Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 24, 2016 | Worcester Business Journal 9 being rehabilitated at a rescue center for 11 months, she was released back into the gulf, only to be found stranded again two days later. She lived at several aquariums and rescue centers after that before settling at the Key West Aquarium in 2007. Her amputated right flipper meant she was only able to swim in circles in the aquarium tank, which led to a lot of discomfort during feeding, according to WPI. That's where the students came in. Using their various areas of expertise, they developed a hydrodynamic biomi- metic prosthetic fin using 3D printing to create a flipper that imitates Lola's healthy left limb. The flipper is biomi- metic, meaning it was made to fit her and imitates the movement of her healthy flipper. The turtle adapted to the flipper almost immediately and is now able to swim smoothly. If there was an attachment material in the flipper that was different from any- thing else out there – or if it wasn't already in the public domain – it might be patent-eligible, Keiller said. But it's not. And that's okay. Some products, he said, are meant to be built upon by others. Open the Door 508-347-5056 • www.osv.org/inn Old Sturbridge Inn and Reeder Family Lodges A T O L D S T U R B R I D G E V I L L A G E Your stay helps to support our museum! • Large Rooms • Conference Room • On-site Spa Services • Quiet Country Setting • Free Parking • Exercise Room • Free Wireless Internet • Free Continental Breakfast 905 Hartford Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA 01545 tel. 508.842.1213 • www.elevationee.com Before After Before After CUSTOM RENTAL GLOBAL GRAPHICS EVENTS PORTABLES UPGRADE YOUR SPACE • CORPORATE OFFICE DESIGN & INSTALL survived the explosion itself, but was left stranded on the ground somewhere, unable to move or call for help? When it came time to work on a senior capstone project, Tolisano brought the idea to his classmates Richards, Carolyn Keyes and Nick Potvin, and together the students worked to create what they call a body armor impact mapping system. 50 percent vs. 99 percent After some encouragement from an academic adviser, the students decided to explore getting their project patented. They did a search for similar products on the market and ultimately decided to pay for a provisional patent themselves. They filed it in March and now have until March 2017 to improve their prod- uct and get feedback from others in the industry before deciding whether or not to go forward with a full utility patent. Since they paid the patent fees them- selves, the students own 99 percent of the product, and WPI owns 1 percent. Had they asked WPI to pay the fees, ownership would be split 50/50. Things work a little differently over at Becker College, where the focus is more on software-based digital games rather than hardware products that need to be mechanically engineered, said Monty Sharma, managing director of MassDiGI, the state video game indus- try center that is part of Becker. The school isn't interested in owning their inventions, Sharma said, only in giving students the resources they need to cre- ate cool products. "We would much rather put their name on a building than ask for a piece of their company," he said. Taking turtle steps Not every WPI project is patent-ready – many are great products that are meant to be built upon by others. In the case of another WPI capstone group, engineering students Iok Wong, Samantha Varela and Vivian Liang focused their efforts on helping Lola, a disabled sea turtle living at Florida's Key West Aquarium. Lola, a rare female Kemp ridley sea turtle, had to have her right flipper amputated after she was found stranded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2002 with fish- ing line wrapped around her limb. After WPI intellectual property The number of invention disclosures filed at WPI from 2011-2015. 0 10 20 30 40 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 41 Source: WPI Office of Intellectual Property and Innovation 2015 annual report Before NASA held the finals of its robotics competition in September at WPI, the school hosted one of the preliminary rounds in 2015. W

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