The new Information Technology Development Laboratory, which opened earlier this year to help build companies based on software prototypes designed by Northwestern faculty and students, has given fourth-year graduate student Jay Budzik an opportunity to see his software succeed without him leaving school.
Watson, a piece of software Budzik designed to scan computers for content and offer related Internet links for more information, caught the attention of Motorola Inc. and is being developed into a commercial product.
DevLab, 1890 Maple Ave., was launched Oct. 26, DevLab Director Kristian Hammond said. He said he sees the lab, which took more than a year to create, as a recruiting tool because it gives faculty, graduates and undergraduates an opportunity that can’t be found at other universities.
DevLab is an addition “to the education that we don’t think anyone can find elsewhere,” Hammond said.
Motorola Ventures, the investment arm of Motorola, will invest at least $1 million a year in these companies for the next two years with an option for a third year. Hammond said other investors are in line as well.
Motorola became interested in Watson when Chris Galvin, chief executive and chairman of the board at Motorola, saw a presentation made by Hammond, Budzik, and other students at an NU meeting in which they presented Watson, said Warren Holtsberg, corporate vice president of Motorola Ventures.
Holtsberg said the company has about $100 million per year to invest in start-up firms on behalf of Motorola to get involved with new talent, new technology and sometimes new markets.
“Even a big corporation like Motorola doesn’t need to do everything itself,” Holtsberg said.
Ideas for DevLab came from the Intelligent Information Lab, a research lab that is part of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science’s computer science department. DevLab is a separate organization whose mission concerns the technology development, Hammond said.
Before DevLab commercializes a product, a board of between five to seven people, including investors and NU representatives, will decide whether to invest in the product.
If the board decides to invest in the prototype, external help and advisers connected with DevLab will develop the product for sale, Hammond said. The investors, inventors and NU all have equity in the company.
Hammond said that because the development process will take place within the confines of NU, they can do a lot more development for a lot less money.
A beta version of Budzik’s software can be found on www.bigchalk.com, which provides children with academic resources. The final version of the software will not be ready until late January or early February.
A half-dozen to a dozen other companies have expressed interest, Budzik said.
Budzik said he is glad the work they have been doing “can actually improve people’s lives and affect the way that people work” instead of simply writing a thesis as an academic exercise.
If not for DevLab, Budzik said, he would have had to choose between leaving school to develop his product or continuing his studies, but now he can do both. If forced to choose, Budzik said he would have taken left.
