BusinessTN

As students started fall classes at the University of Memphis, a new executive director of the FedEx Institute of Technology (FIT) was just getting situated in his office.

Shaye Mandle is the institute's third director since its founding five years ago on the UM campus. Among his tasks will be enticing members in the business community to continue funding the school's most visible research entity and best hope for tech transfer commercialization.

Currently, FIT is in the second year of a five-year, $5 million grant from FedEx, one of the original funding companies that renewed its commitment to the institute.

"So far, so good," Mandle says about FIT's funding. "When the FedEx Institute of Technology opened, most of the financial commitment came from the major donors, those companies committed to five years, all a little different. At this point, the revenue stream is essentially the same as when it opened."

Mandle said he recently delivered to FedEx an annual accounting detailing FIT's allocation of the corporation's gift, and is in the process of doing the same with the other majors from Memphis' business elite like AutoZone and Methodist LeBonheur.

Though he didn't state whether all the original benefactors would continue to finance FIT, he did say, "I would be surprised and disappointed if we lost any of our original funding partners."

Nevertheless, "there will be some changes over the next year with corporate partners," says Mandle, noting he's assembling a new advisory group with half from the Memphis corporate sector, the rest from around the country. In fact, he's in the process of assembling two advisory boards—one comprised of business elites, and another, an "internal board" of faculty and university personnel.

"What I've seen is that there has always been one board with a mix [of university and business members]," Mandle says, "but I think we should have two boards."

How much input an internal board would have is a gray area, but Mandle cautions against a university entity wielding voting or veto power.

"When it comes to research projects, in my experience, having a vote up or down is not the best way to connect researchers with businesses," he says.

The founding director and chairman, Jim Phillips, echoes the sentiment.

"I think it's important for the institute to remain its own persona," says Phillips, who is also the former CEO and current vice chairman of the board of Memphis biotech firm Luminetx. "While it's joined at the hip with the University of Memphis—no less like the MIT lab, which has its own persona, FIT does too."

Mandle says FIT will need to do a better job of tech transfer in order to solidify Memphis as a solid research university. A $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a wireless skin patch sensor system called "AutoSense," will make for a good test. A collaborative effort with other universities to collect real-time data on exposures to addiction and psychosocial stress in individuals' natural environments, Mandle expects the project to highlight UM's research scientists, who lead the team.

As for the new director, Mandle will need a string of such grants, along with clear, commercialized avenues for FIT's technology research, in order for his tenure to get off on solid footing.