Uniquely Houston event to convene innovation experts across aerospace, energy, and medicine

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Every year, Houston's legacy industries — energy, medicine, and aerospace — come together to share innovative ideas and collaborate on future opportunities.

For the eighteenth year in a row, the annual Pumps & Pipes event will showcase and explore convergence innovation and common technology themes across Houston’s three major industries. The hosting organization, also called Pumps & Pipes, was established in 2007 in Houston and is dedicated to fostering collaboration amongst the city's three major industries.

With NASA in its backyard, the world’s largest medical center, and a reputation as the “Energy Capital of the World,” Houston is uniquely positioned to lead in cross-industry convergence innovation and is reflected in the theme of this year’s event – Blueprint Houston: Converge and Innovate.

Here's what you can expect to explore at the event, which will take place this year on December 9 at TMC Helix Park. Tickets are available online.

The state of Texas’ aerospace investments

How are the recent strategic investments in aerospace by the State of Texas transforming the space economy and driving growth in adjacent industries? What is the case for cultivating a more dynamic and vibrant aerospace R&D environment?

These are the key questions explored in the opening session of Pumps & Pipes, moderated by David Alexander (Director, Rice Space Institute). Joining the discussion are distinguished leaders Norman Garza, Jr., Executive Director of the Texas Space Commission (TSC); as well as two members of the TSC board of directors: Sarah “Sassie” Duggelby, CEO/Co-Founder of Venus Aerospace; and Kathryn Lueders, GM at Starbase, SpaceX.

This panel will spotlight Texas’ critical role in shaping the future of aerospace, with a focus on its cross-sector impact, from space exploration to innovation in energy and health care. We’ll explore how the state’s investments are fueling research and development, creating economic opportunities, and fostering a more interconnected, high-tech ecosystem for the future.

Real-world applications of robotics and synthetic biology

Explore the groundbreaking intersection of syntheticbiology and robotics as they reshape industries from aerospace to energy to health care. Experts from academia and industry — Rob Ambrose of Texas A&M University, Shankar Nadarajah of ExxonMobil, Shalini Yadav of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute, and Moji Karimi of Cemvita — will discuss the real-world applications and future possibilities of these two fields, including innovative uses of robotics and drones to monitor emissions from deep-sea oil rigs, and synthetic microbes that convert carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products.

Discover how synthetic biology and robotics are paving the way for a more sustainable, autonomous, efficient, and interconnected future.

The total artificial heart – a uniquely Houston story

Heart failure affects millions globally, yet only a small fraction of patients receive life-saving heart transplants. The Total Artificial Heart (TAH), developed by BiVACOR, offers a revolutionary solution for patients with severe heart failure who are ineligible for a transplant.

Luminary leader, Dr. Billy Cohn, will discuss the groundbreaking BiVACOR TAH, a device that fully replaces the function of the heart using a magnetically levitated rotary pump. This innovative approach is part of an FDA-approved first-in-human study, aiming to evaluate its use as a bridge-to-transplant for patients awaiting heart transplants.

Moderated by Dr. Alan Lumsden (Chair Dept. of CV Surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital), join Dr. Cohn as he shares insights, and the story-behind, this pioneering technology and its potential to reshape the future of heart failure treatment, offering new hope to thousands of patients in need.

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Stuart Corr is the director of innovation engineering at The Bookout Center at Houston Methodist and executive director of Pumps & Pipes.

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From green energy to consumer tech, Time names its top innovations of the year — and three Houston-born inventions made the cut. Photo via Getty Images

3 Houston tech companies recognized for creating top inventions of the year

best of the rest

Innovations from three Houston companies have been crowned among the top inventions of the year.

Time magazine’s "200 Best Inventions of 2024" identified top innovations across consumer goods, home health, robotics, sustainability, and two dozen other categories.

Fervo Energy, a provider of geothermal power, was recognized the Green Energy category for its FervoFlex system. As Time explains, the system enables horizontal drilling into hot rock under the earth’s surface and pumping in water to generate hot water and steam. The geothermal energy that’s produced can be stored and released for future use by Fervo customers.

Jack Norbeck, Fervo’s co-founder and chief technology officer, predicts that by 2050, geothermal energy will become “the backbone of the decarbonized energy system.”

