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Dear Friend of the Deshpande Center,
This issue of our newsletter marks the one-year anniversary of the
Deshpande Center's launch. It features our third grant announcement,
several upcoming events, and four awards given to members of the
Deshpande Center team.
Hope this newsletter finds you well!
Krisztina Holly
Executive Director
On October 27, the Deshpande Center announced its largest round
of grants since the launch of the Center a year ago. The Deshpande
Center awarded 13 grants selected from 45 proposals. The seven Ignition
grants, which fund proof-of-concept explorations, and six Innovation Grants, which help advance research toward commercialization,
total $1.3 million. The grants were awarded to MIT faculty in the
School of Engineering and support a wide range of emerging technologies
in areas including speech recognition, cardiac screening, wireless
communication, energy, and the environment.
For a list of our latest grant recipients, view our press release
online. Congratulations to our latest winners!
"It is truly rewarding to announce our largest grant round on our
one-year anniversary and reflect on the tremendous momentum and
progress the Center has made since our launch," said Executive Director
Krisztina Holly.
The Center has had some early signs of success from its portfolio
of emerging technologies. One of the teams from the Center's inaugural
grant round, led by Doug Hart, formed a company called Brontes and
was a runner-up in the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition. And
a few other teams that received earlier grants are planning the
launch of new companies in the upcoming year.
The Deshpande Center solicits proposals for new projects twice
a year. Funds are granted in a broad range of disciplines with the
objective to ultimately license the technology, either to an existing
entrepreneurial company that will commercialize it or to a new start-up.
Along with funding, the Deshpande Center grant recipients receive
exposure, market mentoring, and other opportunities as appropriate
to help accelerate the commercialization process.
The next grant deadline is November 12 at 5PM, for funding starting
in the spring. Please note: grant applications must be submitted
by faculty members in the MIT School of Engineering for research
to be done at MIT. For more information about deadlines, requirements,
and selection criteria, please see the RFP in the grant section
of our website.
On the afternoon of Friday, November 7, the Deshpande Center will
co-host the afternoon session of the Massachusetts Nanotechnology
Initiative's Nanotech Venture Conference in Kresge Auditorium. The
conference will convene a broad range of investment professionals,
entrepreneurs, students, and researchers to view the newest ideas
in nanotechnology entrepreneurship. In the session co-hosted by
the Deshpande Center, four of the Center's grant recipients will
join five entrepreneurs to present their technologies for feedback.
The all-day event is open to the public but requires registration.
For more information, go to http://www.masstech.org/nano/ventureforum
or contact Jennifer Banks, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative,
508-870-0312, banks@masstech.org.
Save the Date! The Deshpande Center is teaming up with the MIT
Venture Capital and Private Equity Club, MIT $50K Competition, and
MIT TechLink to present MIT Fall Innovation Week 2003 December 4-11.
Activities include the MIT $50K preliminary awards on Thursday December
4, lab tours Friday, the MIT Venture Capital Conference on Saturday,
and an Ignition Forum on bioMEMS on Thursday Dec 11 followed by
WineLink, co-hosted by MIT TechLink and VCPE. For more information
and a full schedule of events, visit our events
calendar.
Save the date: the Deshpande Center is hosting another Ignition
Forum on Thursday, December 11. This time the topic is bioMEMS and
its many applications in sensing, drug delivery, filtration, and
pharmaceutical development.
Ignition Forums bring together entrepreneurial-minded MIT faculty,
students, and members of the business community. The aim is to spark
new ideas and inventions that address market opportunities and challenges
in a particular technology or industry area.
The panel discussion will take place at 5:00PM in the Gillilang
Auditorium (66-110), followed by a WineLink networking event hosted
by MIT TechLink. The event is open to the public and no pre-registration
is required.
Jovan Popovic, an assistant professor of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science who is leading a Deshpande Center-funded project
on computer animation, has earned two new titles recently: "TR100
Young Innovator" and "Dad."
