This award is to the University of Tennessee Knoxville to support the activity described below for 36 months. The proposal was submitted in response to the Partnerships for Innovation Program Solicitation (NSF-04556).
Partners The partners include University of Tennessee Knoxville (Lead Institution), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, The State of Tennessee, Tennessee Department of Education, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, Center for Industrial Services, Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation, Atmospheric Glow Technologies, Clarity Resources, LLC, Control Technology, Inc., Eastman Chemical Company, Exide Technologies, IBM Global Services, Management Consultants, Robert Shaw Industrial Products, Rohm and Haas, Co., Spinlab Utility Instrumentation, Inc., and Technology 2020.
The primary objectives are to produce individuals able to create tech-based businesses or to create new marketable products within existing companies. Recognizing the need to ease the barriers to recruitment yet maintain quality standards, the project creates a summer entrepreneurship program for undergraduates that includes part-time internships. The proposed activity creates multidisciplinary student teams in engineering fields to boost the ability to educate individuals with the ability to develop a product from "concept to market." This activity builds on a recently created dual degree program offered by the University of Tennessee. It expands its entrepreneurial focus, extends the degree through the entire College of Engineering, and establishes an "Idea Bank" of new product ideas drawing from university discoveries and the nearby Oak Ridge National Lab. It engages input and participation in multiple ways, and establishes an "Entrepreneurial Board" both to advise and direct the effort and to provide specific assistance ranging from lecturing, networks, evaluation of student plans, advocacy and internships.
Potential Economic Impact The goal is to help create a tech-based entrepreneurial culture in East Tennessee by tapping into the region's base of technical knowledge and, thereby, diversifying the area's largely service-based economy. The effort includes targeted outreach to underrepresented students through the Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, an alliance of six universities, and it offers scholarships for its undergraduate summer program as well as graduate fellowships.
The intellectual merit of the project will result from leveraging research being conducted at the Oak Ridge National Lab serving as a platform to convert the intellectual property into real products and attract leading technology corporations to the region.
The broader impacts of the activity concentrate on advancing efforts both by students and with companies, and it identifies sources from which to secure this support. The effort includes targeted outreach to underrepresented students through the Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, an alliance of six universities, and it offers scholarships for its undergraduate summer program as well as graduate fellowships. There is a stated intent to publish the results of this work to further promote dissemination and to make the educational modules developed available to any university. The components of this proposal are such that it can be easily replicated.
