Boston University unveils technology incubator with a twist

Computerworld - Boston University's new business and technology incubator, the Entrepreneurial Research Laboratory (ERL), will provide free incubator space to young entrepreneurs who give back to the school by presenting guest lectures on their innovative work.

"What we're trying to do is make it very education-focused -- they have to give back to the school," said Beth Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (ITEC) at Boston University's School of Management. Incubator programs typically charge fees to fledgling companies or give them other responsibilities in exchange for needed space, Goldstein said. The new approach, unveiled today, is designed to encourage mentoring and spark the development of new ideas.

By providing guest lectures to students, the students and the entrepreneurs will gain lessons from each other at the university, she said.

Another key to the incubator program is getting all of the university's 17 schools, from business to engineering to medicine, to work with it in an integrated fashion, Goldstein said. "It's not that the schools don't want to talk," she said. "It's a huge engine, and it's hard to get everyone to collaborate, so that's why we have tried to make this a new vision for the university."

The incubation center is seen as a place to take good ideas and "to test the best ways of taking them to the next level into a live business," Goldstein said. "That's what we're going to try to help them do."

The ERL is a joint project between the university's ITEC and the Boston University Office of Technology Development. The facility will be located in the school's Discovery Innovation Center in Boston.

The first incubator participant is Brandon Johnson, a 2004 graduate of the university's biomedical engineering undergraduate program and the president of Boston Microfluidics Inc. Johnson is developing a device that cuts the time needed to test for sexually transmitted diseases from days to minutes.

"This partnership will enable the university to better understand how it can help young entrepreneurs get their companies off the ground and grow them into viable businesses," Johnson said in a statement.