School:Boise State University

Overview

Boise is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, and consistently ranks in Forbes' top 10 cities for careers and families. Boise State University serves about 21,000 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students. Engineering enrollment has grown by 75%, to 2,847 students, over the past five years. Key partners include Micron Technology, a top 5 semiconductor company with headquarters in Boise, NASA, and Idaho National Laboratories.

Recently, Boise became home to a business incubator and annual speaking events including TedX and Ignite Boise. New initiatives at Boise State University include the Venture College, which has launched 17 revenue generating businesses, the College of Innovation and Design, a MakerLab, and the New Product Development Lab, and a $25M Center for Materials Research.

Student Entrepreneurship

Business launched through the Venture College include:

• Vivid Roots sells apparel and water bottles. A portion of each sale provides potable water to people in need.
• txtENGAGE provide customer relationship and marketing platforms.
• Gratis Huminatarian Aid Network distributes medical supplies to remote regions in Eastern and Central Africa.
• Adventure Data provides real-time avalanche data monitoring for outdoor safety.
• Whitney Hansen provides finanial consulting with a focus on student debt.

The Idaho Entrepreneur Challenge awards over $100,000 annually in seed funding to student entrepreneurs. Previous winners include:

• MotoTrax designs, manufactures, and sells "snowbikes", a dirtbike/snowmobile crossover
• TimeStage provides staining and imaging technology for microscopes that improves diagnosis and research related to infectious diseases.
• TriBiz provides a targeted advertising service restaurants.
• Vivid Roots sells apparel and water bottles. A portion of each sale provides potable water to people in need.

Faculty Entrepreneurship

• Dr. Peter Mullner specializes in shape-memory alloys. He recently launched a startup to commercialize solid-state electronic devices based on these materials.
• Dr. Yanliang Zhang completed successful prototypes of a thermoelectric device designed to replace alternators in cars. This work, funded by a Department of Energy grant, should improve fuel economy by 10-15%. Hyundai (or Honda?) is currently working to commercialize this device.
• Dr. Kevin Learned co-founded Idaho's first commercial software company and its first angel investment group.
• Ed Zimmer served as the CEO of ECCO Group as it grew from 20 employees to over 500 employees with plants in Boise, England, and Australia.

University-Industry Collaboration

• The Scalable Nanomanufacturing Grant, lead by Dr. Will Hughes, partners Boise State University with Harvard University and Micron Technologies. This project investigates applications for DNA nanotechnology in the semiconductor industry.
• A year-long Senior Design course partners senior engineering students with an industry sponsor to gain practical industry experience. Partners include: Micron Technology, Clearwater Analytics, Hewlett Packard, Cradlepoint Technology, and Idaho Power, among others.

University Technology Transfer Office

The Office of Technology Transfer supports research activities and manages industry relations and intellectual property commercialization for the university.  The office is responsible for the assessment, protection, development and marketing of new inventions for commercial use and facilitates the internal and external relationships that contribute to the process.  The office also supports the advancement of innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development programs and initiatives on campus.

Related Links

Landscape Canvas (slide deck)

Landscape Canvas (spreadsheet)

Kelly Schutt