University of Southern California

1
Accessing NASA Technology Innovation

• Ken Dozier
• NASA Far West RTTC
• 9/27/02

2
Organization History
Since 1967, USC has been developing Primary
Market Research for NASA in the area of
Technology Transfer.

• 1967 NIAC Started
• 1976 Subsidized Information Searches
• 1982 Information Services Expanded, RISS
  Launched
• 1984 Affiliate Network Starts
• 1991 Affiliate Network Expands
• 1992 USC Selected as RTTC
• 1994 Wins TRP Award
• 1997 ETTC Formed

Mid-West
Northeast
Far West
Mid-Atlantic
Southeast
Mid - Continent
B01-003
3
The Future
When the Rate of Change Outside is Greater Than
the Rate of Change Inside, The End Is In Sight
Jack Welch, Chairmen General Electric
4
Velocity
According to Silicon Valley CEOs, 60 of the
high-tech items they manufacture today did not
exist 10 months ago
Lon Hatamiya, Secretary - California Trade and
Commerce Agency
Startups are now expected to go public within
6-18 months after venture investment
Donna Jensen, Founder and CEO of startups.com
5
1st Perspective

• Knowledge is a New Kind of Asset
• The foundation of industrialized economy is
  shifting from natural resources to intellectual
  assets (Hansen 99) (Davis 98)
• Knowledge assets are viewed as factors of
  production that may be more important than
  traditional resources of capital, labor and land.
  (Davis 98)
• Converging technologies and rapid innovations can
  transform markets Overnight . Administrative
  systems no longer provide the underpinnings of
  value creation. (Teece 98)
• Reward goes to those who are good a sensing and
  seizing opportunities. Dynamic capabilities are
  most likely to be resident in firms that are
  highly entrepreneurial. (Teece 98)

6
What is Knowledge ?
Truth
Knowledge
Belief
Universal
Social
Personal
No Debate
Converge on debate
Diverge on debate
Effect
Cause
Cause
10 Philosophical Mistakes (Adler 85)
7
The Future
Man will never reach the moon, regardless of all
future scientific advances
Lee De Forest, Radio Pioneer, 1957
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2nd Perspective

• Entrepreneurship Super Normal Wealth Creator
• Business Environments Have Become
  Hypercompetitive because of the High Magnitude
  and Velocity of Interfirm Rivalries (DAveni,
  94)
• Innovations in Products, Services, Business
  Processes, and Organizational Designs are
  Creating Dramatic Discontinuities in Product-
  Market Spaces and Disrupting the Traditional
  Approaches to Competitive Strategies and Business
  Conduct (Christensen, 97)
• In the Short Run, Entrepreneurial Firms Reaps
  Supernormal Returns (Create Wealth) as
  Established Incumbents and Rivals Seek to
  Understand the Competitive Disruptions in their
  Market Space.(Christensen 97)
• Thus Competition Occurs in the Form of a Series
  of Market Disruption Moves by New Entrants or
  Entrepreneurial Firms and Efforts by Incumbents
  and Rivals to Shape Their Response Actions (Young
  et al 96)

9
Make Sell vs Sense Respond
Federal Agencies, SBIR Mission Based, Linear
(push) Universities Curiosity Based, emerging,
(push)
Chabol (large companies) hierarchy, products
based, (push)
Venture Niche markets, public trading (pull)
Incubators and Science Parks created to bridge
gap between development and commercialization
Chart Source Corporate Information Systems,
Applegate
10
Licensing Wealth
Developers
Drivers

• Gates Microsoft Xerox
• Jobs Apple Xerox
• Clark SGI ES, Stanford
• Clark Netscape University of Illinois

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Market RedefinitionRadical Change
Seven Organizational Change Propositions,
Venkatraman 1994
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RTTC FocusDiscovery
Zmud 2001
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3rd Perspective

