August 17, 2004

Kingon Shares Expertise With Portugal

Dr. Kingon

Dr. Angus I. Kingon, professor of materials science and engineering, traveled to Aveiro, Portugal, on scholarly leave supported by a Fulbright Award administered by the Luso-American Foundation. During his three-month visit, from March to June 2003, Kingon undertook research on electronic materials. During that time, he was also engaged with the Portuguese government, industry leaders and universities to develop strategies for innovation, economic renewal and technology commercialization.

During the past several years Portugal has increased its research output, and the universities have dramatically increased the number of master’s and doctoral degrees granted. In spite of those increases, the country has seen its standing in the European Innovation Indicators continue to fall. The discrepancy has far-reaching economic implications. To address the issue, the president of Portugal created an organization, COTEC, charged with improving innovation and commercialization and stimulating economic development. After his scholarly leave in Portugal, Kingon was asked to serve as the external adviser to COTEC. He has worked closely with the other members of COTEC to develop strategies to solve the country’s economic challenges.

As one of the primary architects of the education and training strategies for COTEC, Kingon drew heavily on the successful Technology, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization program in the College of Management at NC State University. Using this program as a model, Kingon created a graduate teaching sequence for technology commercialization. It was demonstrated to the major business and engineering schools in Portugal by a team of NCSU faculty over a three-month period this year. It is currently being adopted by a number of universities. His next project is to introduce undergraduate engineering entrepreneurship programs to Portugal’s universities. He continues to work with officials to design a venture capital strategy and university technology transfer initiatives.

— weston —

(Photo: Herman Lankford)

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