Tucson Tech: UA launch pad getting more startups, patent applications off the ground
Published by: The Arizona Daily Star
Written by: David Wichner
February 26, 2014
Last fall, the head of the University of Arizona’s new technology transfer arm said the effort was bearing fruit that would soon be reflected in more faculty invention disclosures, UA patents and other measures.
The numbers seem to bear out that Tech Launch Arizona is making an impact, as its chief, UA Vice President David Allen, had hoped and predicted.
For the first six months of the 2014 fiscal year, from July through December of 2013, Tech Launch Arizona reported the following results:
Four startup companies were launched, compared with three in all of fiscal 2013, and the agency says it’s on track to create an average of one each month for the rest of the year. And the Arizona Board of Regents has approved the formation of 22 startups with faculty interests so far this fiscal year.
Faculty members filed 78 invention disclosures, on pace to beat the 144 disclosures filed in all of fiscal 2012.
The UA filed 59 unique patent applications, including 25 provisional patents and 34 non-provisional filings; that’s somewhat behind the pace of the 135 filed in all of fiscal 2013.
Tech Launch also counts some numbers behind some new initiatives for which there is no precedent. The agency says it has issued 13 “proof of concept” grants to faculty for such things as prototyping, and it launched four commercial feasibility studies for faculty inventions.
And the UA’s business incubator, the Arizona Center for Innovation at the UA Science and Technology Park, incubated 16 companies ranging from biotech to social media and civil engineering firms.
In its midyear report, Tech Launch Arizona also cited among its successes The Solar Zone demonstration area and a new border-security technology evaluation center at the UA Tech Park; and licensing of a medication-management system developed at the UA College of Pharmacy to local startup Sinfonia HealthCare Corp.
Recent commercialization projects aided by Tech Launch Arizona included the launch of a mobile app developed by a UA civil engineering professor to help drivers find the best routes; the licensing of a method to detect a pathogen killing off shrimp; and a new technology to make databases perform faster.
To check out the report or find more information on Tech Launch Arizona, go to techlaunch.arizona.edu
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Smartrek, a mobile app developed by associate professor Photo by: UA News | UA computer science professor Rick Snodgrass co-founded Photo by: A.E. Araiza |
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Photovoltaic solar arrays make up the Solar Zone at UA Photo by: Mike Christy | Diseased and healthy shrimp are being studied at the University Photo by: Don Lightner |
