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Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors Innovation

Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors welcome new leader, broader mission

Washington State University President Kirk Schulz has elevated the university’s Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors program to a Presidential Task Force status and appointed associate professor Amit Dhingra to lead the program.

Amit Dhingra
Amit Dhingra, EFA Leader

The moves signify the increased institutional emphasis WSU is placing on efforts to translate university research into products and services that benefit the public.

The Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors (EFA) program was created in 2016 as a resource for faculty interested in starting a company or developing technologies for the marketplace that help create jobs and improve quality of life in the communities WSU serves. The program’s new, broader mission will include support for activities outside of the traditional startups and technology transfer associated with producing community-based societal and economic impact.

Actions based on ERIE recommendations

The EFA’s elevated status and new mission are based on recommendations from WSU’s external review of innovation and entrepreneurship activities (ERIE) at its campuses statewide, published in February. The actions implemented better align the EFA program with the university’s “Drive to 25” initiative to become one of the nation’s top 25 public research universities by 2025, and WSU’s commitment to developing innovations for the prosperity of the state of Washington and beyond.

“With this broader mission and presidential mandate, the EFA is evolving to nurture a larger community of creative innovators and entrepreneurs,” Dhingra said.

Dhingra replaces Glenn D. Prestwich, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Visiting Professor, WSU Spokane and Presidential Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Presidential Special Assistant for Faculty Entrepreneurship at the University of Utah. Prestwich served as the ERIE team leader and helped launch the EFA in 2016 based in part on the entrepreneurial faculty scholar program that he developed at the University of Utah.

Entrepreneurship is more than starting a company

The 11 inaugural EFA members spent the first year evaluating the type of resources that would be most valuable to the university community. During that process, the ambassadors realized there were entrepreneurial activities beyond traditional technology transfer taking place across campuses that should be supported by the group as well.

“By nature researchers are entrepreneurial,” said Brian Kraft, program manager for EFA and director of innovation and industrial research engagement for the Office of Research. “Research labs and creative studios across disciplines are essentially small businesses, seeking funding, building programs and hiring people to produce something that impacts society.”

While the EFA will still support researchers through the technology transfer process, they will also support endeavors such as developing community programs, publishing guidebooks or other activities that make positive economic and societal impacts through workforce, innovation or community development.

Recruiting new members

The EFA is launching recruitment efforts to include more faculty from all colleges and disciplines, recognizing that addressing global and community needs will involve the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

The ERIE report and EFA also support WSU’s role as a designated Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities. The designation recognizes WSU’s efforts to support regional economic development and community engagement.

More information about the ERIE findings and recommendations can be found here: https://research.wsu.edu/office-research/report/innovation-and-entrepreneurship-review/. More information about WSU’s designation as an Innovation and Prosperity University can be found here: http://www.aplu.org/projects-and-initiatives/economic-development-and-community-engagement/innovation-and-economic-prosperity-universities-designation-and-awards-program/index.html

For more information on EFA, contact Amit Dhingra, 509-335-3625, adhingra@wsu.edu

When the federal budget funds scientific research, it’s the economy that benefits

This article by WSU’s Chris Keane, Vice President for Research appeared in The Conversation in late July.

Emergency: You need more disposable diapers, right away. You hop into your car and trust your ride will be a safe one. Thanks to your phone’s GPS and the microchips that run it, you map out how to get to the store fast. Once there, the barcode on the package lets you accurately check out your purchase and run. Each step in this process owes a debt to the universities, researchers, students and the federal funding support that got these products and technologies rolling in the first place.

By some tallies, almost two-thirds of the technologies with the most far-reaching impact over the last 50 years stemmed from federally funded R&D at national laboratories and research universities.

The benefits from this investment have trickled down into countless aspects of our everyday lives. Even the internet that allows you to read this article online has its roots in federal dollars: The U.S. Department of Defense supported installation of the first node of a communications network called ARPANET at UCLA back in 1969.

As Congress debates the upcoming budget, its members might remember the economic impacts and improved quality of life that past congressional support of basic and applied research has created.

