Jean Zhao says the invention that consumes her -- an electric bicycle charged by a fuel cell --needs only some refinements in the lab before it's ready to whisk commuters through city streets. Her team made it to the finals of the recent Clean Energy Challenge in Chicago but failed to come away with a cash prize.

No matter. Zhao, an upbeat 25 year old with patent applications, had her safety net to fall back on. She was soon back in an engineering lab at Case Western Reserve University, consulting with mentors who talked about when, not if, the EcoSpinner would be ready for market.

"I'm not saying we'll make cars obsolete," she said confidently. "But we are hoping to offer a real alternative form of transportation."

As she takes ideas from laboratories to business experts without leaving campus, Zhao (pronounced "zow") illustrates a learning curve unimaginable only a few years ago.

There's a new spirit of innovation at CWRU, a venerable university better known for science and research than for startups. Top administrators say they remain committed to the pursuit of knowledge, but so much the better if classroom discoveries can be spun off into job-creating businesses.

As a new age of innovation gathers momentum, Northeast Ohio's academic powerhouse is joining the race, and hoping to lead the way.

"We do believe we have an important role in the region's economy," said university president Barbara Snyder. "I do think that job creation is an area where we can make a difference, and we are trying to do that."

The new effort is growing more obvious on the 155-acre campus in Cleveland's University Circle neighborhood.

One of the busier student centers is a new, high-tech workshop called Think(box). Equipped with everything from laser cutters to 3-D printers to pliers, it's where aspiring inventors can tinker with an idea and even build a prototype to see if it works.

That's only a beginning. CWRU is embarked upon a $25 million campaign to build Think(box) into the largest invention center on an American college campus. Meanwhile, there are plans to put those inventions to productive use.

Recently, the university relaxed its licensing rules to make its technology easy to commercialize. Entrepreneur coaching has been added to the university Career Center, and CWRU will soon introduce a $6 million venture fund that will support university spin-offs.

At Think(box), a new invention center at CWRU, students and faculty can collaborate, plot ideas on state-of-the-art modeling software, and build prototypes on three-dimensional printers.

"It's almost a turn of 180 degrees from pure scholarship," said Joseph Jankowski, who in January was named the university's first chief innovation officer. "Not long ago, it would have been hard for students to learn about entrepreneurship on campus. Now, it's going to be hard to avoid it."

Jankowski, who previously led the university's patenting and licensing efforts, said the new approach sprang from the realization that knowledge-based innovation is driving the new economy. That, and the belief that CWRU is capable of doing more to create jobs.

Attracting nearly $400 million in research dollars annually, CWRU is the largest research institution in Northeast Ohio -- and ranks among the top 20 funded research universities nationwide. It also attracts some of the world's brightest students.

There's a new resolve, Jankowski said, to expose those students to opportunities to create companies, or develop new technology, or go to work for a new enterprise.

"It's as much about culture as it is about physical space," said Gary Wnek, a professor of engineering who helped fashion the new approach. "It's a culture of entrepreneurship."

University as job engine

That culture has been around awhile in the college world, which makes some wonder why it took so long for CWRU to join the movement.

Successful university-to-business models include North Carolina's Research Triangle and the starts-ups radiating from the campus of Stanford University. Closer to home, a fresh example of university economic power is on display in Pittsburgh, which weathered the national recession better than most cities and has been quicker to recover.

That's because the Steel City is home to more software engineers than steelworkers.

Google opened its Pittsburgh satellite in 2006. Apple, Intel and Disney Research followed. They all came to tap the talent streaming out of Carnegie Mellon, the city's esteemed research university. Coupled with the nearby University of Pittsburgh, it's a draw powerful enough to overshadow closed factories and rundown neighborhoods.

"Pittsburgh would probably be semi-abandoned without those institutions," said Gary Burtless, an economist for the Brookings Institution who has studied the economic impact of universities.

There's a whimsical air to Think(box), which is housed in the engineering building but attracts students from all schools and disciplines.

Burtless said locals often overlook the power of a campus full of smarties.

"I'm sure in Pittsburgh in 1990, everyone dreamed the steel industry would come back," he said. "Who would have thought all these eggheads would be so beneficial? It's not obvious. But there's no doubt an important university can be a job generator."

Snyder, who arrived as president in 2007, argues CWRU has proven that. She's quick to point out famous innovators who studied or taught at Case, from the Nobel-winning scientist who laid the foundation for Einstein's Theory of Relativity to the creators of Nike Air, craigslist and Gmail.

CWRU technology tends to be applied to the medical arts, in successful but time-consuming ventures that better humankind, notes Robert Miller, the university's vice president for research.

Athersys is pioneering stem cell treatments. CardioInsight may change the way heart disease is detected. QED manufacturers medical imaging devices exported to Japan.

Snyder said it's unfair to compare CWRU to Carnegie Melon, a university renowned for robotics and computer gaming.

"We're different," she said. "We attract different kinds of partners."

Still, CWRU's methodical approach to research needed to broaden, and quicken, if it was to adapt to its new role.

Accelerating the innovation

For much of recent history, CWRU served the research and development needs of corporate Cleveland as it trained their staffs, sending engineers to Parker Hannifin and doctors and nurses to the Cleveland Clinic.

"We were doing good at what we did," Jankowski said. "We did very well with the classic, get-the-grant research."

He said the mindset began to change about five years ago, starting in the engineering school, where strategic planners like Wnek saw the need for research that resulted in not just invention but innovation.

"Innovation is when you have someone pay you for it," Wnek said. "And crossing that spectrum is hard."

Snyder endorsed the idea of broadening opportunities for entrepreneurship across all schools and departments, from business to nursing to engineering, where Jean Zhao found her niche.

Zhao, a graduate of Stow High School, started at CWRU five years ago in a pre-dental program. Uninspired by her career path, she left school and went to work for Stratum Technologies, a Cleveland battery-maker doing interesting work with lithium-ion polymers.

Last summer, Zhao returned to school, this time as a chemical engineering major. She brought battery expertise and an idea for a bicycle powered by a lithium-ion battery that's recharged with a liquid fuel cell.

She said she was astonished by how much her old school had changed.

She discovered Think(box) and began tinkering with her battery pack. When she applied for a business competition, Bob Sopko introduced himself. He's director of Blackstone LaunchPad, an entrepreneur coaching program that the Burton D. Morgan Foundation helped bring to campus last year.

Sopko, previously CWRU's manager of strategic technology partnerships, connected her to the region's business accelerators -- JumpStart, Launch House and Bizdom -- and urged her to build a team with people from other disciplines.

Justin Einstein, a 24-year-old graduate student studying engineering management, joined the company Zhao co-founded with Chris Daroux, a colleague from Stratum.

The trio believes EcoSpinners LLC is about a year away from manufacturing an emission-free, electric bicycle with a range of 100 miles per charge. Plans call for Stratum to make the batteries. Mentors from the business school have suggested patent strategies and market opportunities, like bike-sharing programs, or China.

Nothing against dentistry or corporate America, Zhao said, but she relishes her new career path.

"The idea that you can get a four-year degree and not have to go to work for a big company is really exciting for me," she said. "That really wasn't an option when I was a student here five years ago."

Nor was the EcoSpinner.