Colm O'Gorman

Delineating the Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial University: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Experience

In many universities, heads, administrators and faculty seek to increase the propensity to engage in commercialization of research activity through the spinoff of new companies. The highly complex mechanism of spinoff generation is typically considered the result of either the characteristics of individuals, organizational policies and structures, organizational culture, or the external environment. Explanations of spinoff activity have in the main focused on only one of these dimensions at a time. In this paper we integrate these four dimensions of academic entrepreneurship to develop a more systemic understanding of spinoff activity at the university level. Using the case of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a top spinoff generator in the United States, a systemic analysis is presented. We identify the inter-related factors that have contributed to successful academic entrepreneurship in MIT. We argue that MITs success is based on the science and engineering resource base at MIT; the quality of research faculty; supporting organizational mechanisms and policies such as MITs Technology Licensing Office; and the culture within MIT faculty that encourages entrepreneurship. However, to understand why MIT has developed these resources and organizational mechanisms, it is necessary to understand the historical context and emergence of MIT, and in particular the historical mission of the university, the role of key individuals and university leaders in supporting this mission, and the impact of past success at commercialization activity. Finally, we suggest that MITs success needs to be understood in the context of the local regional environment. We argue that university administrators and academics can learn from the case of MIT, but that efforts at transposing or replicating single elements of MITs model may only have limited success, given the inter-related nature of the drivers of spinoff activity.

Financing the Celtic Tigress: Venture financing and informal investment in Ireland

Abstract This study explores gender differences in entrepreneurship and informal investment in Ireland, a country with one of the lowest rates of female entrepreneurship in the developed world. Females in Ireland are less likely than males to be engaged in either the demand for (as entrepreneurs), or the supply of (as informal investors), entrepreneurial finance. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from a telephone survey of nearly 6 000 individuals, we present a comparative analysis of 73 female and 172 male nascent entrepreneurs, and 40 female and 91 male informal investors. We find no differences in the planned absolute financial capitalization of new ventures of female and male nascent entrepreneurs or in the investments made by female and male informal investors. We compare the full sample (from which we identified the nascent entrepreneurs) and find that females, when compared to males, are less likely to report perceiving opportunities, less likely to perceive they have the skills and knowledge required to start a business, and are less likely to know a recent entrepreneur. We argue that this might suggest that there may be less demand for start-up capital from females. We conclude by suggesting that policies that focus narrowly on the provision of finance to female entrepreneurs may have limited impact on the levels of female entrepreneurial activity.

The Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship and Foreign Direct Investment

We explore if the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship, applied to FDI, provides at least a partial explanation for the greater emergence of recent knowledge-based entrepreneurship in Ireland compared with Wales. In order to examine how FDI and entrepreneurship policy in these two regions might have influenced the levels of knowledge-based entrepreneurship, we outline FDI and entrepreneurship policies for Wales and Ireland and key measures of knowledge creation, and evaluate the extent and nature of FDI activity and its relationship with entrepreneurship in general and knowledge-based entrepreneurship in particular. Implications include possible policy directions for countries that are characterized by weak knowledge-creating institutions yet wish to encourage knowledge-based entrepreneurship.

Colliding laser-produced plasmas as targets for laser-generated extreme ultraviolet sources

Colliding plasmas produced by neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) laser illumination of tin wedge targets form stagnation layers, the physical parameters of which can be controlled to optimise coupling with a carbon dioxide (CO2) heating laser pulse and subsequent extreme ultraviolet (EUV) production. The conversion efficiency (CE) of total laser energy into EUV emission at 13.5 nm ± 1% was 3.6%. Neglecting both the energy required to form the stagnation layer and the EUV light produced before the CO2 laser pulse is incident results in a CE of 5.1% of the CO2 laser energy into EUV light.

Recent progress in source development for lithography at 6.x nm

In 2009 industry announced that sources would be needed at 6.x nm for future lithography. The brightest sources in this wavelength region are plasmas containing gadolinium and terbium. The strongest lines result from 4d?4f lines in the spectra of Ag-like Gd XVIII and Tb XIX through Rh-like Gd XX and Tb XXI. Assuming collisional radiative equilibrium, the optimum plasma temperature for producing these species is expected to be in the range 100?130?eV. Time integrated experimental spectra have been recorded with a variety of lasers and a maximum measured conversion efficiency (CE) for 150?ps pulses was 0.4%. The extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission was observed to be anisotropic while the ion energy decreases with decreasing pulse length. The optimum laser intensity for efficient 6.7?nm EUV emission was determined to be close to 7???1013?W?cm?2, which gives an electron temperature of ???130?eV. The use of prepulses increases the CE which is limited by plasma opacity. To improve radiation transport low initial density targets and/or low electron density plasmas such as CO2 LPPs are required.