Federal dollars do more than fund labs

Here in the state of Washington, federally funded research at both my employer, Washington State University, and the University of Washington has led to transformational innovations. It’s helped spawn not only new products that save and improve lives, but productivity growth through new businesses and services.

The Zhang lab at WSU works on recycling carbon composite fiber materials. Robert Hubner, WSU, CC BY-ND

Just a few examples include new kinds of composite-based lumber, smart home technology for the aged, kidney dialysis machines, airport explosive detectors and new varieties of wheat, potatoes and other agricultural crops that we enjoy at our tables and in numerous products.

All these inventions relied on federal investment combined with university research lab expertise. The important final step was commercialization. Together it all led to positive economic impacts.

We see this pattern again and again.

For instance, next time you’re on Google, remember it was founded by two Stanford University doctoral students who were funded in part by National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships. Fast forward 20 years and here in my backyard, the company is busy building a new campus in downtown Seattle that may house 3,000-4,000 workers by 2019. Many of those hired will likely be graduates from both WSU and UW.

The fact is that thousands of companies can trace their roots to federally funded university research. And since the majority of federally funded research takes place at America’s research universities – often in concert with federal labs and private research partners – these spinoff companies are often located in their local communities all across the country.

Just one of these firms, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, employs over 2,800 workers and started with researchers at the University of Colorado who create instruments, data exploitation solutions and technologies for civil, commercial, aerospace and defense applications. Another in Audubon, Pennsylvania develops rapid, noninvasive “liquid biopsy” tests for cancer screening and early detection based on research from the University of Pennsylvania. And another company with 85 employees in Madison develops high-density DNA microarrays for pharmaceutical research based on research from the University of Wisconsin.

The list goes on and on.

A Washington state case study

Focusing federal research funding on research universities who enjoy strong corporate and business partners has strategic value. There is little doubt that the state of Washington’s recent economic successes, for example, comes down to a cycle of innovation and discovery that feeds additional economic growth and private-public-university relationships. Federal R&D funding is a key ingredient.

Our two public research universities have strong relationships with federal funding agencies. Together Washington State University and the University of Washington – the largest recipient of federal research funding in the nation among public universities – form the technological and intellectual pillar around which many of our state’s successful businesses are built and sustained. Both universities graduate thousands of undergraduate and graduate students who provide a constant supply of educated, trained workers. In turn, the universities and federal R&D investment benefit from the active engagement and monetary support of business leaders and professionals. Innovative ideas and knowledge percolate back and forth between federally funded research and the private sector.

A recent milestone provides an example.

Gassing up with renewable, affordable jet fuel – thanks to a public/private research collaboration. Robert Hubner, WSU, CC BY-ND

Federal research dollars helped solidify a collaboration aimed at solving a big problem: the high carbon emissions from air travel, a contributor to climate change. WSU worked together with the UW and a host of other regional public research institutions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alaska Airlines, Weyerhaeuser Corp., Gevo, Inc. and a large alliance of private industry to develop a renewable, affordable source of jet fuel.

Each collaborator brought unique expertise to the innovation table. USDA provided the funding and the policy commitment to the development of biofuels that spurred matching investment from private partners. Alaska Airlines brought the need to reduce its carbon emissions and its leadership in applying clean technologies to improve its environmental performance. WSU contributed decades of pertinent experience in both basic science and applied research. UW researchers demonstrated the fuel’s potential reduction in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions. And, Gevo, Inc. brought its private-sector skills and patented technology in developing bio-based alternatives to petroleum-based products. The sum of these parts created a strong, successful partnership that took a big step toward sustainable aviation.

Individual researchers with their deep expertise remain the bedrock of the research enterprise. But teams of scientists – drawn from research universities, government and the private sector – all working on multidisciplinary problems are having an increasing impact.

Recipe for amplifying R&D investment

Importantly, this phenomenon is not unique to the state of Washington. The nation’s most active innovation hubs and successful regional economies have similar factors that drive economic growth and resiliency, including:

  • Top-tier research institutions supported by federal, state and private funding;
  • A concentration of talented and diverse workers;
  • An ecosystem of firms, entrepreneurs and intermediaries;
  • Accessible pools of risk capital;
  • A global orientation; and
  • Communities that take advantage of the area’s unique assets and advantages in creating a desirable quality of life.

