Startup Creation Based on Academic Research:
How Caltech’s Unique Model of Technology Transfer Propelled it to the Top of the Field in Just Ten Years
Guest Speaker: Fred Farina
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
4:00 p.m. (refreshments will be served from 3:30 p.m.)
Level 0 auditorium (room 0215) between Ibn Sina and Ibn Al-Haytham (buildings 2 and 3)
Economic Development welcomes special guest speaker Fred Farina, Chief Innovation Officer at the California Institute of Technology and Executive Director of Caltech’s Office of Technology Transfer, who will present Caltech’s unique technology transfer model, show Caltech’s record as supported by key metrics, and discuss the new direction envisioned for the future.
Aside from MIT and Stanford, who got involved in technology transfer in the 1950s and 1970s respectively, most US universities created their own technology transfer offices in the early 80s after the passage of the Bayh-Dole act. Caltech, who had a reputation of a science and engineering ivory tower, did not create its Office of Technology Transfer until 1995, much later than most of its peers. Despite this late start, in just over a decade Caltech has become one of the most efficient and productive universities at transferring the fruits of its research to the marketplace through licensing to established corporations and the creation of new startup companies.
Biography
Fred Farina is Chief Innovation Officer at the California Institute of Technology, and Executive Director of Caltech’s Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). His responsibilities include managing OTT’s staff, evaluating inventions at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA), supervising patent prosecution and portfolio management, negotiating licensing deals with industry, and fostering the creation of new startup companies based on Caltech/JPL technologies. Prior to joining OTT, Mr. Farina worked for eight years as a research engineer in the GPS field. He subsequently joined a law firm where he prosecuted patent applications on various advanced technologies before the US and European patent offices. Mr. Farina holds a Diplôme d’Ingénieur in Electrical Engineering from the Institute National des Sciences Appliquees, Lyon, France, and received his MS in Electrical Engineering from Caltech in 1992. He is a registered US patent agent.
