<human>: Hey all, I appreciate any help.

So a couple of years ago, I was working for a company in Michigan as an engineer. As part of my job, I was tasked with leading an open ended research and development project with some university students. The goal of the project was to come up with new modifications to improve the efficiency of an existing process. One of the problems with improving the process was that the acceptance criteria were *qualitative*. 

Here is an example of what I mean: if the goal of a process was to reduce the temperature of an object, the acceptance criteria was simply "warm, cold, kind of cool, etc". In other words, they had no "thermometer" to apply a quantity to the result. SO, developing a method to quantify these results became part of the project. 

I managed to develop a method/device for this ON PAPER ONLY, because management lost interest in the project and funding stalled. I continued to work for this company for about another 8 months before leaving for another position. I have very serious doubts that the company will ever pursue this research further.

So, my question is, can I ever pursue this idea?? What would happen if I tried to patent the idea? How can I find out if I signed any relevant NDA type documents with the company?

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: I am a former employee who worked on a R&D project that stalled because the company lost interest. Can I ever pursue this idea myself?