Innovation New Jersey
  • Home
  • Our Coalition
    • Contact Us
  • News
  • Resources
    • State Supports
    • Federal Supports
    • Higher Ed Supports
  • Join Us

Innovation News

Everything Innovation. Everything New Jersey.
Follow us and stay connected.

Opinion: NJIT President on ‘NJIT Directed Research Presents Opportunity for Higher Ed and Industry’

4/14/2017

0 Comments

 
Newark, NJ — New Jersey Institute of Technology President Joel S. Bloom writes on NJBIZ:
 
Near the close of World War II, Vannevar Bush, a science adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, presented a vision for government-funded basic research to be conducted at American universities, with the products of that work to be developed for market application by the nation’s industries.
 
This represented the birth of the research mission at an expanded number of universities, as well as distinct enterprises for research and development. Major corporations successfully adopted such an approach, where scientists at entities like AT&T’s Bell Labs conducted basic research that was later molded into market-ready commercial products.
 
This model thrived for many years, resulting in landmark discoveries, such as the first transistor, the binary digital computer and other technological advancements, but the innovation cycle is changing now and so is the role that higher education should play within it.
​Barry Jaruzelski, Kevin Dehoff, and Rakesh Bordia long ago identified four key stages of innovation — ideation, project selection, product development and commercialization.
 
The first stage, ideation, is commonly characterized as basic, undirected research and is the space that higher education has traditionally occupied. This work has predominantly been faculty-led.
 
The subsequent three stages explore potential applications for the discoveries of Stage 1, develop and test products related to those applications, then adapt the product to consumer demands and bring it to market.
 
Higher education has been far less connected to these three stages of innovation, but we have moved to an era when the researchers will no longer be isolated from the product development teams.
 
In fact, analysis of research and development expenditure projections across all business and government sectors by The Economist predicts that applied and developmental research will grow far more rapidly than basic research.
 
IBM coined the term “service science” to describe an interdisciplinary approach and alignment of people and technologies for the conceptualization design, and implementation of complex systems that provide a value or service.
 
At the New Jersey Institute of Technology, we have adapted to the new innovation cycle by taking a somewhat similar approach that enables us to engage our researchers as well as our students in all four stages, from ideation through commercialization.
 
While NJIT faculty members conduct a great deal of externally funded basic research, we have developed a mechanism through our New Jersey Innovation Institute to build teams that respond to specific problems identified by industrial or governmental partners.
 
NJII is organized around i-labs that overlay industrial clusters: health care systems, biotechnology and pharmaceutical production, defense & homeland security, civil infrastructure and financial services.
 
This model allows us to fuse the first two stages of innovation by directing lines of research toward applications that can be used to address or solve the identified problems.
 
NJIT also is uniquely equipped to engage in stages 3 and 4 of innovation, which involve beta testing of products or applications through bringing a commercially viable product to market. NJII is able to conduct this work and often partners with NJIT’s Enterprise Development Center, which is the largest technology and life science incubator in the state of New Jersey.
 
The EDC provides office and lab space, access to scientific and technological equipment, financial guidance and extensive technical/coaching advisory services. The key to this approach is that industry identifies the problem and commits resources that can include team members, and NJII assembles the intellectual and technological resources that form the team.
 
This often includes other universities joining with us to solve the problem by shepherding a solution through the entire cycle of ideation to project selection to product development to commercialization. The research and development teams of NJIT/NJII and industry are connected from concept to market.
 
This is how higher education will fill an important role that has been left vacant by the disappearance of large corporate labs, particularly in New Jersey, one of the most intense science, engineering and technology states in the nation. It’s also an opportunity to prepare our students, future STEM industry leaders, to participate in all aspects of the innovation process.
 
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Do not miss a single innovative moment and sign up for our newsletter!
    Weekly updates


    Categories

    All
    3D Printing
    Academia
    Acquisitions
    Aerospace
    Agriculture
    AIDS
    Algae
    Alumni
    Animals
    Architecture
    Astrophysics
    Autism
    Awards
    Big Data
    Bioethics
    Biofuel
    Biomedical
    BioNJ
    Bioterrorism
    Bit Coins
    Brain Health
    Business
    Camden
    Cancer
    CCollege
    Cellular
    Centenary
    Chemistry
    ChooseNJ
    Climate Change
    Clinical Trials
    Cloud Tech
    Collaboration
    Computing
    Congress
    Coriell
    Council On Innovation
    Crowdfunding
    Cybersecurity
    DARPA
    Defense
    Degree
    Dementia
    Dental Health
    DOC
    DOD
    DOE
    Drew
    Drones
    Drug Creation
    Einstein's Alley
    Electricity
    Energy
    Engineering
    Entrepreneurship
    Environmental
    FAA
    Fairleigh Dickinson
    FDA
    Federal Budget
    Federal Government
    Federal Labs
    Federal Program
    Finance
    Food Science
    Fort Monmouth
    Fuel Cells
    Funding
    Genome
    Geography
    Geology
    Global Competition
    Google
    Governor Christie
    Grant
    Hackensack
    HackensackUMC
    Health Care
    Healthcare
    HHS
    HINJ
    Hospitals
    Immigration
    Incubator
    Infrastructure
    International
    Internet
    Investor
    IoT
    IP
    IT
    Jobs
    Johnson & Johnson
    K-12
    Kean
    Kessler
    Legislation
    Logistics
    Manufacturing
    Medical Devices
    Med School
    Mental Health
    Mentor
    Microorganisms
    Molecular Biology
    Montclair
    NAS
    Neuroscience
    Newark
    New Jersey
    NIFA
    NIH
    NIST
    NJBDA
    NJBIA
    NJ Chemistry Council
    NJCU
    NJDOLWD
    NJEDA
    NJEDge
    NJHF
    NJII
    NJIT
    NJMEP
    NJPAC
    NJPRO
    NJTC
    Nonprofit
    NSF
    OpEd
    Open Data
    OSHE
    OSTP
    Parasite
    Patents
    Paterson
    Patients
    Perth Amboy
    Pharma
    POTUS
    PPPL
    Princeton
    Prosthetics
    Ranking
    Rare Disease
    R&D Council
    Report
    Resiliency
    Rider
    Robotics
    Rowan
    Rutgers
    SBA
    Seton Hall
    Siemens
    Smart Car
    Smart Cities
    Software
    Solar
    Space
    SSTI
    Startup
    State Government
    STEM
    Stevens
    Stockton
    Subatomic
    Supports
    Sustainability
    Taxes
    TCNJ
    Teachers
    Telecom
    Therapy
    Thermodynamics
    Transportation
    Undergraduate
    USEDA
    Verizon
    Video Game
    Virtual Reality
    Water
    WHO
    William Paterson
    Women In STEM
    Workforce Development

Home   Coalition   News   Resources   Events   Join Us
Picture
Innovation New Jersey Coalition
10 West Lafayette Street
Trenton, NJ 08608
732-729-9619