Cultivating Serendipity

Despite all of its targeted programs, the Deshpande Center recognizes the power of spontaneous connections. Take the case of nanotech grantees Marc Baldo and Alex Slocum '75, SM '83, PhD '85. Slocum's "Nanogate" technology, originally geared to molecular-scale fluid-flow control, regulates a nanometer space between two surfaces. Slocum and his collaborator Jeffrey Lang '75, SM '77, PhD '80, won an Innovation Program Grant to adapt the Nanogate as a tunable electronic filter for the wireless-communications market. Baldo's Ignition Grant project to explore a new class of shape-changing molecular semiconductors, on the other hand, ran up against some nanotech fabrication challenges. Meeting shortly after their grants were awarded, the pair realized that the Nanogate technology might help Baldo study his novel material.

As an experiment in cultivating serendipity, the center created a theme-based Ignition Forum series. Holly says these periodic forums "spark faculty thinking about what's happening out in the world." They are also a great way to engage the entire MIT community in the center's work. The first Ignition Forum on portable power technologies attracted a panel of experts from the U.S. Army, Motorola, Tiax (the Arthur D. Little spinoff), venture investor Rockport Capital Partners, and MIT. About 150 faculty, students, and others joined in a spirited discussion of questions like, What will the mobile employee need in 2005? How about the battlefield warrior in 2008? What technologies seem most promising? At the reception afterward, attendees remarked they'd never seen such technology and market insight combined in one brief event.

As it matures, how will the Deshpande Center gauge its effectiveness? Holly says becoming a model for other institutions is one measure of success, and several other universities have already expressed interest in learning more about the program. Faculty director Charles Cooney, SM '67, PhD '70, says he'll consider this first Ignition Forum a success "if we see some good portable-energy proposals in the next grant round." Deshpande acknowledges that "innovation is a deceptively subtle and time-consuming process," but he hopes that within a few years the center will "create a flywheel effect, bringing value back into the university" through expanded engagement with investors and business partners.

Although this program to fund faculty entrepreneurship is just beginning, all of the signs point to a bountiful harvest. Magnanti says, "I'm already quite proud of the results."