Thank you for teaching us the intellectual property analysis and business development frameworks in our experiential class. In addition to broadening my technical bioengineering expertise, it has been so valuable to learn strategies to assess commercialization and market adoption for cutting-edge research and breakthroughs in synthetic biology. 

I very much enjoyed collaborating with the students from ENG 273/274.  Their passion and commitment to grasping the nuances of my technology were inspiring. They immersed themselves in the details of the business, technological, and intellectual property dimensions, delivering a comprehensive analysis that unveiled novel prospects for future research and development endeavors. Their imaginative thinking and fresh perspectives offered valuable insights that we had not previously considered.

I am writing to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible learning experience I had in your course, “Commercializing Deep Tech Innovations,” this summer at UC Berkeley. The knowledge and insights I gained from your lectures and the interactive sessions have been immensely beneficial and have significantly broadened my understanding of the commercialization process.

As a student coming to the United States for the first time, everything here was new and unknown to me. Your friendliness, humor, and enthusiasm helped me build confidence and ease my initial nervousness. I believe this is what people often refer to as the “chill vibe” of America, or perhaps specifically California.

This course was unlike any I had previously taken. It was practical and hands-on, collaborating with real startup companies. Despite my lack of work experience, which initially made me fear I might hold my team back or make mistakes, the valuable opportunities you provided made me eager and excited. Thank you for giving us such a precious chance and even risking your own “reputation” to do so.

Throughout the course, I experienced the diversity of teamwork. I learned something from each team member, each with different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. We had our frictions, but ultimately, we achieved a wonderful outcome. I am also grateful to the professors for listening to our team;s concerns and helping us resolve them.

The first two weeks were challenging. Maybe due to some language or culture barriers, I needed a lot of patience from the professors to guide me step by step. They explained to me that “suffering means growing,” and by the last two weeks, I realized my changes and growth. I became more integrated into the class and more confident in communicating with various people. These personal growth experiences are, I believe, among the most valuable things I gained from the course, in addition to the knowledge learned.

Thank you once again for this memorable and enriching summer.

Coming from a background focusing on liberal arts and engineering research, this class in technology commercialization gave me an opportunity to understand how those two factors might intertwine as a job.

I learned that business recommendations are about creating an understandable believable story or put another way it’s about the trajectory of ideas rather than their roots.

To make such a story asking why and what it might mean for a company when looking at information from patents, company websites and news articles you find is essential rather than focusing on what that information might be.

For example, in a project focused on residential batteries for home energy storage questions like ‘what would it mean for residential batteries if state incentives mainly focused on installation’ rather than ‘what are the programs that incentivize batteries in different states.’ This was a large mind shift from my experience in research labs before this class where the why of a phenomenon was paramount.

This class was a great opportunity to work with ambiguity, defining project goals with stakeholders and finding important questions to ask. Something I struggled with was finding the nature of truth in the class. I was used to having a good measure of truth by looking at and interpreting evidence, not being able to consider all the reasonable options and having to consider or compare nonequivalent options for further investigation like state legislation or customer interviews was a new way of thinking for me and I think will be helpful in future pursuits.

In total I think this course is a great experience in crossing creativity with engineering. I would suggest to future students that it is very easy to let the information in the beginning of the course about patents and patent searching to pass you by. But I would suggest to get the most out of the class it is imperative that you keep yourself accountable in considering novel ways to use these ideas you are presented with. Many tools in the first semester and thinking about how might use them contextualized and prepares you well to understand the case studies of other innovators.

I want you to take a moment and think about all of the technology surrounding you. Maybe you’re reading this on your phone, tablet, or—for the real techno geeks—a pair of AR goggles. The technology we access today is astonishing and makes our world much more connected and informed. Now, I want you to ask yourself: How many world-change technologies are simply sitting in a lab somewhere because they weren’t initially deemed as profitable? The success of any idea can be thought of as a function of two concepts: 1) how good the idea is and 2) how well that idea is implemented. There are billions of world-changing ideas out there, but most people struggle to implement them correctly. The course series offered by the Deep Tech Innovation Lab teaches you how to implement world-changing ideas in the most impactful and profitable ways.

During the first semester, I had the privilege of partnering with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) on a hybrid geothermal-direct air capture technology. Our team, a diverse mix of engineers, Law students, and MBA students, worked directly with the technology’s inventors and the technology transfer office. We assessed the market potential for this DAC system, constructed value chains, assessed IP security and market potential, conducted customer interviews, and identified potential business strategies moving forward. Our work has given GeoCap—the name our team came up with—the confidence to move forward with building a pilot geothermal DAC plant and start seeking funding and industry partnerships.

During the second semester, I partnered with a start-up from the Idaho National Laboratory, which is trying to decarbonize the marine shipping industry. They have developed a novel fuel cell technology for the economical use of ammonia as a hydrogen fuel source. Their initial goal was to become an OEM drivetrain manufacturer for marine drivetrains, but through our research, we identified alternative beachhead markets and potential partners. Our team of engineers and business students successfully identified key entry markets and connected the founders with potential customers to aid in developing their fuel cell technology. The company is progressing with technology development using our team’s insights to move into more profitable markets and find diverse industry partnerships.

I can’t recommend this class enough. Matt, Bo, and Lee’s technology commercialization courses were some of the most influential and engaging college courses I have ever taken. In addition to being extremely well taught, we worked closely with real stakeholders—often the inventors of our technologies—which was an invaluable experience. I learned so much over the two-semester technology commercialization courses. If you want to help implement world-changing technology, you should take this course series. Matt, Bo, and Lee give you the tools to help make the world a better place. We need more people who can find creative ways to bring world-changing technologies to market.