Fusion — Curriculum
A full year, one complex technology
The core Fusion sequence runs across two semesters and stays with a single technology throughout. The first semester is devoted to understanding the opportunity that technology presents and producing an assessment of its potential. In the second semester the work pivots to commercialization, and teams design the new enterprise or startup through which that potential would be realized.
The core sequence
Twelve modules, two semesters
The fall modules build the analysis and the spring modules build the venture. Each module below is a block of classes rather than a single session.
Fall · Opportunity Assessment
Needs Analysis
- Simulation — Embrace
- Unmet need
- Needs selection and perspectives
- Needs statements
Intellectual Property
- Doctrinal introduction
- Patentability and prior art
- IP strategy
Market Analysis
- Quantification of opportunity
- Market dynamics
- Competition
Modeling
- Value concepts
- Building a cashflow projection
- Risk and NPV
- Modeling
Commercialization Transactions
- Transactional models
- Tech transfer fundamentals
- Licensing basics
- Negotiation simulation
Opportunity Assessment & Integration
- OA models
- Integration and reporting
Spring · Venture Formation
Product Design
- Matching solutions to need
- Requirements
- IP analysis in context
Development Scoping
- Proof of concept and prototyping
- Sources of funding
Path to Market
- Regulatory
- Pricing and reimbursement
Planning
- Strategy and value proposition
- Cashflow and resource planning
- Business planning
Startup Companies
- Venture fundamentals
- Cap tables and valuation
- Deal structure
- Investment simulation
Final Presentations
- Fundamentals of pitching
- Final pitches (panel)
The fall semester ends with a team’s integrated opportunity assessment, presented to a panel of instructors, technology transfer professionals, and venture investors. The spring semester begins with that assessment as its input. The technology does not change and the team does not change; what changes is the question, which moves from whether the opportunity is worth pursuing to how a company would pursue it.
Courses
A broad offering covering the full range of issues in commercializing technology
The courses are delivered through two graduate programs. The RGME sequence in the School of Medicine carries the full-year core, and the EPOM concentration in the Case School of Engineering carries the engineering track. Between them they cover needs analysis, intellectual property, market and financial assessment, transactions and licensing, product design, regulatory and reimbursement strategy, venture formation, and innovation leadership.
Fusion is offered as a graduate certificate program alongside the individual courses. The certificate is currently under revision, so its requirements may change. The courses below are what is being taught now, and each is available through its home program in the usual way. Ask us if you need to know where the certificate stands before you register.
M.S. in Regenerative Medicine & Entrepreneurship — School of Medicine
Engineering, Innovation Management & Leadership — Case School of Engineering
Who takes these courses
Teams are built to be uncomfortable in a productive way. Teams are built from law students, management students, and M.S. or Ph.D. candidates drawn from engineering and from the medical and biomedical research disciplines. The technology is chosen so that no single member of a team can carry it alone.
Law and management students arrive having completed prerequisites in their home schools. Engineering, medical, and science candidates are selected for familiarity with the subject matter of the cycle. The invention itself is real — an actual disclosure filed with the university's technology transfer office, not a teaching case with a known answer.