Patents, Companies, and Technology Transfer

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Mechanical Engineering faculty and students are leaders in innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology transfer.

Highlight... Recent PhD joins rehab robotics spinoff

Eric Faulring didn't have far to travel to find a job after earning his PhD. He found it just a few miles from the Northwestern campus at a spinoff company founded by Northwestern professors, where he is developing an advanced prosthetic arm. Read more...

Faculty and/or students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering have founded a number of companies.

Here are the logos and stories of five companies.

Northwestern University's Technology Transfer Program encourages and assists faculty and students in patenting and licensing their inventions.

View a gallery of patents awarded to faculty and students in Mechanical Engineering

InNUvation is an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship and innovation forum. It includes students from the schools of business, law, medicine, engineering, journalism, and arts & sciences.
The 2007 New Venture Challenge is a university-wide business plan competition. The student-run competition is a platform for entrepreneurial students to experience first-hand the process of cultivating a business idea from scratch. Participants will have access to world-class faculty, veteran entrepreneurs, and early-stage investors.

New in 2008 ...
A cross-disciplinary course in Medical Innovation.

A weekly speaker series, designed by faculty directors from each graduate school, covers topics vital to the process of medical innovation. Group project work runs simultaneously with the speaker series in 10 multi-disciplinary teams (at least one student from each school per team), headed by a faculty physician from a given medical subspecialty. Each group is responsible for creating deliverables and achieving innovation milestones