In September, Fervo secured a $100 million bridge loan for the first phase of its ongoing Cape Station project in Utah, which is being touted as the world’s largest geothermal energy plant. Slated for completion in June 2026, this initial phase is expected to generate 90 megawatts of renewable energy. Ultimately, the plant is supposed to supply 400 megawatts of clean energy by 2028 for customers in California.

Time also lauded NanoTech Materials among its Manufacturing and Materials honorees for its Insulative Ceramic Particle. This powder can be added to materials like drywall or shingles to improve fire resistance and decrease heat penetration, according to Time. NanoTech’s Wildfire Shield coating for buildings contains the powder. Wildfire Shield prevents damage to materials and harm from noxious smoke.

NanoTech’s other product, Cool Roof Coat, is painted on a building to decrease HVAC use. This year, NanoTech moved into a 43,000-square-foot space in Katy, Texas, and brought on new partners that expanded the company's reach in the Middle East and Singapore.

The third Houston company to be praised by Time is BiVACOR — named to its Experimental category of the list. This year, the company’s artificial heart has kept three U.S. patients alive long enough to wait for donor organs, according to Time, the first of these operations took place this summer in Houston.

Dr. William Cohn, chief medical officer of BiVACOR, previously told InnovationMap that while the Total Artificial Heart is being used currently as a "bridge-to-transplant" device, he believes it has the potential to be a permanent solution for the 200,000 patients who die of heart failure annually. Last year, only around 4,000 patients were able to receive heart transplants.

The full list of this year's top inventions is available online.

Dr. William Cohn is the chief medical officer for BiVACOR, a medical device company creating the first total artificial heart. Photo via TMC

Why this Houston medical device innovator is pumped up for the first total artificial heart

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 248

It's hard to understate the impact Dr. William Cohn has had on cardiovascular health as a surgeon at the Texas Heart Institute or on health care innovation as the director of the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center. However, his role as chief medical officer of BiVACOR might be his most significant contribution to health care yet.

The company's Total Artificial Heart is unlike any cardiovascular device that's existed, Cohn explains on the Houston Innovators Podcast. While most devices are used temporarily for patients awaiting a heart transplant, BiVACOR's TAH has the potential to be a permanent solution for the 200,000 patients who die of heart failure annually. Last year, only around 4,000 patients were able to receive heart transplants.

"Artificial hearts historically have had bladders that ejected and filled 144,000 times a day. They work great for temporary support, but no one is suggesting they are permanent devices," Cohn says on the show.

The difference with BiVACOR's device is it abandons the bladder approach. Cohn explains that as assist pumps evolved — something his colleague, Dr. Bud Frasier, had a huge impact on — they featured new turbine and rotor technology. Daniel Timms, BiVACOR's founder and CTO, iterated on this technology beginning when he was a postdoctoral student at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

"BiVACOR is the first artificial heart that leverages what we learned from that whole period — it has no bladders, it has no valves. It has one moving part, and that moving part is suspended in an electromagnetic field controlled by a computer and changed thousands of times a second," Cohn says. "It will never wear out, and that's why we think it's the world's first total artificial heart."

The company is seeing momentum, celebrating its first successful human implantation last month. The device was used for eight days on a patient at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center before the patient received a heart transplant.

Cohn says that BiVACOR has plans to use the TAH as "bridge-to-transplant" device in several other surgeries and expects to get FDA approval for that purpose in the next three to four years before working toward clearance for total artificial heart transplants.

Cohn has worked to support medical device startups at CDI at TMC for the seven years it has existed — first under Johnson and Johnson and then under TMC when it took the program over. He describes the center and its location as the ideal place for developing the future of health care, with Houston rising up to compete with regions known for medical device success — both coasts and Minnesota.

"Being in the shadow of the largest medical center on the planet — 106,000 employees show up there every 24 hours," Cohn says, "if you want to innovate, this is the place to do it."

Revisiting a conversation with Dr. Joseph Rogers, president and CEO of the Texas Heart Institute, on the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo via texasheart.org

Play it back: How this Houstonian is leading heart health innovation

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 246

Heart health innovation is at a major moment in history — and Houston is at the center of it.

Last summer, Dr. Joseph Rogers, president and CEO of the Houston-based Texas Heart Institute, joined the Houston Innovators Podcast to share how he came to be at the helm of THI, as well as the incredible technologies the institute is working on to address heart failure, a global epidemic affecting at least 26 million people worldwide, 6.2 million adults in the U.S.

