Dear Friend of the Deshpande Center,

Spring is a time of enormous activity for us at the D-Center. We announced our latest round of grants, which will fund six brand-new projects and two existing ones. That makes for a total of 34 projects ($3.6 million) in less than two years. At IdeaStream 2004 on April 8, which sold out nearly 3 weeks early, we'll launch a new program, Innovation Showcase, and announce our "success stories" — projects that have evolved into startup companies or resulted in licensed technologies.

We congratulate the teams who made it to the semi-finals in the $50K Entrepreneurship Competition with D-Center-funded projects, and we announce i-Teams, a pilot program that connects students with faculty entrepreneurs.

Krisztina Holly
Executive Director

Contents

• IdeaStream 2004 sells out
• Innovation Showcase lets researchers pitch startup ideas
• Eight researchers get springtime grants
• Extended deadline for Fall 2004 grant pre-proposals
• D-Center projects go 5 for 5 in $50K
• i-Teams: pilot program connects students with startups

IdeaStream 2004 sells out

For MIT innovators, top-name venture capitalists, and prominent entrepreneurs, the Deshpande Center's IdeaStream Symposium has become a must-attend event, selling out for the second year in a row.

This year's April 8 symposium features a new concept we're piloting called Innovation Showcase, a way for early-stage ideas to get market feedback at the research phase and without a fully written business plan. See below for more information on Innovation Showcase.

IdeaStream 2004 will start with a bang at 8 a.m. with a poster session by recipients of our Ignition and Innovation Grants over breakfast and a few words from Center founder Desh Deshpande and MIT Provost Robert Brown. Keynote speakers are MIT Technology Licensing Office Director Lita Nelsen, who will talk about commercializing MIT technologies, and Rob Chernow, Senior Vice President for Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, who will look at surprising facts about entrepreneurship and ways to spark more successful new ventures. The finale is a reception in the Cambridge Hyatt's Spinnaker Room, overlooking the Boston skyline.

Innovation Showcase lets researchers pitch startup ideas

Maybe you have an innovative technology or invention that you think would make a good business, and you'd like to run your idea by someone experienced in start-ups. We hear you. That's why, in response to popular demand from both the MIT and business communities, we are providing a unique opportunity for MIT innovators to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs at our IdeaStream Symposium on April 8. This new program, called Innovation Showcase, consists of three breakout sessions of six short presentations followed by a 45-minute networking break over posters. It's a great way for participants to get visibility for their work, make connections, and get real-world feedback on how they might be able to commercialize their ideas.

We are pleased to announce our first Innovation Showcase winners, who will have the opportunity to present their research ideas:

• George Barbastathis, Ultra-Fast Low Actuation Voltage RF MEMS Switch
• Chiping Chen, Photonic Crystal Ribbon-Beam Power Amplifier for Third Generation and Future Wireless Base Stations
• Yet-Ming Chiang, Ionic Colloidal Crystals and Enabled Technologies
• Fredo Durand, Tonal Management for Digital Photography and Video
• Abigail Haka, BabyBoost
• Klavs Jensen, Personal Chemistry System (PCS)
• Shashi Kant, Healthcare of the Future: A Pervasive Computing Model for Reducing Medical Errors in Hospitals, Clinics and Other Healthcare Providers
• Umberto Malesci, Fluidmesh
• Miguel Marioni, An All-Solid, Compact, Fast, Large-Stroke Actuator
• Rajesh Menon, Fast, Inexpensive Nanolithography: The Key Enabling Technology of the Nano Era
• Ali Merchant, CAPRI: A Parametric Geometry Infrastructure for CAD-Based Engineering Design and Analysis
• Prem Pavoor, I-Shield Technologies
• Dave Perreault, Three-Dimensional Circuit Board Technology
• Martin Rinard, Detecting Virus Attacks with New Compilers
• Tom Sheridan, Adding Virtual Collision Hazards to Actual Driving for Training and Research
• Francesco Stellacci, NanoContact Printing
• Todd Thorsen, Microfluidic Platform for High-Density Multiplexed Biological Assays
• Bernhardt Trout, A New Class of Excipients for the Stabilization of Therapeutic Proteins and the Promotion of Protein Refolding

Eight researchers get springtime grants

On March 30, the Deshpande Center announced its Spring 2004 round of grants. The grants, worth a total of $660,000, were awarded to eight projects selected from 38 proposals. The funding supports innovations in low-cost medical devices, microfluidics, radio frequency MEMS, nanomanufacturing, and security for portable electronics, among others.

"We are excited about the Deshpande Center grant," said Prof. George Barbastathis, who received a grant for his innovative RF MEMS switching technology. "It will provide much-needed connections, market input, and funding to reduce the technological and market risk around our technology. We believe the Deshpande Center's programs will be a key factor in helping our new technology make an impact."

For a list of our latest grant recipients, view our press release. Congratulations to our latest winners!

Extended deadline for Fall 2004 grant pre-proposals

For those looking ahead to our Fall round of grants, we have good news: you have additional time to submit your pre-proposal. The due date will be May 26. For more details, check our Grant Program web page when the request for proposals goes out in late April.

D-Center projects go 5 for 5 in $50K

We are very pleased to announce that five Deshpande Center projects entered the latest $50K Entrepreneurship Competition, and all five emerged as semi-finalists. The $50K entries, along with the projects on which they're based, are:

• Active Joint Brace (Woodie Flowers: Powered joint braces to help the mobility impaired)
• Active Spectrum (Alex Slocum: A tunable MEMS RC filter)
• Kitazo (Frédo Durand: Tonal management for digital photography and video)
• NanoContact (Francesco Stellacci: Bridging nano-lithography with industrial production)
• Purewave Technology (George Barbastathis: Ultra-fast low actuation voltage RF MEMS switch).

The $50K Final Awards Ceremony is May 12. We wish our teams the best of luck!

i-Teams: Pilot program connects students with startups

Interested in helping to bring to market leading-edge technologies from MIT's world-renowned research laboratories?

The Deshpande Center, in collaboration with the MIT Venture Capital and Private Equity Club (VCPE) and the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, has launched the pilot of a new program called i-Teams (Short for "Innovation Teams") to help ambitious and qualified students from both the MIT engineering graduate schools and the MIT Sloan School of Management to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations. i-Teams will match students with Deshpande Center grant recipients in teams devoted to commercializing the research of these award winners. Each team will create a go-to-market strategy or business plan for a new venture based on technologies developed in MIT labs. The plan created may be suitable for submission to the $50K Business Plan Competition and presentations to venture capitalists and angel investors.

The program is open to MIT students and qualified alumni, and there is a rigorous screening and teambuilding process in advance of the semester. Stay tuned for more information about i-Teams in the fall.


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