Brandeis Innovation

2017 Year-In-Review Newsletter

2017: A Year In Review

As 2017 is coming to a close, we would like to thank all of you who have supported innovative activity across Brandeis. Touching one in six students, as well as countless faculty and staff, Brandeis Innovation programs define innovation broadly, and in the spirit of repairing the world through new discoveries. From leading researchers working on cures for major diseases, to undergraduates building apps in their dorms, these innovators inspire us daily with their creativity and dedication. This year in review is dedicated to them, and to you, for supporting the next big breakthrough to emerge from Brandeis' classrooms, dorms, and labs.
We'd like to share with you our accomplishments over this productive year. Most importantly, we'd like to invite you to join us in 2018 as we continue to support innovation campus-wide.
-Rebecca Menapace,
Associate Provost for Innovation
Executive Director of the Office of Technology Licensing and of the Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center

Hack My PhD
This year, we launched the HackmyPHD program to help doctoral students become more entrepreneurial. Successful entrepreneurs who went from doctoral programs to launching their own startups or corporate careers, as well as leading academics, shared optimistic and practical strategies for success with today's PhD candidates.
This pioneering program is being made available to other institutions. Created at Brandeis, the HackMyPhD model empowers departments, universities, and doctoral students to forge bold new paths in PhD employment.
Innovation Day
The first ever Innovation Day was hosted on April 23 to encourage innovative ideas and provide the strategic resources to make them happen! It was a successful day filled with learning, connecting, and building on the innovations born out of the labs, classrooms, and dorms of Brandeis. Participants had the opportunity to attend mentoring sessions, connect with faculty, students, and staff, be inspired by the startup teams, and learn how to make their ideas come to life through interactive workshops.

National Science Foundation I-Corps Grant Funds Campus Discoveries
Brandeis University was awarded a $237,070 five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program this Spring. The grant will provide funding for up to 15 teams of Brandeis students, faculty, and staff, to help develop their discoveries and startups into useful technologies. The grant will be managed by the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL).Over a dozen Innovation teams have already reaped the benefits, gaining funding and support for drug discovery, social innovations, and environmental technologies.

 

SPROUT Distributes Nearly $80,000 for Innovative Research
Brandeis Innovation's SPROUT program, funded by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) has concluded its successful fifth year with a total of $79,500 in grants distributed among the most promising innovations. This year, the program attracted a group of applicants with a diverse range of lab-based inventions, including proposals for novel treatments for ovarian cancer, new approaches to bacterial resistance, and an emerging alternative fuel. Seven teams were awarded funding, on the basis of a high degree of innovation, commercial significance, and future potential of the proposals.

SPARK Distributes $50,000 for Innovative High Tech, Social Impact
In February, Brandeis Innovation's SPARK program, for non-bench research such as high tech, and social entrepreneurship, awarded $50,000 in grants to startups with high potential to solve global, national, and regional challenges. Thirteen teams competed for funding; 8 teams won various amounts to create workable prototypes or move on to more advanced phases of their programs. Among the funded teams were WorkAround, which aims to provide the world's global displaced population with meaningful, self-sustaining work. The team later went on to become a MassChallenge finalist and win the highly-competitive MIT Enterprise Forum/HUBWeek Beantown Throwdown.

Innovation Showcase
The third annual Innovation Showcase was a great success, featuring 18 different presenters and over 150 attendees! The event celebrated and encouraged innovative and entrepreneurial projects by Brandeis students, faculty, and staff. Congratulations to the three presenters who were the Audience Favorite winners: 3rd place, Joel Meyerson with Cryo Electron Microscopy; 2nd place, Ingrid Marko with her Redesigned Back Brace; and 1st place, Lizbeth Hedstrom with a New Therapy for the Diseases of Aging.

For the Rest of 2017:

Smart Fifty Boston
Application Deadline: January 5, 2018
Brandeis International Business School is the exclusive international academic partner in India’s newly announced Smart Fifty competition.
Smart Fifty is organized by the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Innovation Park and sponsored by the Indian government’s Department of Science & Technology. The competition, which is open to participants worldwide , aims to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and social development in India’s rapidly expanding market. Have a startup? Apply now to this opportunity available in the US only through Brandeis.