IGERT Fellow Todd Alexander is a recipient of an NSF I-Corps award where he will be the Entrepreneurial lead. The primary goal of the I-Corps is to foster entrepreneurship that will lead to the commercialization of technology that has been supported by NSF-funded research. By the end of the I-Corps session the entrepreneurial team should be able to come to a decision about continuing the commercialization of the research. The curriculum centers around getting outside of the building and talking to real customers in order to figure out the proper business model and improve their value proposition. The grant is for $50,000 dollars, but much of this money will be used for travel expenses to go out and meet the customers. The goal is to talk to over 100 different customers before the 1.5 month program portion award finishes.
Month: April 2014
On April 14, 2014 WPI held the final stage of the i3: Investing in Ideas with Impact competition. In this competition the graduate student participants make a 3 minute pitch describing the benefits and marketability of their innovations without any visual aids. The IGERT program had four students make it to the final round. The 12 finalists’ presentations were judged by panels of business leaders and entrepreneurs who selected winners for Best Concept and Best Presentation; each winner received a $1,000 cash prize. The Best Concept Prize was awarded to Lindsay Lozeau for: “AMProtection: Preventing Implant Infections in the First Place.” Advisor: Terri Camesano and the Best Presentation Prize went to Sarah Hernandez for “Diagnosing Pre-Cancer.” Advisor: Tanja Dominko. Sarah Hernandez also received the People’s Choice with a $250 cash prize.
In addition Lindsay and Sarah were also awarded a Gordon Research Conference prize. This prize was awarded by Nancy Ryan Gray, PhD, director of the Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) and one of the i3 judges. The prize will make it possible for these students to attend GRC conferences, which are forums for presentation and discussion of frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies.
There are four IGERT fellows that are moving on to the final level of the i3 Competition this month. They are Sarah Hernandez, Biology; Lindsay Lozeau, Chemical Engineering, and Heather Cirka and Hannah Strobel, Biomedical Engineering. The i3: Investing in Ideas with Impact is about translating research into value and real-world impact. It encourages graduate students to consider how the ideas and innovations they are developing through research could become the foundation of new products, new commercially valuable processes, and even new companies.
In April 2013, IGERT Fellow Todd Alexander was awarded second place in the university-wide i3 Competition.