As part of the NSF I-Corps™ regional programming at UW–Madison, the Technology Entrepreneurship Office has been expanding participation from campuses around the state. Nearly 60 teams have participated throughout the UW System since 2023, including Professor Matthew Ray and research student Reese Hufnagel from UW–Stout.
Ray and Hufnagel’s technology is a catalytic system that helps carbon fiber thermally degrade more easily, making its use in aerospace applications safer. Launch vehicles like satellites and rockets are designed to jettison off expended parts as they deliver payloads to orbit, and even the satellites themselves will all eventually reach an end-of–life period. As their construction shifts from metals (which degrade easily upon re-entry into the atmosphere) to composite materials like carbon fiber (which have extremely high melting points) the risk of large pieces of aerospace materials returning to Earth fully intact increases. Carbon fiber has been acting as an unintentional heat shield causing the material to survive its reentry into the atmosphere.
If aerospace composite materials are not effectively safeguarded, the potential for collision accidents significantly rises. Ray and Hufnagel’s system makes carbon fiber safer by causing it to oxidize at a much faster rate, peeling away to expose the underlying metal after reaching 500° Celsius.
Ray and Hufnagel took their system through the 2025 Summer I-Corps program after they developed their idea. Initially, they noticed fragments of SpaceX rockets made from carbon fiber were surviving after jettisoning off. Debris from these rockets has been found all over the world—Australia, Canada, and here in the U.S.
After looking into this problem, Ray and Hufnagel realized the same research could be applied to satellites. Although at one time designed to be small, newer generations of satellites can be up to several hundred pounds—reaching a hazardous territory of mass. Causing carbon fiber to deteriorate before returning to Earth can help prevent accidents and ensure safety over the long term as the amount of space debris exponentially increases.
Part of the I-Corps process was interviewing with over 50 people and companies in aerospace and adjacent industries, including satellite manufacturers. They were also awarded a microgrant to attend the 2025 SmallSat conference in Utah. With a company of two, there was enough potential and positive momentum for them to start their LLC company and commercialize their system.
Through these conversations, connections formed, but there were also significant challenges—what Ray described as “pulling a string that unravels a whole sweater of problems.” He and Hufnagel mentioned that wearing the hats of lawyer, accountant, and marketer has ended up taking more time (and money) than they expected—possibly even more time than the actual research and development.
Another challenge of commercialization has been figuring out who, precisely, their customer is. After receiving industry pushback from multiple directions—mostly due to shifting, murky space debris regulations—the team’s target audience has changed. They worked to make connections that turned into what they call “daisy chains” of connections, resulting in conversations with people as close as Tammy Baldwin’s Orbits Act subcommittee team and as far as space lawyers in Scotland and market representatives in Italy.
Ray joked, “The I-Corps theme has always been ‘get out of the building,’ and I don’t know if anybody has ever gotten further out of the building than we have.”
The team has met with lawyers around the world to better understand where liabilities and burdens of safety lie in order to best market their system. Outdated regulations placing the burden of safety on governments rather than companies has meant challenges in marketing safety as a precaution, not a legal requirement.
“With such an influx of new launch providers and materials, we’re seeing a lot of tension between the policy and market competition. There haven’t been any big tragedies yet, which could finally get things signed into law,” said Ray.
Although their industry has presented barriers to smooth commercialization, the team recommends the I-Corps program to any researchers who struggle to get out of their “science brain” and understand what consumers most care about. Building those connections and gaining firsthand perspective through discovery can steer technology development directions to accommodate actual industry needs.
“The summer program was, every single day, contacting people and doing market research—the attitude and perception to expose your technology and find collaborators. I-Corps got us into the mindset to go for it,” said Hufnagel.
Ray noted I-Corps’s validation of their project has also opened important professional doors for Hufnagel as a research student. She has partnered with the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, which led to an internship at the prestigious NASA Goddard, largely because of their participation in the program.
“Now NASA isn’t just a dream on her resume, but a reality,” he said.
For any UW System teams hoping to learn more about the regional I-Corps program, TEO at UW–Madison is always here to help. Reach out to TEO Director Bonnie Bachman with questions.
“I-Corps taught us very early in the process to focus our energy on what’s actually marketable,” Ray said. “It has changed the way I think about not only this research project, but every research project—challenging assumptions and building a network of connections.”
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Written by: Bri Meyer