This month, one of THI’s technologies reached a major milestone. BiVACOR, a Houston company successfully implanted the company's first Total Artificial Heart in a human. The device was implanted in the patient on July 9. Eight days later, a donor heart became available and was transplanted into the patient, removing the TAH, establishing the device as a successful bridge-to-heart-transplant solution for patients, THI reported.

In addition to this breakthrough in health tech, THI is focused on addressing Cardiometabolic Syndrome at a new conference on Friday, August 23, in Houston. The full-day symposium will take place in collaboration with Arianna Huffington, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global. Dr. Rogers is co-directing the program with Dr. Stephanie Coulter, medical director for THI Center for Women’s Heart & Vascular Health.

In the episode, Rogers explains why he's bullish on Houston and THI leading heart health innovation alongside other health care organizations — nonprofits, universities, local government — to collaborate in ways never been done before. And THI is dedicated to this mission.

"We should act as a convener," Rogers says. "Houston is the place to do this.

"The reason I think this is such an important community to address this problem is it's the most diverse city in the United States. And I've never lived anywhere or heard of another city that I was so convinced believed they could do anything they set their minds to. It's about making the community aware of the problem and a potential solution — and then working on trying to solve it," he continues. "But I think all of the pieces are here to show the world how to do this at a community level."

BiVACOR and The Texas Heart Institute have celebrated a major milestone in the future of heart health. Photo courtesy of BiVACOR

Houston medical device startup implants artificial heart in first human patient

big win

Heart health tech company BiVACOR and The Texas Heart Institute announced that they successfully implanted the company's first Total Artificial Heart in a human at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in the TMC.

The milestone is part of an FDA-approved early feasibility study that will test the safety and performance of the TAH device, which is based on a magnetically levitated rotor that takes over functions of a failing heart while a patient is awaiting a heart transplant, according to a statement from the organizations.

The "bridge-to-transplant" device could support an active adult male, as well as many women and children suffering from severe biventricular heart failure or univentricular heart failure.

"With heart failure remaining a leading cause of mortality globally, the BiVACOR TAH offers a beacon of hope for countless patients awaiting a heart transplant,” Dr. Joseph Rogers, president and CEO of THI and national principal investigator on the research, says in a statement. “We are proud to be at the forefront of this medical breakthrough, working alongside the dedicated teams at BiVACOR, Baylor College of Medicine, and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center to transform the future of heart failure therapy for this vulnerable population.”

BiVACOR received approval from the FDA for the early feasibility study in late 2023 and has four other patients enrolled in the study. At the time the study was approved, 10 hospitals were enrolled as possible sites.

“I’m incredibly proud to witness the successful first-in-human implant of our TAH. This achievement would not have been possible without the courage of our first patient and their family, the dedication of our team, and our expert collaborators at The Texas Heart Institute ... our TAH brings us one step closer to providing a desperately needed option for people with end-stage heart failure who require support while waiting for a heart transplant. I look forward to continuing the next phase of our clinical trial,” Daniel Timms, PhD, founder and CTO of BiVACOR, adds.

About 100,000 patients suffering from severe heart failure could benefit from BiVACOR’s artificial heart, the company says. Globally, only about 6,000 heart transplants are performed each year, while 26 million people worldwide are affected by heart failure.

BiVACOR was founded in 2008 and maintains its headquarters in Houston, along with offices in Huntington Beach, California, and Brisbane, Australia.

To date, the company has raised nearly $50.8 million, according to CB Insights. The company raised $18 million in 2023, and $22 million in 2021.

Earlier this year, BiVACOR named a new CEO in Jim Dillon, a longtime executive in the medical device sector.

Last summer, Rogers joined the Houston Innovators Podcast to share his excitement with THI's innovations.

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Houston university to launch artificial intelligence major, one of first in nation

BS in AI

Rice University announced this month that it plans to introduce a Bachelor of Science in AI in the fall 2025 semester.

The new degree program will be part of the university's department of computer science in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing and is one of only a few like it in the country. It aims to focus on "responsible and interdisciplinary approaches to AI," according to a news release from the university.

“We are in a moment of rapid transformation driven by AI, and Rice is committed to preparing students not just to participate in that future but to shape it responsibly,” Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said in the release. “This new major builds on our strengths in computing and education and is a vital part of our broader vision to lead in ethical AI and deliver real-world solutions across health, sustainability and resilient communities.”

