Greetings to my treasured PTRC Colleagues. I am so sorry that I am unable to be with you this year. But I KNOW you will have a great time and you will learn so much.
It has been a pretty typical year for me here at Clemson. I am still the Engineering Reference Librarian, and the primary contact for all things related to intellectual property. Due to retirements and some successful recruiting, we have added two new positions in our Unit – one for e-Science, and one for Instructional Design. I have already worked with the Instructional Designer to update some of my LibGuides related to patents. They are all linked from this page, if anyone is interested in seeing them. http://clemson.libguides.com/ip I will interact with each of these new people in ways that I don’t even know about yet. Check out next year’s newsletter for more. Change is good, right?
I did not teach my credit-bearing course LIB301 Patent Searching this year. However, I am considering adding a section during the summer. It is sort of addictive to have such direct contact with students, and they are so appreciative of all the attention I give them.
I have spent a great deal of time with the senior design class in Bioengineering. In Spring 2012 – right after last year’s seminar – I was invited to evaluate their projects. They were assigned to work with a client to develop a product that would address a clinical need. As well as a written report, they created short videos highlighting their inventions. It was really thrilling to see some of the solutions they came up with. Several of the top groups submitted their inventions to 2012 BMEStart contest sponsored by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). The group that I rated highest won first place in the contest, including a $10,000 prize! Here is a link to their invention. http://nciia.org/assurefit
I’m even more involved with this year’s class, as I did a patent/industry standards presentation to the entire class and I met with each group at least once as they completed their patent searches. I can hardly wait to see what they will come up with!
In addition, I gave several presentations of Patent FUNdamentals – my typical class to introduce the topic of patents to undergraduates using toys and toy patents. Plus, at the Library, we replaced our mandatory library workshop to freshmen with optional Drop-In Workshops open to all students. I have had a good representation of undergraduates and graduate students learning the basics of patent searching.
In addition to working with students, I have worked with a number of faculty this year as they prepare to make invention disclosure presentations to the Clemson University Intellectual Property Committee. As a member of the Committee, I enjoy getting to know them and getting to see a preview of their invention before it is presented. I counted, and I attended 16 of these meeting in calendar 2012. Several of these disclosures were faculty/student groups, including several from Bioengineering that I discussed above. I also hosted several presentations from the ever-popular John Calvert from the USPTO, and plan to celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with a short program and Cake.
I love my job, and I love working at Clemson. I wish everyone the very best possible year!