Over 50 teams are at the Regional Tournament at Dorton Arena, and 41 of them are from North Carolina! This year the robots have to fling a flying disc through a slot in the boards at the ends of the field and then climb a tower, one rung at a time. As in the past, each round starts with the robots in autonomous operation. All the teams arrived on Thursday with working robots and nearly all made it through inspection. Great accomplishment!
Meeting Woodie Flowers on Thursday evening: He is one of the co-founders of the FIRST Robotics Competition and professor emeritus at MIT. His being at this year’s event is a big deal for the kids. They really like him! Continue reading →
I was recently asked for my insights about technology transfer office (TTO) use of external advisory boards or committees. Such boards have been frequently cited in reports and the press as a useful tool — or even a required element — for improved tech transfer operations. The thinking is that external boards provide a means to obtain objective industry/market opinions about new technologies and/or to tap into technical expertise not available within the TTO. I am all in favor of… 
Despite the beautiful weather we’ve been enjoying here in North Carolina the last few weeks, I have frequently found myself online reading interesting posts about technology transfer. So here’s what I’ve been reading. How about you? Send me a private message or post a comment below. 
Reprinted from AUTM Newsbrief. 
This Friday, April 19th, at 1pm EDT I will be a panelist in a 
Last week I had the great opportunity to participate in a social media panel at the 2013 meeting of the Association of University Technology Managers®. My fellow panelists and I were thrilled to have a large audience with very engaged participants. I’d like to share a few of the themes that I found to resonate most strongly with our audience, based on both their questions and their facial expressions! 
Well, we made it through the first half of the AUTM® annual meeting. It’s been a great conference so far, and I expect the next two days to be likewise. It’s a little bittersweet for me, as this meeting marks the end of my tenure as VP of Strategic Alliances. I am grateful for the many people who contributed to all that’s been accomplished in the past two years, particularly the successful development and launch of AUTM’s Global Technology Portal. Speaking of the GTP,… 
Several Fuentekians are getting ready to head to San Antonio, Texas, for the 2013 meeting of the Association of University Technology Managers®. If you’re going too, we hope you’ll take one of several opportunities to connect with us while you’re there. First off, our booth is #412. Be sure to drop off your business card when you stop by — we’re having a drawing to give away a tablet computer loaded up with our webinars and white papers. We’ll also be tweeting using the #AUTM2013 hashtag. You can follow our tweets on @fuentek, @NannetteSC, and @mccullochdd. We are also participating in several sessions…. 