The Technology Review 100 Young Innovators list for 2003 recognized
Jovan for developing a way to make the time-consuming process of
animation faster and easier. With his technology being developed
under a Deshpande Center ignition grant, Jovan aims to transfer
physical behaviors from one animated "being" to another.
For instance, once an animator has created a convincing depiction
of one shady character "sneaking," it will be much easier
and faster to create another character that is acting the same way.
"[Jovan] has made significant progress toward solving one of
the key problems in animation: to make it look natural and control
it at the same time," Andrew Witkin of Pixar Animation Studios
told Technology Review. The entertainment industry is an obvious
beneficiary of Jovan's technology, but he also wants to reach teachers,
children, and educational filmmakers.
Jovan was celebrated along with the other young innovators at Technology
Review's Emerging Technologies Conference September 24-25.
Most recently, Jovan's attention has been focused on his new daughter.
Jovan's wife, Elly Winner, gave birth to Saan Lily Popovic on September
18. Saan is the couple's first child. Many congratulations to Jovan
and Elly!
MIT Mechanical Engineering Professor Alexander Slocum credits
Deshpande Center funds for helping him develop "a really crazy
idea."
A few years ago, Alex was trying to create a tiny sieve that would
filter protein molecules when he wondered: What if a simpler device,
such as a lever, was used? He and his researchers envisioned a mechanical
gate that could open up on a nanometer scale to filter individual
molecules. The "Nanogate" was initially met with "some
really colorful comments on our sanity," said Alex.
With help from an Innovation Grant last year, Alex and his students
turned their crazy idea into a marketable invention. The team is
currently investigating a wide range of applications for the Nanogate-from
a highly tunable RC filter for cheaper communication devices to
a valve for microfluidics that can lead to faster drug discovery.
"We are doing preliminary hardware demonstrations to two VC
firms in early December," said Mechanical Engineering Postdoctoral
Associate James White, a member of the Nanogate project. "The
Deshpande center has been an essential part of the Nanogate's transition
from a highly promising lab prototype to a product prototype which
can be demonstrated to venture capitalists and other organizations
with an eye to funding a new start-up company," he added.
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James recently received a prestigious fellowship from the National
Institutes of Health and National Institute of Standards and Technology
for work done under the auspices of the Deshpande Center grant.
The award provides James with funding for two years to pursue applications
of the Nanogate in protein and DNA-handling.
"The broader focus of a lot of the work will be sensing technologies
for detecting chemical threats - relating to the "homeland
security" efforts that are a large part of government research
now," said James.
40 Under 40 Honoree and MIMC Finalist are two new recognitions
earned recently by the Deshpande Center team.
The Boston Business Journal (BBJ) recently announced its sixth annual
list of 40 of the best and brightest of Greater Boston's businesspeople
under 40 years old, and among them was Desphande Center Executive
Director Krisztina Holly. The list, a pull-out supplement to the
October 3 issue, includes real estate pros, prominent attorneys,
nonprofit execs, and pioneers in the life sciences.
"Boston stands at the forefront of America's economy, and the
vigor and razor-sharp intelligence of this year's honorees holds
out promise that the region will continue to lead," said George
Donnelly, the BBJ's editor.
Additionally, the Deshpande Center's web site, designed by Corey
McPherson Nash, was among the finalists in this year's MIMC (Massachusetts
Interactive Media Council) Awards.
The eight-year-old competition recognizes the most innovative, effective,
and compelling achievements in the development and implementation
of interactive technologies. Hundreds of web sites, online advertising
campaigns, and technology applications representing every segment
of the public and private sectors compete for this prestigious award
that celebrates the best creative and technological accomplishments
emerging from New England. This year's theme focused on building
business with technology.
"We're honored that our work for the Deshpande Center is deserving
of such recognition from an organization like MIMC and that the
site reflects the tremendous value and benefit the Center offers
to its constituents," said Andrea Naddaff, Corey McPherson
Nash partner.
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