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 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.

Over the past two decades, obesity in America has more than doubled as our society continued rewarding the destructive habits that contribute to poor health. This business plan is a detailed layout of the development of WellSpark Health, a company that provides comprehensive wellness programs to the small and medium sized businesses. With the increasing health insurance premiums linked to rising obesity rates and the prominence of related chronic illnesses, WellSpark’s preventative solutions bring together all affected parties in order to spur healthy life style changes. While small businesses purchase our programs, WellSpark then provides our services to the client company’s employees. The plan looks at why WellSpark Health chose to target small and medium sized demographic and the details of what we offer through our wellness program. The strategies WellSpark Health will implement to marketing its brand and mission in the community, the operations, as well as our plans for expansion, risk analysis, and financial analysis of the value of our company to investors, the economy, and the local community best demonstrate the feasibility of WellSpark Health being a thriving business. This is a composite of the efforts of four individuals from the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program.