Hu receives license for company to make Smartphone app that is alternative to hearing aids

Congratulations to Yi Hu, associate professor, electrical engineering, who together with Christina Runge, professor in the Department of Otolaryngology & Communication Sciences at the Medical College of Wisconsin, received an exclusive license for Ascending Hearing Technologies LLC from the UWM Research Foundation.

Hu and Runge have developed a high-performance, personalized, convenient, low-cost Personal Sound Amplification Product (PSAP) in the form of a smartphone app, to bring improved hearing to those who desire amplification in daily life. It is an alternative to a hearing aid.

New to the marketplace, PSAPs—sold over the counter and worn in the ear—transmit and optimize sounds for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.

This research has been supported by a $163,946 award and a $99,731 supplement from the National Institutes of Health for a Phase I clinical trial STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) grant for the Custom-Fit Personal Sound Amplification Smartphone App. (Originally a one-year trial, it has been extended to three years due to COVID-19.)

The team was also selected for a $75,000 match fund from the Wisconsin Center for Technology Commercialization.