Special Workshops Summer 2020

I-Corps Entrepreneurship Training for NRTs

Learn about the lean startup method (the basis for the NSF’s I-Corps™ program) applied to technology commercialization.
Prepare STEM students with skills, experience and credentials that will advantage them in their future studies and careers
Expand your NRT institution's state-of-the-art innovation and entrepreneurship training opportunities for students and faculty
Increase National Science Foundation funding opportunities for faculty
Train students and faculty to address diversity and inclusion in the context of innovation and entrepreneurship

NRT trainees and faculty will participate in an intensive, hands-on weekend workshop based on the I-Corps @ UMass Amherst Innovators Warm-Up and Innovators Jump-Start programs.
The program is focused on introduced to the key steps for the commercialization of lab-based research technology, especially the customer discovery process and related considerations of diversity, inclusion and unconscious bias.

Faculty and students from NSF NRT sites, especially from institutions that do no have easy access to an I-Corps site or node.

Kenneth Carter, Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering, <krcarter@polysci.umass.edu>

Leadership Team:

Karen Utgoff, Director of ICorps@UMass Amherst, <kutgoff@umass.edu>

Nilanjana Dasgupta, Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Director of Equity & Inclusion, <dasgupta@psych.umass.edu>

Ina Ganguli, Associate Professor of Economics, <iganguli@umass.edu>

Burnley Jaklevic, Director of Technology Transfer Office, <bjaklevic@research.umass.edu>;

Allison J. Koss, Manager of Communications in Research & Engagement, <Allison.koss@umass.edu>;

Christine Piquette, Grants & Contracts Coordinator, Polymer Science & Engineering, <cpiquette@umass.edu>