GEORGIA
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
MINUTES
Meeting of
Held in the Poole Board Room of the
Members Present: Cabot
(OIT); Chameau (Provost); Evans (GTRI); Gentry (ARCH); Henry (OSP); Horton
(GTRI); Huff (GTRI); Kahn (CEE); Marr (PSYCH); McGinnis (ISyE); Schneider
(MGT); Telotte (LCC); Uzer (PHYS); Norville (G. Student); Watson (U. Student); Alexander
(Staff Rep); Abdel-Khalik (SoF).
Members Absent: Clough
(President); Mark (CoC); Peterson (ECE); Warren (EDI).
Visitors: McMath
(Vice Provost); Harker (Tech Licensing).
1.
Larry Kahn (Chair) opened the meeting at
a.
The Legislature has started addressing the FY 05
budget. The President and the Chancellor
are working hard to make sure that the Governor’s recommendations to fully-fund
the formula and MRR (Maintenance, Renovation, and Repair Fund) are adopted.
b.
We are seeking additional funding for GTREP (GT
Regional Engineering Program) in order to accommodate its rapid enrollment growth,
and to restore ETACT funding (Equipment, Technology, and Construction Trust
Fund), which was zeroed out in the Governor’s FY05 budget recommendation. ETACT
is very important for research universities since it provides matching
contributions to external funds. We are
also seeking additional funds to accommodate the integration of IPST within
Georgia Tech; formula funding is based on enrollment data from two years ago,
which does not include IPST.
c.
There have been no formal discussions yet on tuition
and fees for next year; those recommendations are usually discussed by the
Board of Regents at the April meeting (after the Legislature completes the
budget). We have reported to the Chancellor and his staff on how our tuition
compares with our competitors/peers.
d.
We have a meeting later today with the GT Foundation
Board; while the stock market has significantly improved during the past year,
endowment income is still down because it is based on a three-year moving
average.
e.
In response to the budget cuts, there have been some
layoffs on campus (~50 so far; total of ~80-100 is expected by the end of
June).
f.
The Chancellor’s office has announced that our
A question was asked as to how the summer program
cuts announced by several schools will impact the coop program. The Provost responded by indicating that cuts
in the summer program are limited to three units (ME, CEE, and IAC) with severe
budget cuts; other units will offer summer courses at the same level as last
year (or slightly more). The Provost stated that Bob McMath will be working
with those three units to see how we can minimize the impact on their summer
programs; he is currently working with the
2.
The Chair called for approval of the minutes of the
3.
The Chair called on Dr. Robert McMath (Vice Provost)
to report on the activities of the Ad Hoc Committee on Quality Undergraduate
Education. A copy of the slides used in
the presentation is attached (Attachment #2 below). McMath indicated that the committee was
formed by the Executive Board last summer following discussions stimulated by a
“white paper” authored by Jack Marr entitled: “Congruent Quality in
Undergraduate Education: Can we make grade inflation irrelevant?” (Attachment #3 below).
At the same time, a report entitled: “What do undergraduates think about
their academic experience at Georgia Tech?” was completed by McMath (Attachment #4 below).
These two documents provided a starting point for the ad hoc committee’s
discussions. A list of committee members
was presented (see Attachment 2); it includes representatives from all standing
faculty committees which deal with undergraduate education, along with three
students (representing SGA and other student organizations), and other faculty. McMath indicated that by virtue of their
service on such standing committees, most ad hoc committee members will have
direct responsibility for implementing the committee’s recommendations.
McMath reviewed the ad hoc committee’s charge as defined by the Executive
Board: “exploring and evaluating what quality undergraduate experience is, or
should be at Georgia Tech, and ways of sustaining the highest possible quality
commensurate with the abilities of our students.” He stated that the committee
began its work by reviewing the charge from the Executive Board and the two
documents prepared by Marr and McMath (Attachments #3 and 4 below), along with
several other published reports (national), in order to understand the issues
involved. The committee “brainstormed”
on the best method for identifying and categorizing areas which need
improvement and examples of best practice.
From the beginning, emphasis was placed on insuring implementation of
the committee’s recommendations. The
committee requested and received input from most academic units based on
student-faculty discussions. Many
schools on campus have had ongoing faculty-student discussions on this issue
for some time. Much of the material to be included in the committee’s final
report has come from the input provided by the various schools and
colleges. The report will take the form
of an annotated and categorized list of issues; the issues will be categorized
in two ways: (1) from easiest to hardest and (2) based on where they “touch”
the system (viz. curricular matters, faculty-student interactions, training of
TA’s, effect of semester conversion, etc.). Among the difficult issues
identified is the difference between “learning” and “pattern recognition,”
where students navigate through a series of hurdles to pass a course without
actually learning the subject, which leads to inadequate preparation for
subsequent courses. Recommendations will be offered on where and how these
issues can be addressed within the institute’s structure. Periodic follow-up of the state of
undergraduate education will be recommended.
