You may not know Karl Ulrich, but chances are that he once had a hand in making your lunch box the envy of the playground.
The owner of over 20 patents, Wharton’s newly appointed “Dean of Innovation” describes his co-invention of Betty Crocker Gushers as being one of the inventions he is most proud of.
“That patent is associated with several billion dollars in revenue for General Mills, so in terms of economic impact that patent is the most significant,” he wrote in an e-mail. “My kids also think that invention is pretty cool.”
As the inventor of such internationally renowned inventions as the Xootr scooter and TerraPass Inc, it is easy to see why Wharton Dean Tom Robertson saw Ulrich as the best man to fill the newly created position.
In addition to his deanship, Ulrich is the professor of Entrepreneurship and eCommerce at Wharton, as well as a professor of Mechanical Engineering. He also co-founded the Weiss Tech House, where he implemented the PennVention competition and the Second Best Idea Slam — two competitions that he describes as embodying “the principal of Innovation Tournaments.”
To students, these tournaments are perhaps what he is best known for. Ulrich’s courses pertaining to entrepreneurship and invention are organized as competitions.
Emily Di Capua, Wharton master’s of business administration alumna, described taking a compressed innovation class with Ulrich in San Francisco as being one of the milestones of her Wharton career.
Arriving at the class as an entrepreneurial novice, Di Capua was surprised when her idea was chosen as one of the six ideas out of the 50 brought to class to compete in the innovation tournament. Working with a group of 10, she developed a prototype for an online, personalized wine company.
“The sense of relief and accomplishment at the end of four days, to have designed a prototype for our web-based idea, was really incredible,” she said.
“I think that for Wharton to have this [Dean of Innovation] position and to have it be with Karl Ulrich, who is such a well-known thinker on the topic, is so exciting,” she added.
Without a predecessor, Ulrich is still getting acquainted with his deanship and what it entails. He describes his current duties as being akin to typical “start up” activities. He is in the process of hiring staff and researching the best ways to go about initiating opportunities for innovation on campus.
He described one implementation in particular that he believes will help foster innovation on campus.
“In this first year of the innovation initiative, we will pick a couple of the most promising ideas for implementation,” he wrote. “While we don’t yet know which they will be, I suspect that at least one will focus on using technology to improve the learning experience at Wharton.”
Wharton doctoral student and former teaching assistant to Ulrich, Joel Wooten has high hopes for Ulrich in his new position.
“I think you will see this position starting to spread, especially within business schools,” he said. “I think that some of the ideas he is currently thinking of launching for Penn will be interesting and groundbreaking.”
