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Industrial Collaboration & Innovation

Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The SMART LIGHTING ERC's industrial collaboration and innovation program has been strategically designed to speed the commercialization of discoveries made by the Center. Strong and close working relationships are fostered among SMART LIGHTING faculty and student researchers, university and local and state government innovation partners, and our industrial collaborators. Each participant represents a critical component of the innovation bridge. In addition to generating new discoveries, a number of our faculty are using their prior experiences in starting companies to help other faculty and students with new start-up firms. Each of our core university partners has a campus Incubation center that provides physical space for start-up companies. Several state and local agencies that focus on economic development are providing access to market analysis, industrial contacts, venture capitalists, and financial support.

The ERC's industrial partners comprise a diverse group of small, medium, and large companies with business interests across all three ERC thrusts—materials, devices, and systems applications. The Center's industrial partnership is governed by an intellectual property (IP) management policy that encourages collaborations among academic, industrial members, and strategic partners. There are two levels of industrial members: Full Member and Affiliate Member. Full members enjoy generous IP licensing provisions and a seat on the Industrial Advisory Board. Special focus will be given to small firms in translating research within the ERC's research program to commercial products. For this purpose, the Center supports small firms in exploiting opportunities offered by the federal and state Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR)-type programs during the translational research stages.

Our industry partners provide guidance on strategic planning, collaborate on joint research opportunities, assist with test bed design, and support both formal and informal education of our undergraduate and graduate students. Summer internship, co-ops, and job opportunities at the member companies will be available to students at various stages for leveraging the ERC research activities and creating stronger ties between the ERC and its industrial members. In addition to the industrial membership privileges, companies can fund research projects on any specific topic with ERC participants to accelerate product development using ERC synergistic technologies. To further enable rapid commercialization of new discoveries made by the ERC participants, venture capital firms and angel investors frequently are invited to the ERC for presentations on our inventions and technology development activities.

Industrial Advisory Board

The Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) of the Smart Lighting Center consists of representatives of industrial members of the center providing input and guidance on the industrial relevance and commercialization potential of research projects and direction of the center. The IAB also conducts reviews of the center strategic plan and operation. Members of the IAB are listed below.