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Outsiders help Carnegie Mellon U get products out of ideas

Innovation does little good for consumers — or for Pittsburgh’s economic future — if it remains in the laboratory or classroom.

By:
Donald I Hammonds
Pittsburgh Post Gazette

In order to speed the "tech transfer" process along, Carnegie Mellon University’s newly named Innovation Transfer Center is making some
changes. One of the biggest, said M. Christina Gabriel, CMU’s vice provost for corporate partnerships and technology development, will be a
greater use of outsiders in the decision-making process.

"When you have new technology, you try to figure out what to do with it … and you need to determine whether you start a company around the
product, license it to a big company or just what you should do with it to turn it into a product," she said. "We will have more people here who
can help you make those decisions."

The outside experts who will work along with the center and its staff will be people who come from industry sectors that are likely to make use
of the kinds of innovations coming out of CMU, she added.

"If you have an innovation that looks like a consumer product, you want to work with people who come from the consumer product sector, for
instance, or if what you have involves computer software, you need the help of people who can license software or start a company around
software."

"The bywords here are make it simple, clear, fair and fast," Gabriel said.. "People need to know what they need to do, and they need to know
that the university is on their side."

In the past, professors and researchers at the university who had created an innovation had no idea as to what to do next. While they were
obviously skilled at creation, they felt they had less ability — and fewer contacts — to introduce their breakthroughs to the market.

To involve outside experts more, the Innovation Transfer Center will make greater use of CMU’s network of contacts, graduates and industry
sources across the country and economic sectors, Gabriel said. It’s hoped that some become advisers, technical or business mentors and
investors.

Another important change: The university no longer will concentrate most of its energy and resources on only those products with big potential
payoffs, Gabriel said. "In the early years of running this office, we were looking for home runs and diamonds, and we put most of our energy
[into that]. We will now go for high volume and try to help get our technology out there quickly."

Even the change in the center’s name is significant.

The old name, Carnegie Mellon Tech Transfer Office, was unpopular with some faculty members and others. Those whose disciplines were not
so technology oriented shied away because they believed that the center wasn’t interested in innovations, processes and activities that didn’t
come from a scientific setting.

CMU hopes the changes will significantly reduce the average 120 days it takes to complete the process of moving from an innovation or
breakthrough to a product, said Robert A. Wooldridge, the center’s director.

http://www.post-gazette.com

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