Welcome to the Kimmel School and the Center for Rapid Product Realization (the Rapid Center), where you will find all in one place highly qualified faculty and staff, equipment and facilities and technical capabilities to address your engineering needs. Our goal is to partner with inventors and entrepreneurs, startup companies and well -established businesses so that we can help move their ideas or products forward toward successful commercialization. In that way, working together, we can promote economic development for the entire region.
Results You Can Use
Unlike other universities, which may be interested primarily in their own research, WCU is focused on using research and knowledge to serve the needs of business partners throughout the Southeast and beyond. Our Rapid Center will help you get results you can use - a prototype, proof of concept, new information, designs, drawings, suggestions for process improvements, innovative problem solving, new business ideas and more. The list is endless.
Interaction and Involvement
Partnership - If you have a specific schedule for a top-priority project, you will want to work directly with our faculty and staff. As partners, we will work with you to meet your goals on deadline and within your budget. You can be sure your intellectual property is protected by contract, the Analysis and Testing Agreement (ATA), which specifies the project scope, deliverables, deadlines and more.
Sponsorship - If your project is somewhat less critical and you have more time, you may want to work with a team of highly motivated students, helping to mentor their progress on a two-semester Senior Capstone Project. As a project sponsor, you can be directly involved in the students' work while you consider their potential as future employees.
Contract
The Analysis and Test Agreement (ATA) includes a statement of work, definition of technical requirements, deliverables, delivery dates, liabilities and responsibilities, costs and budget. It includes a confidentiality agreement to protect your intellectual property at whatever level you require - from most to least restrictive - over the course of your work with the Rapid Center.
For further information about contractual details, contact Patrick Gardner at 828-227-2560 or pgardner@wcu.edu.
Learn More
The Kimmel School is a college-level unit of Western Carolina University with offices, classrooms and labs located in the Belk Building and the Center for Applied Technology on WCU's main campus in Cullowhee, N.C.
Visit the School
Please visit the Kimmel School to learn more about what we are doing as a leader in higher education and as a partner in technology-led economic development throughout the region.