My thesis in Entrepreneurship is a business plan for my team's new business venture, SuitsU, as well as a self-assessment of my leadership skills. SuitsU offers business suit rentals at convenient locations near college campuses for the low price of $20 for a 3-day rental. We also offer consulting services such as resume checks and quick lessons on tying a tie. Our goal is to provide students with a fun yet educational environment that helps boost their confidence before their interview or presentation.

This thesis compiles my work in the Entrepreneurship program at the University of Arizona. Along with three other team members, this business plan was created for a potential venture concept. 69% of Americans in the U.S. today are considered overweight or clinically obese. Being overweight can cause preventable illnesses including diabetes, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack. Americans obesity challenges cost employers over $1.3 trillion annually due to rising health insurance premiums, productivity loss, and absenteeism. Through conducting secondary and primary research, in‐depth interviews with industry experts and business owners, Wellspark Health was created by four students in the Eller Entrepreneurship Program to help businesses combat the financial costs of obesity and empower individuals to live healthier lives. Unlike traditional worksite wellness programs, Wellspark combines best practices from the industry with customizable solutions for both employers and their employees. The program consists of both online and onsite tools and support from health coaches and registered dieticians. Wellspark will initially target businesses with between 50‐250 employees because this demographic is not being served by current wellness programs.

HermitCrab Housing is a website that allows international students to find housing and roommates at U.S. colleges based on preferences such as language, country, and compatibility. This business will create and manage a website for incoming international students to the United States for information on universities, living in the US, and connections to the community. HermitCrab will expand each year to new universities to increase the total available market. In addition, the company will add revenue sources by providing additional services for a premium price. While still in their home country, prospective international students have trouble finding housing near their new university and finding a compatible roommate. There are currently 765,000 international students living in the United States right now. Each year, 215,000 new students will come from around the world to begin a program in an American university. These students all have similar housing problems that could use additional, accurate, and easy-to-read housing information to help them make the most informed decision. We provide unbiased housing information with relevant reviews written by other international students. We also satisfy the needs of international students when looking for roommates through a detailed questionnaire and roommate ranking system.

This project represents a case analysis of the Tucson and Southern Arizona environments for the commercialization of university-developed innovations and technologies. The focus is on the successfully launched solar-tech company REhnu, and how the venture has successfully licensed university intellectual property. Founded in 2009 by Dr. Roger Angel, REhnu uses a systems approach of parabolic mirrors that concentrates direct solar radiation 1200 times to a small set of multi-junction concentrating photovoltaic cells. The primary goals of the venture include building giga-watt farms and achieving cost parity with fossil fuels by 2020. This project’s qualitative research methods included semi-structured interviews with individuals from REhnu, the University of Arizona, and the Pima County Government. Combined with descriptive research utilizing electronic resources, one of the most pertinent challenges observed was a divergence of beliefs between certain academic and business communities. The summation of all observations generated the following recommendations for Tech Launch Arizona (TLA): I. Promote University of Arizona main campus as “Visibility Hub” for innovation II. Build long-term relationships within University of Arizona scientific communities III. Develop a transparent organizational structure with clear mandates and sufficient funding

The goal of this thesis is to analyze the current commercialization process of the University of Arizona as well as the Office of Technology Transfer, or OTT, and potential opportunities for strengthening the process. This will be done through an initial review of a patented technology, JPEG 2000 Corrupt Codestream Decoder, as well as its parent technology, JPEG 2000 image standard. The JPEG 2000 decoder is used to decode corrupt images that are transferred in real time, in order to utilize the "usable" information as efficiently as possible. The technology itself will be analyzed, including the strengths and weaknesses, and areas of opportunities. Next, the commercialization history of the technology will also be looked upon, such as patent dates, related licensees, and direction of the technology. Emphasis will be placed on processes and environments that helped the technology, as well as those that have hindered it. More specifically, since the technology was never implemented in a commercialized setting, there will be a glance as to why the technology was not successfully licensed and commercialized. Finally, the commercialization process of OTT will be examined, in a broader context that applies to all technologies that OTT deals with. This will look at the tasks of OTT, shortfalls of the Office, as well as the process of commercialization. Once all items are addressed, areas of recommendations will be described with the aim of improving the efficiency and resourcefulness of OTT.