One of the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute’s (ROSEI) annual events is its Translation to Market (T2M) Workshop, which focuses on helping faculty and students from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) with taking their energy and sustainability technologies and learning how to take them to the marketplace. Held in person on the Homewood campus and during the fall semester, the event gives attendees the opportunity to both hear from and network with experts in this field that are external to JHU.
This event, in partnership with Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV), helps faculty and students consider the pathways, resources, and best practicing in moving academic discovery into the market, whether via a startup, licensing, or corporate collaboration.
ROSEI also leans heavily on its advisory council during the event planning process to ensure the event is a useful one for JHU’s faculty and students. The council includes:
- Neil Cohen, the creator of the Cohen Translation fund and a member of the Whiting School of Engineering (WSE) board for translation
- AJ Donelson and Bill McNamara, alums of Johns Hopkins that also serve as mentors for JHTV with a focus on energy
- Claire Broido Johnson, an active energy entrepreneur who also participated as a keynote speaker at the 2022 T2M Workshop
ROSEI has hosted two workshops, with the most recent happening on October 30, 2023. This iteration of the workshop focused on companies that started with technologies that were initially created in an academic environment. Speakers both internal and external to Hopkins participated in conversations to provide insights on how they managed to make that transition from academia to business, and what advice they have for faculty and students at JHU that would like to make that same jump. External speakers included:
“Building a community of energy scholars and entrepreneurs is a goal for ROSEI and a workshop like this really brings that to life.” – Ben Schafer, ROSEI Director.
- Jonathan (Jon) Glass, Acting Deputy Director for Commercialization at ARPA-E
- Wade Haerle, Director at MEIA
- Mark Juetten, Portfolio Development Officer at Early Charm Ventures
- Addison Stark, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder at AtmosZero
- Gregory Thiel, Director of Technology at Energy Impact Partners
The workshop is also an opportunity for students to present their work to the external speakers and the Hopkins energy community during an hour-long poster session.
Keep an eye on the ROSEI website for updates about the next T2M Workshop, which is expected to take place in during the Fall semester of 2024. If you’re interested in participating in the workshop as a speaker, please fill out the ROSEI Connect page.
