USM Climbs in List of Nation’s Top 10 Patent-Producing Universities

The University of Maryland has again earned a spot among the world's top academic institutions for turning research and discoveries into patents, according to a new report released Tuesday by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Together with other schools in the University System of Maryland (USM), the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) ranks eighth among U.S. public institutions—up one spot from the previous year—and 22nd in the world for patents awarded in 2024. According to the report, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last year granted a total of 114 patents to five USM institutions; of those, UMCP holds 71—up from 59 the year prior.

"Patents empower universities to protect their innovations, foster collaboration, attract funding and turn research into real-world solutions, driving both academic advancement and economic impact,” said Ken Porter, the College Park executive director of UM Ventures, an initiative of the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower) to commercialize discoveries and create economic impact at both the University of Maryland, College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore. "A robust patent portfolio creates opportunities not just for our faculty researchers and inventors, but for the entire university, state and region.”

Innovations from UMCP researchers that received patents in 2024 include:

• A battery that uses a special graphite material with halogen added to make it work better and last longer, developed by Chunsheng Wang, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and collaborators.

• A computational method for recognizing human emotion in images or video, developed by UMD alums Trisha Mittal Ph.D. ’23, Uttaran Bhattacharya Ph.D. ’22 and Rohan Chandra Ph.D. ’22; Pooja Guhan, a doctoral student in computer science; Anikat Bera, adjunct associate professor of computer science; and Dinesh Manocha, Distinguished University Professor of electrical and computer engineering.

• A method for using enzymes called endolysins to treat or prevent diseases and infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, created by veterinary medicine Professor Daniel Nelson and collaborators with the U.S. Navy.

• A special type of material that can conduct ions (positively or negatively charged atoms) and composed of tiny "nanofibrils" that could be used in devices and technologies like batteries or fuel cells. The technology, which has been licensed by WH Power, was developed by Professor Emeritus Robert Briber from materials science and engineering, along with Liangbing Hu, a former professor in the same department.

• A way to convert methane gas into liquid fuel for easier and less expensive transport, licensed by Alchemity and developed by Eric Wachsman, Distinguished University Professor of materials science and engineering and director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute, and Dongxia Liu, a former professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Collectively, the universities on the 2024 Top 100 Worldwide list hold over 9,600 patents. The NAI has been releasing the rankings since 2013, based on data provided by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.