We see these conditions coming together around the country: in Silicon Valley, the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle Park, Boston’s metro area and other innovation hubs in cities like Boulder, Colorado; Madison, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas; and Gainesville, Florida.

It’s this cooperative model and leveraging of federal R&D dollars that have long been this nation’s competitive advantage. With fewer federal dollars allocated to scientific R&D, the next Silicon Valley – with its potential for an economic renaissance for a new area not even on our innovation map yet – may not emerge as quickly

Washington State CleanTech Industry Emphasizes Importance of Federal Energy Research Funding

Seattle. CleanTech Alliance newsletter, 2017

Washington State business, government and academic leaders, including WSU’s Dr. Noel Schulz, held a roundtable on Friday, August 25, to call for continued federal investment in the vital energy research. CleanTech Alliance hosted the forum, which featured Senator Maria Cantwell and Utilities and Transportation Commission Chair David Danner. Attendees included:

  • Senator Maria Cantwell
  • David Danner, Chair of the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission
  • Ravi Aggarwal, Manager and Sr. Electrical Engineer at Bonneville Power Administration
  • Steven Ashby, Director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Reeves Clippard, CEO of A&R Solar
  • Maud Daudon, President & CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
  • Kara Hurst, Director of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon
  • Craig Husa, CEO of SuperCritical Technologies
  • David Kirtley, CEO of Helion
  • John Pierce, Partner at Perkins Coie
  • J. Thomas Ranken, President & CEO of CleanTech Alliance
  • Noel Nunnally Schulz, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University
  • Daniel Schwartz, Director of the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington
  • Craig Smith, Director of Customer Energy Solutions at Seattle City Light
  • Tony Usibelli, Special Assistant to the Director of Climate and Energy Policy at the Washington State Department of Commerce
  • Gary Yang, CEO of UniEnergy Technologies
Dr. Noel Schulz, (in crimson and gray, seventh from the right) was a member of the CleanTech delegation meeting with Senator Maria Cantwell (in blue blazer, fourth from the left)

Participants highlighted the critical role energy plays in creating jobs and supporting the Washington State and broader Northwest region economy, as well as the need to continue to support and perfect new technologies in order to remain competitive. Much of the conversation underscored the importance of Department of Energy and other federal research funding to this effort. In 2016, the Department of Energy (DOE) provided more than $3 billion in funding throughout the state, contributing .69 percent of the state’s GDP. The future of that funding is now in question following proposed DOE budget cuts by the Trump Administration.

“Today’s meeting demonstrates the broad consensus that exists around the importance and impact of federal energy research funding in Washington State,” said J. Thomas Ranken, President & CEO of the CleanTech Alliance. “The energy sector is growing rapidly and it is crucial that our policies do everything to encourage that growth. We know how to put Americans to work in the new energy economy, we just have to make sure that the funding and support are there. We look forward to continuing this conversation as Congress considers the Department of Energy’s budget this fall.”

DOE has played a critical role in bringing new technology ideas to the private sector. DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) is not only an important partner to local energy companies, but it’s also a critical part of the local and state economy. In FY2016, PNNL contributed $24.5 million in state and local taxes and $404 million to state payrolls. More than 100 businesses have roots with PNNL, 69 of which employ 2,326 people in the state. PNNL itself employs more than 4,000 people.

DOE funding has also helped Washington State businesses make breakthrough technologies economically viable. For example, thanks to ARPA-E funding, Battery Informatics is developing next-generation battery management systems, based on technologies developed at the University of Washington, to extend the life of electric vehicle batteries. Helion Energy is also developing a prototype that will explore a potential low-cost path to fusion for a simplified reactor design.

Washington State residents are also impacted by the cost-saving innovations generated by energy research. The U.S. Department of Energy’s investments in energy innovation have helped to bring down the cost of solar, making it more accessible for regular citizens.

While there is broad public support for energy funding and innovation, the United States must do more to prioritize energy and technology research. The participants agreed that Congress needs to continue investing in energy innovations that create jobs, drive international competitiveness, protect our national security and reduce costs for consumers.