Accelerating innovation in Alaska: protecting and developing new opportunities.
Author | Krynicki, Adam |
Position | SPECIAL SECTION: Manufacturing |
Two software programmers leaned over a laptop, opened their web-browser, and experienced the future of flight with their feet firmly planted on the ground. In a neighborhood of cabins flanked by boreal forest, this two-person flight crew proved that their unmanned aircraft software works, making a short flight toward a big opportunity.
The team, comprised of Bruce Crevensten and Rayjan Wilson, realized the potential for unmanned aircraft while working with the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). They are creating a platform technology--a technology that allows users to automate a variety of processes when flying unmanned aircraft. "Like your personal computer, tablet, or mobile phone, unmanned aircraft are just an appliance--a tool that extends human potential," says Wilson. Crevensten adds, "Imagine if people could safely operate drones by using apps, just like on their phones, that can perform routines like 'Inspect Pipeline, 'Search and Rescue', or 'Map Construction Site."'
With such a variety of applications for unmanned aircraft, Crevensten and Wilson point out that businesses, professionals, and consultants will need easy-to-use software to gather data from these aircraft and that there is a big opportunity for the team who provides it. Forecasts by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International estimate that unmanned aircraft and related industries will create seventy thousand jobs in the United States with an economic impact of more than $13.6 billion in the first three years of integration into the national airspace. Through their research at UAF, Crevensten and Wilson are preparing to meet the demands of this new market with technology created right here in Alaska. The question is, how can the University help these inventors turn technology into business opportunities?
From Concept to Product
Solving societal problems through research underlies the mission of many universities, but a wide gap exists between early stage concepts and the production of useful products. Even if discoveries are lauded on the pages of journals and showcased at conferences, a company's employees don't become more productive if an invention never becomes a reality. Engineers can't build better infrastructure if materials never make it out of the lab, and patients remain sick if medical treatments don't make it into a clinical setting.
As history shows, bridging the gap between academic discovery and marketable product is difficult without the market drivers of capitalism and private sector investment. Prior to 1980, the US federal government owned all patents resulting from university research and would license the patents non-exclusively to all-comers. Under this structure, a company that made no investment in the technology could license the technology on the same basis as a company that had made a risky investment to prove the viability of the technology. The lack of incentive led to less than 5 percent of government-owned patents being used by the private sector, according to "The Bayh-Dole Act: Selected Issues in Patent Policy and the Commercialization of Technology" by Wendy H. Schacht.
Recognizing the need to do more with research, the US Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980. The legislation enabled universities to own intellectual property (IP) and granted the institution the ability to transfer IP rights to private sector...
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