Democratizing the University Innovation Process

About the Talk
The Innovation Engine of our nation, our university system, is famous around the world for producing new technology concepts and ideas. These concepts sometimes become products that improve our lives and a few of them even disrupt existing industries. Yet for all the fame that the university innovation process gets, the truth is that it is difficult and unpredictable. Out of all the money going into university research there is only about a 1% return or less that results from commercialization. Bringing these technologies to market can represent a golden opportunity for entrepreneurs. However, they still run into obstacles. Successes out of our universities often happen by chance or luck. We will go over why it is currently so difficult to commercialize university technologies and try to come up with solutions to better harvest some of our brightest minds.

About the Conference
BIL2009 was held at CSULB in Long Beach, CA on Feb 13-14.