Mark Stibich's Hospital-Disinfecting Robot

When Mark Stibich walked into the boardroom of a Florida hospital last June, he was greeted with the Star Wars theme song. The hospital was celebrating its deployment of Stibich’s germ-busting robot, which bears a slight resemblance to R2-D2. The wheeled device emits a pulsing ultraviolet light that disinfects rooms by zapping viruses and bacteria.

Hospital-acquired infections, some caused by superbugs that have become resistant to traditional cleaning chemicals, are a leading cause of death in the U.S., killing roughly 100,000 Americans a year. A 2008 study published by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America found that fewer than 50 percent of surfaces get cleaned after a patient leaves a hospital room. Some drug-resistant bugs can live up to six months, lurking in corners and crevices. While most hospital-acquired infections were once treatable, today there’s often no cure.