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

Today, commercially successful innovations are likely to come not from traditional disciplines, but between disciplines, or among them. Most engineering research today is cross-disciplinary with engineers collaborating with a variety partners in the natural and health sciences. The USC Viterbi School’s Integrated Media Systems Center has created a dazzling array of new Internet technologies at the intersection of engineering and creative content media. New industries such the video games are a spicy blend of engineering and art while Hollywood, which has a long history of technology transformations is struggling with the digital revolution. That’s why SITeC, though located within the Viterbi School, must work for all of USC.

SITeC will speed the transfer of USC inventions into the marketplace with the highest academic, business and ethical standards. It will provide a powerful tool for attracting and retaining the highest caliber students and faculty from around the world. SITeC will build corporate partnerships that advance applied research and strengthen education with hands-on commercialization training. And finally, as more innovations are commercialized, it will profoundly enrich the lives of people everywhere.

C. L. Max Nikias holds the Zohrab A. Kaprielian Chair in Engineering and is dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

An Interview with Mark Stevens: Creating an Energetic Exchange

Venture capitalist Mark A. Stevens graduated from USC in 1981 with a double major in electrical engineering and economics and later completed his master’s in computer engineering, also at USC. He joined what was then a lesser-known, mid-size company called Intel, initially in technical sales. “That was the next step in my career in terms of being on the commercialization side of technology,” Stevens says. Later he went back to school again, this time for an MBA at Harvard University.  

With Stevens’ technology expertise, business intuition and marketing skill, the field of venture capital seemed like a natural. Stevens joined Sequoia Capital in Silicon Valley in the spring of 1989 and is now one of five voting partners jointly responsible for some of tech history’s most spectacular investments: Google, Yahoo!, NVIDIA and others.  

Following are excerpts from a recent interview with Stevens about technology transfer and the Mark and Mary Stevens Institute for Technology Commercialization (SITeC).

The term “technology transfer” or “technology commercialization” implies that the technology is first completed, then transferred. But that’s not how it works, is it?

No. As venture capitalists we tend not to try to finance basic research. We’ll finance a little bit but we’re really focused on financing the development. At Sequoia, we try to evaluate where on that spectrum the founders are. If you’re a faculty member or a student and you’re trying to start a company and there’s a lot of research left to do, it may be tough raising money. The idea’s not yet fully baked; you might fail.

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