|
$24.9 Million Lilly Endowment
Gift Expands Successful Rose-Hulman Ventures
A $24.9 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. will build upon the
success of programs at Rose-Hulman Ventures to expand educational and
professional practice experiences for Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
students and faculty. Through these experiences, they will provide technical
expertise to help Indiana companies prosper, and thereby provide more
professional opportunities for Rose-Hulman graduates in the state.
The three-year grant is the second largest gift received by Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology. The largest was a $29.7 million grant awarded by
the Endowment in September, 1999 to create Rose-Hulman Ventures (RHV).
The grant funds will be used by Rose-Hulman Ventures to:
- Expand educational opportunities by supporting additional client
companies in partnership with other colleges, incubators and communities
in Indiana. These efforts will be in
addition to continuing the current RHV activities.
- Establish a Center for the Deployment of Disruptive Technologies to
ensure that students and faculty learn about the most significant
technical advances that can help enterprises make
transformative rather than marginal changes in their operations. This
educational experience will build expertise that can be used by students
and faculty to make Indiana companies technology leaders. The Center
will sponsor educational programs for Indiana incubator and product development staff as well as other members of the Indiana educational
community.
- Increase efforts to attract and retain client companies in the Terre
Haute area by providing access to additional facilities in the
community.
- Provide continued expansion of Rose-Hulman Ventures programs to
enable RHV to become
self-sustaining in the foreseeable future.
“Rose-Hulman’s progress with Rose-Hulman Ventures has enhanced Indiana’s
profile as a place where first-rate educational opportunities exist,” said
Endowment president, N. Clay Robbins. “The learning that occurs through the
hands-on experiences Rose-Hulman students have at Rose-Hulman Ventures is
remarkable,” he added.
 |
|
Explaining Rose-Hulman Ventures' Expansion:
Rose-Hulman Ventures President Jim Eifert informed college and
community leaders about aspects of the three-year grant, the second
largest gift received by Rose-Hulman. |
Sara Cobb, the Endowment’s vice-president for education, noted, “Rose-Hulman
Ventures also significantly enriches the continuing professional development
of Rose-Hulman faculty, which redounds to the benefit of their students. The
faculty opportunities at Rose-Hulman Ventures are an attractive incentive in
Rose-Hulman’s efforts to recruit the best faculty available.”
The Endowment’s gift will be vital to helping Rose-Hulman achieve its vision
to provide the very best undergraduate education in engineering, mathematics
and the sciences, according to Rose-Hulman President Samuel Hulbert. “As a
result of this generous gift from the Lilly Endowment, Rose-Hulman will
launch new and creative ways to provide the very best educational
opportunities for our students and faculty members and help move the Indiana
economy forward. “Expanding these educational opportunities will be
important to enhancing our reputation with national engineering education
leaders who for the past four years have ranked Rose-Hulman as the No. 1
school of its kind in the annual rankings published by U.S. News & World
Report,” he added.The grant will enable RHV to increase educational and
career opportunities that will encourage Rose-Hulman graduates and other
Indiana college graduates to remain in or return to Indiana. This will be
accomplished by intensifying efforts to foster the creation and growth of
new technology-based companies in Indiana thereby enhancing Indiana's
technological competitiveness and increasing the job opportunities for
technically educated graduates. Specifically, Rose-Hulman Ventures will
continue to:
- Provide faculty and students with cutting-edge educational and
professional opportunities in engineering, mathematics and science while
providing direct technical assistance to client companies.
- Provide business assistance and incubator space and services to
client companies.
- Provide very early-stage venture capital to retain and attract
high-tech companies in Indiana.
 |
|
Student Beneficiary: Rachel Lukens,
a senior electrical engineering major, has worked to help develop
products and services for four Rose-Hulman Ventures client companies
during the past three years. With the Lilly Endowment's continued
support, more Rose-Hulman students will reap educational benefits from
working with client companies. |
RHV President Jim Eifert said the Endowment’s funding will significantly
intensify efforts to build Indiana’s reputation as a place where engineering
graduates are educated to be adept at technology development to meet today’s
business needs. “We will build upon a proverb by Confucius which states, ‘I
hear; I forget. I see; I remember. I do; I understand.’ I would suggest a
fourth line, I understand; I innovate,” Eifert noted.
“The Lilly Endowment has been wonderfully supportive of our efforts and
those of others around the state to create positive change in Indiana
education and its resultant culture and economy,” Eifert stated. “Their
continued support will enable Rose-Hulman Ventures to build on the
relationships we have developed, the successes we have had, and the lessons
we have learned in recent years. By extending our operations in partnership
with other Indiana communities, we will establish an infrastructure that
will permanently impact Indiana’s economy,” said Eifert. “This is more than
great news for the Rose-Hulman community; this is great news for Indiana.”
Eifert said Rose-Hulman Ventures has already had a positive influence on the
Indiana economy, according to assessment studies funded by RHV. “Based on
investments made as of March 31, 2002, Rose-Hulman Ventures investments had
created 334 jobs with an average salary and benefits of $54,000,” he stated.
Extend Operations
Rose-Hulman Ventures will increase the educational and professional practice
experiences provided to Rose-Hulman students by expanding the number of
clients RHV will serve. RHV plans to form partnerships with other
universities, incubators and communities to provide technical assistance to
more entrepreneurs – and technology-based companies. This collaboration is a
logical step to provide business entrepreneurs with the needed technical and
business resources to grow and expand. It will provide a larger pool of
companies for future student and faculty involvement, counter declines in
other segments of the state’s economy, and provide a robust platform for
future economic growth in the state. This expansion will create additional
client successes that will increase revenue to enable Rose-Hulman Ventures
to be a self-supporting operation.
Center for the Deployment of Disruptive
Technologies
Rose-Hulman Ventures will establish a virtual Center for the Deployment of
Disruptive Technologies to organize and sponsor a set of educational
seminars and conferences. Disruptive technologies significantly changes the
way things were done or changes what things were done. Examples include
technologies that enabled the shift to satellite communications, led to
genomic breakthroughs, and created new categories of software. Disruptive
technologies that will be the focus of seminars will include
microelectromechanical systems, optical technologies and wireless
technologies. The Center will ensure that the efforts of students, faculty
and staff engineers at Rose-Hulman Ventures involve companies and
technologies that provide the greatest educational and financial leverage.
All Indiana incubator staff from incubators like those at Indiana
University, Purdue University, the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, the
Hammond Development Corporation, etc. and students and faculty members of
Rose-Hulman will be invited to participate in these educational programs
that are key to Indiana’s economic preparedness.
Impact on Undergraduate Engineering, Math and
Science Education
Rose-Hulman Ventures will have a major impact in engineering, mathematics,
and science education by providing real-world engineering experiences to
more Indiana students and increasing professional development opportunities
for faculty. As Rose-Hulman Ventures collaborative efforts with communities
across the state accelerate, the opportunity for more student participation
will increase. To date, approximately 200 students from Rose-Hulman, Indiana
University, Indiana State University, DePauw University, and Saint Mary
of-the-Woods College have been critical to the success of 31 client
companies served by Rose-Hulman Ventures.
Intensify Efforts to Enhance Economic Development
in Terre Haute
An important ingredient necessary to create a stronger economic development
impact on the Terre Haute area is the addition of a facility for resident
client companies to keep them in the Terre Haute area when they are ready to
“graduate” from the incubator. This facility will be suited to Rose-Hulman
Ventures clients who will actually manufacture the products designed and
prototyped at Rose-Hulman Ventures or elsewhere. It will provide a larger
environment for the scale-up for manufacturing that should eventually bring
extensive economic benefits.
|
