A spacious auditorium filled with rows of wooden seats, each affixed with a writing tablet and uniformly aligned towards a large, empty stage framed by a black backdrop. This image, emblematic of educational environments, vividly illustrates the kind of physical space that is transformed through advanced software solutions developed by Cuttlesoft. Utilizing their expertise in web application development on platforms like Heroku, and employing technologies such as Angular and Django, Cuttlesoft caters to the academic sector by creating tools that streamline operations such as intellectual property licensing and patenting. This image serves as a visual metaphor for the potential enhancements that digital solutions bring to traditional educational settings, highlighting how EdTech innovations facilitate more efficient and interconnected academic and research environments. Connecting directly to the case of Florida A&M University, the image draws attention to Cuttlesoft's role in revolutionizing tech transfer processes, specifically tailored for high-degree institutes like HBCUs, thereby enhancing their capability to manage and commercialize patents efficiently.

FAMU Tech Transfer

When the Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University needed a software partner to develop their patented technology transfer solution, they knew they required a firm with unique talents.

The Challenge

Interpret a patent for technology transfer operations and develop software that scales at a major university.

What we did

We analyzed both the written patent application and the manual processes that staff in FAMU's Tech Transfer office go through. Once we understood the systems in place and the application of the university's patent, we built a custom web application to take their operations online.

Deliverables

  • Business logic and systems analysis documentation
  • A custom built Angular.js frontend application
  • A backend application developed with Python Django
  • Hosting and software maintenance
Services

Web Application Development

Platforms

Heroku

Technologies

Angular

Django

Transforming Intellectual Property Management

FAMU needed a team that understood not only how to design and build their software, but most importantly, consults them on the delicate process of software commercialization.

They made one phone call. They called Cuttlesoft.

The software, called the Digital Technology Transfer Department (DTTD for short), was conceived after years of research by Ms. Tanaga Boozer. Its purpose? To move online the important but sometimes tedious work of IP licensing and patenting for technology transfer offices at HBCUs.

Patent Application
Inventor Registration
Patent Administration
User Profiles
Conversations between Administrators and Inventors
Patent Administrator's Dashboard
Patent Application
Inventor Registration
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The DTTD creates an immersive way for patent attorneys and technology officers to connect with inventors and academic researchers and provides a platform for efficiently transforming ideas into patents. Cuttlesoft began by converting the patent, filed by Ms. Boozer in 2007, into a vision for how a modern web application would be conceived. To do this, the team took two approaches.

First, the analysis team thoroughly documented and illustrated every step of the journey an inventor’s application follows on its path from idea to patent.

Second, the design and software experts examined the personas of the system’s five unique actors: Inventors, Technology Transfer Officers, Technology Transfer Administrators, Patent Attorneys, and Service Vendors.

These perspectives would insure that Cuttlesoft could maintain a user-centric approach to designing and developing this very important application.

Development of the DTTD project focused on three fundamentals:

  • user experience
  • scalability
  • growth support

One of Cuttlesoft’s biggest challenges with the project was how to introduce the various actors to the system. To accomplish this, the development team dedicated time to properly architect the user and entity data models so that they could be maintained with integrity well into the future.

Landing pages and discrete registration views welcome inventors and attorneys equally but provide a unique experience with their first visit to the site.

All this is maintained by an administrator portal so each institution can personalize its message.

"Cuttlesoft's expertise, attention to detail, and their ability to listen stood out."

Headshot of Reis Alsberry
Reis Alsberry
Director of Technology Transfer

Outcomes

With the DTTD, FAMU set out to transform how HBCUs manage their IP. By working with Cuttlesoft, they’re building that transformation into a beautifully designed and highly scalable software tool.

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