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Christina Smith

Beginning in the fall, the new Center for Innovation in the College of Business and Administration will allow business, science and law students to work together to develop new products.

A student who is working on a Ph.D. in one of the sciences will be partnered with a law student and business graduate student, and together they will work out the real-world problems associated with an invention, School of Law Dean Peter Alexander said.

A science student might not know about the legal requirements of bringing a product to the market and might not have thought about how to create a business plan or secure financing, Alexander said.

People in engineering or science often come up with original ideas because they are working on new things, said Greg White, chair of the Management Department.

"In order for that to really become a viable product in the marketplace, you need people from the law area to look into patenting the idea and to deal with intellectual property ideas," White said.

At the same time, business students can make sure that there is a viable market for the product, figure out how to sell the product and how to get the product to the customers, White said.

The idea for the center began with a business advisory board for the College of Business, which is made up of people concerned with management and the University. SIUC alumni Glen Norem wanted to start an innovation center at SIUC and contacted Peter Gregory last year, White said. Gregory is a member of the business advisory board. Norem had helped start a center for innovation at the University of Texas and wanted to start a center here, White said.

Both Gregory and Norem have promised to donate money to help get the center started, White said. The University will model the Center for Innovation after the center at Georgia Tech's business school, which pairs engineering, business and law students from Georgia Tech and Emory University.

The School of Law is partnering with the business and science colleges to create interdisciplinary learning opportunities for students, Alexander said.

The program will benefit students from all three entities, Alexander said.

"The idea of the center at the beginning is: how can we get people from the business college, engineering college, the college of science and the college of law all working together?" White said.

In August, Kay Nelson, an associate professor and director of the Center for Information Technology in Management at Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, will begin working as director of the center.

"She is a dynamic leader, and I think the center is going to be very successful," Alexander said.

White said the center would benefit the University and faculty by building bridges between colleges and other University resources. Realizing that students in other programs have their own knowledge to offer will broaden student's perspectives, White said.

Reporter Christina Smith can be reached at christina_smith@dailyegyptian.com.