On Sept. 29-30, the Utah Science Technology and Research Agency will hold its second annual two-day research and commercialization workshop, 2015 Confluence: Where innovative ideas seed, grow and thrive, at the James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building on the University of Utah campus.
The event seeks to stimulate economic and commercial excitement within Utah, while providing USTAR researchers the opportunity to share their work and projects, and will also give stakeholders, investors and the public an opportunity to engage in the unique work of USTAR.
Confluence will feature presentations from university researchers, industry partners and technology outreach programs about commercialization initiatives and services available. Graduate and postdoctoral poster presentations from students related to the two research universities will take place during the afternoon break each day.
Ivy Estabrooke, executive director of USTAR, says this event provides the larger entrepreneurial community and USTAR faculty an opportunity to connect and learn from each other’s innovative technologies, and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration.
“Sharing discoveries is a key part of the commercialization process,” said Estabrooke. “Not only is confluence beneficial for USTAR faculty to talk about their research, it also provides the Governing Authority and local business leaders an opportunity to assess the ground-breaking research happening within the USTAR program.”
Lawrence “Murf” Murphy, chief of the global design and user experience team at GE Healthcare, will be the keynote speaker. In his current role, he is responsible for design quality and staff development of global design for GE Healthcare. The design groups represent product design, interaction design, human factor teams as well as design and usability in research studios from Shanghai to France.
Murf is also a part-time faculty member for the GE corporate management training center in Crotonville NY, teaching a technical leadership development course as well as sketching, concept development and visual brainstorming and creative problem solving to engineering management, and has also been a part-time faculty member at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
Talks and presentations begin at 9:00 a.m. on Sept. 29th and 30th and lunch will be provided both days. For more information and to register, please visit ustar.org.
