The CA Program matches graduate students with researchers, companies, and/or early-stage investment firms for the purpose of developing a wide range of entrepreneurial opportunities.
Today, businesses must respond rapidly to technological innovations, especially when launching new products and services. However, the workforce is in short supply of individuals who are highly skilled in this area, which poses a critical problem to many businesses.
A new style of internship program at Case is effectively tackling this problem. The Commercialization Assistant (CA) Program matches graduate students with researchers, companies, and/or early stage investment firms for the purpose of developing a wide range of entrepreneurial opportunities. The CA Program has a unique and powerful approach to administration: before a CA is assigned to a project, a program director, who is highly skilled in innovative technology commercialization, assists in defining the basic parameters of the project. (This step is important because most aspects of entrepreneurial projects are vague in early stages, and a high-value interface with students is critical.)
Each intern (CA) is enrolled in one of the internationally-recognized entrepreneurship master’s programs at Case, including the Science Entrepreneurship Program (in Physics, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics), the MBA tracks in Entrepreneurship and Bioscience Entrepreneurship, the Medical Entrepreneurship Program, and the Masters in Engineering and Management in Technology Entrepreneurship. Students possess unique problem-solving skills and cutting-edge knowledge of technology innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurial processes. The CA works individually or in teams performing any combination of the following tasks:
- Assessing probable impact of a technology on sponsor company and industry
- Identifying potential markets, applications, partners, and licensing opportunities
- Assisting in the development of commercialization strategies and/or business plans, and helping to make them operational
- Identifying near-term sources of revenue such as products, services, and grants that will generate income while pursuing the plan
- Developing a roadmap for corresponding technology development that provides feedback to research groups and companies (i.e. identifying research that must be performed to close the commercialization gap)
The duration of a CA’s involvement in a project will range from 2 months to 2 years. Progress and deliverables are monitored by Program Directors in conjunction with the partner company, researcher, or entrepreneur. The CA’s stipend and tuition is paid through various methods, such as a contribution from the partner, research grant, Case financial aid, or scholarship. Other arrangement such as equity and intellectual property may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
For information contact SEP Director Cyrus Taylor
Past and present CA projects:
5 Itech: SEP students studying commercialization possibilities and/or writing business plans for technologies from the former Soviet Union (www.5itech.com):
-BioID? (biometrix)
J-etflux (welding fluxes)
-ELSYS (bio diagnostic)
-ARIA Analytics - measuring mechanical properties of liquids and colloids
-CEMATECH - selling consultant services for Russian finite element modeling group
Alcoa Wheel Products: Two PEP students performed a market feasibility study on company-owned IP and truck tire rims with MEMS sensors (www.alcoawheels.com)
USA Instruments (recently acquired by General Electric): PEP student worked to commercialize company-owned IP (www.usainstruments.com)
Genvac Aerospace (thin films startup) sent an associate through the PEP to write business plan and assist in overall strategy (genvacaerospace.com)
Cleveland Clinic Foundation Innovations: PEP student wrote the business plan for a spin-off (H-Cubed) and several licensing deals of MEMS technology (www.clevelandclinic.org/quality/innovations/)
Advanced Lighting Technologies, Ltd.: PEP student worked on commercialization strategies (www.adlt.com)
Kennedy Group RFID: PEP students were commercialization consultants (www.kennedygrp.com)
UV Sun Sensor (technology from Israeli firm): PEP student wrote business plan for commercialization in the US
Costia (San Francisco software engineering firm): PEP students writing business plan for automated testing for large software efforts.
Calcimetrix: protein tagging (Case researcher-generated IP)
Ultrafast Fourier Transform Algorithm (Case researcher-generated IP)
Gallium Nitride crystals (Case researcher-generated IP)
AHS Hydrofoils, cross-university E-Team with Caltech, USC, and UCLA
Nanostar with professors at Taylor University in Indiana
Center for the Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT): SERS sensors project with graduate students at University of California San Diego and scientists at SPAWAR (U.S. Navy). www.ccatsandiego.org
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