New UTEP center to push technology, research in business sector

EL PASO -- Gary Williams spent the past four years helping Mayan Pigments, the first company incubated at the University of Texas at El Paso, to become a viable operation.

Now, Williams, 62, a former chemical industry executive and former CEO of Mayan Pigments, will use his years of startup

In April, Williams became director of the newly formed UTEP Center for Research Entrepreneurship and Innovative Enterprises. His appointment was officially announced by the university this month.

"We want to grow companies or license technology to enhance economic development for this area," Williams said in his tiny office at Burges Hall in the shadow of the Sun Bowl Stadium.

For the past several years, UTEP has been trying to turn faculty and student research into commercial enterprises. Its Office of Technology Transfer has been involved in getting patents and licensing for faculty ideas, but "no one was primarily responsible with the commercialization" of those ideas, Williams said.

That's now Williams' job in what is essentially a one-man operation. Williams is using a UTEP graduate student to do market research on promising business ideas brought to the center and, he said, he'll tap into other UTEP experts and resources when needed.

Roberto Osegueda, vice president for research at UTEP, said, "In the last 12 years, we've taken developing intellectual property (at UTEP) seriously. About 22 patents have been issued (for UTEP ideas) in that period."

But UTEP needs to be more proactive in turning patents and other intellectual property into commercial products and businesses, he said.

So Osegueda and UTEP President Diana Natalicio decided a new center was needed to improve the university's entrepreneurial landscape.

"We need one focal point for the university to tap into (for commercialization of ideas), and one point for the community and industry to tap into UTEP intellectual property," Osegueda said.

"We'd like to see at least one company a year formed," Osegueda said. That will help create new jobs and help retain UTEP graduates in the area, he said.

Williams said he's now working with two potential startups. One revolves around optical filters developed by chemistry professor Carl Dirk. The filters protect works of art from light damage. The technology might be useful for use in lenses also, Williams said.

The other is tied to a UTEP graduate student's electronic stabilization system to keep small aircraft stable when landing or at other times when a small aircraft's wheels are rolling on the ground.

"So far, (Williams) has been invaluable to us. He's helping us with things we don't know about" because the fledgling enterprise, now called New Aerospace, is run by engineers who are not proficient on the business side, said Michael Everett, 30, who recently received his master's degree in mechanical engineering at UTEP.

"He's been a very active mentor to our organization."

Everett is now working on getting patents for the technology he developed with his father, Louis Everett, chairman of the UTEP Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Eli Velasquez, interim executive director of the Trans Pecos/El Paso Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization, an El Paso organization that helps identify and support high-tech entrepreneurs, said Williams and the new UTEP center "will be instrumental in providing a pipeline of deals that can apply (for funding) to the (state) Emerging Technology Fund."

Companies applying for funding must now collaborate with a university, Velasquez said. "We'll work very closely together to promote high-technology startups in our region," Velasquez said. It helps to have one point of contact at UTEP, he said.

Williams said four out-of-town companies, including two from Mexico, have shown interest in collaborating with UTEP on enterprises.

Williams' office also will work closely with the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp., or REDCo, El Paso's industrial recruiter, to help attract companies that may want to partner with UTEP on research or entrepreneurial enterprises, Williams said. He's now a REDCo board member.

"I'm still scanning what's in the university's (intellectual properties) portfolio now," Williams said. He'll approach faculty members about trying to commercialize promising research, and he said he'll welcome being approached by faculty members and students with their ideas.

It takes a lot of time to go from an idea to a startup venture, Williams said. "You don't move this ship that fast. But look at where UTEP was four years ago and today relative to research and new facilities. It's remarkable."

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com , 546-6421.

Starting startups

The new UTEP Center for Research Entrepreneurship and Innovative Enterprises is aimed at helping UTEP faculty and students turn research into enterprises, and to find companies interested in collaborating with UTEP researchers to create new products and businesses.Gary Williams, former CEO of Mayan Pigments, is the center's director. Mayan Pigments is a UTEP startup company, which has taken characteristics of ancient Mayan pigment to create new pigments to color paint and other products.Information: www.research.utep.edu/creie