A study found that startup education using the Blockchain-based electronic lab notebook "Goono" improved students' awareness of intellectual property rights and practical outcomes at the same time. The study was derived through quantitative and qualitative analyses of a Catholic University interdisciplinary startup course and was recently published in the Korea Entrepreneurship Society Journal.
Goono is an electronic lab notebook operated by the startup Redwit that helps systematically manage research data for small and midsize companies. Redwit was founded in 2019 by CEO Kim Ji-won while pursuing a master's degree at KAIST.
The study, "Performance of startup education using electronic lab notebooks: Focusing on a capstone design course case," is characterized by designing the program so that students record and share the entire process from idea generation to contest participation and intellectual property review using an electronic lab notebook. Over 16 weeks, 21 students participated in teams.
As a result, after introducing Goono, the number of contest awards more than doubled from the previous average of 2–3 to 6. Some teams proceeded with provisional patent applications based on their lab notebooks.
Lead researcher Lee Jun-seong of Redwit, who conducted the study, said, "This study is the first case to show empirically that electronic lab notebooks contributed to the qualitative outcomes of startup education," and noted, "It is meaningful in that it specifically proved the importance of process-centered learning and the securing of idea rights, moving away from results-centered education."
The lead researcher also emphasized, "Goono is a tool that goes beyond recordkeeping to accumulate the entire creative process as a single data asset, with strong potential for practical use in R&D management, technology transfer, and investor relations."