Inventors group starts in state

The University of Connecticut has launched at local chapter of a national inventors group in an effort to further boost innovation at the school and around the state.

Connecticut’s first chapter of the National Academy of Inventors was launched with a ceremony recently at the Lyceum in Hartford. The group has about two dozen members, according to organizers.

The chapter’s president is Dr. Cato Laurencin, who became UConn’s first NAI Fellow in 2013. A researcher must be named an inventor on patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and must be affiliated with a university, nonprofit research institute, or other academic entity to become an NAI Fellow.

Laurencin said the chapter’s launch is the result of a collaboration between the Connecticut Institute of Clinical and Translational Science and the office of UConn’s Vice President of Research. Laurencin is the chief executive officer of the Connecticut Institute of Clinical and Translational Science.

“It means that the university really prizes the efforts that are being taken to do inventorship,” he said. “There’s a subset of faculty that are working on inventing new technology and in doing so, they are really working to push the forefront of knowledge and bring it to a commercial level. We think that the chapter is going to have ability to develop the interest of younger faculty members in inventorship.”

Laurencin said he would like to see the chapter’s sphere of influence expand beyond UConn to include young people in the state’s public high schools.

“We have a lot of sports people out there who are considered role models,” Laurencin said. “Why not someone who has five patents?”

NAI has 214 member institutions, 15 international affiliates and more than 4,000 individual academic inventor members. An NAI chapter can include faculty, staff, students, alumni and affiliates and there are 42 chapters nationwide.

Radenka Maric is UConn’s vice president for research and is the chapter’s member representative to NAI. Maric is an expert in materials science and is the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Professor of Sustainable Energy.

Having an NAI chapter at UConn allows researchers from different scientific disciplines to network and talk with each other, which she said serves as a driver for increased innovation.

“You can only have innovation when you go and partner with other people,” Maric said. “This creates a stronger network by bringing a the comunity together of people who are innovators.”

Maric said the chapter will also be a vehicle for the UConn to recognize and honor researchers who translate their findings into inventions.

UConn faculty generate an average of 80 invention disclosures a year, according to university officials. A total of 559 U.S. patents and 810 total foreign patents have been issued as a result of ideas generated at the school since tracking began.

UConn has also had success in turning the work of its researchers into commercial ventures. An average of 12 agreements aimed at commercializing UConn technologies are executed annually, school officials said.