EDUCATION
as majority institutions in spawning an expanding roster of students,
researchers, scientists and inventors tinkering in labs, perhaps someday mirroring the accomplishments of legendary African- American inventors like Granville Woods, Garrett A. Morgan and George Washington Carver, and contemporaries like Mark Dean, Lonnie G. Johnson and James E. West. In 2007, researchers at North Carolina A&T University began developing a process for removing allergens from peanuts. Peanut allergies, which cause health issues ranging from hives to anaphylaxis, afflict millions of people. The A&T researchers,
led by Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, received a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark
New Science Building, North Carolina A&T University.
Office for the process and have drawn the interest of food manufacturers. The process removes the allergenic properties from peanuts by applying a hypoallergenic solution to raw or blanched peanuts while not inhibiting the taste or quality. The innovation is designed to reduce allergenic properties in peanuts by 30 percent to 100 percent, according to the patent filing. The A&T Office of Outreach and Technology Transfer said the process is believed to be a first in food science. The aforementioned vehicle artificial intelligence (AI) valet system was conceived by Florida A&M University students. The inventors, software engineering graduate students, Sihle Wilson and Ronald Benson, noted in their 2013 patent application that such “smart car technologies have been developed to provide innovative benefits to car drivers through software.” The invention, titled “Autonomous Passenger Retrieval
Systems for Automobiles,” employs an automated driving system configured to direct a vehicle to its owner and detect the presence of another vehicle or pedestrian to evade collisions. Other features include a distributed information sharing system that can obtain route information and an accident reporting system. Lee, of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, said the challenge for HBCUs is to achieve even greater growth in turning out technological advances. “HBCUs must do more to foster commercialization and entrepreneurship on their campuses by implementing new courses, and developing partnerships that will lead to success for
14 USBE&IT I SUMMER 2014 students at HBCUs,” he said.
In October 2013, the HBCU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Collaborative (ICE) joined with Stanford University for an HBCU innovation summit in Silicon Valley, followed by a second gathering in March 2014 in San Jose, California, where nearly 100 HBCU stakeholders participated in an innovation and entrepreneurship symposium to further spread the word about the capability of HBCU innovation. Chad Womack, director of science education initiatives for the United Negro College Fund, said the HBCU symposium served to raise the level of urgency for HBCU innovation. “These summits are important as they serve as catalysts to spur action among HBCU students and faculty, and also serve as opportunities to galvanize HBCU leadership at our institutions,” Womack said. “These summits also serve as opportunities for HBCUs to gather and discuss best practices and ways in which our campuses can become hubs and nodes of innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Lee said that while the air is filled with optimism about innovation occurring at HBCU campuses, more can be done. “HBCUs must invest in the infrastructure to deliver innovation and entrepreneurship including creating opportunities for students to take a leading role in developing and producing innovation, create tech transfer offices to facilitate student and faculty start-ups, idea incubation and commercialization, create new institutional courses, change faculty pedagogy and develop partnerships that will lead to success for students at HBCUs,” Lee said.
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