The Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ launched a record 17 startup companies this fiscal year.
That makes fiscal 2013 the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ’s single most productive year for startup formation. It places the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ among the top five schools in the nation.
Last year, President Michael K. Young challenged the university to increase its number of fundable technology startups.
“University startups give the American public a valuable return on their investment in academic research. Ģ¹½ÊÓÆµ start-ups deliver impact to the public from our life-changing discoveries,â€� Young said.
Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ startups are companies, usually co-founded by Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ researchers, formed around technology licensed from the university.
“Successful Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ start-ups benefit Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ researchers, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ as an institution and the public,â€� said Linden Rhoads, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Vice Provost of Commercialization.  “The  is here to make sure Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ’s start-ups have the best possible chance for success.â€�
The center coaches entrepreneurial faculty, students, and staff through the commercialization process, offering specialized programs at every step.
Rhoads, a serial entrepreneur herself, leads the center’s coordinated set of programs and resources for Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ startups. In the past five years, the center has increased the funding available for Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ companies and helped Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ startups win Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer federal grants. The Center for Commercialization established the New Ventures Facility, a startup incubator in Fluke Hall, and has helped create external forums that allow Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ startups to seek early stage investment.
“The Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ consistently ranks in the highest international echelons for its research and training,â€� Rhoads said. “At the Center for Commercialization, we have a system of entrepreneurial support worthy of the volume of high-quality research at Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ. We want Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ to be known for best-in-class technology commercialization. This requires effective networking in and around each start-up team.â€�
Entrepreneurs-in-Residence are experienced technology entrepreneurs who work alongside faculty to launch Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ startups. Ģ¹½ÊÓÆµ Presidential Entrepreneurial Faculty Fellows launched successful Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ startups through the the center—and now can advise other Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ researchers. Seattle’s top venture attorneys coach Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ start-ups through the investment process, and venture capitalists help fill Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ startups with the region’s top executive talent.
The center provdes a variety of opportunities involving Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ students that include:
- MBA interns interviewing potential customers and identifying competing products.
- Law School Intellectual Property externs mapping Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ technologies against existing patents and assisting in the patent and copyright processes.
- Bridge Funding Fellows performing due diligence on Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ startups to help them prepare for investors.
- Commercialization postdoctoral fellows advancing the commercialization opportunity of innovations generated from their doctoral research or related efforts.
“The Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ has launched into a new level of entrepreneurship. For students, our Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship in the Foster School of Business is one of the top 10 programs in the nation,â€� Young said. “Now C4C makes Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ one of the top five schools for technology start-up formation. Our success this year comes directly from the unprecedented extent of engagement from our faculty, students, and friends in the Seattle business community.â€�
The Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Start-up Companies for fiscal 2013 are:
- will provide rapid assessment of virulent bacteria in medical clinics allowing for same-day pathogen identification and enabling lifesaving choices for urgent care.
- , pioneering the use of remote monitoring in orthopaedics by developing a body-worn sensor, a smartphone app, and a clinician report that together comprise a system used to remotely monitor patients before and after joint surgery. Their initial product, a knee monitoring system, is currently in use at Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Medical Center.
- , developing revolutionary proprietary technology for closing wounds with KitoStitch, used for deep wounds like sutures, fast like staples, painless like a Steri-Strip and easy to use as a Band-Aid.
- , developing cheaper and more eco-friendly material that replaces an important component of LED lights.
- developed a novel marine pile design that can reduce noise from impact pile driving to below injury threshold for sensitive fish and other wildlife.
- , bringing to market a technology that addresses the challenge to rapidly concentrate and purify DNA using a very simple protocol with yields comparable to that of popular commercial kits, but at a much lower cost.
- , has developed a brighter, longer lasting, and safer Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrast agent.
- , a software-as-a-service that enables health and wellness providers to easily track their patients’ progress over time through an extensive digital library of assessment measures and use those results to collaboratively develop evidence- based treatment plans with their patients.
- provides a suite of cloud-based applications that increases hospital operating room efficiencies by replacing whiteboards with an automated, information exchange incorporating cutting-edge display technology.
- RGB Hats LLC, released a new computer security-themed card game titled Control-Alt-HackTM: White Hat Hacking for Fun and Profit, created for a broad audience with interests in tabletop gaming or science and technology, and to computer security experts interested in a bit of fun. The game was created to expose people to the world of computer security while they play.
- , offering affordable, cloud-based pay-per-use molecular modeling and related services to the biotech and pharmaceutical industry that expedites the drug discovery R&D process while dramatically reducing costs by eliminating the need to purchase and maintain computer clusters and annual software licenses.
- Second Wind, applies the basic principles of wind energy to convert the air stream of building ventilation exhausts into useful energy.
- , a sensor and services company focused on home safety, security, and loss prevention.
- , developing first-in-class small molecules that hold the promise of curing glioblastoma multiforme (a highly aggressive brain cancer) while maintaining patient quality of life
- , a nonprofit with the mission of nurturing healthier connections between patients and clinicians through communication skills courses for clinicians, launching an iPhone app, and hosting an innovation conference.
- Unnamed, Electrical Engineering – optical computing in silicon