This project by the Georgia Tech I-Corps Node, one of the founding NSF I-Corps nodes, will expand the founding Node into a comprehensive regional node called I-Corps South. I-Corps South Node brings together the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) as the lead institution, and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Tennessee Knoxville as partner institutions. I-Corps South will introduce the labs, colleges, and universities throughout the Southeast to the entrepreneurial education, ultimately increasing commercialization outcomes in each of the participating states. The I-Corps South Node will reach more than half a million graduate and undergraduate students, and many thousands of the nation's research faculty.
This project provides I-Corps training and infrastructure to share the model I-Corps curriculum with regional affiliates. The primary institutions of I-Corps South will leverage their extensive industry relationships, partnerships, mentors, and funding connections to bring economic development through startup formation, workforce development, and entrepreneurial education. The Node will serve its region's research universities and HBCUs via a robust affiliates program. The I-Corps South Node's research contribution will lead to an understanding of how NSF-funded teams can be better supported to commercialize inventions, and uncover why some academics choose to become entrepreneurs, while others do not participate in commercialization activities. I-Corps South is also creating a pilot program to create an intelligent support system for I-Corps instructors, built upon IBM's Watson.
This project's planned activities will expand the I-Corps curriculum repertoire for effective entrepreneurship training, creating a long-lasting impact on the region's teams and entrepreneurs. Its geographically dispersed collaborative network of Sites and affiliates will accelerate the development of the South's entrepreneurial ecosystems, and provide for increased partnership opportunities between academia and industry. The recruitment of new national I-Corps teams will increase the impact of the federally funded research. Finally, its focus on underrepresented minorities through programs at HBCUs and in Puerto Rico will increase the participation of those individuals in entrepreneurship, improving their well-being and inspiring future generations to pursue research and job creation activities, a clear and substantial benefit to society.
