Discovery helps Wooster students learn business development

A team at The College of Wooster has developed a material that could help clean up organic chemical spills. And in an attempt to bring it to market, students are learning a lot about entrepreneurship.

The team, led by Dr. Paul Edmiston, associate professor of chemistry, was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE) Innovation Fund toward efforts of validating a novel material for the rapid, selective, and reversible absorption of organics. GLIDE is a partnership between the Lorain County Commissioners, the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce and Lorain County Community College to foster technology entrepreneurship in northeast Ohio.

The material – described as “swellable glass” that can absorb organic material – was discovered by undergraduate students in Edmiston’s research laboratory. A patent application has been filed.

Edmiston intends to form a start-up company that will handle the product development and commercialization of the novel material.

The target market is water remediation with potential uses including chemical spill clean-up, liquid-liquid extraction and sensors for the presence of organic material leaks.

In moving the product along, Edmiston said he has “learned a tremendous amount about business, the difficulties of bringing a new material to market, and the steps one must take to overcome these hurdles.”

One of the students from the research laboratory, Laura Underwood, graduated last May and has stayed on full-time to further develop the material.

She has found that “entrepreneurship takes a great deal of planning and negotiation to arrive at a final result.

“It is also important to be adaptable in one’s planning because the end result is sometimes completely different from the ideas that were initially envisioned,” she said.

The Center for Entrepreneurship at The College of Wooster, established through the NEOCEP grant, has attempted to aid the entrepreneur and the college as both navigate previously uncharted waters.

The Center has engaged external experts including representatives from TechLift, the University of Akron, Case Western Reserve, M.I.T., and GLIDE.

“The success I have had to date can be directly attributed to the Center for Entrepreneurship and the efforts of (Center Director) Reuben Domike,” Edmiston said.

Domike believes the technology has “significant economic potential.”

Edmiston is continuing to pursue additional financing, technology development partners and industrial partners for taking the product forward. Over the past year in particular, Edmiston’s research into the relevant markets has led him to the conclusion that “there may be significant promise for the swellable glass material to reach various markets, thus becoming a valuable product.”

In the event that this is not the outcome, Edmiston is confident that the entrepreneurial experience will be valuable.