It has been suggested that the current faculty standing committees,
including the curriculum committees, may not be able to handle all the issues
identified.
McMath stated that the committee will assemble the draft report at a
meeting scheduled for the week of March 15.
The report will be completed by the end of March and circulated to the
Executive Board before presenting it to the Academic Senate on April 20. No immediate policy or curriculum changes/action
items will be presented to the Academic Senate; instead, the material to be
presented will be informational; specific action items will be formulated
later.
A question was asked as to where the two documents referenced in the
presentation (documents authored by Marr and McMath) can be found. It was agreed that McMath will forward the
documents to the Secretary of the Faculty for inclusion in this meeting’s
minutes (see Attachments #3 and 4 below). A comment was made that many of the
problems we see at the freshman and sophomore level (e.g. introductory physics
courses) are related to how students are taught in high school; many students
do not have the ability to think analytically.
A follow-up comment was made that there is a large difference between
students from
[Note related to item #5 below: McMath pointed out that the “Academic Bill of
Rights” resolution (to be discussed later in the meeting) which was voted on by
the Senate Higher Education Committee yesterday (SR611) has been significantly
modified from the original version circulated to the Executive Board, and that
the new version is relatively innocuous (new version essentially redrafted
using AAUP language). He suggested that the Chair should contact Andrew Harris
for an updated version.]
4.
The Chair called on Dr. George Harker, OTL Director,
to provide an overview of the operations of the Office of Technology Licensing
(OTL). A copy of the slides used in the
presentation is attached (Attachment #5 below). Harker stated that OTL was started in 1992 by
his predecessor (Barry Rosenberg). He
described OTL’s mission, a critical component of which is to provide service to
the GT community in all areas of intellectual property (IP). OIT evaluates and protects the IP rights of
Georgia Tech, its faculty, and students; commercializes the IP through
licensing and start-ups; generates income for future research and education;
contributes to local, state, regional, and national business competitiveness
and economic development; and encourages innovation and invention by members of
the GT community. The objectives of OTL
are closely coupled to its mission:
income, service, economic development, and public good. An organizational chart showing OTL’s position
within the Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC), and the Office of the Vice
Provost for Research (Charles Liotta) was presented (see Attachment #5). GTRC is a not-for-profit 501-C (3)
Corporation (started in 1937); faculty sign their IP rights to GTRC when they
are hired. The GTRC manager (Jilda
Garton) reports to a separate Board of Directors; the President and Provost
serve on that Board. The Board has nine
outside members, including two venture capitalists and other business
leaders. GTRC also includes the Office
of Sponsored Programs (OSP), which handles contracts with industry and federal
agencies. A list of OTL team members was
presented; along with the Director, the team includes an Associate Director, an
Administrative Coordinator, a Patent/Licensing Administrator, three Technology
Licensing Associates, a Graduate Assistant, and two student assistants. The former Associate Director (Kevin Wozniak)
was recently hired by Georgia State University (GSU) to start an Office of
Technology Licensing; OTL covered IP issues for GSU since they did not previously
have a similar office.
An outline of the Technology Transfer Process was presented. Harker emphasized the importance of documenting
the IP description by the faculty conducting the research; a signed/witnessed
disclosure is then filed with OTL. For multiple inventors, the disclosure also
specifies the percentage contribution by each of the inventors; it is important
that the split be consistent with the actual contribution levels since all
subsequent royalties are distributed accordingly. OTL evaluates the disclosure to assess its merit,
commercial value, and “protectability.” Meritorious inventions/software packages are
then protected. New patents cost approximately
$10k to $12k; hence, OTL has to be selective in patent filing.
Harker indicated that, frequently, the inventors are the best “marketers”
for their IP through their contacts, conference attendance, and publications. A business partnership is formed, and the product
is commercialized. Royalty payments
(typically 2-6 % of sales) are returned to GT to be shared with the inventors
and their units (colleges). Currently,
33% of the net income is returned to the inventors.
[The first $2500 paid to the inventors is based on gross income (i.e.
without deducting expenses).] Royalty
income is provided annually for the life of the patent (20 years). There is no cap on the amount to be paid to
the inventors. A fraction of the royalties
(17 to 33%) is paid to the unit (typically the college or GTRI); the Dean
decides on how that money is distributed – frequently, it is returned to the
researcher’s department. The fraction
distributed to the unit is17% for royalties up to $500k, 27% at the $1M level,
and 33% beyond $1M.
