When George Yu graduated with a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in 2008, there were few jobs in his field as the Great Recession took hold of the economy.
The young electrical engineering graduate followed his wife to Chattanooga where she became a professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Yu managed to get a contract with NASA’s Ames Research Center. With funding from the Department of Homeland Security, Yu worked remotely in Chattanooga to develop a device that enabled smartphones to detect harmful gases using the agency’s nanosensor technology. Yu ultimately produced a successful prototype for NASA to help detect a potential chemical terrorist attack.
When his technical development contract with NASA ended, Yu decided to try to capitalize on his development with his own business, which he began in 2012 known as Variable.
Aided by the Company Lab and housed until 2019 in the Hamilton County Business Development Center, Yu’s company developed everything from the Node to detect differences in temperatures and volatile gases to a Color Muse to identify color variations.
True to its name, the business has adapted the sensor technology to variable uses, including a new product that might help detect whether someone has the COVID-19 virus.