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University of Alabama
University of Alabama's AIME Center
Wednesday, April 29, 1:00-2:30pm ET (10:00-11:30am PT)
With
Dan Daly
(Director of the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence
and the Director of Alabama’s Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneur Center)
_______________________
Click here to download Dan's slides
_______________________
Dan Daly will discuss the reasons for creating the AIME Center and its accomplishments in commercializing university IP and creating and funding university startups.
Creating a thriving environment at The University of Alabama that will foster the growth of intellectual property while meeting the changing needs of our state and nation in the area of economic development is an important task for the 21st century. The University of Alabama, through its AIME Center, is striving to reconfigure itself to meet the challenge posed by the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). This new initiative has focused the attention of the nation on the issue of global competitiveness. ACI follows on the heels of many reports in Washington including “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” by the National Academies and the book “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman. The gist of this new approach to competitiveness is a strong coupling of university research through innovation and the commercialization of intellectual property as well as increasing the pipeline of American students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for the workforce. This new approach compliments the Governor of Alabama’s delegation, of which UA is a member.
A key component of this new approach to competitiveness is the emerging role of entrepreneurship as the key driving force for growth and global competitiveness through the formation of wealth. In a summative sense the sequence of the words research, innovation, commercialization, STEM workforce and entrepreneurship capture the essential ingredients of the ACI concept.
Universities have traditionally played major roles in research and the development of the STEM workforce, but lesser and even non-existent roles in innovation (defined as adding commercial value to generated knowledge), commercialization and entrepreneurship. Recently, Carl Schramm's article “The Broken M.B.A.” published in The Chronicle of Higher Education discussed the changes needed in business education and the requirement for an entrepreneurial education in the modern world. Universities have begun to pay attention to innovation and commercialization, as a result of the changing dynamics in the late twentieth century, through the formation of offices of technology transfer and more recently with business incubators and research parks. While such changes are essential in universities, they tend to confront the ACI concept in a rather piece-meal manner instead of an integrated approach. At The University of Alabama we believe in an integrated approach that plays to our vision of a student-centered research university as well as a vision of enhancing the life of Alabama residents which are at the core of our mission.
ROLE OF AIME
As a result our increasing understanding of the needs of the ACI concept in universities, as well as our desire to play strongly to the vision and mission of UA, the plan for AIME is to implement innovation and entrepreneurship. To fit this role the Alabama’s Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneurs Center focuses on the following gaps:
Universities traditionally are the principal generators of new knowledge and early stage IP. A conclusion to be drawn from the above facts is that they need to fill the innovation gap and position themselves higher on the commercial value chain by forming innovation research centers and engaging in R&D to add commercial value to IP. Such innovation centers should be in addition to an office of technology transfer and a business incubator and form part of an integrated system known as the innovation ecosystem. However, to carry out the broader vision of The University of Alabama as a student-centered research university, it is important that students and their education be an integral part of the innovation ecosystem. How can we accomplish these multi-faceted goals at Alabama’s flagship university?
AIME
AIME develops an innovation ecosystem driven by the involvement of both undergraduate and graduate students. We start with intellectual property that has been disclosed to UA, and build an entrepreneurial team composed of MBA, Law and Engineering students. These teams assess the intellectual property according to issues of patentability and right-to-use. They also develop an innovation and marketing plan for the invention. The team presents their findings to the Patent Council, who then use this research to assist in deciding the fate of the IP. The most promising IP is furthered dveloped in the innovation center labs (or other university labs as appropriate) for research development as well as legal, marketing and business development.
Student involvement in AIME is driven through a new multi-disciplinary and multi-college entrepreneurial curriculum and program. Major players are the College of Commerce and Business Administration, the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Law. Student participation in AIME includes, but is not limited to, marketing research prior to investment in IP development (independent work or classroom projects), mock investment decision games on AIME investment in IP development part-time research staff member, and marketing and sales of IP to the business and venture capital communities. The overall goal is to train UA students on how to start his/her own company or become a participant in these companies.
Students learn how to protect intellectual property, form business models and recruit funding. They are exposed to the companies in the Bama Technology Incubator (BTI) and provided an entrepreneurial team for a given company. We have Venture Fellows brought into the University to help the incubating companies in BTI obtain funding and students work with these Fellows. As part of their training, they will participate in writing SBIR/STTR grants and assist the incubated companies in presenting business models/plans to venture capitalists and angel investors. Students also will be asked to participate in the Alabama Launchpad , a state-wide business plan writing competition. AIME chooses the projects and works with entrepreneurial teams already associated with the projects. There is an expectation that the students could join BTI companies, since startups are always in search of business executives, or form new startups from AIME developed IP.
