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areas for the I-Corps Hub: New England Region. These areas are bluetech (advanced technologies and innovations related to the marine and maritime domains), forestry/sustainability, and biotech/ life sciences.
UMass has been an I-Corps site since 2018, but this new award marks the NSF’s shift from individual sites to what the NSF describes as “a more integrated model, I-Corps Hubs, comprising a lead and partner institutions, that form the operational backbone of the National Innovation Network.”
Now, in addition to running these trainings for the UMass com- munity, the UMass I-Corps team will be recruiting from other
universities within the UMass system, as well as Western Mass. institutions such as Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and Springfield Technical Community College. The outreach initiative aims to correct persistent gender, race, and geographic disparities in entrepreneurship.
“Our prior I-Corps site was highly successful in providing essen- tial tech translation training programs to UMass faculty and student teams,” said Sanjay Raman, principal investigator of the UMass Amherst New England Hub I-Corps effort, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and dean of the College of Engineering. “In total, over 60 regional teams were trained, 15 went on to the national level I-Corps program, and 12 new ventures were formed. We are thrilled to join MIT and our other New England partner uni- versities to expand our impact throughout the region, in particular underserved, more rural regions.”
Examples of Impact
Successful I-Corps participants from UMass include Myrias Optics, an emerging developer of nanopatterned structures on glass called metaoptics; Latde, a company that designs inexpensive diag- nostic tests to guide antibiotic treatment, starting with urinary-tract infections; and rStream, a startup creating AI-based systems to sort recycling.
“Innovation is a core value for our campus. The I-Corps Hub and the opportunity to participate as a partner directly aligns with existing campus efforts to create an environment that supports the research, development, and mechanisms leading to deep technol- ogy ventures,” said Mike Malone, vice chancellor for Research and Engagement.
Ina Ganguli, professor of Economics in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Isenberg School of Management, and director of the UMass Computational Social Science Institute, is the hub research lead. She brings her expertise in how to effectively involve individuals with
“The goal of the I-Corps program is to deploy experiential education to help researchers reduce the
time necessary
to translate promising ideas from laboratory benches to widespread implementation that in turn impacts economic growth regionally and nationally.”
diverse experiences and I-Corps
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identities in university
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