A new initiative, Propel PSU, combines three existing PSU programs to help PSU students, faculty and Portland entrepreneurs transform their innovations into products and companies that benefit Portland, the region and the world.
“We believe that entrepreneurship and commercialization contribute to student and faculty success at PSU and increase the impact of what students and faculty do at the university,” says Joseph Janda, assistant vice president for research and graduate studies.
Propel PSU codifies connections between the Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Intellectual Property and the Portland State Business Accelerator.
Center for Entrepreneurship
The Center for Entrepreneurship’s role within Propel PSU is to expose students to the entrepreneurship experience.
“At the Center for Entrepreneurship, we are providing an early on-ramp for students to explore what it is like to be an innovator or an entrepreneur and to put into practice what they learn in school,” says Juan Barraza, director of student innovation at the Center.
One of the ways the Center fosters student entrepreneurship is by hosting a variety of workshops and design competitions.
Just this past weekend, the 
Center and the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science co-hosted the second annual Invent for the Planet competition, a 48-hour design competition that is held simultaneously at 40 universities across 16 different countries. Around 40 students from across PSU formed five teams to create prototypes of solutions for high-impact, global problems. Through live stream video, PSU students connected with teams from across the globe who were working on the same challenges.
PSU’s winning team was Seamless Travel. They developed a mobile app to streamline the user experience for airport travelers, helping them reduce the time from door to gate at any airport in the world. Seamless Travel now has a week to refine their idea and present it in the second round of competition hosted by Texas A&M University.
Meanwhile, seven PSU student teams are busy preparing for another competition, the eighth annual Cleantech Challenge, also presented by the Center for Entrepreneurship. These teams have 90 days and $1500 to develop a prototype that addresses an environmental challenge. Teams will present their prototypes at TechFest NW on April 3 at PSU’s Viking Pavilion.
Last year’s Cleantech Challenge winner was Turner Automotive. The team, led by PSU student Blake Turner, created a prototype for a low-cost kit that transforms a gas-powered car so it can run on hydrogen.
Turner Automotive went on to win second place and the People’s Choice award at Invent Oregon, the Center for Entrepreneurship’s flagship invention competition for undergraduates at institutions across Oregon.
“The Center f 
or Entrepreneurship is using entrepreneurship education as a means to increase student success and student confidence not only here but statewide,” says Janda.
Competitions like Invent for the Planet, the Cleantech Challenge and Invent Oregon can be life-changing for students. Alumni of the Cleantech Challenge, for example, have raised over $2.5 million dollars to continue growing their businesses. These businesses include Nexgarden, which has created high efficiency modules for vertical farming, and Diatomix, which uses novel technology to purify indoor air.
“Some students go on to form companies after these competitions are done, and they get plugged into the rest of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, not only in PSU, but in the City of Portland and in the larger region,” says Janda.
Barraza notes that student groups who continue to develop their ventures can work with PSU’s Innovation & Intellectual Property office, the second unit within Propel PSU, to patent their inventions.
Innovation & Intellectual Property
The Innovation & Intellectual Property office helps faculty, research groups and sometimes students secure patents or copyrights for their innovations that can be licensed to companies and end users.
“The office helps usher discoveries through the whole process,” says Janda. “From idea to impact.”
For example, Innovation & Intellectual Property helped transform a 10-year study of 1,000 high school dropouts by Stephen Reder and Clare Strawn from PSU’s department of linguistics into Learner Web, a web-based learning support system for adults. Learner Web has been licensed to some 30,000 end users.
Innovation & Intellectual Property also helps PSU researchers form startup companies. In the past 10 years, 14 startup companies have sprung out of PSU faculty patents. These companies include DesignMedix, which has an anti-malarial drug in clinical trials, and APDM Wearable Technologies, which creates wearable sensors for people with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease.
In many ways Innovation & Intellectual Property behaves as a conduit between the other two Propel PSU units.
“If we have a faculty and a grad student, for example, interested in forming a company, Innovation & Intellectual Property might give them the license, but then they'll take advantage of all the programming offered by the Center for Entrepreneurship and the facilities of the Business Accelerator building,” says Janda.
The Business Accelerator
Portland State’s Business Accelerator provides physical facilities, wraparound programming and community for entrepreneurs and early stage tech, bioscience and green companies in Portland.
“The Accelerator serves a lot of community companies, and I would say it is an important part of PSU’s contribution to the economic development of the region,” says Janda.
Business Accelerator members benefit from relationships with one another, PSU students and faculty, and the larger entrepreneur ecosystem. Community experts hold office hours at the Accelerator where members can learn about topics like HR, accounting and venture capital. The three-floor, 40,000 square foot Accelerator building contains private offices and co-working space, wet lab space and prototyping equipment.
“We provide services to these companies to help them succeed,” says Janda.
And research shows that incubators do help companies succeed. The National Business Incubation Association found that companies that grow up in accelerators like PSU’s Business Accelerator are as much as five times more likely to be successful as companies than companies trying to start-up on their own.
Since 2007, the Accelerator has incubated 140 science and tech startups, 70% of which are still active. These companies have raised $180 million in capital and generated $75 million in revenue. And the impact on PSU has been significant: More than 1,200 PSU students have been engaged in Capstone projects, internships or jobs with these companies.
By providing physical infrastructure and professional support for the other two units, the Business Accelerator completes the powerful trifecta that is Propel PSU.
“We're very excited about Propel PSU,” Janda says. “If all three of these units have existed for some time and have had success on their own, combining them and having them work together in a very intentional way, I think is going to have a tremendous impact on what we're able to do for students, for faculty and for the community.”