Since OTL was started in 1992, there have been 1255 invention
disclosures, 289 patents issued (41 last year), and 166 technology
licenses. A table showing OTL statistics
for each of the past four years was presented (see Attachment #5). The data point to recent significant
increases in the number of invention disclosures (226 for FY03), patent
applications and patents issued, invention and software licenses, and start-ups
formed. Income ranged from $2.24M in
FY02 to $4.6M in FY01. The increases are
due to the research-active faculty hired by Georgia Tech in the past few years,
as well as increased faculty awareness of OTL services. Currently Georgia Tech ranks fourth in the
State in the number of Patents issued (Bellsouth and Scientific Atlanta lead
the list), and is well ahead of other universities in the State. The Venture Lab was started two years ago (under
Wayne Hodges); they help faculty prepare a business plan, combine the faculty’s
technical expertise with the business expertise of another person (sometimes
from outside GT), and launch a start-up company. Most faculty members prefer to remain employed
by GT, while owning a part of the start-up company and consulting for
them. Start-up companies generally stay
“close to home”, and represent an important part of our economic
development. Ten start-ups were formed
in FY03. Harker suggested that the relatively
low annual income is related to the nature of the licensed technology (versus,
for example, a $1B new drug) and the fact that we do not have a medical
school. Increased activities in the
bioengineering area and collaboration with Emory will rectify this issue;
however, biotech inventions usually take eight to ten years to fully
unfold.
Currently, there are 34 start-up companies in which GTRC holds equity,
and 22 others in which GTRC holds no equity (equity held by the inventors). Venture capital funding has been improving
(since last June); three of our companies have received $22M in funding during
the past six months alone. Negotiations
are currently ongoing to fund three other start-ups. OTL is working with faculty and start-up
CEO’s to provide supporting advice; GTRC does not have a Board seat on these
start-ups, and does not wish to run them (prefer non voting shares). A chart showing the various entities/groups
with which OTL interacts, including: inventors; research centers; university
leadership (to resolve conflict of interest issues); existing companies;
start-ups; the Business School (student projects to evaluate start-up
companies); engineering entrepreneurship (give talks); the investment community
(the Atlanta technology angel group); other institutions; and ATDC. Harker concluded by presenting a list of key
OTL improvements/involvements during the past two years; these include
fostering a friendly/customer-focused organization and a professional, business-oriented
staff; new professional offices; starting a newsletter (Technology Transfer
BUZZ); increased IP training; increased outreach to both the business and
venture communities; improved cooperation with other Georgia Research
Universities and CDC; meetings with the Deans; establishment of a new IP
policy; better alignment of OTL and industry contracting including parallel
reporting to the OSP Director and OTL Associate Director; formation of Georgia Nanotechnology Alliance;
development of inter-institutional IP agreement with Emory; meeting with
prospective faculty; and assisting with industry visits.
A question was asked as to how faculty view technology transfer as a form
of publication. Harker indicated that
faculty often ask whether they would get credit for such activities in tenure
reviews; this issue is handled differently from one department to another,
however, it is generally very difficult for untenured faculty to become
involved in commercialization activities.
A question was asked about examples of successful technology transfer
inventions, and whether the “Smart Shirt” invention has been successful. Harker indicated that commercialization of
the “Smart Shirt” is progressing, and that sales of other products are growing
rapidly (e.g. eight years after licensing “machine vision”). Other inventions (e.g. microneedles) are
progressing well. A question was asked as to who decides on the company to whom
the technology is to be licensed. Harker
indicated that, by policy, OTL has the authority to make that decision. However, in nearly all cases, they work
closely with the inventors, since their cooperation is necessary for the
success of the technology. Sometimes OTL
shies away from licensing the technology to a large corporation in order to
give the inventors the opportunity to start their own company, because such
start-ups tend to stay in
5.
The Chair initiated a discussion of the Senate
Resolution dealing with the “Academic Bill of Rights” (SR611). He stated that he was contacted by the Chair
of the Faculty Senate at Georgia State University regarding this issue and indicated
that the issue is being presented to the Executive Board since the next
Academic Senate meeting will not take place till April 20, which may be too
late for the Georgia Tech faculty to express an opinion on it. He distributed a draft memorandum from the
Executive Board to the State’s Legislative leaders expressing opposition to SR
611 (See attachment #6 below; note: this
statement was drafted based on the original language of SR611). He indicated that the main concerns with the
original Senate Resolution were highlighted by AAUP; among those concerns is
the possibility that a precedent may be established whereby laws dictating what
happens in the classroom may be enacted.
A comment was made that while such a concern may be valid in some other
states, it should not be a matter of concern in
6.
The Chair presented the proposed agenda for the called
meeting of the General Faculty combined with meeting of the Academic Senate and
Annual meeting of the Academic Faculty to be held on
7.
The Chair called for any other business; hearing
none, he closed the meeting at
Respectfully
submitted,
Said
Abdel-Khalik
Secretary
of the Faculty
Attachments
(to be included with the archival copy of the minutes)
1. Minutes
of the EB meeting of
2. Ad Hoc Committee on Quality Undergraduate Education (Presentation by Robert McMath)
5. Overview -- Office of Technology Licensing (Presentation by George Harker III)
6. Draft memorandum from the Executive Board to leaders of the State Legislature.
7.
Draft Agenda for