A 6.7-nm beyond EUV source as a future lithography source

We demonstrate an efficient extreme ultraviolet (EUV) source for operation at λ = 6.7 nm by optimizing the optical thickness of gadolinium (Gd) plasmas. Using low initial density Gd targets and dual laser pulse irradiation, we observed a maximum EUV conversion efficiency (CE) of 0.54% for 0.6% bandwidth (BW) (1.8% for 2%BW), which is 1.6 times larger than the 0.33% (0.6%BW) CE produced from a solid density target. Enhancement of the EUV CE by use of a low-density plasma is attributed to the reduction of self-absorption effects.

Scaling of laser produced plasma UTA emission down to 3 nm for next generation lithography and short wavelength imaging

An engineering prototype high average power 13.5-nm source has been shipped to semiconductor facilities to permit the commencement of high volume production at a 100 W power level in 2011. In this source, UTA (unresolved transition array) emission of highly ionized Sn is optimized for high conversion efficiency and full recovery of the injected fuel is realized through ion deflection in a magnetic field. By use of a low-density target, satellite emission is suppressed and full ionization attained with short pulse CO2 laser irradiation. The UTA is scalable to shorter wavelengths, and Gd is shown to have similar conversion efficiency to Sn (13.5 nm) at a higher plasma temperature, with a narrow spectrum centered at 6.7 nm, where a 70% reflectivity mirror is anticipated. Optimization of short pulse CO2 laser irradiation is studied, and further extension of the same method is discussed, to realize 100 W average power down to a wavelength of 3 nm.

Stimulating High-Tech Venture Creation

This paper explores whether policy makers can successfully encourage high-tech venture creation. We outline some of the policy interventions that have been used to stimulate new venture creation. We then present case evidence of how a new high-tech industrial district emerged in Dublin, focussing on the role of various policy interventions. We conclude by arguing that a range of appropriately timed policy interventions can be pivotal in the development of internationally competitive high-tech new ventures. However, the case suggests that it was a combination of sector level and direct firm level interventions that stimulated and facilitated the emergence of a cohort of high-tech new ventures.

Extreme ultraviolet spectra from highly charged gadolinium and neodymium ions in the Large Helical Device and laser produced plasmas

We have observed extreme ultraviolet spectra from highly charged gadolinium (Gd) and neodymium (Nd) ions produced in two different types of light sources for comparative studies. Only broad quasicontinuum feature arising from unresolved transition array was observed in high-density laser produced plasmas of pure/diluted Gd and Nd targets at the University College Dublin, and the spectral feature largely depends on electron temperature in optically thin plasmas produced in the Large Helical Device at the National Institute for Fusion Science. The difference in spectral feature among a number of spectra can be qualitatively interpreted by considering dominant ion stages and opacity effects in the plasmas.

Building Technology Transfer within Research Universities: Fostering cross-campus entrepreneurship – Building technology transfer within UCD to create a start-up environment

In this chapter we discuss the emergence of commercialization activity, and specifically the TTO and ILO functions, in University College Dublin (UCD). This case emphasizes (1) how a public university has sought to encourage commercialization activity and the organizational structures developed to support commercialization; (2) how, over a period of twenty years, the TTO and ILO functions and commercialization activity evolved in the absence of what might be considered many of the university attributes, such as high levels of funded research, typically associated with high levels of commercialization; (3) how policies aimed at encouraging the commercialization of university research were embedded within a broader industrial development strategy associated with both attracting inward FDI (foreign direct investment) and developing indigenous entrepreneurial activity in emerging sectors; and (4) how a new president in a traditional public university has sought to emphasize the contribution the university makes to economic development as a means for engaging in a significant restructuring of the university and the adoption of policies that seek to maximize research activity, in particular in emerging sectors such as biotechnology and ICT, to develop external linkages with industry, and to promote commercialization.