“Taking Flight” - Research Commercialization Workshops Sponsored by UTC
The UTC College of Business's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), alongside the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP), partnered with Bridge Innovate® for a two-part workshop series for faculty and PhD candidates to support the commercialization of research.
Challenge
The UTC CIE and the OSRP are sponsoring “Flight School”—an initiative designed for faculty members to both innovate upon and commercialize research efforts on campus. As part of this initiative, UTC CIE will be offering ten weeks of skill-building programming. This will be offered over several months in the summer to upwards of 10 faculty members. The goal(s) of the program are:
The development of a pipeline in order to prepare faculty team during the pitch competition; a vetting process for research/invention commercialization
To promote interdisciplinary collaboration; build a community of UTC faculty
To foster community engagement
To support and prepare teams for national competitions
Solution
Bridge Innovate® was pleased to present two virtual workshops for the “Flying Lessons Program.” These sessions were designed to fuse learning and real work—as participants will be exploring their research, and potential commercial applications supporting innovation and commercialization efforts highlighted by UTC:
Session 1: The Value Proposition
This customized session focused on the following learning objectives:
Conduct a trend scan to develop an understanding of innovations and PESTLE trends related to your research focus
Gain an understanding of how the value proposition anchors venture’s business model
Learn and develop a customer driven value proposition aligned to your research
Build virtual collaboration skills
Session #1 consisted of several exercises built around the capabilities of the Value Proposition Canvas. Participants were asked to conduct a trend scan to develop an understanding of innovation (and PESTLE trends), anchor the business model of their venture, learn (and subsequently develop) a customer-driven Value Proposition Canvas aligned to their research, and to build digital collaboration skills.
Session 2: Commercial Innovation Jumpstart
This customized session focused on the following learning objectives:
Apply innovation tools to design a business offer prototype to deliver on the value proposition
Learn the elements of customer empathy
Build skills in brainstorming and prototyping
Develop an awareness for the prototype iteration and feedback for new venture success
Session #2 asked participants to apply their newfound knowledge. They were required to apply innovation tools to design a business offer prototype while maintaining consistency with the Value Proposition Canvas, learn the elements of customer empathy, build skills in brainstorming and prototyping, and to develop an awareness for the iterative process.
Result
The faculty gained a new commercial perspective through this series of virtual workshops. Utilizing workshop tools, participants identified human centered needs and pain points and formed value propositions related to their research. Additionally, the faculty participants completed rapid Rapid Prototyping of concepts respectively—to aid faculty and PhD candidates in aligning their innovation and commercialization effort(s).
The MURAL Virtual Collaboration Workspace
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