Stimulating Innovation and Entrepreneurship in US Universities Thomas W. Peterson Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor University of California, Merced 17 October, 2013 CESAER Conference RTWH Aachen
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I & E) Why So Much Interest? What is the USA Doing? Economic Drivers Political Drivers Investment Drivers Workforce Drivers Federal Funding for I&E One Agency s Approach Success Stories Bridging Research and Entrepreneurship Educating Engineers for Entrepreneurship
Tech Trade Balance in growing deficit
Innovation for Growth From the President s Innovation Agenda 2009 Solving Grand Challenge Problems Translational Research Basic Research
What are The Challenges? What is Needed to Address those Challenges? THE CHALLENGES Workforce Research Investment Academic Culture, other THE NEEDS A talented workforce Good ideas Mechanisms to facilitate Innovation
Challenges Relating to Workforce Diminished Interest in engineering Attracting a diverse population to the field Global Competitiveness
1995 1996 1997 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Percentage BS Degrees to Hispanics 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% Engineering Chemical 2% 1% 0%
Immigrants helped BUILD this Country
Federal R&D Funding
Courtesy Pat Clemins, AAAS, Presentation to Congress 2011
Courtesy Pat Clemins, AAAS, Presentation to Congress 2011
Courtesy Pat Clemins, AAAS, Presentation to Congress 2011
Courtesy Pat Clemins, AAAS, Presentation to Congress 2011
How One Agency Responds: National Science Foundation Annual Budget approximately $7B Research and Education Support for Science and Engineering (S&E) Seven Directorates covering all fields in S&E The Engineering Directorate (ENG) annual budget about $800M
The Opportunity What can one do with one onehundredth of one percent (0.01%) of the federal budget?* *NSF ENG Investment in Innovation
The NSF Portfolio: Has it Helped? What Investments have been made? What are the results from Basic Research? How has Translational Research contributed? Has it led to innovation (i.e., product or process of economic value)?
NSF Support for Basic and Translational Research Single Investigator Research Awards Emerging Frontiers of Research and Innovation (EFRI) Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT) Science and Technology Centers (STC) Engineering Research Centers (ERC) Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Single PIs and Small Groups Multiple PI and Multi- Institution Centers Programs Supporting Business Partnerships
NSF s Centers Foster Innovation NSF supports more than 100 centers in seven interdisciplinary program areas that facilitate innovation. Center for Behavioral Neuroscience Center for Biophotonics
NSF s FY 2013 Engineering Research Centers: Lead institutions
NSF ERCs, 1985-2013
NSF Investments have led to Significant Commercial Products DISCLAIMER: NSF doesn t claim SOLE responsibility for these successes, but NSF played a clear and definable role in the intellectual evolution of all these innovations.
SBIR Support of Qualcomm In 1985, Andrew Viterbi and 6 colleagues formed QUALity COMMunications In 1987 1988 SBIR provided $265,000 for single chip implementation of Viterbi decoder Led to high-speed data transmission via wireless and satellite Now the $78B company holds more than 10,100 U.S. patents, licensed to more than 165 companies
The Ubiquitous Bar Code In the 1970s, research led to improvements in the accuracy of scanners More recently, advanced algorithms have been developed for bar code readers
DNA Evidence Forensic DNA analysis is key to our legal system Basic biological research led to the PCR technique, making DNA fingerprinting possible
Memory Storage Engineering Research Center at Carnegie Mellon Nickel aluminum underlayer enables highcapacity memory storage Laptops MP3 players Consumer electronics
Internet Search Engines In the 1990s, NSF funded Stanford University Professor Hector Garcia-Molina s Digital Library Project Garcia-Molina s grad student, Larry Page, developed a new search engine that reflected linking among web pages
Retinal Implants NSF-supported researchers are creating retinal prostheses to electronically capture and transmit images to the brain Implanted prostheses permit patients to see light and shapes Credit: Intraocular Prosthesis Group at Johns Hopkins Univ. and North Carolina State Univ.; illustration by Jerry Lim
Affordable, Effective Medicines NSF funded researchers engineered yeast cells to produce the anti-malarial drug artemisinin Cell production has been scaled up, and drug production began in 2010 The leaves of Artemisia annua, the sweet wormwood tree, are the source of artemisinin. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Magnetic Resonance Imaging STC for Magnetic Resonance Technology for Basic Biological Research at UIUC established in 1991 PI Paul Lauterbur discovered the possibility of creating a two-dimensional image by producing variations in a magnetic field Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2003 for discoveries leading to magnetic resonance imaging.
Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies Chad Mirkin, Northwestern Univ. NSEC for Integrated Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies (0647560) Mirkin holds more than 350 patents NanoInk (founded in 2001) offers Dip Pen Nanolithography (DPN) tools for fabricating MEMS and other nanoscale devices. Nanosphere (founded in 2000) offers nanotechnology-based molecular diagnostic testing. Dip Pen Nanolithography for nanofabrication. Credit: NanoInk
Bridging Research with Entrepreneurship
Team Composition: Entrepreneurial Lead: Post-doc or Student to move it forward I-Corps Mentor: Domain-relevant volunteer guide PI: Researcher with current or previous award Program Outcomes Functioning network of Mentors/Advisors Scientist and Engineers trained as Entrepreneurs Increased impact of NSF-funded basic research Credit: 2011 JupiterImages Corp. 30 Hours of Curriculum $50,000 per award F&A $5,000 maximum 25 awards in FY2011 100 awards in FY2012 100+ awards in FY2013
Resources Invested STC GOALI ERC I /UCRC PFI STTR SBIR NSF overall ENG overall AIR NSF Innovation Investments The Innovation Corps Space Industry Investors Translational Research Foundations Small Business University Discovery Development Commercialization
NSF I-Corps Program Distribution of I-Corps Teams 2011-Summer 2013 (N=236)
I-Corps Examples
Where are they now? GroundFluor Pharma: 1 st I-Corps Cohort Radiological Medical Imaging Company Formed I-Corps mentor-turned CEO I-Corps EL-turned First Employee I-Corps PI-turned head of Scientific Board IP Licensed from University Raised over $250,000 Collaborations with leading Research Hospitals Several Products in the pipeline Early discussions with Big Pharma
Where are the now? Neon Lab: 2 nd I-Corps Cohort Neuroscience applied to online image processing Company Formed I-Corps EL-turned CEO I-Corps PI-turned Scientific Board Advisor + 5 employees IP Licensed from Several Institutions Edison Prize Innovation 13 Award Winner Raised over $800,000 Product Launched
The Lean LaunchPad
The Business Plan vs. Lean LaunchPad WHAT S THE DIFFERENCE? Get out of the Building
Educating Engineers for Entrepreneurship
GOAL: To develop and nurture the Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) skills of undergraduate engineering students nationwide.
The Challenge CONTENT: Lack of Effective and Accessible I&E content for engineering students. COMPETENCE: Inadequate faculty and student training to develop strong I&E curricular offerings DISSEMINATION: No national community (universities and industry) devoted to integration of I&E into engineering curriculum
Engineering E-Ship Initiatives: 1997 SOURCE: National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance NCIIA Proposal Guidelines: http://nciia.org/grants/courseandprogram/guidelines
Engineering E-Ship Initiatives: 2013
The Georgia Tech VentureLab Teams run the Startup Gauntlet The GIT version of Steve Blank s Customer Discovery Process Six-week Intensive Program
U. Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship Offers Statewide I-Corps Program Partnership among Michigan Universities, Michigan SmartZones, VC community and NSF
High Profile Entrepreneurship Programs in the US Survey of undergraduate colleges and graduate business schools in Spring 2013, looking at: Commitment to entrepreneurship, both inside and outside the classroom; Percentage of faculty, students, and alumni actively and successfully involved in entrepreneurial endeavors; Extent of mentorship programs; Scholarships and grants for entrepreneurial studies and projects; and support for business plan competitions.
Summary Key Elements in an Innovation Ecosystem Basic Research Translational Research Education of Engineers in Entrepreneurship E-ship Education best integrated into undergraduate Engineering curriculum I&E national network an efficient approach
Useful Sites Engineering Research Centers http://www.erc-assoc.org/ Innovation Corps www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/program.jsp www.cfe.umich.edu/innovation-corps venturelab.gatech.edu/nsf-innovation-corps/ nciia.org/i-corps Lean LaunchPad https://launchpadcentral.com/ http://steveblank.com/ EpiCenter http://epicenter.stanford.edu/ NCIIA nciia.org/ High Profile Entrepreneurship Programs http://www.entrepreneur.com/colleges/