HP Innovation Journal Issue 02: Spring 2016 | Page 17
University outreach
acquisition the skills, experience, social net-
works, and passion of students can be har-
nessed as an effective person-to-person
technology transfer strategy.
HP’s Global University
Program
The Global University Program is an im-
portant part of HP Labs’ research strategy.
The program fosters new opportunities
for innovation through the coordination
of research collaborations, increased
visibility in the academic community, and
technology transfer.
HP’s university relationships have a positive
impact on technology transfer from uni-
versity research to product. Through talent
Steven Fraser, Lead of the Global University
Program, knows how vital university
research collaboration is to sustain HP
innovation: “Collaborative research strat-
egies are essential to promote the sharing
of ideas and organizational learning.
The power of collaboration should never
be underestimated—whether planned
or serendipitous.”
HP’s long-standing relationship with Purdue
University has created one of these import-
ant partnerships. Since the collaboration
began almost 25 years ago with HP Labs in
Palo Alto, it has expanded to the HP Printer
Divisions in Boise, Vancouver, Barcelona,
and Israel.
With over 30 patent applications filed,
over 50 PhD degrees granted, more than
15 master’s degrees granted, over 200
conference papers published, and more
than 50 referred journal articles, the
collaboration with Purdue is contributing
to a brighter, more innovative future.
Currently, the team is focused on inves-
tigating ambient computing devices for
home and office applications.
Qian Lin, Research Scientist at HP Labs, who
was responsible for initiating the Purdue and
HP Labs relationship by inviting her Purdue
University professor to speak at HP Labs,
summarized the collaboration perfectly:
“Purdue has a long history of research in
imaging and computer vision in partnership
with HP. We are excited to expand the re-
lationship and explore using deep learning
to further enhance the computer vision
capabilities of our devices.”
Market watch
on identifying companies that share our
Blended Reality vision and desire to deliver
immersive experiences.
HP Ventures and Immersive Computing team at an
EvoNexus event
HP’s Venture group teams up
with EvoNexus for San Diego
incubator event
HP Ventures works across start-up and ven-
ture capital communities to identify, source,
commercialize and invest in early-stage dis-
ruptive technologies for HP competitive ad-
vantage. Recently we teamed up with the HP
Immersive Computing team and EvoNexus
to host a startup event in San Diego focused
EvoNexus is Southern California’s leading
technology startup incubator, designed
to accelerate the growth and success of
promising entrepreneurial companies in the
San Diego and Irvine areas. Startups lucky
enough to be selected into this non-profit
incubator, benefit from premium office
space and a cadre of mentors and advisors
made up of the region’s leading business
and technology entrepreneurs, investors
and executives.
HP has been deeply involved in the growth
of the EvoNexus program with Mike Salfity,
Global Head of HP’s Graphics Solutions
Business, serving as EvoNexus’ chairman. In
addition HP joins other global multination-
als such as Qualcomm, Cisco and Accenture
in sponsoring EvoNexus’s ongoing efforts.
In the six years since it began operations,
EvoNexus’ companies have been able to
raise nearly $1B in funding and acquisition
proceeds. “EvoNexus represents a key re-
source that HP can use to find and leverage
outside talent and ingredient technology for
HP business units”, said Salfity.
This past February, HP’s Venture team com-
bined forces with the Immersive Computing
team to meet 14 companies at a two-day
MarketLink event in San Diego. Among the
innovative technologies presented to the HP
team was an immersive audio solution with
head tracking for a new 360 degree sound
experience. This startup company just de-
buted on Kickstarter and quickly exceeded
their funding target. Also presented were a
pressure-sensitive touch screen for glass,
and security for the emerging Internet of
Things chip industry.
The HP team was led by Irit Hillel and Mitchell
Weinstock from the CTO Venture group and
Geoffrey Maine and Ben Wynne from HP’s
Immersive Computing group.
This early exposure to promising startups
allows HP to innovate and differentiate
our product lines with new disruptive
technologies, allowing us to strengthen our
leadership in the markets we play.
Innovation Journal Issue 2
17