As chemical engineers, we are often tasked with reimagining chemical engineering in order to come up with solutions to societal and global problems, leading to a more sustainable future. The 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting serves as the leading forum for chemical engineers to stay up to date on the latest innovations across our industry. This year’s panel discussion on Creating Ideas That Get to the Marketplace will feature academics who have successfully translated their research into the marketplace, as well as entrepreneurs, incubators, and venture capitalists. The panelists will discuss the current global challenges that they see that need to be solved, how they entered this realm and the challenges they faced, and advice for others in the field looking to commercialize their ideas more efficiently.
We sat down with Siari Sosa, Technology Development Manager for the Low Carbon Resources Team at Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas). She also serves as session chair at this year’s panel discussion. This session will take place on Monday, October 28, 11:00AM–12:15PM PDT, in San Diego, CA, during the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting.
What inspired you to organize the “Creating Ideas That Get to the Marketplace” panel, and what is the core vision behind it?
I manage a research program that focuses on advancing technologies in the renewable energy sector, and many of those are developed by startups. It is a very interesting ecosystem, and it is inspiring to see researchers and engineers showing so much passion for their inventions and belief in what they can achieve to influence climate change when developed at scale. During my first time attending the 2023 AIChE Annual conference, I saw a lot of those passionate people in the halls, presenting posters and papers, and aspiring to academic positions. However, I felt the pathway of entrepreneurship was missing, so I though this could be a good topic to cover in 2024.
What insights or perspectives do you hope the panelists will share during the discussion, and how will their diverse experiences inform the conversation?
As I mentioned previously, the startup world is a very interesting ecosystem. The diverse perspectives of the panelists will shed light onto the different aspects needed to bring an idea to fruition, develop a business plan, match the science with the engineering piece for scaling up a concept, the infamous “valley of death” in technology development, and obtaining enough funding to keep the effort going.
What do you hope will be the key takeaways from this panel, and how can attendees apply them to their own work in chemical engineering and beyond?
The main takeaway should be: If I have an idea, I can have my own company! There will be ups and downs, and it’s not an easy path, but it is doable if you leverage all the resources available. Awareness on what are the available resources for funders and entrepreneurs for non-dilutive funding, learning and benchmarking opportunities and technical, legal and marketing advice should be another important takeaway. Many of these concepts can be applied in everyday work because every company, big or small, is looking at these different aspects that influence success in business.
What global challenges do you think chemical engineers are best positioned to address, and how can they make a meaningful impact?
I believe this is the time for chemical engineers. The challenges society faces in sustainability, energy, food availability, and agriculture, can be solved by resourceful chemical engineering. Concepts ranging from synthetic food production, direct air capture, process intensification, hydrogen production and storage are the ideas that will bring societal benefits driven by chemical engineering. The key is to develop technologies that can drive costs down.
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