• Entrepreneurial Firms Represent a New Online
  Community
• Network computing, supported by advanced
  communications infrastructure, can facilitate
  collaborative entrepreneuralism (Teece 98)
• Successful business models set themselves apart
  in their communication design leading to a
  deconstruction of traditional value chains and
  the emergence of value Webs. (Lechner 01)
• The most critical factor for a venture business
  success is how to implement and commercialize
  lab-based technology/knowledge/ideas into actual
  products and/or services (Sung 01)
• Entrepreneurial firms use knowledge to reshape
  clusters of assets in distinctive and unique
  combinations to serve ever changing customer
  needs. (Teece 98)
• The key sources of wealth creation at the dawn of
  the new millennium will lie with new enterprise
  formation. (Teece 98)

14
Online Community
Community Set of Agents MediumAgents user
groupsMedium Internet
Subscribers
Netiquette
Self Organized
Non-Commercial Culture
Communities - Business Models and System
Architectures The Blueprint of MP3.com, Napster
and Gnutella Revisited, Lechner
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Components of a Medium
Knowledge
Intention
Communities - Business Models and System
Architectures The Blueprint of MP3.com, Napster
and Gnutella Revisited, Lechner
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Evidence from Practice

• Secondary Market Research as practiced by expert
  communities may be not be producing market
  knowledge fast enough or broad enough for modern
  high velocity markets
• Market analysis of existing markets was not
  encouraging
• A KMS that uses IT to gather primary market
  information rapidly, facilitates the complex
  transformation between basic research (IP) and
  commercialization (Wealth)
• Online research for potential markets has changed
  the lens
• MOB/WOB community is rich with profitable SMEs

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Market Research Repository
You can sort or filter you selection
Each technology list the available primary
marker research we have done.
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Docket Example
MULTI-CHANNEL SPATIALIZATION SYSTEM FOR AUDIO
SIGNALSU.S. patent 5,438,623 (August 1,
1995) PROBLEM ADDRESSED separation of auditory
inputs by simulation of different source
locations TECHNICAL APPROACH (1) use of
synthetic auditory head related transfer
function (HRTF) to simulate different virtual
spatial source locations for up to five
auditory signals (2) analog-to-digital
conversion for noise-free processing with HRTF,
and subsequent digital-to-analog conversion for
presentation of modified signals to right and
left ears POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS
teleconferencing, aeronautical communications,
virtual reality video games, command and
control BENEFITS (1) binaural hearing
advantages substantial improvement (6-8 dB)in
signal to noise faster reaction times, less
listening fatigue, increased perception and
immersion (2) less expensive than general
purpose 3D audio displays (3) customizable (4)
user-friendly, not requiring computer interface
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Gather Competitive Intelligence

• By using the CAP Tools, you can collect industry
  feedback and potential commercial applications.

B01-063
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The Radar
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CAP Tools (Explicit)
In the CAP, say you need to build a Technology
Status Report.
Clicking on the link, brings up more information
about what is a Technology Status Report (TSR),
including an example.
Clicking on the details button reveals more
information about the TSR.
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Market Wanted Innovations

• Real time
• General Solution (360 sphere)
• Low Cost
• Head Orientation Sensitive
• Set Top Box
• Sound Card Add in
• Listener Location Independence

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MOB/WOB Firm

• Breakaway
• On going profitable south central MOB IT Service
  Business
• Strong Private and Public Network
• No Products
• Strong business relationship with Microsoft
• Far West
• Assisted with Business Plan
• We located Physicist
• Located Chip Designers
• MOU in process with Taiwan partner for chip
  fabrication
• Assisting with SBIR and STTR to ensure dual use
• Prepared mathematical demonstration of algorithm

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Leveraging Existing Network
Breakaway will take lead on SBIR Phase I and
Phase II (hopefully) Far West RTTC will
support USC School of Engineering will support
STTR work. Large Chip manufacturer is monitoring
process Large Set Top Box manufacturer is
monitoring process VC is monitoring
process Investment Bank is monitoring process DoD
is monitoring process Time to Market 24 to 36
months
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Assessing Your Technology
CIO Magazine June 2002
After-Technology (Customer Facing)
Industry Adoption of Technology
Before Technology (Non-Customer Facing)
CEO Not Involved
CEO Involved
Executives Approach to Technology
B01-113