Entrepreneurial Culture Brings Results
The Atrevida Science team stands in front of a wind tunnel in the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory in Ketter Hall. UB spinoff Atrevida Science aims to develop dynamic wind turbine blades that automatically adjust to real-time changes in wind speed and direction. Left to right: Edward Tierney, PhD student James Roetzer, Claudia Maldonado (founder and CEO), John Hall, and student Cam Hotto.
A non-addictive alternative to opioids. Wind turbine blades that automatically adjust to changes in the weather. A method for storing immune cells and accessing them when you become sick.
What do these potentially game-changing innovations have in common? Not only did they result from discoveries made at UB—en route to commercialization, they are benefiting from our robust entrepreneurial ecosystem.
If you graduated from UB over the past decade or so, you may have noticed—and I hope taken advantage of! —the growing number of programs designed to help students, faculty and members of the broader community convert their ideas and research into viable ventures. Today, I am pleased to share that we are continuing to ramp up these resources so we can provide comprehensive support to our stakeholders across the spectrum of entrepreneurial development. From offering academic minors and concentrations in entrepreneurship and pairing aspiring entrepreneurs with mentors, to investing in promising enterprises, navigating the legal issues of starting a business, creating incubator space for collaboration and licensing UB technology, we are guiding would-be founders from their “aha moment” to the marketplace.
To tell you the story with numbers, more than 25,000 UB students have participated in our entrepreneurial programs. Our office of Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships currently supports some 100 startups in its portfolio—ranging from early-stage to investment-ready—and has leveraged our disciplinary expertise in collaborations with 500-plus industry leaders. As a result of these collective efforts, nearly 2,000 jobs have been created—and that’s just in the past three years!
As we fortify UB’s culture of entrepreneurship, we are on our way to becoming what the Buffalo News characterized as “a startup stronghold.” Our work is getting noticed nationally as well. Recently, the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine named UB one of the country’s top universities for entrepreneurship. And though it’s always gratifying to receive accolades such as these, that’s not what motivates us. As I have said many times, we are fueled by our passion to make a difference, and we measure that difference in the prosperity, vitality and well-being of the communities we serve in Western New York, across the country and around the world.
To that point, consider the implications of the three promising UB innovations I mentioned. The ability to reclaim a healthy repository of immune cells could help fight off infections and even cancer. A more efficient wind turbine would enhance the potential of renewable energy and reduce fossil-fuel emissions. In meeting a critical need in pain management, a non-addictive analgesic would directly combat the opioid epidemic.
As our university develops solutions to some of society’s most pressing challenges, we have made it our institutional priority to nurture their progress at every stage—with our vision trained not on the bottom line, but the greater good.