With over 3 billion years of evolution under its belt, the natural world has a pretty long track record of creativity. Knowing this, three interdisciplinary researchers at UC Davis looked to the golden silk orb-weaver spider to develop an innovative biomaterial.

After years in the solar farm industry, Derek Chase was looking into different drone companies to handle aerial flyovers. But he found these companies couldn’t provide the information he needed, which was found on the ground, under the panels, where the wires are.

Grown in a lab from raw materials, so-called “baby trees” could be essential for protecting not only the future of fruits and vegetables, but also people. This is the aim of Botanical Solution Inc., a Davis-based ag tech startup with global roots.

For an old electric vehicle battery, retirement doesn’t mean the end of the road. This fact was the catalyst for RePurpose Energy, a Fairfield-based startup that converts retired EV batteries into renewable energy storage systems.

Nasal and sinus problems can be tricky and costly to diagnose. Based on a hardware prototype developed at Stanford University, Scopi Medical aims to solve both problems with the first AI-enabled portable nasal endoscope for diagnosis at the point of care.

In Uganda, farmers clean maize in three traditional ways: hand sorting, winnowing and sieving. During an internship in eastern Uganda in 2018, Ismael Mayanja observed these processes and believed there had to be a better method.

Founded in 2020, Biosense is based on technology with development led by Luis Bojorquez, founder and CSO. Bojorquez specializes in combining tiny natural substances (e.g. proteins) with inorganic materials to develop novel biosensing technologies.

“These content creators, they have thousands of products they’ve recommended over thousands of posts over a dozen platforms, but there’s no good way to manage all of those products,” Bardsley says. “It’s not that they weren’t doing affiliate links, but they weren’t paying attention to them enough to make money.”

Insect infestation affects crops worldwide, and manually monitoring food processing and storage facilities is a costly and time-intensive endeavor. SmartProbe technology aims to make pest control easier, cheaper and more effective.