West Virginia University graduate students and faculty from life sciences and natural resources disciplines are next up for a turn at dazzling private companies in search of tomorrow’s marketable technologies and the sharp minds behind them.
WVU’s Linking Innovation Industry and Commercialization, or LIINC, will hold its third dinner event Wednesday (April 11) at the Waterfront Place Hotel, where selected students and their advisors from the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design and the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences will forge relationships, merge interests and think about possible future collaborations and opportunities.
LIINC has a rising reputation for accelerating the commercialization of research results and strengthening the University’s regional economic impact by creating new and improving traditional ties to industry and other regional entrepreneurial universities. Earlier this year, in two similar events, students and faculty from engineering and health sciences had their turn and met with positive reviews from the private industry representatives in attendance.
With a $132,000 grant from the Benedum Foundation, the WVU Office of Research and Economic Development is pursuing an innovation-based approach to commercializing research results involving university faculty and the private sector that will increase positive economic impact for the university, the region, and the state.
At the April 11 edition of the networking program, eight students from Davis and Eberly Colleges will either make presentations or offer posters to a group of interested industry representatives. The projects they will describe cover chemistry, biology, animal and nutritional sciences, and forestry and natural resources. Then, it will be time for a sit down dinner and more networking time with the cadre of industry professionals.
WVU Interim Vice President for Research Fred L. King said the advantage of the LIINC approach is that it offers interaction and opportunity in a format much different from the typical academic conferences that researchers have become familiar with.
“It also provides participants with experience in presenting their ideas to a professional audience that is seeking market applicability and commercial potential,” King said.
LIINC organizers also point out that for students, there is always the possibility of job or internship recruitment activity that develop at the dinner and presentation events. For faculty, the events offer the opportunity to explore research funding possibilities and innovation investments. For private industry, the events present a chance to meet the University’s leading research minds and become familiar with cutting edge research, emerging techniques and technologies resident at WVU.
-WVU-
gg/04/09/12
CONTACT: Lindsay Emery, WVU Research Corp.
304.293.0391, Lindsay.Emery@mail.wvu.edu
Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.