Matt Bloom wins 1st Source Bank’s 2022 Commercialization Awards, Alison Cheng runner-up
Matt Bloom, a professor of management and organization at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business whose research focuses on well-being, has been named the first-place prize winner of the 2022 1st Source Bank Commercialization Award. Alison Cheng, a professor of psychology who researches psychological and educational measurement, was named runner-up. First place carries a $25,000 cash prize while runner-up awards $10,000.
Bloom is the co-founder of Ritual, a mobile platform that offers guided audio practices from leaders in science, faith and culture to help listeners feel grounded and inspired daily. Bloom’s technology assists individuals in understanding their well-being needs and engaging with wellness practices such as gratitude, journaling and contemplative prayer. In addition, the Ritual app provides users with personalized recommendations for their health.
Bloom and his co-founder, Connor Toohill, a 2014 alumnus, worked with the Center for Research Computing at Notre Dame and external engineers to build an early prototype of the Ritual platform. The founders centered the prototype on Bloom’s research: a five-dimensional model of well-being and a framework of wellness practices and assessments. Bloom led the development of new well-being practices on the Ritual app by delivering daily exercises and supporting other partners in developing their Ritual applications.
“I am very grateful for winning this award,” said Bloom. “I am also grateful to 1st Source, the IDEA Center and the hundreds of pastors, international aid workers, teachers, health care workers and others who participated in our research. The gifts of their time, stories and insights were invaluable and formed the basis for the research that is the core of Ritual. It is a blessing to be part of an effort to return some of the rich gifts these individuals gave us. I have always hoped my research might help people, and this award is a welcome affirmation that we are progressing toward that aspiration.”
The Ritual mobile app launched in 2020 and has raised $2.5 million in seed capital. The app is now available to users across iOS and Android.
Cheng developed Adapta Education, an advanced testing platform powered by artificial intelligence that provides personalized education in STEM teaching and learning. Adapta’s main product is an adaptive diagnostic assessment platform that covers high school and introductory college math curricula. The platform allows teachers to create customized assessments, such as quizzes, homework and exams, in a straightforward manner. This enables competency-based grading with a diagnostic report for each student. These reports help teachers and students quickly identify their strengths and weaknesses and determine where additional clarification or practice is needed.
Cheng developed Adapta Education from her experience teaching statistics to undergraduates. She realized there was a need for an assessment tool that would allow easy creation and grading and for diagnostic feedback to be provided. The platform stemmed from Cheng’s National Science Foundation CAREER grant project on cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing. She combined her research and interest in teaching to develop a web-based platform for high school AP statistics with a back end powered by cognitive diagnostic adaptive testing technology. The Adapta team has seen great success in its pilot programming and anticipates more success stories as it plans to expand curriculum coverage.
Adapta Education recently secured a $300,000 pre-seed round. Additionally, the company has implemented the platform in 12 schools, including many in the South Bend-Elkhart region.
“I am humbled, grateful and excited for winning this award,” said Cheng. “It is a tremendous honor and encouragement for Adapta to be selected as runner-up. I am very thankful to 1st Source Bank for their support. I am also deeply indebted to the support I’ve received over the years from ND Research, the Center for Research Computing and the IDEA Center. I am also thankful to the Adapta team for working tirelessly to turn our vision into reality and the many teachers and students we have had the opportunity to work with in piloting, validating and fine-tuning our solutions.”
Established in 2008 with a $1 million gift from 1st Source Bank, the Commercialization Award is presented annually to faculty from Notre Dame or the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend who have successfully transitioned their technologies from the lab to the marketplace.
Latest Faculty & Staff
- There’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to addressing men’s health issues globallyAt a time when health resources are at a premium and need to be wisely allocated, health professionals must find points within men’s lives when it makes the most sense to intervene and advocate for preventive care for promoting better health outcomes. Life transitions such as marriage and fatherhood are often pivotal and crucial intervention points. But just like every man is different, health concerns across global communities differ as well. Research from the University of Notre Dame finds that not all life transitions produce the same health results, and not all men’s global health policies should look the same from one country to another.
- Three Notre Dame faculty named 2024 Guggenheim FellowsBarbara Montero, a professor of philosophy; Gretchen Reydams-Schils, a professor in the Program of Liberal Studies; and Roy Scranton, an associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program and the Environmental Humanities Initiative, are among the 188 scholars, scientists and artists chosen from approximately 3,000 applicants for the fellowship. The Guggenheim Foundation awards these fellowships to outstanding scholars in order to add to the educational, literary, artistic and scientific power of the country.
- Essays on democracy draw attention to critical threats, explore safeguards ahead of Jan. 6Shortly after Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building, Notre Dame’s Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy established the January 6th, 2025, Project, which includes 10 Notre Dame faculty who are preeminent scholars of democracy. In an effort to understand the social, political, psychological and demographic factors that led to that troublesome day, the group created a collection of 14 essays aimed at drawing attention to the vulnerabilities in our democratic system and the threats building against it, hoping to create consensus on ways to remedy both problems.
- Carter Snead testifies before US Senate Judiciary CommitteeO. Carter Snead, the Charles E. Rice Professor of Law and director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, offered expert testimony on Wednesday (March 20) before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the current legal landscape following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
- In memoriam: Ronald Weber, American studies professor emeritusRonald Weber, a professor emeritus of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, died March 12 in Valparaiso, Indiana. He was 89.
- Political scientist shares China-Global South expertise with policymakersFor more than a decade, China has invested heavily in the economic development of countries collectively known as the Global South. More recently, China has demonstrated that its ambitions are growing beyond the economic realm and extending into the geopolitical sphere. This shift carries implications not only for the developing countries that are the beneficiaries of China’s investment, but also for the United States and other developed democracies, says Joshua Eisenman, associate professor of politics in the Keough School of Global Affairs.
