From University R&D to IPO: A Technology Startup Industrialization Story

ECE is partnering with the College of Innovation and Design (CID). Join us at 10:30 AM on the second floor of the Albertsons’ Library for a presentation from Matias Troccoli and Cara Van Sant. Matias will be presenting on a technology startup industrialization story while Cara will briefly discuss the University’s innovation ecosystem.

In the early days of smartphones, several new technologies were competing to drive next-generation displays. One such technology offered a great compromise between cost and performance: p-TFT’s (Poly-silicon Thin Film Transistors).

Funded by private capital looking to leverage these properties for biometric applications, Matias took on the daunting task of adapting p-TFT semiconductors to this new field. While the work started as part of his PhD Thesis, the journey turned into a multidisciplinary effort to industrialize this novel technology, and in the process, transforming a small startup into a global organization with sales of millions of products to tier-1 enterprise clients.

Matias will share both his technical and entrepreneurial journey and how it helped propel him into the world of startups.

Speaker Bio

An Electrical Engineer and PhD by training, Matias is a repeat startup leader and founder. As part of his early work, he industrialized novel semiconductors by turning university R&D into end-to-end enterprise grade products. In the process, built a multidisciplinary organization with global reach that shipped millions of products worldwide to tier-1 multinationals. He’s also an Advisory Board Member and mentor to multiple startups. He has authored several patents and publications.