Lab technologies showcased through webinar series

The connection between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's technologies and industry needs are not always apparent.

A monthly webinar series developed by LLNL's Industrial Partnership Office (IPO) is trying to match the Lab's innovations with commercial partners that see a need for them in their industry.

The series connects Lab researchers with entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and other industry players during an hour-long conference call and slide show presentation.

"The problem with technology transfer is that we know technology well, but not market needs," said IPO deputy director Roger Werne, who created the series. "The webinars enable us to learn where the potential market is for our technology. We come out of them smarter with invaluable knowledge."

During the webinars, Lab researchers are given 10 minutes to describe their technology to the audience. Invitations are sent to hundreds of people from the target audience. As researchers speak, audiences follow along on a power point presentation prepared by the inventors.

Researchers are asked to make their presentations business-friendly, focusing on the potential commercial value of their technologies, while still delivering the technical aspects of their work to establish credibility. Once the presentations are done, the researchers conduct a question and answer session with the audience.

"It was helpful to work with the IPO staff to see how to reframe my presentation to tell a clearer, more compelling story for industry," said LLNL engineer Robert Panas, who made a presentation last year on "Light-field Directing Array (LDA)."

Investors who are interested can follow up for further discussions. In its two-year history, IPO's webinar series has generated leads that eventually became licensing agreements and other collaborations with industry.
Some of the successful connections between LLNL technologies and industry resulting from the series include a technology to diagnose hematoma, electromechanical battery for flywheel energy storage, networking mapping for cybersecurity, high-velocity laser accelerated deposition, contact stress sensors, among others.

The webinar's recent presentations include: "Optical Transconductance Varistor (Opticondistor): Potential replacement for high power switch modules" by LLNL researcher Stephen Sampayan; "Guided Surgery using Endoscopic Multimodal Imaging" by LLNL researcher Stavros Demos; and "The Electromechanical Battery (EMB): Flywheel Energy Storage for Vehicular Applications" by LLNL researchers Bob Yamamoto and Dick Post.

View those presentations and more on the IPO Website.

The next webinar presentation at 8 a.m. on March 25 will feature LLNL researcher Hank Glauser. The title of his presentation is: "Portunus: Reinventing Container Commerce." To register, go to the IPO Website. For more information about the webinar series, contact werne1 [at] llnl.gov (Werne) at (925) 423-7302 or IPO market research analyst farquar3 [at] llnl.gov (Hannah Farquar) at (925) 423-0587.