Archive for October, 2011
University Technology Transfer – Opportunities and Benefits
The practice of technology transfer can greatly benefit an organization. What is technology transfer? It is the sharing of technology between two or more organizations. Usually, one organisation has developed a new technology and licenses it to the other organization, whose goal is to commercialize that technology. For instance, a university who has developed a new technology may license that technology to businesses so that the businesses can develop the new technology into a product, process, application, or service.
Who are the organizations who are involved in technology transfer? Universities and other primary research organisations regularly license their technologies to businesses. Also, businesses involved in different fields may benefit from this sharing.
Parties on both sides of an agreement benefit. The researchers who developed the technology earn licensing fees, and the organisation who has licensed it can develop and manufacture it into a patented product or service to be sold, while avoiding rising research and development costs.
Many opportunities have emerged because of tech transfer. Fields like biotechnology and diagnostics, pharmaceutical drug discovery, energy and engineering, and microelectronics and optoelectronics are all making use of technology transfer. Researchers can now develop a technology, and then license it out so that organisations with other specialized skill sets can take it further. Researchers may be looking for organisations who can further develop the technology. These organisations may have superior manufacturing, marketing, and distribution capabilities.
Tech transfer also occurs so that the technology can be applied in different fields than what is was designed as well. The researchers may have developed and been able to use the technology in one field, but license it out for use in other fields. For instance, the developer of the technology might be capable of exploiting the technology in diagnostic applications, but might not have the capability to exploit it in therapeutic applications, so they could license it out to a therapeutic application focused organisation. Finding available tech transfer opportunities and capitalising on them may be just what your organisation needs to develop that new product or service that you’ve been searching for.
US Colleges and University
US colleges and university offer ample opportunities to any knowledge seeker for the academic pursuits in any field of study. They are equipped with the state of the art infrastructure, and have conducive ambience to foster and nurture scholastic aptitude.
Many of the US universities offer both, online and campus based courses of various levels such as, Bachelor’s programme, Masters or Doctoral programme. The programmes offered pertain to different disciplines of study such as, pure science, medicine, engineering and technology, business management and liberal arts. There are two sessions, winter session and fall session in an academic year.
US Universities can be classified into three categories, private institutions, public institutions, and community colleges. Private institutions are basically managed and run by nongovernmental organizations or private owners. Public institutions are managed by officials who are appointed or elected by the public. These institutions are supported by the public funds. Community colleges are institutions supported by the local communities. Community colleges operate two kinds of curriculum, Transfer and Terminal. Under Transfer category, one can earn two years of work towards the Bachelor’s degree. Terminal category is aimed to provide vocational training to the candidates to groom them and make them suitable to seek employment in different technical and quasi-professional fields.
Admission in US colleges and university are held on the basis of merit. Different institutions may have different eligibility criteria for admission. Admission requirements also vary with the level of the course such as, Undergraduate study or Bachelor’s programme, Masters or Doctoral programme, and the discipline of study. Most of the institutions require a valid score card of the appropriate tests held for the admission in US colleges and universities such as, SAT, ACT, GMAT. Some of them also conduct their individual admission tests. References from the persons of repute and standing in the relevant discipline of study are given due weightage. Admission fee and tuition fee are different for different institutions, but many institutions offer scholarships and part-time work opportunities to meet the expenditure.
Most of the US colleges and university maintain reasonably high academic standard. However, some of the prominent US colleges and universities are the Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, Columbia University, University of Chicago and Dartmouth College.
US universities maintain a very tough academic regimen for the students. The ratio of the Faculty members to the students is high by any standard. Strict quality control has helped the US universities to earn a place of distinction on the globe.