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802 HALL, DYER & MACUARE NAI CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT 803

Figure 2. Speakers at the launch of the USC Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors were (left to
right): Jennifer Dyer (Executive Director, USC Stevens Center for Innovation), Randolph Hall (USC’s
Vice President of Research), Robert V. Duncan (Board Member of the National Academy of Inventors
and Vice President for Strategic Research Initiatives at Texas Tech University), and Michael Arciero Figure 3. Randolph Hall, USC’s Vice President of Research, delivers opening remarks at the launch of the USC
(Director of Technology Licensing & New Ventures, USC Stevens Center for Innovation). Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors.

many other functions. We wanted to draw attention talk to our colleagues. We want to do research that pick up a lot of the faculty, but it was more difficult to they go on and do big things. We need to pull in the
to our place in downtown, which itself has under- benefits society. That’s what we mean by consequence. identify those whose patents were assigned to other community that’s connected to the university but are
gone a huge change in the last five years because of We want to create within this university an environ- organizations. Also, it would be great to recognize not necessarily working at the university. Those are
an enormous amount of development occurring in ment where our faculty, students, and staff can thrive our inventors who work in areas where patents are things for us to consider going forward. Specifically,
the neighborhood around our USC building. through the impact they’re creating, benefitting real generally not filed—for example, software and gam- we also had some important takeaways involving the
When we gave out awards, people were tremen- people and not just the scholarly community. That’s ing. selection process and the event itself:
dously honored. Some received multiple recognitions. the kind of thing we want to recognize in this pro- I wouldn’t do it differently, but the thing we will
We awarded certificates to all USC NAI chapter gram. So far, we have focused on the initial group of probably be doing more of in the future is recogniz- a. You have to do your research. Identify as
inductees. In addition, people whose technology had patent holders—the group of inductees— mirroring ing people through an event where we invite people many eligible faculty as you can (despite our
been licensed received a Lucite award. The event the criteria that NAI itself has established for the from outside the university community and where best efforts, we missed some people). Allow
showed that USC cares about people who are coming fellows, but we want to broaden that to recognize we feature the work of the university, so it becomes yourself an extended lead-time before your
up with ideas that benefit society, ideas that were everywhere impact is occurring. Of course, the reality more of a showcase. launch for the process of identifying your fac-
reflected in the patents that we’ve obtained and the of the patent itself is maybe a step towards impact, ulty inventors.
licenses that we’ve signed, which means somebody but it doesn’t guarantee impact either. We want to Do you have any advice for institutions launching b. Promote your event. Our faculty members were
wants to take the technology forward. Traditionally, honor innovations that are being adopted and used their own chapters? quite excited, so it is worth the effort to market
when somebody gets a patent issued, they’ll be noti- broadly around the world. It’s important to think about the entire community and highlight the new chapter before and after
fied, but this is more. This is a way to show that we of innovators. For example, we started out with those the launch event. Our chapter launch event
care. In starting the chapter and holding your first who have issued patents, and those are predominantly became a special occasion for our faculty: It
induction event, did you learn anything through allowed our university’s inventors, across
Why do you think it’s so important to recognize that process? Are you thinking of doing anything faculty. There are some graduate students too, and diverse disciplines, to mingle with their
occasionally you may have undergraduates. In addi-
academic innovation? differently next time? tion, innovation comes from alumni. Something to research colleagues, with previous collabora-
In our strategic plan, we emphasize “scholarship In launching our USC NAI chapter, we wanted consider is how you engage beyond the faculty group. tors, and with other inventors across the uni-
with consequence.” We do research and conduct to include all the USC faculty that had issued U.S. If you look at how the university impacts technology versity they may not have had the chance to
scholarship within the university, and that research patents in our inaugural class, but we found the task of and innovation, much of it does emerge from inside meet prior to our event.
results in publications. Most publications get cited, identifying these faculty members to be challenging. the university, but even more of the impact occurs c. Put thought into materials provided to the
but, in the end, we don’t do research solely so we can We were able to search patents assigned to USC and later from our alumni. We educate students, and members of your new local chapter. For our