If you’ve ever wondered how to convert a good idea into a viable commercial product or how to become a better innovator, then CSU Ventures’ upcoming Innovation Symposium is for you.

CSU Ventures, the technology transfer and commercialization agent for the University, is sponsoring the third annual event, which runs from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on May 1 in the Suzanne and Walter Scott, Jr. Bioengineering Building.

The event will include a roundtable discussion with researchers and small business professionals such as Scott Fulbright, co-founder and chief executive officer of Living Ink Technologies and Sybil Sharvelle, an associate professor in CSU’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

There also will be more than 30 posters displaying research by graduate students from across the CSU campus as well as a “pitch session” in which four students – representing the areas of engineering, life sciences, physical sciences and creative works – will talk about their work for up to seven minutes. The winner will receive $500.

Attendees also will select a winner from the poster session for the “people’s choice award.”

Steve Foster, director of licensing and business developing for CSU Ventures, said the event is designed to promote research and collaboration across campus and to educate students about innovation and technology transfer.

“This event helps showcase the different technologies being developed and research being conducted across CSU,” he said. “It also gets students, faculty and staff thinking about innovation and how to improve in that area or what they need to do to advance their work.”

For more information about the event, go to http://csuventures.org/category/events/.