TSQ Tuesday Is Where Conversations Turn into Collaborations

Visit the original article here written By Neema Tavakolian

Every Tuesday night, Tech Square fills with conversation, ideas, and connections at TSQ Tuesday, a casual networking event that has become a staple for researchers, entrepreneurs, and technologists. The atmosphere is easygoing with drinks in hand and conversations spilling across tables, but sometimes the collaborations that spark there often extend far beyond happy hour.

At one of these gatherings, Weiyuan “Vera” Wang, a cancer researcher transitioning from academia to industry, found exactly the kind of connection she was looking for. During her PhD, she ran experiments with mice, focusing on blood cancers. “Weighing live animals is very difficult for science experiments,” she explained. In her trials, often six mice per group, keeping a precise track of weight was critical. Yet, the process of catching and weighing animals created stress, which in turn risked skewing the results.

The idea of automated home cage weighing, however, came from her former coworker, Yunfeng “Frank” Lin, who ran mouse experiments and first shared it with her. Wang decided to work with him on exploring the concept further. Now, as she looks toward industry applications, Wang wants to tackle this persistent problem. “I was looking to collaborate with engineers on designing a new scale for use in research with live animals,” she said. Her vision is a tool that could provide reliable measurements with far less handling, both improving data and reducing animal stress.

This summer, she met Josh Desportes and Kathleen Tokuda from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) at TSQ Tuesday. They saw the potential of her idea. Together, the three began discussing how engineering expertise could be applied to design a more intelligent, more efficient system. One idea was a system built directly into enclosures, allowing weights to be collected automatically.

For Wang, the encounter served as a reminder of why she began attending these community gatherings. Transitioning out of the lab can feel daunting, but events like this provide a space where ideas can move quickly from conversation to collaboration. “Less handling of mice means less stress and better work,” she said. With partners like Josh and Kathleen, her concept may soon become a fundamental tool to improve biomedical research.

By creating a space where disciplines overlap, events like TSQ Tuesday help turn individual challenges into shared projects. For Wang, it meant finding the right partners at the right time. Simply showing up sometimes is the hardest part.

TSQ Tuesday is held every Tuesday at the TSQ ATL Clubhouse. Click here to see all upcoming events in Tech Square.