Most Recent Works
UT Professor Speaks to Lawmakers about Venture Capital Investments
by Hojun Choi
April 14, 2014
Bob Metcalfe, a professor of innovation
at the University of Texas at Austin, told a state House committee on April 3 that
the state should consider giving universities more research funding if it wants
to attract out-of-state investors.
Metcalfe recounted his long career as a
venture capital investor, and said he was not speaking on behalf of the
university.
The Economic and Small Business
Development Committee is studying how to attract more venture capital and will
report its conclusions to the next Legislature in 2015.
Data published by the National Venture
Capital Association showed a $358.2 million increase in profits made from
venture capital investments in the state, but also indicated that venture
capital deals in the state have been declined from 172 venture capital deals in
2011 to 150 in 2013.
Metcalfe said the “deal stream” involving
venture capital would benefit from research institutions with resources to
generate innovative business ideas.
“Research universities; that is the core
of this innovation system,” Metcalfe said. “It’s the proper array of venture
capital around those universities that make it all work.”
Metcalfe the state should focus on
creating opportunities for investors to invest through the state’s higher
education institutions. He said institutions such as the Dell Medical School at
UT would be a “magnet” for venture capital in the health technology and
research industry.
Metcalfe criticized a rule of the
University of Texas System that he said discourages students and faculty from publicizing
their innovations.
The rule in reference states that “intellectual property … created on system time, with
the use of system facilities or state financial support,” the system owns the
rights to the said property. He called the rule “silly,” and said he believed
the rule would never “hold up” in court.
“There are people on the campus at UT
who think Dell should be owned by the university, but they are wrong and we
need not listen to them,” Metcalfe said.
"In February, the UT System Board of Regents established a task force to review opportunities for and barriers to expanded industry engagement that supports critical research,” Adler wrote in an email. “The task force is expected to make recommendations on a number of items, including whether changes should be made to current Regents’ Rules related to intellectual property."
Craig Casselberry, president of the
Texas Capital Coalition, agreed that universities
can have help attract venture capital. He said “accelerators” like the Jon
Brumley Texas Venture Labs at the McCombs School of Business at UT attracts
investors by fostering startups.
Casselberry said initiatives on
university campuses can garner the attention of larger venture capital firms.
He said a “dynamic” economy requires multiple sources for capital, and that
larger venture capital deals could open doors for more investments.
“If we can land one major venture capital
firm that is a national player, we may have a domino effect,” Casselberry said.
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Bernhardt Named Director of New Health Communication Center at UT
by Hojun Choi
April 8, 2014
Jay Bernhardt, recently named director of the new health communication center at The University of Texas at Austin, said his decision to accept the position was influenced by the university’s new Dell Medical School.
“A big part of my decision to come to UT has to do with the potential to collaborate with the new medical school as it’s being established,” Bernhardt said.
According to a university press release on March 19, Bernhardt served as the director of the National Center for Health Marketing at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2005 until 2010. He served as the director of the Center for Digital Health and Wellness at the University of Florida before taking the offer to head the health communication center at UT.
Bernhardt said he wants to speak with the medical school’s dean, Dr. Claiborne Johnston, about collaboration between the center and the medical school, which plans to take its first class in 2016. Bernhardt said being able to involve students from various disciplines from across the campus is a “critical part” of his vision for the center.
“Everything I have heard about the plans for the medical school are really exciting because of the desire to make it very interdisciplinary and very community engaged,” Bernhardt said. “To me, that means that health communication can really play a pivotal role in creating this innovative and new medical school.”
In February, regents of the University of Texas System appropriated $334.5 million for UT to begin the first phase of its medical school construction plans. Johnston, who was introduced as the dean of the medical school on Jan. 21, began his tenure on March 1.
UT spokesperson Gary Susswein said maintaining “positive health communication” with patients will be necessary for the medical school to do work in the community.
“Health communication is an issue that all of society is grappling with, and that we will be grappling with as well as the Dell Medical School gets up and running,” Susswein said.
UT’s new health communication center, which will be housed by the Moody College of Communication, is the product of a $50 million donation that the college received from the Moody Foundation, a Texas nonprofit. According to an October 2013 university press release, the new center was one of 10 research and community outreach centers at the college that received $1 million to fund its operations.
Bernhardt said health communication is a “broad” discipline that aims to study the different types of communication necessary in the health industry. Bernhardt’s research studies different ways digital technologies like social media can be used in health communication.
“I fully expect to continue and even grow my line of research in close collaboration with faculty and students at UT to explore ways that technology can and will revolutionize health,” Bernhardt said.
Moody College Dean Rod Hart said the college already employed experienced researchers from the health communication field. He said the college began hiring young faculty who were invested in health communication after he told departments chairs that the college needed to do more work in the field.
“This means that he doesn’t have to go out and pull faculty together,” Hart said. “He just has to help coordinate the activities, and he already has the colleagues to do that, so I think the strategy worked out really well.”
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Photos from 2014 Austin American-Statesman Capitol 10K Race
photos by Hojun Choi
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| State Trooper Larry Ferguson, 35 stands watch in front of the Texas capitol for the 2014 Capitol 10K Marathon. |
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| Nancy Whitaker, 58, and her husband John, 60, wait in front of the south entrance of the capitol to watch their son Richard, 28, run in the race. |
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| Capitol 10k participant in "Bevo" costume runs pass the turn in front of the capitol with hundreds of runners. |
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| Last two runners approach the south entrance of the capitol escorted by state troopers. Mary Lynn Barrett, 54, (left) and Kelly Beanbottom, 57, (right) from Athens, Texas, said this is their 11th time participating in the Capitol 10 K race. |
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| David Grice (left), 34, and Tony Vega (right), 35, with Raceworks Inc. take down the barricades in front of the south entrance of the Texas capitol. |
