Rice Alliance to Boost Start-ups

Rice Alliance to Boost Start-ups

In an initiative to provide a network and resources for the development of start-up technology businesses arising from innovations of Rice University students, faculty, researchers and alumni, three Rice schools have joined forces to form the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.

The new initiative, now under way, brings together resources from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, the George R. Brown School of Engineering and the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, as well as from Rice alumni.

The Rice Alliance’s first public forum will be held Jan. 22. The event, called an Innovation Concept Forum, will feature early-stage technology-related business ideas ranging from nanotechnology to e-commerce. It is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Anne and Charles Duncan Hall’s McMurtry Auditorium on the Rice University campus.

Taking a team-based approach to studying and creating original business start-ups, new jobs and sources of wealth, the Rice center is a strategic alliance. The collaborative design—joining the schools of management, engineering and natural sciences—distinguishes the Rice Alliance from entrepreneurship centers located in university business schools or engineering schools.

“The Rice Alliance is a bold interdisciplinary effort that will produce new entrepreneurial business concepts, new jobs and new sources of wealth for Rice, Houston and the U.S. economy,” said Steve Currall, director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and associate professor of management and psychology.

The alliance process begins with innovation concept forums, which are designed to help innovators with early-stage ideas in engineering, science or software, as well as with e-commerce ideas. Business idea presenters meet with and receive immediate feedback from students, faculty and alumni able to help analyze the commercial potential of innovations.

The Jan. 22 program will introduce five concepts, which will be outlined in 10-minute presentations.

Presenters and their concepts include:

• Nobel laureate Richard Smalley, the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics, “Commercial Production of Carbon Nanotubes”;

• Richard Baraniuk, Rice associate professor in electrical and computer engineering; Sidney Burrus, dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering and the Maxfield and Oshman Professor of Engineering; and Don Johnson, Rice professor in electrical and computer engineering and statistics, “Connexions Project: Education for a Networked World”;

• Tory Gattis, director of commercialization, Stewart Automotive Research, LLC, and David Stewart, president of Stewart Automotive Research, LLC, “The Zoned Tooling Process: Slashing Lead Times and Doubling Capital Equipment Productivity for the $100+ Billion Large-Part Plastics Molding Industry”;

• Naomi Halas, Rice professor of electrical and computer engineering, “Potential Commercial Applications of Metal Nanoshells”;

• David Titus, director of business development, Baylor College of Medicine, “Interactive Technology for Monitoring Activities Within Your Home.”

Other speakers at the program include Kenny Kurtzman, CEO of Ashford.com, and Marc Ostrofsky, who in 1999 sold Multimedia Publishing Corp. for $35 million and sold the Internet address “Business.com” for $7.5 million.

Following the initial concept forum stage, interdisciplinary teams of technical and business experts will assist in analyzing commercial business opportunities and creating early-stage business plans, taking into account factors such as market size, competitive environment and potential profitability.

Finally, teams with promising innovations present their plans at a Business Plan Forum to members of the financial community. Start-up firms that are identified through this process are candidates for further early-stage incubation. The Business Plan Forum will be held in April or May.

The Rice Alliance is governed by an internal oversight board, which consists of Burrus; Jordan Konisky, vice provost for research and graduate studies and professor of chemistry and cell biology; Kathleen Matthews, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry; Gilbert Whitaker, dean of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management and the H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Business Economics; Currall; and Daryl Boudreaux, co-director of the alliance and director of the Office of Technology Transfer.

The Rice Alliance has active partnerships with other Houston-area entrepreneurship groups, including the Houston Technology Center and the Houston-area MIT Enterprise Forum.

For more information about the Rice Alliance or to RSVP for the Jan. 22 forum visit http://www.alliance.rice.edu/.

Attendees must RSVP, and they will be required to sign an agreement that information heard in presentations will be kept confidential.