University Venture Development Fund

Avant Assessment

A UO spinout company co-founded by entrepreneur Sheila Bong is now the world’s leading provider of Web-based language assesment tools.

Products and services provided by her company, Avant Assessment, are based on research by the UO’s Center for Applied Second Language Studies.

Working through the UO’s technology transfer office, Avant Assessment obtained a license to develop web-based language assessment tools using research and intellectual property from the University of Oregon’s Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS).

Today Avant Assessment is the world leader for developing, selling, and supporting web-based tools for teaching Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and English-as-a-Second-Language – and Italian is on the way.

“This partnership capitalizes on the UO’s research power to deliver grant-developed tools created by educators, for educators,” says Carl Falsgraf, CASLS director.

Ultimately, Falsgraf says, the royalties from product sales will help fund UO research and education programs. The UO Venture Development Fund will help launch more spinout ventures that enrich Oregon’s economy and return valuable support back to UO research and education programs.