype for smart, sensor-embedded period underwear designed to assist individuals with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. RapidSense took first place in the workshop’s final presentations, where teams shared what they had learned and how they planned to move their work forward.

That showcase marked the culmination of a program designed to guide researchers through a structured discovery process — from initial idea to stakeholder feedback.

“The idea for a summer workshop began in March of this year,” said NVA Director Lou Bifano. “The result was the series of six half-day workshops focused on the process and tools that faculty researchers and students could use to validate assumptions about potential markets, stakeholders, customers and their problems.”

The program combined short training sessions with hands-on assignments that challenged participants to test hypotheses, map value propositions and gather insights from stakeholders. Faculty and student teams from colleges across campus took part.

Team Animal Genome and Microbiome members pose with their award certificate at Auburn’s Launch Your Societal Impact! workshop.

Third place went to Team Animal Genome and Microbiome — led by Associate Professor Xu Wang and research assistant Thu Dunkleberger from the College of Veterinary Medicine — who explored how genome and microbiome technologies could improve animal health and memory.

“It was great to see the developing entrepreneurial spirit among the faculty and students that participated in this workshop, who represented many different colleges at Auburn University,” said Mark Liles, COSAM’s associate dean for research. “We hope that future workshops will stimulate more stakeholder discovery and help AU researchers find paths to societal impact.”

Second place went to Team Aerosol Mitigation, led by Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Assistant Professor Paul Ohno and graduate student Angel Gibbons, who explored fluorescence-based tracking of aerosol particles. Third place was awarded to Team Animal Genome and Microbiome — led by Associate Professor Xu Wang in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and research assistant Thu Dunkleberger — who focused on using gene sequencing and microbiome analysis to improve disease monitoring and cognitive function in dogs.

The range of projects underscored the value of collaboration across campus, said chemistry professor and COSAM faculty fellow Christopher Easley. Easley also noted that the workshop gave participants structure and space to explore the broader impact of their research.

“The COSAM research team was very happy to partner with the folks at the New Venture Accelerator and Intellectual Property Exchange (IPX),” he said. “We hope that future workshops will be just as successful and will help highlight the supportive roles of NVA and IPX at Auburn, the opportunities for alternative funding in the entrepreneurial space and the potential to use stakeholder discovery to help make direct impacts on society through academic research.”

Organizers hope the workshop becomes a regular offering and continues to strengthen collaboration across campus.

“All of us look forward to building on this relationship with new programs and initiatives,” Bifano said.