NJIT Engineer Tara Alvarez Wins First Place in an International Patent Competition

Tara Alvarez, a distinguished professor of biomedical engineering at NJIT, won first place in the inaugural Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU) / National Academy of Inventors (NAI) International Patent Award competition.

Her patented technology, branded as VERVE (Virtual Eye Rotation Vision Exercises), is a virtual reality game to correct an eye motor disorder called convergence insufficiency, in which the muscles that control eye movements do not coordinate to focus on near objects, to see them singly and clearly.

Because each eye sees images separately, the person experiences double and blurred vision, headaches, and difficulty concentrating and remembering what they have read. The impact on cognition and learning can be severe, particularly in children who do not realize they have a vision dysfunction, as it is the only visual experience they have had.

The therapy game, which can run on any hardware, received FDA clearance last year to be sold as a medical device. It has been licensed to the NJIT spin-off, OculoMotor Technologies Inc.

Alvarez, who began studying convergence insufficiency 25 years ago, gratefully acknowledged the NAI’s support for researchers who are determined to develop their ideas.

“NAI plays a pivotal role in showcasing the impact intellectual property has on solving the grand challenges our society faces today,” she said. “Furthermore, the collaboration between PMU and NAI is a testament to the power of international partnerships, including between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, to foster innovation.” In addition to the international recognition, the first place award came with $25,000.

Faisal Yousif, vice president for academic affairs at PMU, said the university is “proud to partner with the Academy in their mission to recognize and support inventors who are driving positive change through their work. This shared commitment to innovation and the protection of intellectual property enables us to celebrate those who are not only advancing groundbreaking ideas but also ensuring that their inventions can make a meaningful impact.”

Alvarez, founder of NJIT’s Vision and Neural Engineering Laboratory, noted that vision therapies have not evolved much since the 70s. “While they're effective, they're incredibly boring," she said. “We hope to address poor patient compliance by creating VR games that are going to be done correctly because of the equipment, but are also fun, so people want to do them.”

People play the game with their eyes. Using onboard eye tracking and real-time data analytics, the proprietary software adjusts the visual difficulty of the targets as they play to make the game harder or easier. This automation ensures patients do not get frustrated, while still making sure VERVE is improving binocular coordination.

Alvarez received another patent in 2024 to use the same platform as VERVE as a screening device for binocular dysfunction, which is present in more than half of people with concussions.

She and her alumni students started a company, OculoMotor Technologies, to commercialize these therapeutic and diagnostic screening platforms. Alvarez is the company’s chief scientific officer, Mitchell Scheiman, O.D., Ph.D., of Drexel University, is the chief medical officer and Chang Yaramothu '13 MS '14 Ph.D. '17 is the CEO. Their collaborators and backers include NJIT, the New Jersey Health Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation (NSF). 

The company’s longterm goal is to create a portable medical device that can be carried to sports arenas and schools to measure the severity of a binocular dysfunction on the spot, helping school nurses, pediatricians, coaches and team doctors determine whether an athlete is at risk if sent back into the game. Repeated injuries exacerbate neurological problems down the road.

“The visual neural circuit composes a lot of space in the brain, and is thus easily damaged by a concussion,” explained Alvarez. “In terms of cognitive load, if someone is expending significantly more energy acquiring visual information, then less energy is available for thinking.” 

She and her team of engineers, game designers, artists and clinicians won two major international awards for the platform, including “most innovative breakthrough,” at the 2018 Augmented World Expo Europe (AWE EU), the leading industry conference for augmented reality technology. The competition pitted NJIT against 114 teams from design programs at MIT, Caltech, NASA and other leaders in the field. Alvarez also won the “Woman Laureate” award, which recognizes project leadership skills. Her patent went on to win the New Jersey-based Thomas Edison Patent Award in 2023.

The campus-based site of the NSF I-Corps program was an early supporter of the project and the team went on to win a grant from the national program, as well as phase I and phase II Small Business Innovation Research grants, also from the NSF. Alvarez called I-Corps, along with the Center for Translation of Rehabilitation Engineering Advances and Technology, critical in teaching scientists how to become entrepreneurs and “to move science forward.”

“My success is a testament to the nexus of innovation, creativity and translational research that is part of the fabric of NJIT,” she said. “The ideas of NJIT students, faculty and collaborators, and the powerful partnerships among these diverse thinkers, help us address truly challenging problems.”