ASU's faculty ideas and products from research do not end at discovery.
The technology-transfer program ensures this by helping to license ideas that are generated by faculty so they can be marketed, said Jonathan Fink, vice president for ASU research and economic affairs.
"What we ask is 'what research ideas can be commercialized in some way and converted into a product that an industry might want to use?'" he said.
Fink added that this program started at ASU in the 1980s, largely to support the Cancer Research Institute.
"They had some discoveries related to possible cures for cancer that they wanted to have licensed to drug companies so the drug companies could develop them," Fink said.
He said since then, the program has expanded to cover more areas of the University, including engineering, education and fine arts.
The program is expected to change even more in the near future, and is now searching for a new director, which they hope to have within the next month, Fink said.
"The program will expand, but the details will depend on who we hire to be the new director," Fink said. "Depending on what he or she has in mind, there are a lot of different ways to go, but all of them would involve expanding what we currently do."
Faculty members aren't the only ones who are able to have an idea licensed.
In an entrepreneur competition in April, students will compete for the best business plan for a product they have invented, but should start planning now, said Janita Pickett-Gordon, director of development at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
"The intent is to encourage students to get involved in becoming entrepreneurs and to get to know the legalities that are involved," Pickett-Gordon said.
She said students will work in teams that will include students from the College of Business and the College of Law, but participants don't have to be one of these majors.
Forouzan Golshani, a professor of computer science, said to participate in the competition students need to show interest and then attend seminars and meetings to clean up their business proposals.
"We have planned a series of informational meetings," Golshani said. "This will give them enough information as possible about taking this journey."
The first informational session will be the beginning of December in Phoenix.
"This is a good eye opener for students who have this type of inclination," Golshani said.
Then students are expected to collaborate with their team and be paired with a businessperson from the industry as a mentor.
The students must present their final report in mid-March, and the winner will be announced the second week of April and presented with a check for $10,000.
"I look at this as a very useful and necessary and timely effort to teach engineering students the business side of things," Golshani said.
Reach the reporter at susan.padilla@asu.edu.
