Technology transfer spurs sci-tech renaissance

Clifford Gross describes himself as a "chronically optimistic" person. So, keep that in mind when the former professor at the University of South Florida and current CEO of UTEK Corp. in Tampa says, "We're in a technology renaissance." Adding, "There is no parallel period in history; not during the Renaissance, nor the Industrial Revolution." He then reels off a series of recent technological and scientific advances in a variety of fields to underscore his point.

Gross knows about some of these advances first-hand because his company brokers innovation by handling technology transfer between university research centers and business.

Large organizations are increasingly depending on higher education and government research centers to make the big technology leaps that they once might have done themselves. UTEK helps by offering a variety of services, including patent analytics and matching specific engineering and scientific talent with business development needs.

But one of the best things UTEK does is crawl 2,300 university Web sites on a nightly basis, sifts through all of the research posted, standardizes the presentation of the data and makes it searchable.

What's hot in the demand for research these days?

Without hesitation, Gross answers, "Green."

"There's an increased consciousness among companies," he says, noting that the interest cuts across all industries.

As such, it makes him optimistic that science and technology will lead to new, cleaner energy sources because business seems eager to adopt them. He says there are hundreds and hundreds of research projects around solar energy alone, not to mention many more in tidal, wind and alternative fuel research that all show promise.

The chance of success?

"It's inevitable," he says. "It might take 25 years for a cluster of technologies to become ubiquitous."

But it will happen, he says. Adding, "I'm optimistic."