Maha Krishnamurthy, president of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, described UT research in one word: booming.
“I think that’s the best word to use,” Krishnamurthy said. “It is growing. It’s firing on all cylinders.”
UT’s efforts to become a research university have surged in the past few years, and it is starting to pay off. A recent product rights sale of UT-developed technology has placed the university’s research in over 140 athletic fields worldwide.
The technology, called fLEX, measures the quality of athletic fields by simulating how an athlete’s foot strikes the surface of the field. The strike can simulate different athlete interactions through changes in pressure and shoe type. Data produced by the machines inform athletic organizations about how fields might be impacting player safety and performance.
John Sorochan works at the UT Institute of Agriculture as a distinguished professor of turfgrass science and management. Sorochan co-founded the startup in 2019 after witnessing an NFL game be cancelled due to unstable field conditions.
“We wanted to come up with something that could test fields, … so that they wouldn’t ever have to do something like that again,” Sorochan said.
fLEX was recently sold to a Netherlands-based technology company, Stadium Grow Lighting. SGL produces LED lights used on athletic fields to treat inadequate playing areas while also increasing efficiency and reducing energy consumption.
“With this acquisition, we expand our product portfolio with pitch performance testing technology, complementing our current offering of solutions designed to create optimal grass growth conditions in stadiums worldwide,” SGL said in a press release.
Sorochan developed the technology alongside Kyley Dickson, co-director of the UT Center for Athletic Field Safety. Dickson emphasized the importance of seeing his research being used in real-world applications to create real-world impacts. This summer, fLEX technology was used by FIFA in the 2025 Club World Cup.
“It’s been pretty humbling and amazing to see how fast the research that we’re doing with fLEX is being translated into immediate action,” Dickson said. “One of the really interesting things for us with this project is that some groups have been making decisions based on the data we’re getting, and then that changes quite a bit of decisions they’re making, and that’s been very exciting to be a part of.”
UTRF was instrumental in commercializing the technology. According to its website, the mission of the foundation is “protecting, managing and commercializing UT innovations.”
Part of UTRF’s contribution to the research was putting the researchers in contact with Bob Vanderhoff, an executive resident at UTRF who helps inventors commercialize their intellectual property. Vanderhoff heard about fLEX when working with UTRF and eventually took on the role of CEO of the company, pushing the research towards being sold.
“I went back to Maha and said, ‘Let me help them,’” Vanderhoff said.
Another key ingredient in the evolution of the research was UT funding, specifically through the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund. The CIF was established in 2023 to fund UT-based research projects, aligning with UT Chancellor Donde Plowman’s emphasis on supporting UT entrepreneurship and innovation. Plowman expressed her excitement for the success of the fLEX research in September’s UT Advisory Board meeting.
“If we want faculty doing research in areas that’s going to lead to innovations, and ultimately starting companies, we’ve gotta help seed some of that,” Plowman said. “This is a huge project, and we’re excited about what’s possible after this.”
Sorochan and Dickson used the funds to further develop and commercialize the machine. The first version of the machine was exposed, manually operated and did not have a commercial appearance. Through the use of the CIF, the researchers were able to make the product safer, automatic and more visually appealing.
“Without the Chancellor’s Innovation (Fund), we wouldn’t have gotten to that point,” Dickson said.
The faculty members all shared this appreciation for the development of UT’s support for campus research.
“It’s a huge thing for a startup in Knoxville, Tennessee to be acquired by a leading company,” Krishnamurthy said. “That is a point of pride for us.”
