Great Inventions That Matter
Course Description
This Introductory Seminar starts by illuminating the general aspects of creativity, invention, and patenting in engineering and medicine, and how Stanford University is one of the world's foremost engines of innovation. We then take a deep dive into some great technological inventions that are still playing an essential role in our everyday lives, such as GPS, Fiber-optical amplifier, Internet, Li-battery, HIV detector, Covid-19 testing/vaccination, personal genome machine, DNA cloning, cancer cell sorting, antibody drugs, brain imaging, and mind reading. The stories and underlying materials and technologies behind each invention, including a few examples by Stanford faculty and student inventors, are highlighted and discussed. A special lecture focuses on the public policy and ethics on intellectual properties (IP) and the resources at Stanford Office of Technology Licensing (OTL). Each student will have an opportunity to write and present a patent disclosure of his/her own ideas.
Meet the Instructor: Shan X. Wang
"I have been on the Stanford faculty since 1993, with academic appointments in Materials Science & Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Radiology (Stanford School of Medicine). I became the fifth holder of the Leland T. Edwards Professorship in Engineering in 2018, and was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2022. As a researcher, inventor, entrepreneur, and consulting expert, I have learned that great inventions and patents are often the starting point of a thriving enterprise, but they are not taught systematically in regular curricula. There is a school of thought that these are not necessarily teachable. On the contrary, I want to share teachable experiences and schemes with students about inventive processes and related intellectual property policies in the real world, and perhaps some backstories of starting up a few biotech / diagnostics companies with my former students and postdocs. Through this IntroSem, you will learn why some inventions matter so much to us, and why so many intellectual properties do not get licensed or create value. I hold 80+ issued or pending patents, and have over 360 publications in nanotechnology, biosensors, diagnostics, spintronics, information storage, power management, and energy-efficient AI. In addition to my work at Stanford, I have cofounded six startups, mostly in Silicon Valley, and served as an expert in several landmark patent litigation cases. I enjoy skiing, swimming, hiking, playing pickleball, and traveling, and I am married with two children who graduated from Stanford right before and during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Of related interest
