Pratt patents and inventors on the rise since 2013

In the past two years, students, graduates and faculty at the Pratt School of Engineering have innovated at record rates.

In 2015, 89 patent applications were filed and 60 received, compared to 30 patents filed and 42 patents received in 2013—according to a Sept. 22 memo sent by George Truskey, interim dean of Pratt. Additionally, the number of unique inventors increased to 193, more than doubling since two years ago. Truskey noted that the growth in the number of patents filed for and eventually issued reflects a trend of increasing entrepreneurial spirit that the University has been working toward for years.

“Duke in general has been creating a climate that is much more open and facilitating for faculty and students who want to invent things and to commercialize their technologies,” he said.

Dillon Arey, Pratt ‘15, wrote in an email that he is currently working on patenting a medical device, the idea for which originated in one of his undergraduate courses.

“I had the chance to take several classes where we were partnered with physicians, shadowing them to see what issues they faced and how those issues could be addressed with engineering,” he wrote.

Arey added that the combination of this type of exposure with the University’s growing entrepreneurial framework has substantially contributed to the rise of student inventions.

In September, The Foundry—located in Gross Hall—opened as a space for teams of innovators to collaborate on refining their inventions, which Truskey said would complement work students do on their own. Duke’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative has also launched The Bullpen—a 12,000-square-foot complex in downtown Durham that opened in late August—which provides working rooms as well as space for students to meet with potential investors. These initiatives are indicative of the University’s recent empasis on innovation, which was discussed again at the first Board of Trustees meeting of the year Saturday.

“The staff [at the Bullpen] have contacts,” Truskey said. “They will try to point students in the right direction by initiating contact.”

Duke’s Office of Licensing and Ventures also helps students and faculty move their technologies forward by providing advice and support in the filing process, as well as identifying potential companies students might consider licensing their technology to.

Dr. Barry Myers, professor of biomedical engineering and managing director of the Office of Licensing and Ventures, said it is important for students to recognize that invention takes time and commitment.

“Most start-up companies do not become huge, successful businesses,” he said. “Not every idea wins, which means you have to play hard and play often to have success in entrepreneurship.”

For more than a decade, Myers has taught a class titled Invention to Application. As part of the class, teams of students work on a technology developed by a faculty member, performing background research and developing a plan to commercialize it. Myers confirmed via email that the course will be taught in Spring 2016 as well.

“They can’t learn this process by reading a book,” Myers said. “They learn by doing and by observing what others do.”

Students reap the rewards of entrepreneurial activity in multiple ways, wrote Joseph Izatt, Michael J. Fitzpatrick professor of engineering, in an email.

“Students benefit from early exposure to the patenting process, and from opportunities for new contacts, internships and jobs that often follow when companies license Pratt patents,” he wrote.

Myers added that when faculty engage industry and start companies that turn into strong businesses, they go on to share those experiences in the classes they teach—providing yet another benefit to students.

Truskey said he hopes to see the patents result in various communications, biomedical or data-transmission applications that will improve people’s lives. He added that there is an indirect connection between Pratt’s rise in national prominence in the last decade and the relative increase in patents filed for and issued.

“When you have patents leading to inventions leading to successful products, word gets out and people know about that,” he said. “So there’s a secondary effect there, and people say that ‘Duke is a place where these things occur.’”

The Chronicle spoke with Myers by phone and by email.