Peter J. Delfyett
Intellectual property is becoming an increasingly important issue for organizations that develop state-of-the-art technology, e.g., high-tech companies, major corporations, national labs, and academic institutions. Institutions whose primary mission it is to explore high-risk, high pay-off research topics, i.e., non-profit organizations, are becoming increasingly interested in extracting financial gain from internally generated intellectual property. Generally, these organizations do not have full-scale market and product development capabilities, since it is not their mission to develop commercial technology. By transferring technology to a company that is structured to fully commercialize intellectual property, non-profit research organizations can partially regain their investment. On the other hand, many for-profit companies can not or are somewhat hesitant to develop intellectual property owing to the large investments required to sustain such programs, and the uncertainty of investment outcomes. In this case, companies can take advantage of funds invested into national and academic institutions that explore high risk, high payoff areas of research. Given this, the benefits of technology transfer are clear, however, many hurdles exist in realizing smooth and efficient technology transfer.
Potential difficulties generally arise while attempting to evaluate the worth of technology. National and academic institutions can potentially point to millions of dollars of investment over many years of research investigation. However, industry partners are often concerned that while the technology under discussion has potential, its impact in the financial marketplace is unproven.
In order to avoid potential pitfalls in technology transfer, it is important for both parties to be equitable in the evaluation of the technology and future financial gains. The true purpose of technology transfer is not to optimize the profit margin, but to forge trustworthy partnerships that will benefit all involved.
In this issue, we highlight research by Prof. Shannon K. Mayer, in the department of Physics at Pacific Lutheran University, that discusses diode laser based atomic physics research but also provides a philosophy and perspective of research at an undergraduate institution. Finally, we also highlight a recent roadmap that was commissioned by OIDA on the future of optical communications.
Comments and suggestions: delfyett@creol.ucf.edu or p.delfyett@ieee.org.
On March 1, 1999, I was promoted to the rank of Professor of Optics, ECE & Physics at the School of Optics and Center for Research & Education in Optics & Lasers (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida. In addition, I received the 1999 University Distinguished Research Award for contributions in “high data rate communications” (this is the ‘top researcher’ of the year award). Finally, on March 8th, I turned 40.
PS: I was also elected to the rank of Fellow of the Optical Society of America. This will be presented at this year’s CLEO meeting.