The Alabama Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneurs will host its first AIME Day Friday to exhibit its students’ and faculty members’ research and inventions. The event begins at 8 a.m. and continues until 4:30 p.m. in the AIME Building across from the Ferguson Center.
Dan Daly, faculty director of AIME, said investors will be traveling to the University from various cities, including Chicago, New York, Boston, Atlanta and Birmingham to evaluate the AIME teams’ projects. In addition to presenting their work, students will have networking opportunities with the investors.
Companies incubating at the University, certain student teams and engineering department projects will all present their work as part of the AIME Day program.
Rebecca Paxton, a senior majoring in business and speech pathology, said along with the career opportunities it presents, AIME Day is also a chance for students to learn about the resources available at the University to help them pursue ideas.
“Entrepreneurship is a rapidly growing field. More and more people are taking chances on their ideas and finding a passion for new technology and business,” Paxton said. “AIME Day will make known to those with entrepreneurial enthusiasm the wealth of resources the University of Alabama can provide…to help pursue those opportunities and bring their ideas to fruition.”
Daly said AIME’s primary focus is “increasing the value to the intellectual property of the University of Alabama.”
After an idea is submitted, Daly said, AIME builds business models, assesses the idea’s patentability and completes a financial and technical feasibility analysis. If the patent council approves the project, AIME creates a business plan. The best ideas are then taken to the labs for prototype development. Most team projects were spurred by faculty ideas, but some are based from student ideas.
There are about seven student AIME teams, each with five or six members. Each team has an MBA student as its captain and includes a law student and a doctoral student. Other team members come from a wide variety of other disciplines, including engineering and business.
Susanna Tubbs, a senior major in biochemistry, is an undergraduate research chemist and helps with the patent assessment for AIME’s Triage Teams. She said her involvement has taught her about the business side of scientific research.
“AIME allows students to actively participate in research,” Tubbs said. “We contribute our ideas. We also get to see the way research is applied in the real world by helping with business plan writing and patent assessment.”
Daly said any students interested in AIME’s work can learn more by taking his technical entrepreneurship class.
“I really enjoy the enthusiasm of students who, once they get the idea that they can actually start their own business, get really pumped up about it,” Daly said.
Paxton also encouraged innovate students to explore the opportunities AIME can offer them.
“If you have an idea, we want to hear about it,” Paxton said. “Bringing new ideas and technology to market is a long process that requires a lot of patience, processing, and paperwork, but that is what AIME is about. We are here to assist faculty, staff and students…with the technical stuff and make the pursuit of new ideas as easy as possible.”
