ArchiveCommercialisation of Photonics Technologies from Universities
The ICUK workshop on “Commercialisation of Photonics Technologies from Universities” took place at the Asia Optical Fibre and Optoelectronic Exposition and Conference (AOE 2008) in Shanghai on Saturday November 4th. The workshop was organised by ICUK in conjunction with the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton and Prof. Wei-Ping Huang of MacMaster University Canada , Director of HISENSE Broadband Multimedia Technologies. An audience of over 60 people including invited guests from 20 of China’s top academic and research institutions in the field of photonics, gathered for the event..
The workshop opened with a general outline of the work carried out by ICUK in facilitating technology transfer between China and the UK, delivered by the Mark Cranshaw ICUK Project Manager from the University of Southampton.
Keynote speaker Prof. David Payne, Director of the ORC then drew on his experience of setting up a cluster of 10 spin-out companies around the ORC in Southampton to establish a set of “Do’s and Don’ts” for commercialising outputs from University research. His contribution was particularly well received and provided an interesting pole for comparison with the contributions from Dr. Tongyu Liu, CEO, Shandong Micro-Sensor Photonics Ltd and Deputy Director, Laser Institute of Shandong Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Dexiu Huang, Huangzhou University of Science and Technology,who discussed their experiences in using optoelectronic sensors in mine safety and in technology transfer in Wuhan “Optics Valley of China” respectively. Finally, Richard Lin of Fangda Partners, Shanghai gave an outline of the key legal issues in IPR protection in the context of international technology transfer.
In addition to hosting the workshop ICUK and the ORC organised a highly successful stand for the three days of the trade show. Representatives from SPI Lasers and Stratophase joined those from ICUK and the ORC in showcasing work from the ORC spin-out companies and ICUK, attracting a steady stream of interested parties to what was undoubtedly one of the most vibrant and popular stands in the entire show.
