Doctoral Seminar Focuses on Innovation Research

From Boston to Bangalore, top thinkers on innovation will visit Haas for an interdisciplinary seminar for doctoral students and faculty this fall.

The Fall 2012 Innovation Seminar (PHDBA 279I) will bring together scholars from economics, public policy, agricultural resources, Haas, and other UC Berkeley departments to examine the latest research in the field.

"One things about innovation research on campus is that the people who do it are very spread out, so this brings people together," says Neil Thompson, PhD 13, one of the conference organizers. “The Innovation Seminar has really become a focal point for these researchers to interact."

Thompson organized the series with professors Lee Fleming in UC Berkeley's Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and Brian Wright in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. The audience for the seminar has grown steadily since it was started several years ago by recently retired Haas Professor Emeritus David Mowery and UC Berkeley Economics Professor Bronwyn Hall, Thompson says.

This year’s lecturers include :

• Karl T. Ulrich, Wharton's vice dean of innovation and author of Innovation Tournaments and the popular textbook Product Design and Development. Ulrich is also a designer of the Xootr scooter. (Oct. 31)
• Jim Bessen of Boston University, an expert on software patents and the economics of innovation. (Nov. 14)
• Bill Kerr of Harvard Business School, who has researched the role of immigrant scientists and entrepreneurs in the United States. (Oct. 3)
• Haas alum Tim Simcoe, PhD 04, an assistant professor of strategy and innovation at Boston University and expert in the area of compatibility standards, which are design rules that promote product interoperability. (Oct. 24)
• Chirantan Chatterjee of Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Management, who will wrap up the seminar in December. His research areas include incentives for innovation and the role of patents and technology strategy and globalization. (Dec. 5)

The seminar receives funding support from the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership in the College of Engineering, which aims to prepare scientists and students to lead enterprises in industry, government, and the nonprofit sector.

The seminar meets 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays in Cheit C125.

See the Innovation Seminar schedule.