John Greiner, an assistant teaching professor of computer science in Rice's online Master of Computer Science program, will serve as the new program's director. Vicente Ordóñez-Román, an associate professor of computer science, was also instrumental in developing and approving the new major.

Until now, Rice students could study AI through elective courses and an advanced degree. The new bachelor's degree program opens up deeper learning opportunities to undergrads by blending traditional engineering and math requirements with other courses on ethics and philosophy as they relate to AI.

“With the major, we’re really setting out a curriculum that makes sense as a whole,” Greiner said in the release. “We are not simply taking a collection of courses that have been created already and putting a new wrapper around them. We’re actually creating a brand new curriculum. Most of the required courses are brand new courses designed for this major.”

Students in the program will also benefit from resources through Rice’s growing AI ecosystem, like the Ken Kennedy Institute, which focuses on AI solutions and ethical AI. The university also opened its new AI-focused "innovation factory," Rice Nexus, earlier this year.

“We have been building expertise in artificial intelligence,” Ordóñez-Román added in the release. “There are people working here on natural language processing, information retrieval systems for machine learning, more theoretical machine learning, quantum machine learning. We have a lot of expertise in these areas, and I think we’re trying to leverage that strength we’re building.”

Houston biomanufacturing accelerator adds pilot plant to support scale-ups

new digs

Houston accelerator BioWell announced this month that it has taken over operations of Texas BioTechnology’s pilot plant in Richmond, Texas.

The 33,000-square-foot facility is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. and features molecular biology labs, advanced automation, fermentation equipment and 16 dedicated benches for early-stage industrial biomanufacturing companies, according to a release from the company. It will allow BioWell to offer on-site education, workforce development, and lab training for students and workers.

BioWell and its founding company, First Bight Ventures, report that the facility should help address the industry's "scale-up bottleneck due to limited pilot- and demonstration-scale infrastructure" in the U.S.

"As a Houston-based accelerator dedicated exclusively to early-stage biomanufacturing startups, partnering with this facility was a natural and highly strategic decision for us. The site is fully operational and offers a strong platform to support biomanufacturing companies, industry leaders, and research institutions, providing critical expertise and infrastructure across a broad range of biotechnology production processes,” Veronica Breckenridge, founder of First Bight Ventures and BioWell, said in a news release.

First Bight Ventures shares that the partnership with the facility will also allow it to better support its portfolio companies and make them more attractive to future investors.

BioWell will host an open house and tours of the fermentation and lab spaces and an overview of current bioindustrial projects Wednesday, May 28, at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. RSVPs are required.

BioWell was originally funded by a $700,000 U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build to Scale grant and launched as a virtual accelerator for bioindustrial startups. Listen to an interview with Carlos Estrada, head of venture acceleration at BioWell, here.

Ultra-fast EV charging bays coming to Waffle House locations in Texas and beyond

power breakfast

Scattered, smothered and ... charged?

Starting next year, EV drivers can connect to ultra-fast charging stations at select Waffle House locations throughout Texas, courtesy of bp pulse.

The EV arm of British energy giant bp announced a strategic partnership with the all-day breakfast chain this week. The company aims to deploy a network of 400kW DC fast chargers and a mix of CCS and NACS connectors at Waffle House locations in Texas, Georgia, Florida, and other restaurants in the South.

Each Waffle House site will feature six ultra-fast EV charging bays, allowing drivers to "(enjoy) Waffle House’s 24/7 amenities," the announcement reads.

“Adding an iconic landmark like Waffle House to our growing portfolio of EV charging sites is such an exciting opportunity. As an integrated energy company, bp is committed to providing efficient solutions like ultra-fast charging to support our customers’ mobility needs," Sujay Sharma, CEO of bp pulse U.S., said in a news release. "We’re building a robust network of ultra-fast chargers across the country, and this is another example of third-party collaborations enabling access to charging co-located with convenient amenities for EV drivers.”

The news comes as bp pulse continues to grow its charging network in Texas.

The company debuted its new high-speed electric vehicle charging site, known as the Gigahub, at the bp America headquarters in Houston last year. In partnership with Hertz Electrifies Houston, it also previously announced plans to install a new EV fast-charging hub at Hobby Airport. In a recent partnership with Simon Malls, bp also shared plans to install EV charging Gigahubs at The Galleria and Katy Mills Mall.

bp has previously reported that it plans to invest $1 billion in EV charging infrastructure by 2030, with $500 million invested by the end of 2025.

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A version of this article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

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