Associate Professor Daphne Watkins won two of the four awards presented at the University of Michigan Fast Forward Medical Innovations (FFMI) program on November 17, 2017.
Watkins, who competed among 15 teams of physicians and medical professionals, is the principal investigator for the YBMen Project, which was created to better understand and address the pressures and needs of young black men using popular social media platforms to provide mental health education and social support. Watkins won the Health IT category, and the Crowd Favorite category.
“The Medical Innovations program is a great way to learn how to grow ideas and make good use of customer discovery,” Watkins said. “These awards are an acknowledgement that the work we’re doing is useful and important. They are very encouraging.”
Watkins continues to write grants to evaluate the YBMen Project and make it scalable and sustainable.
U-M Tech Transfer, the sponsor of FFMI program, is the University unit responsible for the commercialization of University research discoveries and reports to the U-M Office of Research. They enhance research discoveries, such as Watkins, to encourage licensing and broad deployment with existing businesses and newly formed U-M start-ups. U-M Tech Transfer has earned a reputation for performance among the top 10 of all universities.