An entrepreneurial highlight of the summer at UO has been the Lens of the Market program, run by the UO Materials Science Institute in collaboration with Ecos VC and with support from RAIN@UO. On July 12, more than two dozen science graduate students, along with select faculty and staff, participated in a day-long crash course on the commercialization of science, using their own lab work as example projects. In August, a select subset of this group kicked off Stage 2 of Lens of the Market, forming two teams that are tasked with investigating market application pairs around fractal materials technology and tailored nano-material fabrication, respectively. Over the course of the next several months, the teams will determine where their research holds the most potential and which steps (e.g., technology licensing or forming a new startup) make the most sense.

Our University Innovation Fellows also have been busy over the summer, planning a range of programs and resources to greet new and returning students when the new term starts in late September. At the same time, three new RAIN “GTFs,” students who will work deeply with RAIN Eugene accelerator companies and with other people and organizations building the local startup ecosystem, will come on board. In short, it’s a busy time at UO – and sure to get busier as the new term gets underway.