Entrepreneur's Playground Program

Application of Sensor CAT funding to collaborative projects has resulted in several research facilities on the Stony Brook University campus. One such is the Rapid Prototyping Laboratory for Electronic Devices, located in Suffolk Hall, which is also an Optoelectronics research hub. This $1.5MM facility addresses prototyping from original hardware and software design through building working prototypes which look like the intended commercial product.

 

A variation of the way for companies to work with the Rapid Prototyping Lab for Electronic Devices is through our Entrepreneur’s Playground program. Whimsically named, actually the program is a powerful to telescope the time required for prototyping, just about down to real time. To participate in this program, companies rent a desk in the lab, enabling company designers to work there. By so doing they gain access to all the equipment and materials in the lab, and focus their projects through its people.

 

Companies’ arrangements for participating in the Entrepreneur’s Playground program benefit from Material Support of Company-Faculty Collaborations including:

 

• Matching Project Funds: At its discretion, the Sensor CAT may co-fund portion(s) of a project. Thus, the cost of a project to a company is reduced or. Alternatively, for the same input of funds by a company a larger project is obtained. From a faculty member’s perspective it may mean a greater likelihood of securing the project.

 

• Overhead Reduction: The institutional overhead for a given project are mandated at an additional 57 cents on the dollar. However, SBU charges a project selected for support by the Sensor CAT only 15 cents on the dollar, very competitive as against corporate overhead.

 

The Sensor CAT material project support can result is project costs in the area of half the usual academic scale.