Spring in Texas: Five UTEN Interns

15 Mar 2010

Jorge Figueira, Carla Mascarenhas, Alexandra Marques, Filipe Castro, and Raquel Luísa Santos de Jesus Sá spend the spring in Texas.

Jorge Figueira, DITS - Divisão de Inovação e Transferências do Saber, Technology Transfer Office, Universidade de Coimbra, visited UTEN Austin and Texas for two weeks in March. His goal was to better understand and build partnerships with different Texas-based entities and to prepare for selecting the best DITS intern to apply to the 2010 FCT Call for Internships. During his stay, Jorge visited with “old” Texas friends, such as Laura Kilcrease, Founding Director of Triton Ventures, and made new acquaintances, such as Susan Davenport, VP of Business Retention, Austin Chamber of Commerce; Joe Picken, Executive Director, Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UT Dallas; and Bob Robb, Associate VP, UT Dallas Office of Technology Commercialization. Jorge ’s visit provided the opportunity for all of the current interns in Texas to visit with the UTEN Austin team at the IC² Institute to discuss UTEN 2010 plans and activities.

The other current Portuguese UTEN Texas interns are Carla Mascarenhas, Alexandra Marques, Filipe Castro, and Raquel Luísa Santos de Jesus Sá. Carla Mascarenhas, University de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, completed her two-month internship at South Texas Technology Management (STTM) on March 5. During her internship, Carla focused her training and learning on international TT licensing and negotiation. Carla’s mentor was John Fritz (see February CoLab newsletter), STTM Technology Licensing Associate. Carla worked on evaluation and validation of invention disclosure forms as well as research on patent applications and technology marketing. She completed on non-confidential descriptions with U.S.-based enterprises, attended meetings with STTM investigators, and participated in conference calls between UT researchers and U.S. companies. During her internship, Carla conducted RapidScreen and MarketLook assessments and market-based interviews with interested U.S.-based companies on Alto Duro technologies with Cliff Zintgraff, UTEN Program Manager, Technology Development.

Dr. Alexandra Marques, Science and Technology Manager at the University of Algarve’s TTO, Algarve Regional Centre for Innovation (CRIA), is currently completing her two-month internship at STTM. The main goals for her internship include learning about and practicing technology evaluation and international commercialization. Alexandra is working closely with Dr. Christine Burke at STTM on the commercialization of several important technologies. She visits rapid prototype facilities at UT Pan Am and marine science facilities the UT Marine Science Institute and Texas A&M at Corpus Christi. Alexandra will attend important conferences on technology transfer that will take place in Texas during the second phase of her internship. Alexandra is working with Cliff Zintgraff on technology and market assessments of University of Algarve technologies, including establishing contacts with U.S. companies to assess international market potential for the technologies.

Filipe Castro, University of Porto, is conducting his two-month internship at the Office of Technology Commercialization, The University of Texas at Austin. Max Green, Licensing Specialist, is Castro’s internship mentore. Castro is interested in learning about UT’s OTC methodologies and procedures. He first learned about them from Rick Friedman, Associate Director, and Green during the Technology Licensing Workshop they led at UPIN December 17-18, 2009. Castro is working with Heath Naquin, UTEN Program Manager, Technology Transfer and Commercialization, on several technologies from the University of Porto. During March, Castro will attend the WBT Showcase in Arlington, Texas. WBT's website describes the event, "The WBTshowcase is the nation's premier event showcasing the largest collection of vetted and mentored companies and technologies emanating from top universities, labs, research institutions, and the private sector from across the country and around the globe."

Raquel Luísa Santos de Jesus Sá, Project Manager, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, visited UTEN Austin for two weeks. She worked primarily at the IC² Institute and the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI). Raquel’s main objective with her internship was two-fold:

• interview incubator experts and participants
• observe operations to get a strategic and operational overview of ATI to help prepare UTAD as the university plans for and implements its incubator and regional strategy.