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Dear Friend of the Deshpande Center,
Last week marks a personal celebration of my first year with the
Deshpande Center. As I think back on what we've accomplished, it's
a thrill to see how far we have come in one year, I want to thank
all of you that have contributed your time and ideas to the Center.
We've made great progress so far, and we believe the best is yet
to come!
On May 13 and 14, MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
held its first annual IdeaStream Symposium. Aimed at connecting
MIT researchers with the entrepreneurial community, the event began
with an open house reception and dinner at the Museum of Science
featuring a keynote address by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
The speaker line-up also included Krisztina Holly, Executive Director
of the Deshpande Center; Dr. Charles Vest, President, MIT; and Dr.
Desh Deshpande, Co-Founder and Chairman of Sycamore Networks.
In his speech, Governor Mitt Romney praised MIT's economic engine
and underscored the importance of MIT and the Deshpande Center's
mission - catalyzing the transfer of innovative research from MIT's
labs to commercialization and beyond - and its impact on Massachusetts
and the rest of the nation. Governor Romney said, “University-based
technology and innovation is important not just for MIT, but for
the state, the nation and the global economy.”
He continued, "The only way an economy can provide new jobs
for its citizens is through new business and new opportunities.
This is what is being fueled by MIT…we must copy this nationwide,
and statewide." A full transcript
is available online.
The following day included plenary lectures, discussion groups,
feedback sessions, lab tours, and networking that sparked a meaningful
exchange of ideas about new and future opportunities for innovation
in the marketplace. The event featured a preview of Deshpande Center
grant recipients through presentations and poster sessions.
Following introductory comments by Alex D'Arbeloff, Chairman, MIT
Corporation, Tom Magnanti, Dean of the MIT School of Engineering,
and Charles Cooney, Faculty Director of the Deshpande Center an
opening keynote address was delivered by Charles Fine, Author of
Clockspeed and Chrysler Leaders for Manufacturing Professor in the
MIT Sloan School of Management. The event was held in collaboration
with MIT's $50K Entrepreneurship Competition and the Sloan School's
"Driving Innovation through Technology" Conference. An
agenda linking to powerpoint
presentations, and photos
from the reception are available online.
Commenting on the event, Krisztina Holly said, "The fact that
we sold out almost two weeks before the event indicated that people
had high expectations. And the feedback from attendees has shown
that we've exceeded those expectations with unique content and top-notch
participants." She added, "In particular, people really
seemed to enjoy the structured networking and have commented on
how effective it was for connecting, exchanging, and moving ideas
forward."
"It's probably the best event I've been to in a long while,"
concurred Harry Weller, partner at New Enterprise Associates. A
list of attendees
is available online.
For additional information on the IdeaStream Symposium, please visit
the IdeaStream web site.
When we first announced our fall grant last October, we knew we
could expect great things from our grantees, but didn't realize
it would come so soon. We've had some exciting news from several
projects, and in this newsletter we'd like to highlight Prof. Doug
Hart's team.
His innovation in rapid 3-D vision
comes from some early work in the Hatsopoulous Fluids Laboratory.
But Doug wisely recognized that although the market opportunity
for 3-D vision in fluid flow analysis may be small, applications
in other areas such as machine vision, endoscopy, facial recognition,
and entertainment offered much promise.
"The technology appeared to have merit but key components were
missing and I was having difficulty convincing skeptics that the
technology could be made viable," explains Hart. "The
Deshpande grant came at a crucial time, providing the resources
needed to fill in missing parts and demonstrate the technology.
The charter in which the Deshpande Center is founded is new to academia.
It provides an opportunity to move technology from the lab into
the market where it can be put to use."
Prof. Doug Hart's team, at the IdeaStream
2003 reception |
Prof. Hart built a team with his research group and two Harvard
Business School students, Micah Rosenbloom and Eric Paley. They
formed a start-up called Brontes and entered both the MIT
$50K and the Harvard Business School business plan competitions.
Rosenbloom explained, "Eric and I joined Doug's team not only
because of the technology itself, but because we knew that the Deshpande
Center would be a partner in building the business." This May,
they were announced runners-up in both business plan competitions.
"If it were not for the Deshpande Center grant, I would not
have entered into the business plan competitions," chuckles
Hart. "It was not something I had even considered."
Congratulations to the whole team, and best of luck in your new
venture!
The next round of the Deshpande Center grant program is just around
the corner. Are you a faculty member in the MIT School of Engineering?
Do you have a research idea that could make a significant impact
on the marketplace? Do you believe one of your ideas or inventions
holds great promise for commercialization if you just had a little
extra funding and assistance to make it a reality?
The Deshpande Center grant program may be just what your idea needs.
The deadline for the 3-page pre-proposals has been extended to midnight,
June 10th. For templates and instructions, refer to the grant
section of our web site.
Note that to be eligible, projects must have a PI or co-Investigator
that is a faculty member in the MIT School of Engineering. Funding
is provided for research done on campus only.
Often success comes from taking risks, and the first Deshpande Center
Ignition Forum was no exception. What happens when you bring industry
experts in portable power onto campus for a discussion about market
opportunities, rather than technologies? A wide range of guests
appeared on campus to find out, including faculty, engineering students,
Sloan students, investors, and entrepreneurs.
The panelists were:
- Brian Barnett - Managing Director, TIAX, LLC
- Jason Howard - Energy Technologies Manager, Motorola
- David Prend - Partner, Rockport Capital Partners
- Kailash Shukla - Power Engineer, US Army OFW-TPO
The discussion was moderated by Prof. Jefferson Tester. A summary
of the Ignition Forum is available online.
After a panel discussion, guests mingled at the reception and discussed
potential solutions to the challenges posed by the panelists. The
feedback was very positive. We included Ignition Forums on Data
Security and Post-Genomic Challenges in Pharma as part of IdeaStream
2003, and we are now planning a series of Ignition Forums for the
upcoming academic year. For more information, see the Ignition
Forum page on our web site.
MIT Faculty are invited to join us on Monday, June 16 for another
Faculty Entrepreneurship Workshop and lunch entitled, "Tales
from MIT Venture Mentoring Service: Most Common Entrepreneurial
Mistakes and How to Avoid Them."
The presentation will be given by MIT Venture
Mentoring Service (VMS) Chairman Alec Dingee, founder of seven
successful businesses, and VMS Director Sherwin Greenblatt, first
employee and president of BOSE Corp. VMS is a program offering help
to MIT-affiliated entrepreneurs. Their contact with over 100 MIT
start-ups so far has given them unique insight into the variety
of challenges they face.
The Workshop is restricted to faculty interested in the issues around
starting companies. Faculty members with or without start-up experience
are welcome. If you are interested in attending, please contact
Isadora Deese at x3-0943.
Several Deshpande Grant Recipients are offering week-long courses
at MIT designed for professional audiences, including:
In addition, our faculty director, Charlie Cooney, is teaching
two summer courses as well. Sponsored by the MIT Professional Institute,
the MIT Summer Session offers unique opportunities for colleagues
in industry and government to learn directly from MIT faculty. A
complete list of
Summer 2003 programs is available online.
If you haven't visited our site recently, please do! We have updated
the IdeaStream web site,
with presentations, photos, and a participant list. We also added
to the Deshpande Center web site some photos
from our grant recipient celebration, a summary of the excellent
press coverage from our latest grant
round, and the summary
of the Ignition Forum on Portable Energy.
Until next time…
Krisztina Holly
Executive Director
Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
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