New Product Development Center: Turning ideas into real-world impact
Friday, November 21, 2025
Media Contact: Desa James | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-2669 | desa.james@okstate.edu
At Oklahoma State University, innovation isn’t confined to research labs — it’s designed to serve the public. The New Product Development Center, part of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, helps entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses transform ideas into tangible products that improve lives across Oklahoma and beyond.
Through programs like the Inventors Assistance Service, NPDC helps innovators navigate the early stages of product development from patent searches and market analysis to prototyping and testing. Funded in part by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, NPDC has supported hundreds of ideas that merge creativity with engineering expertise to solve real problems.
Every year, NPDC’s engineers and partners turn imagination into impact. What begins as a simple idea — a sketch, a question, a “what if” — often grows into technology that saves lives, protects the environment or strengthens Oklahoma’s economy. The following projects are just a glimpse of how innovation at NPDC is shaping a better future for the state and beyond.
ParaNano, is a medical device startup developing a “smoke alarm for infection.” Their flagship product, the WoundcueTM, is a nanofiber membrane that has demonstrated in laboratory testing the ability to change color in response to early pathogenic activity before an infection becomes severe. Initially supported through the IAS program, the company has received funding from OCAST to support civilian applications and from the Defense Health Agency for refinement of use in austere combat environments for traumatic burn wounds. The device could help clinicians and medics quickly identify potential pathogen invasion in wounds and prioritize care for injured civilians and soldiers.
Beyond military applications, ParaNano’s innovation could transform wound care for clinical care and rural communities, where access to physicians is limited. The technology’s laboratory-validated ability to identify increasing risk of infection could help prevent complications and save lives, particularly for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, where infection often occurs in diabetic foot ulcers.
Another success story is LateraLift, a startup developing novel late-life artificial lift systems for horizontal oil wells. NPDC was engaged early on to participate in idea generation and has remained heavily involved through prototype development and testing. The breadth of NPDC’s involvement with LateraLift demonstrates both creativity and engineering expertise in the energy space.
Due to the tortuous nature of a horizontal well path, rod pumping systems, the predominant late-life artificial lift choice, are installed well above the level of the producing formation. This leads to higher producing bottom hole pressure and higher abandonment pressure. This means that large quantities of recoverable oil and gas are being left behind due to inadequate artificial lift.
NPDC helped LateraLift design a rod-less positive displacement pump that can be installed anywhere in the wellbore, including the lateral. The result is greater production today and increased ultimate reserves over time. Due to the nature of the design, stuffing box leaks, a source of recurring environmental damage in rod pump systems, are completely eliminated. This breakthrough technology has the potential to help producers in Oklahoma and around the globe recover more oil and gas with less environmental impact. Field testing is underway in southern Oklahoma, with commercialization expected in 2026.
The team’s ingenuity also supports sustainable agriculture. When a forward-thinking citizen approached NPDC about the plastic netting used to wrap hay bales — a nonrecyclable material that often ends up tangled in roadside mowers — the center helped turn waste into opportunity. The result: a durable, recycled flowerpot made from hay netting. The project’s next phase aims to involve FFA and 4-H chapters, transforming the product into a student-led sustainability and fundraising initiative.
OCAST continues to support NPDC’s expansion through new technology, including two recently funded industrial robots that small manufacturers can “try before they buy.” The initiative allows local businesses to test automation tools without the financial risk of full investment. This could lead to a program poised to strengthen Oklahoma’s manufacturing competitiveness.
From medical breakthroughs to sustainable farming and energy innovation, the New Product Development Center exemplifies The Cowboy Code by applying engineering expertise to improve communities, industries and lives.