2018 June Year in Review
Brandeis Innovation:
A Groundbreaking Spring and
Looking at Summer
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Over the Spring, we were honored to participate in a groundbreaking series of programs that brought Brandeis' innovators to the widest audience ever.
Through our Spring outreach programs, we reached over 100,000 members of the Boston innovation community with our message of inclusive innovation, and met in person over 500 new event attendees across the fields of biotech, sustainability, social enterprise, and big data.
- In February, our annual SPARKTank startup pitch contest highlighted the best innovations from around Brandeis. Teams from the International Business School, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, and the Division of Arts and Sciences competed in front of a judges' panel drawn from Boston's tech leadership. Winners included innovators in AI, sustainability, consumer goods, social enterprise, and more, showing the diversity of inventions coming out of Brandeis.
- In March, we hosted the first-ever Mass Innovation Nights at Brandeis, a showcase dedicated to highlighting inventions born in our labs, classrooms, and dorms. With over 200 registrants, it was an evening that brought a wide array of innovators across the region to the Brandeis campus for the first time.
- April 11, we hosted a session for the Mass Technology Leadership Council's NewCo festival, the largest regional festival of innovation open houses. Our panel focused on ways to increase diversity in STEAM. I was proud to say that 100% of all teams newly funded this year by Brandeis Innovation were gender- and ethnically diverse.
- April 19, SPARKTank winners African Women Energy Solutions debuted at Venture Cafe's Earth Night, a key regional event for sustainability ventures.
- On April 26, biotech innovators showcased their inventions at BIOConnect, the Venture Cafe's annual life sciences event.
- SPARKTank Winner Marshall Chang, IBS BA/MA '17, was selected to take part in the 2018 Masschallenge cohort. He also exhibited at the May 24 FinTech Connect event at Venture Cafe.
- June 1, I spoke on a panel on trends in Intellectual Property at the Broad Institute, as part of the global BIO Conference, the world's largest biotech conference. All week, our Technology Licensing team participated in the Partnering program at BIO, alongside MIT, Harvard University, and other leading institutions, showcasing inventions born at Brandeis that are available for commercial licensing.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Menapace
Associate Provost for Innovation
Exceutive Director, Office of Technology Licensing and Hassenfeld Family Inno
Brandeis Innovator Marshall Chang BA/MA '17 Selected for Masschallenge 2018 Cohort
A.I. Capital Management, a Brandeis University startup seeking to build one of the world’s first hedge funds fully managed by artificial intelligence, has been invited to participate in the 2018 MassChallenge Boston accelerator program. The startup, founded by Marshall Chang, IBS BA/MA '17, won the Brandeis Innovation SPARKTank Challenge in February. By participating in the 2018 MassChallenge, A.I. Capital Management also gains access to top corporate partners, expert mentorship, a tailored curriculum, scholarship opportunities and more than 26,000 square-feet of co-working space in the Innovation and Design Building all at zero cost and for zero equity.
Associate Provost for Innovation Rebecca Menapace Speaks at Deshpande Symposium
Associate Provost for Innovation Rebecca Menapace spoke at the 7 th Annual Deshpande Symposium for Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Higher Education, on June 12th. Her panel, Bridging the Gap: The State of University Internal “Gap” Funds, showcased how universities are using innovation centers to move discoveries forward in the gap between initial grants and commercialization. Rebecca shared the groundbreaking work we are doing here at Brandeis Innovation in funding important new discoveries.
Join HackMyPhD
July 26, 2018
HackMyPhD is a daylong introduction to entrepreneurship and startups for PhDs and Postdocs in STEAM fields.
Learn how the skills you gain while completing your PhD are transferable and valuable beyond the lab and classroom. Through a day of inspiring stories, actionable advice, and informative sessions, participants understand what an entrepreneurial path entails and specific steps to undertake to pursue that path.
HackMyPhD gathers graduate students and postdocs to inspire design thinking through different lenses. Chemistry researchers have the chance to get inspired by arts students or economics PhDs by their sustainability counterparts. Capitalizing on the Boston academic community’s diversity, we are all working together to inspire real innovation.
