Technology Transfer: A 21st Century Model for Engineering Education (cont.)

The four steps to commercialization.

A Stevens education

The 21st century curriculum that SITeC is developing includes coursework in technological entrepreneurship, as well as optional minors at all levels. Classes will focus on three overarching areas:

• First are the technical aspects of technology transfer, encompassing methods for assessing how mature a discovery, or its market readiness.
• Second are the legal aspects including intellectual property protection, business plan formation, licensing and royalties.
• Finally, there are the operational aspects spanning economics, marketing, management, financial markets, valuation, feasibility analysis and hands-on business plan development.

Ethics, as they apply to commercialization, will also be an important part of this innovative curriculum.

The USC Viterbi School is collaborating with the USC Marshall School of Business and the USC Gould School of Law to create the new courses. The courses will be open for all USC students – not just engineering students – and all of them will have the option of taking a SITeC technology commercialization minor. The courses will be a fundamental part of the curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate engineering students and will eventually become the benchmark for a comprehensive engineering degree.

The courses will all be designed to work in a modern distance-learning environment. The Viterbi School currently has about a thousand graduate students studying in 26 different M.S. degree programs through its Distance Education Network (DEN). These students, who can be found in most U.S. states, use DEN’s cutting-edge high-speed Internet interface to take the same courses taught by the same faculty that teach on-campus students. And their USC degrees are exactly the same as those who study on campus.

Industry relies heavily on private engineering schools to train working professional engineers in the latest technologies. So most private engineering schools graduate large numbers of masters students compared to the public schools, which are mandated by state legislatures to concentrate resources on undergraduate education. Because so many master’s students are professional engineers already working in the commercial realm, the SITeC curriculum may be even more important for them.

A comprehensive resource

In addition to its educational mission, SITeC will be strengthening technology transfer capabilities university-wide as a resource for both faculty and students. SITeC is currently hiring a professional staff that will provide a dynamic interface between inventive USC academics and potential investors and corporate partners. SITeC will offer a full range of consulting services, from market analyses to third-party investor introductions. It will be building new links to industry as it assists faculty, and sometimes students, with ideas that have commercial potential. The result will be a more seamless technology transfer process. The goal isn’t simply to raise individual competence, but to create a new culture and awareness of the value of commercialization. Technology transfer needs to become a natural, intuitive process for all.

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