by Michelle Jeanne Caracut, OC/OPI
SPEAKING before hundreds of business leaders, key players, stakeholders, government leaders, and policy-makers attending the 28th Mindanao Business Conference (MinBizCon) that was held inside the Institute, Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol issues an invitation for them to form partnerships with MSU-IIT that could help them to innovate and improve their products and services.
“In terms of innovation, innovating for the products and the services that you provide, it is my suggestion that you partner with a university,” Tanggol told the members of industry at the Institute Gymnasium on September 13.
“Like any university, we provide programs, and the more relevant to you are our business-related programs,” he said.
Tanggol was at the MinBizCon to deliver a plenary talk entitled, Business Development Through Innovation: The Role of the Academe.
To make his case, Tanggol highlighted the fact that MSU-IIT is an innovation hub, and pointed out the existing innovation ecosystem in the Institute that is composed of the following:
- Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) Mindanao;
- Technology Business Incubator (TBI):
- Premier Research Institute for Science and Mathematics (PRISM);
- Knowledge and Technology Transfer Office (KTTO); and
- Technology Application and Promotions Unit (TAPU)
The Institute’s KTTO, established in 2017, is there precisely to manage the transfer of knowledge and technology generated inside MSU-IIT to its partner industries.
Today, MSU-IIT functions as a meeting place for technology seekers and technology developers and where partners from the industrial sector and others from the surrounding community can sit down and discuss research and other collaborative projects.
Tanggol expressed gratitude to MSU-IIT’s partners like DOST, DTI, CHED, USAID Stride for their current investment and support, particularly in the establishment of the facilities inside the campus and implementation of projects.
Tanggol, while underscoring the importance of strengthening collaborations between industry and the university, ended his talk with unsolicited advice for the businessmen.
“In the final analysis, you should be more concerned with the needs of the people rather than their wants. More than the wants are the needs of the society,” Tanggol concluded.
opics : MinBizCon 2019 innovation development