Innovation Team - June 18

Description

Interested in Innovation in the DFW area?? 

Join us for the monthly Innovation Team Luncheon at DFW Innovation Center.

Program: 
Geoffrey Orsak, Ph.D., Executive Director, Texas Research Alliance (TRA)

Speaker Bio:
Geoffrey Orsak is an energetic, passionate, and collaborative leader who successfully develops and executes bold ideas. As a national thought leader in innovation and competitiveness particularly in research and education, he worked to improve the creative capacity of businesses and individuals by developing scalable programs that work. As one example, The Infinity Project, a program he helped create and lead, is today serving students in approximately 40 states and 6 countries.

These efforts led a prominent national technology magazine to call him a “true pioneer and visionary". He was also selected the first ever national “Educator of the Year” in science and engineering by EE Times.

As a researcher, Dr. Orsak has been recognized with the highest distinction in his field, being elected “Fellow of the IEEE.” His research has focused on areas of communication systems to enhance national security, as well as new approaches for teaching complex subjects. He has been the lead researcher on over 30 major projects.

Dr. Orsak has recently served as Partner in a biotech focused hedge fund and a consultant on Intellectual Property litigation. While Dean of Engineering at SMU, engineering applications increased by 400%, the student population increased by 250%, the percent of female students increased to twice the national average, and the level of externally funded research tripled.
During this time he led efforts that raised more than $100M for education and research.

Dr. Orsak has on multiple occasions addressed the US Congress, a US Presidential Commission on competitiveness, major research and education conferences, numerous corporate retreats, and a wide variety of leadership and community groups all across the country.

About the TRA
In recent years, the Dallas-Fort Worth region has been recognized as having one of the most business friendly climates in the United States as well as an emerging pool of talent in industries such as technology and healthcare. However, it has been discovered that our university research expertise is underutilized by local corporations which has created an opportunity to develop and enhance the corporate/university partnerships here in the D/FW area. In response, the Texas Research Alliance was created by the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Dallas Regional Chamber, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, and Richardson Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Alliance for Higher Education.

The goal of the TRA is to increase research in the DFW region through industry-university collaboration. Along with a viable and scalable model to drive sponsored research and develop research talent across the D/FW area, a detailed execution roadmap has been designed to provide a framework for making key decisions in order to strengthen the corporation/university partnerships. It is understood that in order for this initiative to become a success, both universities and corporate partners must invest time and effort to customize the model for the region.

There are six universities that are current partners in this project: University of Texas-Dallas, University of Texas-Arlington, University of North Texas Health Science Center, University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University, and Texas Christian University.