The Journey to Impact
The Journey to Impact features insights from Rana K. Gupta, Director of Faculty Entrepreneurship at Boston University and Managing Director of BU’s Business Innovation Center.
Rana helps BU researchers bring technology and other research breakthroughs to the marketplace to increase their impact through programs and workshops, one-on-one consulting with faculty, educational resources, and community building among BU innovators.
Providing Doctoral Students Business Skills for Whatever Profession They May Pursue
Alexander Gold, a PhD candidate in microbiology at BU, described as “transformative” his time participating in BU Technology Development’s OTD Analyst program. Mengjie Yuan, a PhD candidate in BU’s School Medicine, described her participation in the Analyst program as a “very important experience for me”— one that helped her gain a... More
Equity Conversations Between PIs and Graduate Students
Negotiating an Equity Split with Your PI It can be the most fraught of conversations. A graduate student working on research that shows commercial promise seeks a sit-down with his or her principal investigator (PI) about starting a company. How does that grad student or post-doc broach the topic of a... More
The Story of NanoView Biosciences, a BU Spin-out
NanoView Biosciences, a venture-backed startup purchased in 2022 by a California-based life science company, was entirely a creation of BU.
You Have an Idea for Impact. What’s Next?
Q&A with Rana K. Gupta, Director of Faculty Entrepreneurship Rana K. Gupta is Director of Faculty Entrepreneurship at Boston University, co-reporting to Technology Development and Innovate@BU. He helps BU researchers bring technology and other research breakthroughs to the marketplace to increase their impact. He also manages BU’s Ignition Award program, which offers faculty commercialization funding. Rana can... More
From Lab to Fab: How Analog Devices is Experimenting with a New Family of Products at BU
The Boston University Photonics Center is home to some of the finest on-campus business incubation facilities in the United States, including BU's Business Innovation Center. BY GARY RIVLIN Mohamed Azize, a biomedical engineer and a senior manager at Analog Devices, the giant chip maker, had an idea for a new biomedical sensor... More
The Journey to Impact: A Passion for Helping AKI Patients
An interview with Steven C. Borkan, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at BU, and Attending Physician at Boston Medical Center. The following discussion with Dr. Steven C. Broken took place at our BU Innovator of the Year Award event — where he explained his focus on treating acute kidney injury, his... More
The Journey to Impact: Watch Your Language
Are you working on an idea to impact a customer, audience, or market? (Since we have policy people in the audience whose “market” is the government, let’s define “market" as the audience you wish to adopt your idea.) Whether you plan to start a company, license to a third party, or... More
The Journey to Impact: Faculty Entrepreneurship Case Study, Passport Systems
Following is a brief case study on Passport Systems, an MIT spinout which had to shut its doors in 2020 after a nearly 20 years’ effort and $100M invested. I wrote this case study with the assistance of Dr. Gordon Baty, a former colleague who was Chairman and Co-Founder... More
BU Innovator of the Year’s Advice for Aspiring Academic Entrepreneurs? Start by Listening
Dr. Selim Ünlü, Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG), was named 2021 BU Innovator of the Year for his pioneering work developing devices and technologies that help find security flaws in the construction of computer chips and detect viral pathogens in medical samples. Ünlü holds 18 patents and has... More
The Journey to Impact: Researching the Power of Molecules to Drive Life
Many of our researchers and faculty at BU are doing work to make real change in the world. As part of our series of discussions with faculty innovators, I speak with Professor Ji-Xin Cheng, Moustakas Chair Professor in Photonics and Optoelectronics and Professor of Biomedical Engineering (ENG). Professor Cheng's research pursues a... More