Some of the outcomes from the AIME Center are:
_______________________
COST: Free, but registration required. Long distance charges from your phone company may apply depending your phone plan.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE?: This webinar is online. You need a computer with web access for the visual and a regular phone line to hear the audio. Q&A is conducted by a chat box to the speakers.
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE WEBINAR?: This webinar is open to the public and anyone interested in the Innovation Economy and what universities are doing to create startups in their region is invited to attend.
_______________________
Dan Daly
(Director of the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence
and the Director of Alabama’s Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneur Center)
Bio
Dr. Dan Daly received a B.S. in Chemistry and Psychology from Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. He received a Ph.D. in Physical-Organic Chemistry from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. He did two post-doctoral studies in computer-assisted molecular design at The University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida and Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, respectively.
He spent 17 years as Technology Manager for several Business Development Groups, where he was responsible for coordinating the marketing, patent strategy and technology development for these emerging companies.
He developed several low-emission diesel fuels and lubricants and managed and coordinated fundamental programs at several universities and national laboratories. Dan has won several awards for this work including: Nortech Top 50 Industrial Innovation Award for Northeast Ohio Recipient, R&D Magazine Top 100 Industrial Innovation Awards Recipient, ACS Environmental Industrial Innovation Award
Drawing from his industrial background, he brings a business focus to his work at The University of Alabama to insure developed technologies are linked to commercial offerings. Dan is currently the Director of the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence and the Director of Alabama’s Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneur Center. Dan also served as the Director of Technology Transfer from 2005-2007. As the head of Technology Transfer, he won the “Deal of Distinction” Award in 2007 in recognition of his successful licensing activity with BASF.
Wednesday, April 29, 1:00-2:30pm ET (10:00-11:30am PT)
With
Dan Daly
(Director of the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence
and the Director of Alabama’s Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneur Center)
_______________________
Click here to download Dan's slides
_______________________
Dan Daly will discuss the reasons for creating the AIME Center and its accomplishments in commercializing university IP and creating and funding university startups.
Creating a thriving environment at The University of Alabama that will foster the growth of intellectual property while meeting the changing needs of our state and nation in the area of economic development is an important task for the 21st century. The University of Alabama, through its AIME Center, is striving to reconfigure itself to meet the challenge posed by the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). This new initiative has focused the attention of the nation on the issue of global competitiveness. ACI follows on the heels of many reports in Washington including “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” by the National Academies and the book “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman. The gist of this new approach to competitiveness is a strong coupling of university research through innovation and the commercialization of intellectual property as well as increasing the pipeline of American students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for the workforce. This new approach compliments the Governor of Alabama’s delegation, of which UA is a member.
A key component of this new approach to competitiveness is the emerging role of entrepreneurship as the key driving force for growth and global competitiveness through the formation of wealth. In a summative sense the sequence of the words research, innovation, commercialization, STEM workforce and entrepreneurship capture the essential ingredients of the ACI concept.
Universities have traditionally played major roles in research and the development of the STEM workforce, but lesser and even non-existent roles in innovation (defined as adding commercial value to generated knowledge), commercialization and entrepreneurship. Recently, Carl Schramm's article “The Broken M.B.A.” published in The Chronicle of Higher Education discussed the changes needed in business education and the requirement for an entrepreneurial education in the modern world. Universities have begun to pay attention to innovation and commercialization, as a result of the changing dynamics in the late twentieth century, through the formation of offices of technology transfer and more recently with business incubators and research parks. While such changes are essential in universities, they tend to confront the ACI concept in a rather piece-meal manner instead of an integrated approach. At The University of Alabama we believe in an integrated approach that plays to our vision of a student-centered research university as well as a vision of enhancing the life of Alabama residents which are at the core of our mission.
ROLE OF AIME
As a result our increasing understanding of the needs of the ACI concept in universities, as well as our desire to play strongly to the vision and mission of UA, the plan for AIME is to implement innovation and entrepreneurship. To fit this role the Alabama’s Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneurs Center focuses on the following gaps:
- Corporations and industry will continue to invest less in early stage development due to market pressures to show a profit, forcing universities to engage in developmental or innovative research.
- Industry is not likely to license IP that is not developed to a commercial stage leaving universities with untapped IP.
- Venture capital rarely invests in startup companies for the purpose of bringing IP to a commercial stage making it hard for universities to spin off IP into startup companies. Biotechnology and IT are often exceptions to this rule.
- Universities need to become competent in building a compelling case for corporations to invest in our inventions (license game) and/or encourage entrepreneurs to invest their efforts in our inventions (startup company game).
- Innovation, the act of adding value to new knowledge or intellectual property, presumably for commercial purposes, requires a sustainable innovation ecosystem.
