Don Owens
I
think the most valuable thing I learned
in the IE Technology Assessment and Transfer
class, besides simply gaining a better
understanding of the process of commercialization
in general (which I found very interesting),
was the concept of stake-holders and the
fact that there are more stake-holders
involved in graduate level research than
just academic advisors. This really gave
me another perspective on how academic
research is viewed and judged outside of
academia. For instance, as a scientist
I am more concerned with the novelty of
the science and what is fundamentally different
about a certain phenomena, but these aspects
do not always turn out to be what is most
important or beneficial to the commercialization
of a product and its ultimate impact on
society. It is for reasons such as this,
that I feel a class on technology commercialization
would be extremely beneficial to any scientist
who is even remotely interested in applying
their research and moving it beyond simply
an academic exercise.