Wednesday, February 23, 2011

USC Stevens Institute Funds Seven Projects

In a bid to help research from the University of Southern California reach the market, the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation said Wednesday afternoon that it is awarding $439,000 in gap funding to seven projects from USC, which have a high potential to spin out of the school. According to the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, the projects were selected by more than thirty members of the LA business and entrepreneurial community, who reviewed the proposals and mentored the research teams involved. USC Stevens said that the Ideas Empowered program was funded by James C. Blair, General Partner of Domain Associates; Ken Klein, a USC Trustee and President of Wind River; David Lane, General Partner at ONSET Ventures; Andy Rappaport of August Capital; and Mark Stevens, General Partner at Sequoia Capital. Among the projects were a minimally invastive cancer detection method; a music-based social networking game; wireless wearable sensor technology; diagnostics for eye diseases; and more.

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