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2002 Interns
Please review current and previous internship projects and look at what past interns have to say about their experience:
Andrew Corr
My projects for the summer included providing support for two biotechnology companies, one involved in drug development and the other in bio-informatics software development. In addition, I also looked at a water treatment/recycling technology at the University and analyzed, using my previous professional experience in the industry, the commercialization potential.
The drug development project for a start-up called Velcura utilized a team of three interns to help the company create a physical company. We worked in four areas for the company, creating a detailed model for starting-up a physical operation for VelCura and implementing standard systems for operation scalability, providing market research on the osteoporosis market and due diligence on specific targeted companies and regions, analyzing company specific scientific and legal options for database development and IT protection, and helping design a new strategic image for investor relations and presentations.
The project provided us with an excellent opportunity to be involved with the actual physical start-up of a biotechnology company, as well as to understand the funding issues and processes a biotechnology company must face.
The second project was the development of a bio-informatics system for clinical trial management. The team for this project consisted of two students from the school of information and myself. The project required that we analyze the best next steps for the business taking into consideration the time limitations and desires of the inventors. We looked at the options of creating a start-up company versus establishing a core facility at the University of Michigan to incubate the company's software suite, performing background discovery on the patent ability of the company's technology and if the IP can be protected, analyzing the cost structure for developing and supporting the software suite to create a pricing structure for the product, and, finally, market research and analysis of academic requirements and demand for drug development and clinical trial software.
The final project was an analysis of the commercial viability of a new water treatment technology. My background of starting and operating a commercial and industrial water treatment company for 10 years provided the expertise and insight into the water industry. This was essential for understanding the products commercial capability, beyond its technical merits, and making initial decisions for the technologies next steps.
Overall, my summer entailed a range of diverse projects with teams from very different but complimentary backgrounds. It gave me the opportunity to help them advance their business skills, while helping me understand the science behind much of the technology and creating a stepping stone for my future endeavors into the growing life science industry.
Rahul Kannan, MS Information
I always had a keen interest in working on managing innovation and technology. The TechStart internship program offered me the unique experience of working on different projects at different stages of commercialization. I worked on four different projects over the summer. One was a company based on educational technology and was looking to bootstrap itself. We worked on putting together a strategic recommendation as to how they could become an integrated provider of educational solutions to have a steady stream of revenues. The other project was a result of research in the Artificial Intelligence lab. This company was on the verge of having a prototype. We had to perform extensive market research on what the possible market for the technology could be and the investors in the space amongst other things.
The most interesting project to me was working on studying the fuel cell industry, an evolving technology, and looking at what was needed in the industry and making recommendations as to how the University could build its portfolio of technologies.
The internship experience was terrific as it was interesting to look at the problems some of these companies were struggling with. It was also great as I got to meet with people involved in various stages of the commercialization process, from University researchers to Venture Capitalists and established businesses.
The work atmosphere is great and all the members in the internship program were fun to work with. It's been a great experience and it has got me interested in exploring options in Technology Transfer as a career.
Jenny Kempenich
The excitement of working at Techstart came from the close interaction we had with the UM faculty who had invented the technology being commercialized. By communicating with the faculty we were able to reach the goal of transforming a concept into an actual company or licensing program. The success of the projects really depended on being able to build a strong working relationship with the faculty from the beginning to gain their confidence and cooperation and understand their needs at that stage of the concept’s lifecycle.
The two projects I worked on were at very different stages of development. Velcura, a drug development start-up, had a clearly defined product and had just won $3.3M in funding from the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor. What they wanted from Techstart was assistance in their transformation from a virtual company to an actual company. This meant helping them find a suitable office/wet lab space, sourcing lab equipment, setting up an IT system and performing due diligence on potential strategic partners. The experience of working with Velcura was educational in that it taught me the physical requirements of setting up a company.
My other project, the P.L.A.Y. Project, is a method of therapy to treat children with autism. The inventor, a doctor at the medical center, wanted to set up a training center to meet the enormous demand for qualified trainers in this type of therapy. We worked with him to define what services the training program would provide and for what price. The challenge and reward of this project was that the Techstart team had to visualize how this concept would work in reality.
