Evening of Sushi by the Sea celebrates research, innovation

Event attracts researchers, companies, investors to Narragansett Bay Campus

Deedee Chatham, Beth Zonis and David Smith
Deedee Chatham, director of entrepreneurship and innovation for URI’s Business Engagement Center, at left, smiles as Beth Zonis, Northeast regional director of Cleantech Open, a clean technology accelerator for startup businesses, reacts with enthusiasm to comments at the Sushi by the Sea Event. Standing behind Chatham is David Smith, associate dean of URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. URI photo by Michael Salerno.

KINGSTON, R.I.- May 17, 2018- Bringing researchers, companies and investors together was the goal of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography’s Sushi by the Sea. By all measures, the event, held earlier this spring and co-hosted by Slater Technology Fund, the URI Research Foundation, URI Start-Up Program/Accelerator/Resource Center (SPARC) and the URI Business Engagement Center, was a success.

Described by Deedee Chatham, director of entrepreneurship and innovation for the Business Engagement Center as, “a technology commercialization networking event,” it brought together more than 100 researchers, start-up companies, investors, and the regional business community.

“The spirited, energetic crowd ate sushi, initiated new and meaningful relationships, and learned about cutting-edge technologies and programs growing up and spinning out of URI’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences, College of Engineering, and Graduate School of Oceanography,” explained Chatham.

Dwight Coleman
Dwight Coleman, director of URI’s Inner Space Center, describes the work of the center to those who attended Sushi by the Sea. URI photo by Michael Salerno

The program featured speeches from Bruce Corliss, dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography, Thorne Sparkman, managing director of Slater Technology Fund, and Peter Snyder, vice president of Research and Economic Development at URI.

Following the short speaking program, attendees were invited to tour the Inner Space Center, an international hub for ocean science exploration and education, housed on the Bay Campus as part of the Graduate School of Oceanography. Tours were led by Dwight Coleman, director of URI’s Inner Space Center. Additionally, guests experienced an online streaming conversation and video from the research vessel Okeanos Explorer and its crew in the Gulf of Mexico.

Olivia Ross, an intern in the Marketing and Communications Department at URI and public relations major, wrote this press release.