This Former NASA Engineer Trains Geeks to Become CEOs

Dr. Belz and Dr. Leroy Hood at USC (Photo Credit/Dylan Cavaz)

Dr. Andrea Belz was an engineer at NASA and is now the Vice Dean for Engineering science Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Applied science. There, she'due south charged with taking great ideas from the scientific discipline, computing, and engineering environments and turning academics into startup CEOs, many of whom have gone on to sell their innovations to the Department of Defense and other commercial and regime markets.

PCMag talked with her via phone earlier summertime break to run across which summit researchers have quantum ideas and how her programme gets them to the next level. Here are edited and condensed excerpts from our conversation.

Dr. Belz, before we go to your electric current role, can you talk nearly your decade at NASA?
Sure. After I completed my PhD in nuclear physics at Caltech, where I built optical instruments for employ in particle physics experiments, I went to NASA JPL as a postdoctoral swain designing possible instruments for use in astrobiology.

Every bit in "the search for intelligent life on other planets" type experiments?
Yes. I worked on assay on samples of minerals which be in farthermost environments here on Globe, for example, at the lesser of volcanic vents or inside highly acidic conditions, considering what we meet equally "harsh" other forms of life see as attractive. In these experiments nosotros study microbial genetics, the minerals on which these weird microbes sometimes live, and the chemistries they exploit, to build models of how life could survive on other planets which accept similar conditions.

How did yous go from astrobiology to what you do today?
I became fascinated with technology advancement and readiness for diverse environments, and this was merely after the telecom smash where technologies had created a major transformation in how we alive. Dr. Andrea Belz Fifteen years ago I decided to branch out equally a consultant with a remit of "transforming innovation into profit" and NASA became one of my first clients. I worked on interdisciplinary problems inside their system technology group while I also began working in the venture earth.

Explain how your program works at USC today.
Our approach has iv components: teach, think, launch and link. Teach—conduct customer discovery to identify issues, then look for scientific convergence to create opportunities in the marketplace; remember—carry practitioner-based enquiry regarding management of early-phase engineering science, especially in government funded innovation; launch—help our startup teams be successful by getting funding and meeting investors, besides equally helping industry teams launch new initiatives; link—build the connective tissue that enables innovators to thrive—creating mentor relationships, connecting institutions, so on.

Is this program mostly geared towards people who take an idea already and need structure to get to market?
Information technology is, in the sense that nosotros work principally with teams who have technologies in mind. But we don't piece of work just with startups, we as well take teams from within large organizations and put them through the plan. For instance, we worked closely on site with groups at the Air Forcefulness Enquiry Laboratory organization not too long ago. Nosotros got them from idea to trouble discovery, while education them the language of business.

Talking of smart people having cool ideas, universities accept long suspected that there's financially viable intellectual property within the faculty and student body and are eager to avoid the brain drain to Silicon Valley.
Universities know they offering much less of a salary than the tech giants similar Google, so they are re-positioning themselves to tell faculty and students how they can accept the freedom to start their own visitor while still remaining with their cohort of self-selected, highly intelligent and accomplished smart people who are working on challenging problems.

Yous wrote a book that distilled vital to-market lessons into a 36-60 minutes grade. Did yous get a lot of flak from the ii-yr MBA B-school chiefs?
Ah yes, sometimes. But in that location'due south a difference in need. An MBA will requite y'all a lot of depth and practise, especially in topics similar advanced finance and supply chain operations. But beingness an entrepreneur is, in some way, analogous to working in systems engineering, where you have to exist flexible, conversant with all kinds of risk, but non a deep practiced in all of them. Entrepreneurs need to be broad, capable, and obsessed students of risk. So the book was intended to be a dictionary then you could be multilingual in many fields. It doesn't supplant an MBA.

At USC, what are the qualities you wait for in a "geek" who might make it every bit a CEO?
Some people discover they possess the social skills, organizational qualities, and sheer drive that'due south required to sit at the top of an organization. Then there are those who don't desire that role, but have great ideas. Our thesis here at USC, and throughout all the initiatives we talked about today, is that you lot're going to do much ameliorate in business if you're well informed on how everything works, and and so you lot can make decisions almost the roles you'd similar to take on.

Y'all as well started Projection PALISADES at USC Viterbi. Tin you explain what that does?
Projection PALISADES stands for Promote, Accelerate, and Launch Innovation in the Security, Aerospace, and Defense Sectors and links [united states] to the defense and innovation communities. We've also partnered with the Department of Defense to fix MD5 Discover (Defense Innovation and Security COmmercialization: VEnture Research), a 12-week virtual grooming course for entrepreneurs to become them equipped to pitch their technology concepts to the military.

Which cool startups can you namecheck have been through your diverse programs?
I'm very excited nigh many of our teams, but two that come up to heed: Aescula Tech, which has developed a material which tin can be used inside the tear duct in order to release medication. And, via our Project PALISADES, there's a company called HIA Technologies, who have created virtual avatars to handle HR functions. Its CTO is Arno Hartholt, who also holds a position hither at USC as Director of Enquiry and Development Integration, Institute of Artistic Technologies.

Ah, the virtual humans team? We've met them . Very cool.
Agreed.

Final question. If PCMag readers desire to detect out more, what's your next event?
On June 26, hither in LA, we're sponsoring a engineering science scouting workshop for both entrepreneurs and corporate investors.