Jennifer Pinder
My experience on the TechStart team within the University of Michigan Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) has been a positive addition to my previous experience in the corporate technology transfer industry.
My initial project started in October with the TechStart team, and I assisted in the management of the Industrial Contact Database. Upon completion of this project, we implemented a system that more efficiently markets our technologies. I have been involved with the refining process ever since the projects inception.
Creating the Fuel Cell Portfolio was my next project with the TechStart team. I performed extensive research on identifying the key players in the industry and in tracking the trends that the state of Michigan and the University of Michigan should be following in regard to their technology initiatives.
The entire experience was wonderful. The work was challenging and educational. The team was cohesive, supportive and enthusiastic. I was proud to be a part of a team that was a team in every sense of the word, and I look forward to an even more stimulating endeavor with OTT in the fall. I highly recommend participation in this program to any graduate student that is interested in the field of technology transfer.
Alison Shiberg
Interning with Tech Start not only introduced me to the entrepreneurial world of Ann Arbor, but also highlighted for me lessons about the importance of leadership, management, and communication when starting and/or operating a business. The experience has reminded me that while lofty ideals are admirable, when it comes to running a business, the bottom line is the bottom line. Furthermore, when the business involves providing a social service, the bottom line is often a challenge to define.
I worked on two projects, both of which involved serving a social need. The first was a venture initiated by Dr. Rick Solomon of the University of Michigan Hospital. He has developed a therapy program for children with autism called The P.L.A.Y. (Play and Language for Autistic Youngsters) Project. The Tech Start team was charged with helping Dr. Solomon develop a business model that would enable him to train other therapy centers to deliver The P.L.A.Y. Project. Our team compiled market research, confirming the growing trend of autism in Michigan and, therefore, the need for such a service. We helped develop an operational model of the training program and then determined the model?s cost structure and pricing recommendations. Additionally, we developed a terms sheet that will ultimately be used to create the final license agreement. The second project was working with an educational software company called GoKnow. This year old start-up offers a variety of educational software products, as well as training and professional development services for teachers. The company?s challenge, however, is creating a long-term strategy for generating revenue. It has been so deeply involved in meeting the demands of their first customers that it has been unable to develop a comprehensive big-picture strategy. Our team worked with GoKnow to create a strategy that would see them benefit from the work they have recently been doing with handheld computers in the K12 market since that market is expected to grow rapidly in the near future.
The work with both projects was educational and challenging. I look forward to following the progress of The P.L.A.Y. Project and GoKnow as they evolve into more developed enterprises.
Michael Krol, PhD
As a biotech-oriented student studying corporate and patent law, the TechStart program provided me a unique insight into my future clientele, including individual inventors, universities, and technology-based start-up companies. I learned about substantive legal issues relating to the FDA, non-disclosure and trade secret issues, and licensing and other business transactions. From my colleagues in the business school, I learned about market research, how start-up companies find money, management needs, operational needs, and other issues of practical importance to nascent technology-based companies. The people, the projects, and the professional experience all made the internship definitely worthwhile.
I was involved with two biotech projects. One was Velcura, Inc. At the beginning of the summer Velcura was a virtual company consisting of a faculty member and a financial officer. Mid-summer it received funding through the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor program and by the end of the summer it was commencing physical operations. I had fun helping them address many of the practical issues that arise in the metamorphosis of a paper company into a functional entity, including intellectual property (NDAs, patent) and scientific (workflow and dataflow needs and solutions) issues.
The other project was Neural Intervention Technologies, an earlier-stage enterprise comprised only of the UM inventors. For Neural, I identified and helped select FDA consultants to ferry their medical device to market and in the process I learned a great deal about the FDA device approval process. To maximize the long-term value of these efforts, I wrote a summary of the alternative FDA device approval paths and their requirements for the UM Tech Transfer Office, based on FDA documents, the statutes, law journal articles and input from practitioners.
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