STEP Students Opportunities
STEP graduate students are required to write a thesis based on a real-world project that is generally part of an extended internship with researchers, companies, or early-stage investment firms. Most STEP students are able to work any time of year (i.e., not limited to summers) because most STEP classes are taught in the evening and the curriculum is flexible. The main focus of the internship is to develop a wide range of entrepreneurial opportunities, including:
- - Assessing probable impact of a technology on sponsor company and industry
- Identifying potential markets, applications, partners, and licensing opportunities
- Assisting in the development of commercialization strategies and/or business plans, and helping to make them operational
- SBIR grantwriting
- Identifying near and far-term sources of revenue
- Technology roadmap development (i.e. identifying research that must be performed to close the commercialization gap)
The duration of a student's involvement in a project will range from 2 months to 2 years. Progress and deliverables are usually monitored by a mentor within the sponsoring organization, along with a STEP representative. The student's stipend is paid through various methods, such as direct pay from the sponsor, research grant, or economic development grant (i.e., Third Frontier Internship Program). Other arrangement such as equity and intellectual property may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Students will work both individually and in teams, depending on the project.
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Sample of past CA projects:
Alcoa Wheel Products: Two PEP students performed a market feasibility study on company-owned IP and truck tire rims with MEMS sensors (www.alcoawheels.com)
USA Instruments (recently acquired by General Electric): PEP student worked to commercialize company-owned IP (www.usainstruments.com)
Genvac Aerospace (thin films startup) sent an associate through the PEP to write business plan and assist in overall strategy (genvacaerospace.com)
Cleveland Clinic Foundation Innovations: PEP student aided in writing and revisions of a business plan for a spin-off (H-cubed) and worked to organized and develop the portfolio for the BioMEMS area of research.
Advanced Lighting Technologies, Ltd.: PEP student worked on commercialization strategies (www.adlt.com)
Kennedy Group RFID: PEP students were commercialization consultants (www.kennedygrp.com)
UV Sun Sensor (technology from Israeli firm): PEP student wrote business plan for commercialization in the US
Symbioware (San Francisco software engineering firm): PEP students writing business plan for automated testing for large software efforts.
Calcimetrix: protein tagging (Case researcher-generated IP)
Ultrafast Fourier Transform Algorithm (Case researcher-generated IP)
Gallium Nitride crystals (Case researcher-generated IP)
AHS Hydrofoils, cross-university E-Team with Caltech, USC, and UCLA
Nanostar with professors at Taylor University in Indiana
Center for the Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT): SERS sensors project with graduate students at University of California San Diego and scientists at SPAWAR (U.S. Navy). www.ccatsandiego.org
5 Itech: STEP students studying commercialization possibilities and/or writing business plans for technologies from the former Soviet Union (www.5itech.com):
- BioID (biometrix)
- Jetflux (welding fluxes)
- ELSYS (bio diagnostic)
- ARIA Analytics - measuring mechanical properties of liquids and colloids
- CEMATECH - selling consultant services for Russian finite element modeling group
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The Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program
has received generous support from The Burton D.
Morgan Foundation, the Coleman
Foundation, the National
Collegiate Inventor's and Innovator's Alliance (NCIIA) and a bequest of Robert Stieglitz (Physics Entrepreneurship).
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