The Wond'ry and the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization (CTTC) collaborate to ensure that Vanderbilt innovators and entrepreneurs understand how to protect and advance their ideas. CTTC staff serve as content experts for some of the Wond'ry's programming, leading sessions and offering guidance on intellectual property protection and commercialization—core topics for any innovator or entrepreneur preparing to move a discovery toward real-world impact. By embedding this expertise within the Wond'ry's programs and mentorship, the partnership strengthens the earliest stages of the innovation pipeline, helping students, faculty, and staff build a foundational understanding of how ideas become protected, fundable, and ultimately commercial-ready technologies.
An example of this collaboration is the Wond'ry's IMPACT program (Innovation, Market-Driven Productization, and Commercialization of [deep] Technologies), a flagship experiential learning program that helps students transform promising innovations into scalable, market-ready solutions. Through a multi-phase, three-year journey focused on need identification, solution development, prototyping, market validation, and venture creation, students learn how to move ideas beyond research and toward commercialization. The program emphasizes human-centered design, rapid prototyping, and entrepreneurial thinking while connecting participants with mentors from industry, academia, and the startup ecosystem. CTTC's role is particularly valuable as students begin evaluating the commercial potential of new technologies and considerations around critical topics such as patents and IP. As a program offering, IMPACT students can explore Vanderbilt's intellectual property catalog managed by CTTC and identify innovations with market potential and consider pathways for licensing or startup formation.
IMPACT students also benefit from opportunities to engage with the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem through CTTC’s networking events, founder talks, and showcases such as the Southeast Venture Showcase. These experiences further develop the skillsets students need to communicate the value of emerging technologies. Together, the Wond'ry and CTTC create a continuum of support that helps students move from discovery and invention to commercialization and societal impact.
“At the Wond’ry, we believe meaningful innovation happens when a collaborative ecosystem of partners comes together across Vanderbilt and greater Tennessee. CTTC’s expertise in intellectual property, commercialization, and technology transfer is invaluable to helping our students, faculty, and staff turn bold ideas into solutions with lasting impact.” - Kevin Galloway, Evans Family Executive Director of the Wond'ry
Future Collaborations
Looking ahead, the Wond'ry and CTTC aim to deepen their collaboration by expanding educational programming around intellectual property and technology transfer and continuing efforts to reach innovators earlier in their development. Beyond any single project, this collaboration helps cultivate a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators who are fluent in the fundamentals of commercialization. By introducing these concepts early—often before a student or faculty member has a technology to protect—this partnership ensures that Vanderbilt's innovators carry this key knowledge with them throughout their careers. The result is a campus community better equipped to recognize commercial potential, make informed decisions about their ideas, and translate discoveries into lasting impact.
About the Wond'ry
The Wond'ry is Vanderbilt University's Center for Innovation and Design, located at 2414 Highland Avenue in Nashville. It offers making and design spaces, an Innovation & Design Strategy minor, and a range of programs, including the IMPACT Program and the Vanderbilt Innovation Fellowship, to support students, faculty, and staff in developing and advancing their ideas. Learn more at vanderbilt.edu/the-wondry.