[OLYMPUS]
   Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Olympus Innovation Award

Olympus Announces 2011 Winners of Olympus Innovation Awards

Olympus Innovation Award Program Launch 2011

Olympus Innovation Award Backgrounder 2011 (.pdf)

2011 Olympus Innovation Award Winners


Group photo of the winners of the 2011 Olympus Innovation Awards Program

Pictured left to right: Dr. Ashok Gadgil, the 2011 Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award winner; Dr. Soumyadipta Acharya, the 2011 Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award; Dr. Laura Ferguson, Group Manager, Market Strategy and Research, Scientific Equipment Group, Olympus America; Amy Smith, the 2011 Olympus Innovation Award; and Phil Weilerstein, Executive Director, NCIIA.
Amy Smith, Director, D-Lab Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Dr. Ashok Gadgil, Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation Distinguished Chair and Professor of Safe Water and Sanitation, Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory, University of California Berkely (UC Berkely) Dr. Soumyadipta Acharya, Graduate Program Director, Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, Assistant Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

Amy Smith, Director, D-Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), received the 2011 Olympus Innovation Award, which recognizes a faculty member who fosters innovative thinking among students through inventive teaching methods, projects and case studies. She was honored for her conceptualization and creation of D-Lab, a program fostering the creation and dissemination of inexpensive technologies to solve problems in developing countries.

Dr. Ashok Gadgil, Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation Distinguished Chair and Professor of Safe Water and Sanitation, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, received the 2011 Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award for sustained contribution throughout his career to stimulating and inspiring innovative thinking in students in his own university and throughout academia. Dr. Gadgil was honored for the significant impact his interdisciplinary graduate course, “Design for Sustainable Communities,” had on faculty, students and in turn, developing countries.

Dr. Soumyadipta Acharya, Graduate Program Director, Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, Assistant Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, received the 2011 Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award, which recognizes an individual who has greatly inspired innovative thinking in students and whom the judges believe has significant potential to make important future contributions to the field. Dr. Acharya was honored for his successful track record in developing and implementing educational programs in healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship at the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID).


Olympus Innovation Award 2010 Winners

2010 Olympus Innovation Award Winners




2010 Olympus Innovation Awards Program (left to right): The Olympus Innovation Award winner Paul Hudnut, the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award winner Dr. Jeffrey Blander, the Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award winner Jerry Engel.



Paul Hudnut, an entrepreneurship instructor at Colorado State University’s College of Business, won the 2010 Olympus Innovation Award for his creation and development of the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise Program (GSSE), a specialized three-semester graduate business program that trains students to become global social entrepreneurs. In teaching, Hudnut uses his start-up experience to help inform and inspire budding entrepreneurs about starting new ventures, and their power to change the world. One such venture is Envirofit, which sells products in India and the Philippines that increase incomes and reduce pollution. Hudnut’s leadership in starting the GSSE program at CSU, as well as sharing his ideas about innovation and entrepreneurship at other universities, has been widely recognized and appreciated by faculty and students.

Jerry Engel, adjunct professor at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, was granted the Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award for his leadership in establishing The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, of which he is the faculty director and founder. One of the first entrepreneurship programs at any U.S. business school, the Lester Center has taught and inspired hundreds of Haas student entrepreneurs over nearly 20 years. Through emphasizing technology entrepreneurship and experiential learning, Engel’s creation and development of the Global Entrepreneurship Education Initiative, which has trained more than 800 international engineering, science and business faculty through more than 45 seminars in 22 countries, has had an impact on students and faculty all over the world. Additionally, Engel utilized his experience abroad to help launch and improve entrepreneurship programs at numerous universities around the world.

Dr. Jeffrey Blander, course co-director HST939, Division of Health Science and Technology, Harvard Medical School and MIT. Dr. Blander is recognized for his course, Designing Technology Innovation for Global Health Practice. The course works closely with field-based partners in developing countries and the U.S., nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and industry sponsors which enable teams of students to work on projects that prioritize grassroots solutions to address "real world" problems. The first two years of enrollment included more than 80 students from across MIT and Harvard, with 20 projects in eight developing country settings. Dr. Blander’s professional passion extends far beyond the classroom in his role as director of the Bienmoyo foundation. In this role Dr. Blander has expanded training and cultural exchange programs for students and professionals to implement solutions that improve the quality of life of patients and create new sustainable business models in health care in Tanzania.




Olympus Innovation Award 2009 Winners

2009 Olympus Innovation Award Winners




The 2009 winners in the Olympus Innovation Award Program (l-r): Andrew Hargadon, associate professor, Graduate School of Management, University of California–Davis; Michael Camp, Ph.D., academic director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business; Jill Bamburg, dean emeritus and Gifford Pinchot III, president emeritus, Bainbridge Graduate Institute. The national program, executed by Olympus in partnership with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), recognizes individuals who have fostered or demonstrated innovative thinking in education.



Michael Camp, designer of the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) Academy and the TEC Institute, won the 2009 Olympus Innovation Award for his work at The Ohio State University, where he trains business and science students in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.

Andrew Hargadon, associate professor, Graduate School of Management, University of California–Davis, captured the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award.

Jill Bamburg and Gifford Pinchot III, co-founders of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, were jointly granted the Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award.




2008 Olympus Innovation Award Winners




Tina Seelig, co-founder of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University, co-winner of the 2008 Olympus Innovation Award.

David F. Barbe, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland and executive director of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (MTECH), winner of the 2008 Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award.

Martina Musteen, assistant professor at the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University, received the 2008 Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award.




2007 Olympus Innovation Award Winners




Burt Swersey, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), winner of the 2007 Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award, and George Steares, vice president emeritus, Olympus America (left). Swersey is a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at RPI. The Olympus Innovation Award Program, conducted annually by Olympus and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), recognizes individuals who have fostered and demonstrated innovative thinking in higher education.



Burt Swersey (right), lecturer, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), is the winner of the 2007 Olympus Lifetime of Educational Innovation Award. John Blackburn (left), RPI alumnus ’05, is president of BullEx Digital Safety, a company that has developed a novel clean-burning, safe and effective fire extinguisher training system. The invention was sparked in one of Swersey’s engineering courses, designed to promote innovation and give students hands-on experience in developing commercially viable products. Photo Credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute/ Kris Qua


Dr. Deborah Streeter, Cornell University (right), winner of the 2007 Olympus Innovation Award, and George Steares, vice president emeritus, Olympus America (left). Dr. Streeter is the Bruce F. Failing, professor of personal enterprise, in Cornell’s Department of Applied Economics and Management. The Olympus Innovation Award Program, conducted annually by Olympus and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), recognizes individuals who have fostered and demonstrated innovative thinking in higher education.


Bill Grant, University of California, Santa Barbara (right), winner of the 2007 Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award, and George Steares, vice president emeritus, Olympus America (left). Grant is program manager of the Technology Management Program at UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Engineering Management. The Olympus Innovation Award Program, conducted annually by Olympus and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), recognizes individuals who have fostered and demonstrated innovative thinking in higher education.