USF grad continues to drive partnerships with university

Edgility, a Tampa-based health care technology startup, is strengthening its ties with the University of South Florida by establishing a program for engineering students. 

Edgility, which launched in 2016, was founded by USF alumnus Balaji Ramadoss. He started the company in California, where he and his wife were working, and moved the company to Tampa shortly after its launch.

Edgility initially started a partnership with the USF College of Nursing to create a digital incubator partnership to re-imagine health care. Today, Edgility is further fostering its growth at USF by creating opportunities for the College of Engineering. 

“Our intent is to transform the region and not just because of the startup community, but the intellectual property here,” Ramadoss said. “USF is focused on that and being part of that ecosystem is important for us.”

“Tampa is a growing start-up hub,” Co-founder Heather Holland said, who is Ramadoss’ wife. “We envision creating an intellectual property hub that competes with the likes of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Research Triangle.” 

In an effort to help recreate the synergy between industry and academia found in tech destinations such as the Research Triangle, Edgility is recruiting students from the College of Engineering to work on projects it is spearheading. Over the years, the startup has worked with only a handful of students on projects but wants to make it more robust.  

Ramadoss has been working with Tim Murphy, Senior Development of Development at the College of Engineering, and Wilfrido Moreno, a professor at the college with whom Ramadoss had prior connections during his time at USF.

The students would do work in Edgility’s Tampa office, which is a converted auto mechanic’s garage from the 1950s. 

One such project students could work on is Edgility’s research study on utilizing “Hyper Spectral Imaging for Identifying Food Allergens.” 

“The idea is to increase the number of projects as the needs arise,” Moreno said. “Our College of Engineering is a pipeline of talent and brings big benefits as Edgility scales, they have access to talent. The student interns become natural prospects.” 

The majority of students participating are those who are earning their doctorate degrees.  

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Murphy said there were three major factors that Edgility brought – engagement with students working on real-world projects, advocacy and philanthropy. 

“He’s working to bring others to the table outside of people who we don’t already know and connecting us,” Murphy said, he added how this connection allows USF to work on projects that may not be included in budgets. 

There isn’t a time limitation on the partnership.