Symposium BI2-The Business of Materials Technology

Materials technology holds much promise to create new products that can significantly and positively impact society. Academic research abounds in materials science and engineering at many levels, and the universe of applications also continues to grow. However, commercialization of this research has not been given equal attention and the time required to bring new materials to market remains on average 20 years. The promise held by the laboratory results must be delivered in the form of reliable, low-cost, and manufacturable products in a competitive business ecosystem. This symposium fills the gap between fundamental and applied research in material science and commercialization of that research. Also, this symposium aims to address the intersections of scientific research and business considerations in the materials technology space. In particular, it will target issues pertaining to market considerations, design innovation, technology development needed for commercialization, usability, manufacturability, reliability, reducing the time to market and developing various forms of intellectual property.

Abstracts are solicited from scientists, technologists, business professionals, startup founders, venture capitalists, patent experts, incubator managers, and others who can showcase various aspects of emerging research trends and road maps, and elaborate on the process of taking research in many aspects of materials innovation and bringing it to market.

Topics will include:

Synthetic materials for emerging applications and devices
Nanomaterials issues (e.g. environmental, health and safety)
Materials startup experiences
Lean startup model for materials startups
Use of IT in research and for marketing and sales
International perspectives on materials commercialization
Role of government partnerships
IP strategies
Accelerating materials to market (e.g. the Materials Genome Initiative)
Novel materials applications, such as materials technology-aided countermeasures for security of citizens
Role of government laboratories in bringing new materials to market

Invited Speakers:

BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _0 (Penn State University, USA)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _1 (Linköping University, Sweden)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _2 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _3 (The Univeristy of Akron, USA)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _4 (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _5 (HOLST Centre, Netherlands)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _6 (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _7 (Merck, United Kingdom)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _8 (University of California, Berkeley, USA/Institute of New Energy, Shenzhen, China)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _9 (BASF Ventures, Germany)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _10 (Citrine, USA)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _11 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _12 (Pangaea Ventures, USA)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _13 (Duke University, USA)
BI2_The Business of Materials Technology _14 (National Science Foundation, USA)