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WHITING ANNUAL REPORT 2004;
EPP Faculty Profile, Addison
The Serial Entrepreneur
Edwin Addison is, first and foremost, an entrepreneur. Yes, he is a practicing engineer, with degrees in electrical engineering,
computer science and biomedical engineering. And it is true he devotes a lot of energy to academics, as a teacher and supporter
of new courses and programs. But, as the subtitle of his recently published book says, he is a serial entrepreneur.
Addison worked as an engineer for Westinghouse from 1978 to 1987, eventually realizing that a big company was not the
place for him and also, as he puts it, I didn't have the patience for lab work. What fascinated him was technology transfer,
and the way it could drive business ventures. He spent a couple of years with a management consulting firm, where he learned
a lot about starting and running companies, and then he ventured out on his own. During the 90s, he started and sold two companies:
a search engine provider, and a dot-com company. Since then, he has served as an independent consultant and advisor for about
a dozen start-up companies in information technology and biotech. He has also come up with a another new venture of his own,
which is still under wraps but will soon be ready for launch.
As an entrepreneur and a teacher, he draws upon wide education and experience in engineering. With a Bachelors in electrical
engineering from Virginia Tech, he came to Hopkins for two Masters degrees, in computer science and biomedical engineering,
a doctorate in computer science, and post-doctoral studies. He also had a fellowship year at MIT. While working as an electrical
engineer, he took an interest in artificial intelligence. Moving into computer science, he focused on information technology,
especially information retrieval and data mining. Initially, he applied his IT thinking to the defense industry and the Internet,
but then exposure to the biomedical field at Hopkins got him interested in applying computational tools to molecular biology.
This field now known as bioinformatics, and practically invented at Hopkins according to Addison commands his attention.
Addison's personal academic journey is reflected in his EPP teaching career. He began in 1986 and soon helped develop
courses in artificial intelligence. In more recent years, he noticed that many Hopkins biochemistry and medical students were
taking EPP computer science courses to develop their computational skills, so he proposed the creation of a Masters program
in bioinformatics which began enrolling students in January, 2004. Attributing this inclination to create new things to his
entrepreneurial nature, Addison has promoted not just new areas of study but a new educational format: online. Believing that
online instruction meets the needs of many EPP students, who often travel with their work or have trouble finding time to
be with their families, he has developed online versions of his courses and urges others to do the same.
One other new program Addison helped develop at EPP is a Graduate Certificate in Technical Entrepreneurship and Innovation,
a subject he already teaches. He laments the fact that there are not enough people bridging the gap between the technical
and business worlds. By providing the right bridgework, he believes he can help entrepreneurial types like himself discover
the best of both worlds. With large companies, you can spend thirty years trying to become the CEO, he says. But in new ventures,
you can stay close to the technology and be running the business.
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