{"id":3909,"date":"2007-07-01T10:17:57","date_gmt":"2007-07-01T14:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=3909"},"modified":"2021-11-08T12:45:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T17:45:41","slug":"intellectual-property-comes-to-the-fore-in-business-plan-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2007\/07\/intellectual-property-comes-to-the-fore-in-business-plan-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Intellectual property comes to the fore in business plan project."},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent event brought together the Florida International University\u2019s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, the Office of Intellectual Property Management and Resource Development, and the Applied Research Center (ARC); the president of South Florida Technology Alliance (SFTA); and 54 students in the College of Business Administration\u2019s International MBA (IMBA) program taking Advanced Business Plan Development<\/em>. The occasion: The students\u2019 presentations of business plans for the commercialization of technologies developed by present and former university faculty members.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt gave me the chance to see how these technologies could advance to the product stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Susan Webster<\/strong> (BA \u201987), executive director, intellectual property management and resource development<\/p>\n

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\nLuis Almodovar<\/strong> (IMBA \u201907), training coordinator, human resources department, Terremark Worldwide, Inc. worked on a business plan for the university\u2019s Panther Skin technology.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cWe asked IMBA students to take a fresh look at some technologies to give us ideas for possible commercial applications,\u201d said Susan Webster<\/strong> (BA \u201987), executive director, intellectual property management and resource development. \u201cIt gave them a chance to become acquainted with our office and what\u2019s required to work with intellectual property in a business. It gave me the chance to see how these technologies could advance to the product stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students apply familiar business knowledge to unfamiliar turf: science and technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

Luis Almodovar<\/strong> (IMBA \u201907), training coordinator, human resources department, Terremark Worldwide, Inc., and his teammates, along with two other teams, looked at Panther Skin, a lightweight, solvent- and fire-resistant plastic that can bond permanently to metal. Each team came up with a different application: for oil pipelines, shipping containers, and military vehicles in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe evaluated how Panther Skin could protect the undercarriage of high-mobility, multipurpose, wheeled vehicles (Humvees), targeted by improvised explosive devices (IEDs),\u201d said Almodovar who was a mechanic in the military and knew where Panther Skin could be appropriately applied. \u201cThe current solution has been too heavy, resulting in broken axles, and a patented product that the Navy is testing gets too hot. Panther Skin is lighter and easier to apply, making it a quick fix.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Susan Webster <\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The other teams worked on ARC\u2019s water purification projects, heat sink technologies, and temperature-probe technologies. All the teams developed the necessary features of a business plan, which included evaluating the marketplace and the competition, and completing financials and pro formas.<\/p>\n

SFTA sees potential in the technologies and the students.<\/em><\/p>\n

Joel Ledlow<\/strong>, SFTA president and founder and CEO of Acarra (a \u201c\u2018Growth Catalyst\u2019 for middle market and emerging technology companies\u201d), had a number of reasons to find the session valuable. SFTA has 250 members\u2014technology companies that share ideas and resources at a very high level.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCompanies in the area may not know that the university develops technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Joel Ledlow<\/strong>, SFTA president and founder and CEO, Acarra<\/p>\n

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\u201cCompanies in the area may not know that the university develops technologies,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir awareness of this fact can lead to opportunities for the university and show them how the university can add value to their organizations, including the idea that its students might be excellent employees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Joel Ledlow <\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

After the event, Ledlow worked with Webster to discuss possible paths for making the products more viable and marketable.<\/p>\n

Making these kinds of matches across units in the university and organizations beyond it is part of what drives Alan Carsrud<\/strong>, executive director, Pino Center, clinical professor of management, instructor of the business plan course, and a member of Webster\u2019s advisory board.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents got to participate in a very interesting exercise, working with actual technologies to which the university owns the rights and, in some cases, to meet with the inventors,\u201d said Carsrud, who launched a similar program at UCLA involving technology transfer between the university and industry that helped raise millions for the firms involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent event brought together the Florida International University\u2019s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, the Office of Intellectual Property Management and Resource Development, and the Applied Research Center (ARC); the president of South Florida Technology Alliance (SFTA); and 54 students in the College of Business Administration\u2019s International MBA (IMBA) program taking Advanced Business Plan Development. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[165,813,1151,1312,1620,2524],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36237,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions\/36237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}