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Dear Friend of the Deshpande Center,
The big news for the summer is that interest in the Deshpande Center
continues to grow, both on and off campus. We received 45 pre-proposals
for our upcoming round of grants, to be announced in October. Also,
the editorial community continues to recognize us. The Boston Business
Journal recently ran a nice, full-page spread with photos on the
Deshpande Center, highlighting the accomplishments of the Center
and select grant recipients.
Our July/August newsletter focuses on our rising public profile
and on the important role of the IdeaStream Symposium and Ignition
Forums. Please also note our new fall calendar of Ignition Forums!
Word about the Deshpande Center is clearly getting out to MIT faculty
who want to bring their research to the marketplace; we received
45 pre-proposals for our next round of grants, up from 37 in the
previous round. The grants, for which we have over $1 million available,
will be announced in October.
“There is clearly a desire amongst our faculty to make their
research marketable” notes Charles Cooney, Faculty Director.
The three-page pre-proposals, of which 21 will be invited to expand
into full proposals for the final round of submissions, cover a
broad array of ideas, in areas as diverse as nanotech, biotech,
IT, and energy innovations.
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“The breadth of proposals is key,” says Executive
Director Krisztina Holly, “since we want to be able to pick
from the most promising commercializable ideas throughout the School
of Engineering,” alluding to the Center’s aim to connect
innovative technology across the engineering spectrum to local entrepreneurs.
“We were very impressed with not only the quantity but the
quality of the submissions this round.”
The Deshpande Center’s Ignition Forums, gatherings designed
to spark new ideas and inventions that address real market opportunities,
will continue this fall. Please mark your calendars; the tentative
schedule is as follows:
September 16 - Wireless Networking
October 14 - BioMEMS
December 11 - Wearable Nanotech: What is the next Gore-Tex™?
Following each forum, the Deshpande Center and MIT’s TechLink
club will co-host a networking event. Students, faculty, and members
of industry can enjoy some refreshments while discussing possible
solutions to the challenges posed during the forum. The Center is
inclined to fund proposals that address challenges raised during
these Ignition Forums.
Panelists for the above forums are to be announced. For future updates
and details on location, see the events
calendar and our Ignition
Forum web page.
A July 4 article in the Boston Business Journal profiles the Deshpande
Center and discusses some of our grant recipients’ recent
accomplishments.
“Just since October, the Deshpande Center for Technological
Innovation has helped two grant recipients begin early-stage testing
of their technologies, brought another team close to finding outside
financing and saw recipients finish strongly in MIT’s annual
$50,000 business plan competition. And the center is only starting
to gain momentum,” writes BBJ reporter Tom Witkowski.
A copy of the article is available
on our website.
The Deshpande Center’s growing recognition owes a great deal
to IdeaStream 2003. The event kicked off May 13 at the Boston Museum
of Science and featured Governor Mitt Romney as the dinner keynote
speaker.
You can now see a streaming video of the Governor’s speech
at MIT World, along
with remarks from Executive Director Krisztina Holly, MIT President
Charles Vest, and Deshpande Center founder Desh Deshpande. Additionally,
slides from the May 14 keynote lecture by Prof. Charles Fine and
the breakout sessions on wireless networking, systems biology, and
portable energy are now available from the agenda
section of the IdeaStream website.
IdeaStream is an annual symposium bringing together the leading
minds in innovation and entrepreneurship for two days of networking
and idea sharing. Its aim is to bridge the gap between research
in MIT's School of Engineering and the emerging-tech business community.
For more about IdeaStream, please visit the IdeaStream
web site.
We hope you are enjoying a relaxing summer. See you in the fall!
Krisztina Holly
Executive Director
Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
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