Two of Knight Campus’ own have been selected for awards from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.
Professor Keat Ghee Ong was selected to receive the 2023 Innovation and Impact Award from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, which recognizes entrepreneurial activities that resulted in innovations with a measurable societal or environmental impact.
Ong was one of the first faculty hired at Knight Campus in 2019. Ong was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2021 and The Ong Lab has distinguished itself with numerous awards for scientific discovery and innovation.
Ong’s research centers around implantable sensors, wireless sensors, electronic devices, and magnetoelastic materials. He has founded multiple companies to pursue the commercialization of his and other technologies, including Penderia Technologies, which he founded in 2020 —with Robert Guldberg, vice president and Robert and Leona DeArmond Executive Director of the Knight Campus — to further develop implantable orthopedic sensors. Ong’s other entrepreneurial pursuits include the company Norinse Technologies LLC, which he founded in 2007 to implement battery-free wireless sensors to track tools and consumables during surgeries, and Insite Technologies LLC, which commercialized magnetic-based implantable devices.
The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation selected Stacey York, the Senior Director of Professional Development and Workforce Readiness, to receive the 2023 Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award, which recognizes significant achievements in advancing these principles in the research and innovation community.
York serves as a key player in a new $4.3 million-dollar National Science Foundation grant-funded program known as Oregon Pathways, which aims to create a pipeline into STEM careers for community college students. The program provides both financial support and mentorship support to help low-income, community college students pursue industrial research careers. As a first-generation college student who chose a degree path based on scholarships and as someone who had a successful industry career in STEM, Stacey brings a unique perspective to her work and is passionate about inspiring the next generation of industrial researchers.
In her previous role as a co-chair of the Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program’s Inclusion and Diversity Initiative, York worked to help graduate students internalize critical values and incorporate them into their careers. She developed recommendations for updates to the Knight Campus Strategic Plan that heightened diversity, equity and inclusion and co-authored a public-facing inclusion, diversity, and outreach statement. As a program director in the Graduate Internship Program, she played a pivotal role in increasing student representation by underrepresented minorities and women by 250 percent in 5 years.