Breaking the Thesis Mold – Building Real Products in Academia

I remember those nights spent prototyping nanotech in Rice University labs as a non-PhD student, feeling both the thrill and frustration of research. The biggest challenges were funding and the assumption that PhD thesis holders had priority access to costly equipment like TEM and SEM. I wished for a system that valued creating real products as much as publishing papers.

Success should be judged by solving industry challenges, not just by publications. This shift would make academia feel more like startups—focused on innovation and meaningful impact instead of bureaucratic hurdles.