History of Entrepreneurship at Thayer School

Thayer School faculty members have been developing and marketing innovative technologies and processes since the 1950s. The first professor to take an idea to market was James A. Browning, who worked with graduate student Merle Thorpe Th'53 to invent the plasma torch. Today their company, Thermal Dynamics Corporation, leads the field of plasma cutting technology.

Professor James A. Browning in the 1950s

Browning's initiative brought Robert C. Dean Jr. to Dartmouth in 1961. Professor Dean founded Creare, Inc., a research-and-development firm specializing in thermal science. Both Browning and Dean later founded or cofounded other companies, and principals of those firms spun off even more ventures.

Robert Dean, still actively involved with Dartmouth engineering students, founded these companies:

• Creare, Inc.
• Hypertherm (metal cutting technology)
• Creare Innovations Inc. (xerography and motion control), later called Spectra Inc. and now called FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc. (four color, hot wax, drop-on-demand printers)
• Verax (production mammalian-cell culture systems)
• Synosys, now PerSeptive Biosystems, division of Perkin-Elmer (biotechnology instruments and process equipment)
• Synergy Research Corporation (motion-control and reprographics engineering)
• Synergy Innovations, nanotechnology, materials processing, thermal sciences, energy sources
• Simbex, technology for sports safety and healthcare

During the 1960s, Thayer School began to forge formal partnerships with industry and encourage students who wanted to explore the commercial potential of their research. For example, ENGS 21 Introduction to Engineering students Dean Spatz '66 Th'67 and Chris Miller '66 Th'67 took their project on reverse osmosis to the graduate research level. In 1969, six years after the ENGS 21 course, Spatz leveraged that research to found Osmonics, Inc., a company he ran successfully until its recent acquisition by General Electric.

Chris Miller '66 Th'67 and Dean Spatz '66 Th'67 working on their ENGS 21 project

In the early 1970s, Thayer School research engineer Sydney Alonso and student Cameron Jones '75 Th'77 tackled a problem posed by Dartmouth music professor Jon Appleton. Their hardware and software innovations eventually became the Synclavier, the world's first digital music synthesizer. In 1976, they founded New England Digital Corporation (NED), drawing as enthusiastic customers Stevie Wonder, Oscar Peterson, Frank Zappa, Pat Metheny, and other musicians. Although NED closed its doors in 1991, Jones continues to develop software for the Synclavier, which remains the synthesizer of choice for many artists.

Sydney Alonso (left) and Cameron Jones '75 Th'77 in the Thayer School electronics lab.

In 1978, the Cook Engineering Design Center was established to formalize relationships between industry partners and engineering students. When Charles Hutchinson became dean in 1984, he pushed for an even stronger emphasis on Thayer School's role as an "innovation incubator." Hutchinson, who himself cofounded two companies (Medical Media Systems and Glycofi) believed strongly that Thayer School's mission should include incubating business ventures.

In 1988, the School designed a new master's program in engineering management (M.E.M.). In partnership with the Tuck School of Business, the M.E.M. program ties courses in engineering design to the business skills that graduates need to bring their designs to market.

Project management and internships are integral to the M.E.M. program. ENGS 190/290, an engineering design sequence for both B.E. and M.E.M. candidates, matches students with industrial partners to find solutions to problems in the workplace. One patented product that came out of an ENGS 290 project was the IBEX, a portable in-bed exercise machine to prevent muscle loss and circulation problems of bed-ridden patients. The inventor, Solomon Diamond '97 Th'99, worked with Professor Robert Dean, along with physicians and therapists, to develop and patent the device.

During the 1990s, a variety of business-oriented symposia, conferences, and programs, such as the Abbot Technology Leaders Program, were introduced to provide opportunities for students and faculty to meet and work with leaders in government and industry. And in the 21st century, an increasing number of faculty startups are bringing Thayer School inventions to market.

[This summary is adapted from Knowledge with Know-How, a history of Thayer School of Engineering.]