We do research and development differently. We dream up advanced solutions to the most vexing problems we can find—then we roll up our sleeves and make those solutions a reality.
Explore Our Lab
Intellectual Ventures Laboratory (IV Lab) is where our scientists, engineers, and inventors translate scientific research into bold technological solutions for some of the world’s toughest problems.
With advanced physics, biotechnology, optics, electronics, mechanical, and micromechanical laboratories all under one very large roof—not to mention the Cooking Lab and an instrument fabrication shop—we fill the crucial gap between basic and applied research where invention flourishes.
With the creative freedom to take risks, fail fast, and adapt quickly, cross-functional teams develop early-stage ideas into proofs-of-concept and prototypes, then work with partners to introduce our inventions to the world.
What happens inside an 87,000+ square-foot facility that multidisciplinary teams call home? Brilliant minds comingle in specialized workspaces designed to support all phases of invention, from brainstorming and experimentation, to rapid prototyping and rigorous testing. Occasionally contrarian and always problem-centric, we build diagnostics and intelligent devices for use in agriculture and health, and disruptive new metamaterials-based technologies.
All too often, local neighborhood healthcare clinics lack basic capabilities, such as systems to track medical records, information on disease outbreaks, well-trained health workers and even consistent electricity and internet connectivity. Limited information and tools also prevent small farmers in the same communities from growing enough food. To fill these gaps, we’re building next-generation AI-enhanced diagnostics and other intelligent devices. Engineers, machine learning experts and software developers support Global Good with expertise in optics, machine learning, respiratory systems, thermal control, and electromechanical systems, while collaborating across disciplines to develop tools that give farmers actionable advice, automate disease diagnosis, and keep vaccines cool, among many other things.
Diagnostic tests performed on samples, such as blood or tissue, typically require professionally trained analysis outsourced to distant lab facilities—a service that is inaccessible to many low-income communities around the world. Through our work with Global Good, we’re bringing the wet lab to the neighborhood clinic through a new suite of in-vitro diagnostic devices. Our bioengineers, chemists, and molecular biologists leverage expertise in lateral-flow diagnostics, bacterial diagnosis, and biotechnology to develop low cost, easy-to-use tests that give patients more accurate results at the point of care.
The IV Lab is an inventor’s dream. From idea generation and prototyping to the development of commercial devices, IV Lab is also where our new spinout companies emerge. Our scientists, physicists, and engineers who call IV Lab home collaborate with peers across a variety of disciplines to take invention out of the lab and into the marketplace. Home to several Invention Science Fund (ISF) spinouts and companies currently in incubation, IV Lab also provides valuable equipment, workspace, and inspiration.
If you can imagine it, we can build it. Our engineers bring decades of collective electrical engineering and manufacturing experience to this fully equipped shop, enabling rapid in-house prototyping. With a variety of machines and advanced capabilities available around the clock, our expert team can design and fabricate complex customized research instruments and quickly produce new prototypes.
The early-stage research and development enabled ISF to pioneer the commercial market for metamaterials, launching several metamaterials-based companies.
IV Lab’s instrument shop continues to play an important role in TerraPower’s testing efforts and was also the home of ISF’s other energy spinout, Modern Electron, during early-stage development.
August 22, 2019
Ben Wilson, director of the Center for Intelligent Devices at IV Lab, talks about AI and data at an Executive Speaker Series event at the Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
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