March News from Brandeis Innovation
Profiles in Innovation - Sara Landa MBA ‘22 of Tulum Charters
How do you start a travel business and scale it to profitability? Sara Landa, MBA ‘22 and former Brandeis Innovation Startup Champion developed an innovative business model that allowed her and her team to scale their yacht charter company, Tulum Charters, without major overhead expenses. Learn about how creative problem-solving helps build businesses, and hear Sara’s advice for potential entrepreneurs in the latest episode of our podcast, Profiles in Innovation.
Profiles in Innovation - Prof. Stephen Van Hooser of NDI Cloud
Neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are among the greatest medical challenges of our times. Recent government rules for neuroscience research that received Federal funding should make it easier for scientists around the country to share their data as we seek cures, but as with many types of complex data, actually pooling data in ways that speed medical research on these diseases is challenging. Prof. Steve Van Hooser has a solution to the complexity of sharing neurological research data with his startup, NDI Cloud. Learn about his technology, and how participation in the Brandeis Innovation NSF I-Corps program, as well as the national I-Corps program, brought his important work to life.
Funding Opportunity: The Annual Sprout Program
Pre-Applications are Due March 29
The Sprout Program, funded by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), is designed to encourage and support translational research activity within the Brandeis community for faculty, postdocs, and student researchers (graduate and undergraduate) in the Division of Science. The awards (up to $25,000) are intended to help to advance early-stage technologies to industry adoption thereby bringing your research and entrepreneurial ambitions to life. Apply by March 29 for no-overhead funding to support bench research projects with commercial potential. Open to Brandeis faculty, postdocs, and undergraduate and graduate students
Brandeis Innovation at the Annual AUTM Meeting
Brandeis Innovation Director of Licensing and Strategic Alliances Rajnish Kaushik, MBA, PhD represented Brandeis Innovation at the annual AUTM Annual Meeting in San Diego this month. The premiere event for technology commercialization, the AUTM Annual Meeting brings together technology licensing professionals from research universities with industry technology scouts and leaders looking for the latest in technologies emerging from university labs. This year’s event was as usual very well-attended, including former members of the Brandeis Innovation team. Raj ran into Rong Zhou, PhD ‘16, who served for years as Licensing Associate here at the Office of Technology Licensing. It was a time to reconnect with colleagues, catch up on the latest developments in technology licensing, and strengthen connections between universities and industry.
Four sessions of Industry: Connect & Collaboration featured reverse-pitches from companies looking for early-stage innovative technologies from universities for licensing and research collaboration. Raj was there to continue to build connections between Brandeis and the industry, connecting with potential licensing partners, collaborators, and other stakeholders. AI was a frequent topic at the conference, highlighting the current trend, its importance in innovation as well as for IP analytics and how universities are sharing their innovations in response to industry trends. Brandeis has several technologies available for licensing that relate to data science, making these sessions especially relevant to our portfolio.
“I was proud to represent Brandeis at this key event for university technology commercialization,” says Raj, adding “It was a productive event that allowed us to get in front of industry and continue to build interest in Brandeis’ breakthrough innovations, with the goal of getting more technologies out of the lab and into commercial production. Every year, AUTM hosts an annual conference which not only helps in getting up-to-date with current tech-transfer trends and practices but it also helps universities to showcase the best technologies coming out of university labs, and I can say with confidence that Brandeis inventions keep pace with those from the largest universities around the globe.”