will focus specifically on three areas: networking, which will allow faculty and students to share ideas across campus; startup services, which will connect experienced entrepreneurs with mentors for student and faculty fledgling ventures; and securing financial support, such as assembling a team of entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capitalists to support the idea at all stages. Bentley, a professor of computer and information technology, says one of the main benefits of Tech Ventures will be giving faculty and students the resources — and confidence — they need to pursue their dreams of getting their idea to the marketplace. “The idea of commercialization is not as great of a challenge for our college as it is for others,” Bentley says. “Due to the applied nature of our work, our faculty can easily identify opportunities for the marketplace. But the challenge is for them to make a leap of faith to commercialize their ideas. For that, we need to show them how it can be done
and that it can involve a minimal time commitment on their part.” Bentley feels passionate about fostering ideas in faculty that could become a commercial success. He also has experience in the area himself and was the recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Commercialization Award for Purdue University Faculty. In 2008, Bentley co-founded Broadband Antenna Tracking systems (BATS), based in Indianapolis. His partners are computer and information technology professors Anthony Smith and Michael Kane. It provides enhanced electronic communications through automated antenna aiming and tracking technology for broadband directional antennas that the team co-developed. The company now has 13 full-time employees. Bentley cites other examples of successful ideas launched into companies, just from the Department of Computer and Information Technology, such as Kyle Lutes and his company, DelMar Information Technologies LLC, based in Purdue Research Park; Rest Assured,
a company based on technology that Jeff Brewer helped develop; and Kane’s seed-stage health care data-management company, Genomic Guidance, LLC. “Now that we have a few successes, they know where students and faculty can go if they have a question about funding, patents, the forms you have to fill out, and other procedural matters,” Bentley says. “The more successes we have, the more student and faculty anxieties or uncertainties toward commercialization will go away.” Although Tech Ventures is most involved with information technology, McKillip and Bentley say they will assist faculty or students from any discipline who have an idea with market potential. “Our focus right now is on IT because the time to market is much quicker, but we aren’t limited to any one signature area. It will be key for us to plug in the right mentors to work with faculty from around the university,” McKillip says. “Therefore, Tech Ventures is not a College of Technology-only initiative.”
Tech Ventures and the overall focus on commercialization isn’t just for faculty. Both McKillip and Bentley say that students — both undergraduate and graduate students — play an integral role in idea, concept and product development. “Students have untapped potential in this area,” says McKillip. “They come in without any preconceived notions, and they are unbridled in their enthusiasm. It doesn’t matter that an idea has been attempted 17 times. It’s a new idea to them.” A great example of such unbridled enthusiasm is computer and information technology master’s student Parker Woods. When he was an undergraduate at Purdue, Woods (along with Joshua Hall) placed third in Purdue’s Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition for eXdeveloped, which is designing a product to view and analyze the eXtensible business reporting language. In 2011, Woods and Hall won first place for undergraduate student teams for the development of Battle Ground
Technologies, which creates forensics products and computer services to market to military branches and law enforcement agencies. Woods is now working to share his enthusiasm of commercialization by organizing a student group focused on entrepreneurship and becoming an advocate for Tech Ventures. Woods caught the entrepreneurship bug while attending Maconaquah High School in Peru, Ind. He started building computers in his spare time for people because he enjoyed it, then soon realized there was significant monetary potential in such ventures. “It’s hard work, but it’s important to develop those ideas,” he says. “There are so many ideas at Purdue but it’s hard to find people to execute them. So many hit a wall, and that’s why we need communities to support entrepreneurship.” Though he’s tight-lipped about the ideas he’s now working on, he hopes to launch his own company when completing his master’s degree in 2013.
Although encouraging faculty to try something new and launching a new initiative like Tech Ventures would seem intimidating to some, Bentley sees nothing but blue skies ahead. “I’m optimistic. I really don’t see obstacles. I only see opportunities to get going,” he says. “Commercialization has the ability to unleash people’s dreams and ideas, and that really excites me. By Kim Medaris Delker, marketing consultant for Purdue Marketing and Media
trailblazers models of success Architects rely on blueprints to construct a building, and so do others who are “builders.” Purdue’s College of Technology isn’t new to the ideasto-market process, so fortunately there are excellent blueprints that others hoping to commercialize can follow. Here are a few of the companies started by College of Technology faculty: n Broadband Antenna Tracking systems (BATS). The Indianapolis-based company founded by Lonnie Bentley, Anthony Smith and Michael Kane provides enhanced electronic communications through automated antenna aiming and tracking technology for broadband directional antennas that the team co-developed. Find out more at www.batswireless.com n DelMar Information Technologies LLC, founded by Kyle Lutes, is based in Purdue Research Park. The company consulting firm specializing in custom
software development and develops its own products like the Electronic Poll Book, which simplifies and automates voter processing requirements before, during, and after an election. Find out more at www.delmarit.com. n Rest Assured is a Web-based telecare system based on technology that Jeff Brewer helped develop. The technology helps seniors remain in their homes and allows those with disabilities to gain more independence while staying safe. The company is based in Lafayette, Ind. Find out more at http://restassuredsystem.com n Genomic Guidance, LLC. Founded by Michael Kane, the seed-stage health care data-management company focuses on bringing low-cost DNA screening on the clinical level to help predict how a person is likely to respond to anticoagulants and other drugs. For more information, contact Kane at mdkane@purdue.edu
find out more To learn more about Tech Ventures, go to www.PurdueTechVentures.org