High-tech businesses and corporations looking for students with business experience and expertise might find what they are looking for at the Lassonde Entrepreneur Center.
The Lassonde Center works in conjunction with Technology Venture Development to take new technology invented by U researchers and market it for sales.
The Technology Venture Development program at the U takes ideas faculty members have developed through years of work and helps determine whether the product is marketable
The Lassonde program, made up of 16 to 18 students from all departments, then reviews the ideas and picks promising ventures to develop.
Students at the center are paired together to assist in the commercialization of these projects.
“Lassonde students meet with researchers in the labs and do market and competitive analysis research of their own to learn how accessible the product will be and how it will be received by the public,” said Troy D’Ambrosio, director of educational programs with Technology Venture.
The work might sound simple compared with the research needed to create new technologies, but Lassonde students don’t take their marketing strategies lightly. Students in the program spend 15 to 20 hours per week assessing marketability of products and writing up business plans.
Catherine Garff works with the technology development center and describes market research as a necessary component.
“If someone invents a drug, that’s great, but unless it reaches the commercialization process it won’t go far,” she said.
All of the projects are faculty driven, some directly assisted by graduate students in the field. ThermImage, a business focused around technology that revolutionizes methods for diagnosing vesicoureteral reflux in children, worked with Lassonde students last year in marketing plans.
“Students have been an intricate part in the development process, contributing excellent ideas,” said Doug Turnquist, President and CEO of ThermImage.
The students said they also benefit from the exchange.
“It helped me get perspective about launching a business and patent issues,” said Kavita Gupta, a graduate student in bioengineering.
Students market new technologies