Add as a preferred source on Google


Purdue Faculty Help Each Other Learn Steps of Tech Transfer

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 07/06/15

To help innovators at Purdue University convert their technology ideas into commercial endeavors, the university is running a mentoring program where faculty help other faculty. Deliberate Innovation for Faculty (DIFF) is a team of faculty members who have already had success in moving an invention into commercialization.

The seven DIFF mentors come from all over the institution — the college of technology; the school of management; the schools of biomedical engineering, chemical engineering and mechanical engineering; the college of engineering; and the Homeland Security Institute. Help may include guiding research proposals or collaborations from the beginning of new projects, providing early stage discovery or startup direction and proposing funding sources, market research and business planning.

"This program not only allows faculty to help other faculty, but the experiences they gain from moving an innovation to commercialization also can enrich Purdue's academic goals," said Gary Bertoline, dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute.

As Cliff Wojtalewicz, managing director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship in Purdue's interdisciplinary research operation, Discovery Park, explained, "As a land-grant institution Purdue has an obligation to explore new areas of tech transfer opportunities and to identify innovations with strong commercialization potential. This is something we take very seriously and [DIFF] helps us do that."

The impact has been noticeable. Technology transfer is on a roll. In the last year the Office of Technology Commercialization saw a 30 percent increase in the number of patents issued as part of its commercialization activities. Likewise, 24 startups took form in 2014, tripling the previous year's numbers.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • student reading a book with a brain, a protective hand, a computer monitor showing education icons, gears, and leaves

    4 Steps to Responsible AI Implementation

    Researchers at the University of Kansas Center for Innovation, Design & Digital Learning (CIDDL) have published a new framework for the responsible implementation of artificial intelligence at all levels of education.

  • three glowing stacks of tech-themed icons

    Research: LLMs Need a Translation Layer to Launch Complex Cyber Attacks

    While large language models have been touted for their potential in cybersecurity, they are still far from executing real-world cyber attacks — unless given help from a new kind of abstraction layer, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Anthropic.

  • Hand holding a stylus over a tablet with futuristic risk management icons

    Why Universities Are Ransomware's Easy Target: Lessons from the 23% Surge

    Academic environments face heightened risk because their collaboration-driven environments are inherently open, making them more susceptible to attack, while the high-value research data they hold makes them an especially attractive target. The question is not if this data will be targeted, but whether universities can defend it swiftly enough against increasingly AI-powered threats.

  • magnifying glass revealing the letters AI

    New Tool Tracks Unauthorized AI Usage Across Organizations

    DevOps platform provider JFrog is taking aim at a growing challenge for enterprises: users deploying AI tools without IT approval.