U. licenses professor’s new speaker technology

Throughout the technology development process, Choueiri’s work was backed by the protection that the University provides for his intellectual property.

Choueiri’s BACCH system has been trademarked by the University and is currently in the process of being licensed and sublicensed to companies who wish to use and adapt his technology.

Recently, the technology was licensed to Jawbone, a mobile technology company that has used the BACCH system in LiveAudio for Jambox Software 2.1. The University also signed with Cambridge Mechatronics Limited, the largest supplier of sound bars for televisions.

The University handles the trademark process and licensing of faculty intellectual property through the Office of Technology Licensing and the Office of the General Counsel. Choueiri has been working with the OTL for a year and a half.

According to University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua, the inventor of a product can receive 50 percent of the first $100,000 earned from the product, 40 percent of the next $400,000 and 30 percent of the amount in excess of $500,000.

Choureiri said that he worked closely with the University almost daily, talking about additional companies seeking licenses and drafting contracts.

“I basically gave the product to the University to handle the licensing,” Choueiri said. “Before my work with BACCH, I never had the need to license my work related to jet propulsion. I just published it right away.”

Choueiri specializes in plasma physics and spacecraft propulsion. He has been in charge of the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Lab since 1996 where he has completed aerospace research for NASA.

After initially being exposed to the challenge of 3-D audio at a conference in Europe in 2003, Choueiri began reading academic work on the subject. His BACCH system utilizes a filter that eliminates “crosstalk” between speakers, which would otherwise hinder the ability to isolate distinct sounds.

Although other crosstalk elimination technologies exist, none leave the tonal quality of the source unchanged like Choueiri’s. The technology also differs greatly from surround sound, which uses speakers in different locations of a room to create effect.

Choueiri said he has great ambitions for the technology. He said he initially wants to adapt its use for headphones and then improve the lives of hearing-impaired individuals by making hearing aids more effective. However, this expansion will require an improvement in the current battery life of hearing aids, according to Choueiri.

Royalties from past University patents have also provided windfalls for the University. Perhaps the best known product is the chemotherapy drug Alimta, which was created by professor emeritus Edward Taylor along with Eli Lilly and Company. The drug earned $1.64 billion in sales during its first nine months of 2010. Taylor’s proceeds partly funded the construction of Frick Chemistry Lab.

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“[Frick Lab] is a good poster child for the types of successful collaborations that can happen between industry and academia,” Taylor said at an Einstein’s Alley event in Frick last November.

“Any income earned by the University from its equity in an invention is used for the purpose of research or scholarly activity, with preference given to the field of activity in which the invention was made,” Mbugua said in an email.

Although the process from idea to concrete product has spanned years and continues to expand, Choueiri said he successfully balances teaching and research. This semester he conducts a graduate seminar and teaches a 300-level MAE course.

“It is not at all a burden on my work at the University,” Choueiri said. “When you create an invention, it is your responsibility to help the University during the process.”