Arizona State University remained in the top 10 universities worldwide for U.S. utility patents issued for the fourth time and rose one spot among U.S. universities on the National Academy of Inventors’ annual Top 100 Worldwide Universities list released today.

ASU secured 180 U.S. utility patents in calendar year 2024, ranking ninth among universities worldwide and seventh among U.S. universities, a press release explained. 

Other U.S. universities in the top 10 include the University of California system, MIT, University of Texas system, Purdue University and Stanford University. ASU surpassed Johns Hopkins University, Harvard, Caltech and the University of Michigan. In 2023, ASU secured 170 U.S. utility patents.

Sally C. Morton, executive vice president of ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise, said in the release that ASU has a longstanding commitment to advancing research and discovery of public value that drives economic development locally and globally.

“Patented technologies developed at ASU are used every day in products for health care, communications, water management, national defense and more,” Morton said. “Our proven track record of innovation, demonstrated in this ranking, drives trillion-dollar industries forward and creates new jobs and solutions to society’s most critical challenges.”

Skysong Innovations, ASU’s exclusive technology transfer and intellectual property management organization, helps translate research into impact by protecting intellectual property developed in ASU labs and negotiating licensing deals with commercial partners who advance the patented technologies and develop solutions for society.

Kyle Siegal, executive director and chief patent counsel for Skysong Innovations, said in the release that utility patents are usually vital for building bridges between university research labs and the marketplace.

“The American patent system fuels the cycle of innovation by incentivizing inventors to disclose their inventions and by reducing risk for commercial partners who must invest resources developing those inventions into products,” Siegal said.

Siegal continued that it leads to economic impact and new products that improve lives, from cybersecurity tools to medical devices.

"People are sometimes surprised to learn the patent system is rooted in the United States Constitution itself, which empowers Congress to ‘promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries,’” Siegal said. 

In 2024, ASU’s patented technologies spanned a variety of sectors, all of which aim to solve challenges of daily life.

An example indicative of ASU’s semiconductor focus and ability to collaborate with industry, ASU and Texas Instruments researchers developed a technology that aids chip designers by improving the way electronic devices match to one another electronically inside a high-tech processing chip, the release explained.

The patented technology was developed by Sule Ozev, professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Muslum Emir Avci, former student, and Chethan Kumar, lead engineer at Texas Instruments.

Another patented technology provides a robotic ankle system for people with gait disorders, such as those recovering from a stroke or undergoing rehabilitation. 

The device reduces muscle effort by up to 38% in plantar flexor muscles, according to the release. It functions by storing energy during the heel-on phase of walking and releasing it during the heel-up phase, thereby enhancing mobility.

The patented technology was developed by former students Seyed Mostafa Rezayat Sorkhabadi, Marcus Schaller and Zhi Qiao as well as Wenlong Zhang, associate professor in the School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks.