PDF of Case Study - IBM

a jStart
case study
“BigSheets, LanguageWare, and
IBM Cognos Content Analytics
allowed our team to understand
the potential opportunities, while
at the same time reducing the
tedious workload...allowing us to
concentrate on those activities
of highest value and payback for
the university.”
- Paul Mugge
Innovation Professor and Director of the
Center for Innovation
Management Studies (CIMS)
North Carolina State University
Poole College of Management
See how IBM is applying Big Data
to create Smarter Analytics
working with a leading research institution to identify IP opportunities
matching academic
research to business
opportunities
At a Glance
A challenge facing many large research institutions is how to identify
technologies derived from that research into potential business opportunities.
How can the data from numerous webbased
sources (grant databases, engineering project
databases, departmental/college level information
sources) be combined in a meaningful way--and how can
web data be reviewed with an eye towards potential partnerships
and relationships with interested third parties? Further,
could data be exposed so that the organization tasked with
identifying these opportunities (in this case, North Carolina
State University's—NC State's— Office of Technology Transfer)
can be proactive in matching the research with the commercial
opportunities these technologies provide?
ibm.com/jstart
The Challenge
Myriad challenges present themselves when considering a solution
for this need: can the data be parsed in a timely manner? Will the information
be decipherable and helpful to the technology transfer specialist?
How can the system be automated to reduce workload on the technology
transfer team? Can the solution aid in identifying opportunities which may
not have been obvious, or were subtle in nature?
Business Value Created
The IBM jStart team worked with NC State's Office of Technology Transfer
(OTT) and the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) in NC
State’s Poole College of Management teams to create a solution which
would mine large amounts of unstructured web data using advanced data
and text analytics offerings from IBM. Working hand-in-hand with the staff
members from the NC State OTT and CIMS, jStart was able to produce
analytics results that identified potential companies that could be interested
in licensing technologies created at NC State. "Capture and evaluation
of web data remains a formidable challenge when considering both internal
and external resources especially if there is a large amount of unstructured
data to sort through. The jStart team proved that unstructured web data
analysis solutions can achieve better data driven decision making. In addi-

a jStart
case study
Identifying two licensing
opportunities where there
were none before...
jStart began with a prototype to see just how useful
text analytics and BigSheets could
be for NC State’s Office of Technology
Transfer. The challenge
was to identify licensing and partnership opportunities
for two technologies that the university had been
unsuccessful at finding partners for. Using IBM technology,
the jStart team created a solution that parsed
millions of web pages and managed to identify dozens
of potential partners. After reviewing the information,
NC State was able to identify the best candidates,
ultimately resulting in two new potential partners
for intellectual property for two technologies that
would have otherwise simply sat on the shelf. Just
another example of using technology for smarter
business opportunity identification.
get started with jStart:
David Sink
Program Director, jStart Team
IBM Emerging Internet Technologies
dsink@us.ibm.com
Tel: 919.254.4648
Ed Elze
Manager, Business Development,
Strategy & Client Engagement
eelze@us.ibm.com
Tel: 360.866.0160
Jim Smith
Manager, Client Engagements, Chief Architect
Emerging Internet Technologies Group
jamessmi@us.ibm.com
Tel: 919.387.6653
John Feller
Manager, Emerging Technologies Development
jStart Team
fellerj@us.ibm.com
Tel: 919.543.7971
Learn More:
ibm.com/jstart/bigdata
ibm.com/jstart/textanalytics
jstart@us.ibm.com
tion, the data analysis solution provided from the jStart team helped us realize
that it is possible to access previously untapped data sources such as
web sites to extract valuable information," remarked Mike Kowolenko, CIMS
Industrial Fellow and former Senior VP, Wyeth.
The NC State OTT and CIMS provided the jStart team with
a list of primary keywords related to two specific NC State
owned technologies. The keyword hits were further refined based upon other
secondary keywords or phrases that were contained within either the
same sentence or paragraph to find strong or weak hits. Data sources accessible
via the web were crawled such as blogs, forums, corporate and
governmental web sites. The analysis results and data visualization output
were able to help the NC State team identify companies which might be interested
in licensing the NC State innovations as well as identify appropriate
contact people inside those companies.
Business Value Created
The solution developed for the NC State Office of Technology Transfer enabled
the group to identify, execute, and follow-up on opportunities that were
previously difficult to perform--not to mention discover. It allowed the team to
concentrate on negotiating intellectual property licenses while simultaneously
enhancing their ability to identify potential opportunities for both the university,
and for their commercial partners. “This technology has given us abilities
we simply haven't had before,” noted CIMS Director, Paul Mugge.
“BigSheets, LanguageWare, and IBM Cognos Content Analytics allowed our
team to understand the potential opportunities, while at the same time reducing
the tedious workload...allowing us to concentrate on those activities
of highest value and payback for the university.”
Who is jStart?
jStart is a highly skilled team focused on providing fast, smart, and valuable
business solutions leveraging the latest technologies. The team focuses on
emerging technologies which have commercial potential within 12-18
months. This allows the team to keep ahead of the adoption curve, while
being prepared for client engagements and partnerships. The team’s focus
currently includes: big data, text analytics, business events processing, mobile
platforms, and mashups/widgets. Interested in learning more? Visit our
website at:
ibm.com/jstart
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