İLHAMİ YILDIZ

Professor Department of Engineering Dalhousie University, Faculty of Agriculture Truro-Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, CANADA

Invention, Innovation and Diffusion

Abstract

There exist three stages in the process of introducing a new technology: invention, innovation, and diffusion. The first development of a new scientific or a technical product or process is called the invention stage. If the new product or process is commercialized, then we talk about the next stage, the innovation stage. The third stage of the life cycle of many innovations is the diffusion, by which an innovation is communicated through a number of different channels with individuals, groups, or local or global communities as a whole. Individual or community responses to invention, innovation and diffusion reveal themselves as use, adaptation, and resistance. Without a market, no matter how innovative a technical change is, the product or process developed has no commercial value. This Keynote Lecture provides an overview of the current challenges and opportunities in innovation and commercialization, as well as a number of initiatives from research to commercialization.

Biographical Sketch

İlhami Yıldız is a controlled environment systems engineer, and has expertise in energy, environment and sustainability issues, such as bioreactors, environmental biotechnology, microalgae-based biofuels and bioproducts using waste streams, complex systems modeling, air- and ground-source heat pumps, combined heat and power generation, flue gas recovery and greenhouse gas mitigation, hydronic heating and hot water storage systems, and energy and water conservation. He has designed and built a number of environmentally friendly energy systems transferring extensive research findings to commercial operations in Canada, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, and the United States.

Overview: Professor – Engineering, Dalhousie University; Associate Professor – BioResource & Agricultural Engineering, Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo, California; Assistant Professor – Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Windsor; Ph.D. in Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering (Ohio State); M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (Ohio State); M.Sc. in Agricultural Meteorology (Ohio State); B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering (University of Ankara). He has been honoured with the Grand Challenge Award by the U.S. Government (2008); Outstanding Faculty Award at Cal Poly (2008); Presidential Letter of Appreciation at Cal Poly (2008); and Gold Medal Performance Award by the University of Windsor (2004).