- The innovation ecosystem in a university requires people (faculty, staff and students) who already are part of the infrastructure as well as physical infrastructure.
- The mission of universities is to educate and train students in all facets of the competitiveness agenda in an integrated manner. Through our entrepreneurship training, CEOs and CTOs will emerge to be integrated into these locally established start-up companies.
Universities traditionally are the principal generators of new knowledge and early stage IP. A conclusion to be drawn from the above facts is that they need to fill the innovation gap and position themselves higher on the commercial value chain by forming innovation research centers and engaging in R&D to add commercial value to IP. Such innovation centers should be in addition to an office of technology transfer and a business incubator and form part of an integrated system known as the innovation ecosystem. However, to carry out the broader vision of The University of Alabama as a student-centered research university, it is important that students and their education be an integral part of the innovation ecosystem. How can we accomplish these multi-faceted goals at Alabama’s flagship university?
AIME
AIME develops an innovation ecosystem driven by the involvement of both undergraduate and graduate students. We start with intellectual property that has been disclosed to UA, and build an entrepreneurial team composed of MBA, Law and Engineering students. These teams assess the intellectual property according to issues of patentability and right-to-use. They also develop an innovation and marketing plan for the invention. The team presents their findings to the Patent Council, who then use this research to assist in deciding the fate of the IP. The most promising IP is furthered dveloped in the innovation center labs (or other university labs as appropriate) for research development as well as legal, marketing and business development.
Student involvement in AIME is driven through a new multi-disciplinary and multi-college entrepreneurial curriculum and program. Major players are the College of Commerce and Business Administration, the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Law. Student participation in AIME includes, but is not limited to, marketing research prior to investment in IP development (independent work or classroom projects), mock investment decision games on AIME investment in IP development part-time research staff member, and marketing and sales of IP to the business and venture capital communities. The overall goal is to train UA students on how to start his/her own company or become a participant in these companies.
Students learn how to protect intellectual property, form business models and recruit funding. They are exposed to the companies in the Bama Technology Incubator (BTI) and provided an entrepreneurial team for a given company. We have Venture Fellows brought into the University to help the incubating companies in BTI obtain funding and students work with these Fellows. As part of their training, they will participate in writing SBIR/STTR grants and assist the incubated companies in presenting business models/plans to venture capitalists and angel investors. Students also will be asked to participate in the Alabama Launchpad , a state-wide business plan writing competition. AIME chooses the projects and works with entrepreneurial teams already associated with the projects. There is an expectation that the students could join BTI companies, since startups are always in search of business executives, or form new startups from AIME developed IP.
Some of the outcomes from the AIME Center are:
- Generate resource/income from IP for UA through commercialization of IP.
- Provide experiential learning for students through entrepreneurial activities (marketing studies, moot corp, etc.) and research laboratory experience.
- Enhance UA research image.
- Foster local economic development (particularly if AIME creates, as opposed to incubates, startup companies).
- Develop Alabama-centric entrepreneurs.
- Attract industrial sponsored research and partnerships.
- Attract quality faculty through the existence of AIME.
_______________________
COST: Free, but registration required. Long distance charges from your phone company may apply depending your phone plan.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE?: This webinar is online. You need a computer with web access for the visual and a regular phone line to hear the audio. Q&A is conducted by a chat box to the speakers.
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE WEBINAR?: This webinar is open to the public and anyone interested in the Innovation Economy and what universities are doing to create startups in their region is invited to attend.
_______________________
Dan Daly
(Director of the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence
and the Director of Alabama’s Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneur Center)
Bio
Dr. Dan Daly received a B.S. in Chemistry and Psychology from Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. He received a Ph.D. in Physical-Organic Chemistry from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. He did two post-doctoral studies in computer-assisted molecular design at The University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida and Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, respectively.
He spent 17 years as Technology Manager for several Business Development Groups, where he was responsible for coordinating the marketing, patent strategy and technology development for these emerging companies.
He developed several low-emission diesel fuels and lubricants and managed and coordinated fundamental programs at several universities and national laboratories. Dan has won several awards for this work including: Nortech Top 50 Industrial Innovation Award for Northeast Ohio Recipient, R&D Magazine Top 100 Industrial Innovation Awards Recipient, ACS Environmental Industrial Innovation Award
Drawing from his industrial background, he brings a business focus to his work at The University of Alabama to insure developed technologies are linked to commercial offerings. Dan is currently the Director of the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence and the Director of Alabama’s Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneur Center. Dan also served as the Director of Technology Transfer from 2005-2007. As the head of Technology Transfer, he won the “Deal of Distinction” Award in 2007 in recognition of his successful licensing activity with BASF.