Center for Technology Commercialization

History

The UB-CTC was started when we won a grant to develop jointly with other University of Baltimore Schools three graduate courses and subsidize the tuition for students who were to enroll in these courses. The nearly $2M grant (under the Technology Reinvestment Project,) was a joint federal program sponsored by five federal agencies and funded by Congress. Our program was originally entitled the “Lab to Market,” and now, nearly a decade later, is called the “Mind to Market,” program under the leadership of Dr. Lanny Herron. The program garnered national awards and recognition in the State of Maryland, and in the region. AACSB recognized the program with an award in 1994, and featured it in its new publication.

After the grant expired in 1996, the program continued, and the university established the Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC) to allow continued support for the program. The main infrastructure for the “Lab to Market” project was in place and has been functioning for several years. The faculty members teaching in this program have obtained considerable experience with both teaching and mentoring students in this program and in Technology Transfer (TT) fieldwork, as well as in attendant related team-based coursework. Students majoring in science and engineering from UMBC have often joined MSB students, along with UB students from the Law and Liberal Arts schools. We believe that the UB-CTC will continue to offer benefits and contribute to the local economy, consistent with UB’s mission, in terms of both technology commercialization and training of graduate students by offering professional education. Beneficiaries outside UB include individual entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, incubator manage ments, agencies such as BEDCO and TEDCO, participating federal labs and their technology transfer programs.

In 1998, after Mike Laric joined the Center we broadened the scope of the CTC, and sought greater collaboration with market-demand. We applied the model of experiential learning to see how the program would succeed if CTC enlisted projects that were closer to the marketplace, using a “market-pull” approach, as opposed to projects which originated in the federal laboratories, utilizing a “technology push” approach. UB-CTC engaged new sources for projects. The new sources included venture capitalists, inventors, Internet startups and companies from local incubators. Projects were used in other MBA courses where teams of students were matched to new products and technologies. Teams of students, collaborating with the projects’ sponsors, evaluated existing commercial opportunities, demonstrated market potential, and garnered private sector interest and financial support for these new products and technologies. The Center has facilitated close relationships with over 35 federal laboratories throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region. These laboratories provided projects for student research and actively participated in the students’ work. Student reports are turned back to the federal laboratories. UB students worked on projects for federal laboratories including NIH, NASA, Fort Dietrick, Army Research Laboratories in Aberdeen Proving Ground, NSA several facilities at the Office on Naval Research, and the Patuxent River Naval Air base. Other projects were done for venture capitalists (MAVA and Blue-Rock) incubator companies from ETC (Baltimore City) and others in Anne Arundel and Prince George counties, as well as over two dozen entrepreneurs.