Bringing innovation to the world
MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation was created in 2002 to help technologies and ideas developed in the Institute’s labs make their way to the marketplace. So far, at least 20 of those ideas have become the basis for real companies, which have raised over $180 million in funding and created more than 200 jobs. Now, the Obama administration may try to replicate that record by creating similar centers across the country.Earlier this year, The New York Times said the Deshpande Center was at “the vanguard of a movement” underway at a handful of universities: the creation of centers that help to bridge the gap between the kind of basic research funded by government or foundation grants, and market-ready plans that can raise money from investors and venture-capital firms. That gap, the Times said, is often described as “the valley of death,” because it is so hard for new ideas...