Auburn University Libraries spent last year with an interim Dean, but Shali Zhang is our new Dean and started work this past December. I have started to look for new ways to talk to students on campus beyond classes and I have visited several engineering clubs to talk about the library in general and introduce myself as the patent librarian. In addition, I have taken on duties as a more general IP librarian and have started to research questions involving copyrights.
Like all other research universities, Auburn is working on innovative ideas, but in the past year two campus initiatives have had an impact on inventing. First, our National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence has won over $10 million in grants from NASA, ASTM, NSF, and others. Second, The university selected multi-disciplinary teams in cutting edge research on such things as drug discovery, 3D printing organ tissues, and Carbon capture among other things. I hope that this will lead to spill on effects with the PTRC.