Archive: An effort to commercialize advanced materials tech - Krishna Nadella (Vesicus Inc. & UW)
Despite the great promise that innovations in advanced materials hold in solving humanity’s biggest challenges, they are typically the toughest to commercialize. This fact is borne out by the lack of consistent financial returns on investments made by various funding sources active in this sector. In this seminar, I will discuss the various challenges that academic researchers will likely face trying to move their materials innovations into commercial use. The challenges arise both from the technical aspects of scaling up advanced materials technologies (such as process, equipment, and applications) and the type of commercialization pathway chosen to reach the market (such as licensing, spin-off companies, etc.). Using examples drawn from a two-decade long commercialization effort to move solid-state microcellular plastics into mainstream use, I will highlight key lessons that can be derived from both the successes and the failures of various approaches. The goal is to disseminate knowledge that will help increase the effectiveness and efficiency of future materials commercialization within the UW community.
Speaker Bio:
Krishna Nadella is a serial entrepreneur in the field of advanced materials with a focus on solid-state microcellular plastics. He is currently Co-founder & CEO of Vesicus Inc., a startup spun out of Prof. Vipin Kumar’s lab in July 2015. Krishna also has an Assistant Affiliate Professor appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UW-Seattle. Prior to Vesicus he founded and built two other startup companies, Aiooa Systems LLC and MicroGREEN Polymers, Inc. Over the last two decades, he pioneered the scale-up and commercialization of solid-state microcellular plastics technologies developed in collaboration with UW. Krishna managed teams of up to 150 employees spanning technology/product development, engineering, equipment design, assembly, fabrication, intellectual property, supply chain, manufacturing and sales functions. He received a BSME from Bangalore University, India in 1999 following which he received a MS in 2002 and a Ph.D. in 2009 from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Washington - Seattle. He has published over a dozen academic papers and is an inventor of more than 40 patents in the field of microcellular plastics. In addition to receiving numerous entrepreneurial awards, Krishna was honored with the University of Washington College of Engineering’s Diamond Award for Early Career Achievement in 2011.
This talk was recorded on Dec. 1, 2020 as part of the University of Washington Mechanical Engineering Graduate Seminar (ME 520). Learn more at me.uw.edu