Applying your Thesis to the Real World

1 Course Unit

In this course we will be taking your Ph.D. Thesis and exploring the way in which your research could make an impact in the real world. The course will build the foundation from which a chapter in your thesis can be written that articulates the challenges and opportunities your thesis topic brings to make a difference in society. Each student will also be paired with an external mentor from industry that will be a sounding board on the work that you are doing. The foundation of this class will be based on the Adoption Readiness Level framework developed by the Office of Technology Commercialization to identify non-technical barriers that must be overcome for a technology to be fully deployed in the market place. ARLs are a qualitative assessment that help researchers articulate and explore barriers that would prevent their technology from being adopted in the real-world. By putting your Ph.D. Thesis through the ARL framework, you will have a better understanding of what it takes to commercialize technologies. Recommended Prerequisite: Students must be ideally entering their third year of their Ph.D. Spring 1 Course Unit