Business and Industry Partnerships and Alumni Hiring

Ohio State plays a unique role in both the City of Columbus and the State of Ohio. It is the largest employer in Columbus and a top producer of skilled alumni, intellectual property, and technical expertise which has been tapped to form companies in Ohio and beyond. Discover why College of Engineering Dean David Williams believes that Ohio State Engineering is a driver of economic development and what attracts companies to partner with or invest in Ohio.

A field as broad and dynamic as chemical engineering offers numerous opportunities for a variety of industry and corporate partnerships and corporate initiatives. These mutually-beneficial partnerships span numerous industry sectors and purposes, from developing talent at your company to furthering knowledge about a specific process that could benefit your company's bottom line.

For example, alumnus Qussai Marashdeh created a company, Tech4Imaging, which draws on technology he helped develop while working with Professor L.-S. Fan. Tech4Imaging is now the world's leading provider of imaging technology for industrial and commercial use. 

In addition, each fall the Graduate Research Symposium showcases current research initiatives and provides opportunities to soft-interview graduate students as prospective future employees. Businesses learn more about processes that could potentially affect their productivity and bottom line, and graduate students benefit from interacting with professionals in industry.

A relationship with CBE can provide your company with opportunities to:

Enhance or start business ventures

• Sponsor a student to perform R&D to improve your business's operations and processes. Sim Tech LLC, arranged for a graduate student to perform research to implement within its operation. Such a partnership not only helps the student fund her education, but it potentially helps the company while adding value to the oil industry at large.
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  Support research to get an early look at cutting-edge discoveries and technology that could be developed for licensing or use within your own company. Professor Jessica Winter has given presentations to Congress revealing the ways that investing in basic research can lead to breakthroughs that can be the basis of start-ups which create jobs and provide significant income once established. 
• Creating an endowed professorship is an outstanding means of supporting faculty research. Alumnus William G. Lowrie was so pleased with the results of the H.C. Slip Slider Professorship he created, he established a second one named the Umit S. Ozkan Professorship.  
• Participate in a start-up company based on Ohio State innovations.

	Alumnus Qussai Marashdeh's company, Tech4Imaging, draws on technology he helped develop while working with Professor L.-S. Fan. Tech4Imaging is now the world's leading provider of imaging technology for industrial and commercial use.		Jessica Winter launched Core Quantum Technologies with then-student Kunal Parikh ('12 BS), who was named to Forbes magazine's "2020 30 Under 30 - Healthcare" list,  to provide more accurate early diagnostic technologies to the medical community.
	Professor L.-S. Fan has begun commercializing his chemical looping processes for hydrogen and syngas production after achieving negative carbon dioxide operation and greater efficiency in economically converting fossil and renewable fuels into useful products. He partnered with industry to test the processes at a pilot-scale facility constructed in Alabama and at Babcock and Wilcox's Barberton, OH power plant.		W.S. Winston Ho is working with industry to commercialize his innovative carbon-capturing membranes.
	Professor David Wood founded a company, Protein Capture Science, LLL, which is developing highly useful biotechnologies through engineering proteins and enzymes for specific applications. This work is exciting to many people in industry because of the flexibility and economies his processes could afford them		Professor Eduardo Reátegui's doctoral work provided the basis for launching Minnepura Technologies, a start-up at the University of Minnesota.

Since 2012, faculty have been issued nearly 100 patents and 10 companies have been launched on the basis of faculty-generated research.

Alumnus Paul Matter started phMatter LLC and Power to Hydrogen using initial research generated in the Umit Ozkan Laboratory, and Vitranu Inc. was founded using Katelyn Swindle-Reilly's technology.

Licensing

Akron, OH-based Babcock & Wilcox licensed Professor L.-S. Fan's chemical looping process and oxygen carrier particle used for cost-effective decarbonization and the production of hydrogen, steam and/or syngas. The technology, which Fan has developed over the past 30 years, effectively converts fossil fuels and biomass into greener forms of energy by chemically harnessing the energy in feedstocks such as natural gas, biogas from biomass, coal, and other carbonaceous feedstocks, isolating the carbon dioxide produced before it can be released into the atmosphere.

The primary treatment for age-related macular degeneration is monthly eye injections of anti-VEGF -- an unpleasant procedure. But Assistant Professor Katelyn Swindle-Reilly has developed technology with the potential to cut those down to just one or two a year. Start-up company Vitranu, Inc. has licensed the technology, which allows the drugs to slowly disperse from multi-layered polymer capsules. The system would lower costs, cause less pain, improve patient compliance and reduce the risk of intraocular side effects.

Winston Ho licensed two of his membrane technologies for CO2 capture. Carbon Upcycling Technologies Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, Canada licensed the Ohio State University Gen I membrane, and Gas Technology Institute of Des Plaines, IL, licensed the Ohio State University Gen II membrane. Before teaching for 22 years, Dr. Ho had 28 years of industrial R&D experience in developing membranes and separation processes. The carbon-capturing membrane technology developed by his group at Ohio State is now being demonstrated for commercialization.

Hire students and alumni; develop and recruit talent; diversify your workforce

• Post jobs on Engineering Career Services' Handshake platform.
• Visit Engineering Career Services to view resumes and profiles of students looking for work opportunities.
• Hire alumni.
• Join with other alumni business owners and directly employ current undergraduates or graduate students or alumni at your start-up or business for co-op, intern, and full-time positions.
• Introduce undergrads to your company by sponsoring a Capstone Research project.
• Create competitive scholarships or graduate fellowships for students who will be the next generation of talented leaders for your company.
  
• Sponsor venture capital-style competitions and research forums to promote ideas and provide the winner(s) with scholarship support or research funds. European energy company ENGIE, which seeks to develop future collaborations with innovative project leaders in pursuit of a society that is more energy-efficient and less dependent on nuclear energy and fossil fuels while offering more efficient services to its customers, created the ENGIE Smart Campus Challenge, which has led to multiple, hands-on research and capital facility improvement projects at Ohio State.
• Demonstrate a commitment to hiring a diverse workforce who can provide valuable perspective into a wider range of markets for your company.

Build community relations

• Increase your company's name recognition among CBE students, faculty, and alumni throughout Columbus, Ohio, and the world.
• Provide input to curriculum development for the purpose of ensuring that graduates have the skills employers need.
• Promote K-12 education, particularly among underrepresented populations in chemical and biomolecular engineering.

For more information, please peruse our website or contact Sean Gallagher, Director of Development, gallagher.646@osu.edu.