July 27, 2001
New campus-wide center for technology entrepreneurship to combine research with real-world learning
A new cross-campus center at the University of Washington Business School will provide research faculty and students with the opportunity to study the real-world problems involved in turning leading-edge technology into viable companies.
The Center for Technology Entrepreneurship will be home to a New Venture Creation Lab where faculty and students from diverse disciplines will examine the market potential of emerging technologies developed by the University of Washington. Selected technologies from the university’s intellectual property will become the “laboratory” for student instruction and faculty research on high-tech entrepreneurship.
Center leaders will work with technologies selected by the UW’s Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer, and Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Laboratory, with the concurrence of the inventors, to develop business concepts for these new technologies. Because technology entrepreneurship involves both business and technical issues, the center will involve faculty and students from an array of UW departments: business; bioengineering; chemistry; electrical engineering; material science and engineering. A pilot New Venture Creation Laboratory is already underway with an interdisciplinary team of four students.
Executive director Michael Song’s vision is to create the leading national research center for developing and disseminating knowledge on technology entrepreneurship.
“Our center will provide a laboratory for faculty research and student learning to understand how entrepreneurs develop, lead and transform today’s most exciting high-tech companies,” said Song, who has directed the business school’s Program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the past year. “This is the first time that any University in the United States–or the world–has combined access to leading-edge technology with a multi-disciplinary approach to research and teaching entrepreneurship.”
Research will focus on five key areas:
? Assessing the risk vs. value of emerging technologies.
? Developing new business models for the development and commercialization of emerging technologies.
? Identifying organizational barriers to adopting new technology.
? Investigating effective market opportunity analysis techniques for high tech ventures.
? Examining success/failure factors for high-tech start-ups.
Dean Yash Gupta of the UW Business School is optimistic about the new center’s long-term potential to position the school as a world leader in teaching technology entrepreneurship.
“Michael Song has done an outstanding job of making our current program in entrepreneurship and innovation one of the best in the nation,” Gupta said. “This new center will vastly expand the opportunities for students and faculty in this exciting arena–not only from the business school, but from other disciplines across campus.”
Other objectives of the center include:
? Developing a new doctoral degree program in technology entrepreneurship to train future faculty.
? Creating an master’s in business administration curriculum with two tracks: new venture creation and corporate entrepreneurship (driving innovation in established companies).
? Offer entrepreneurship education to faculty and students across campus.
? Organize an annual Business Plan competition for all Washington state’s degree-seeking college and university students.
The center is funded by the University Initiatives Fund and matching contributions from individual and corporate donors.
Operations will begin in the winter quarter.
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For more information, contact Michael Song at (206) 543-4587 or song@u.washington.edu; Connie Bourassa-Shaw, manager of the Program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at (206) 685-9868 or cbshaw@u.washington.edu.
