Accelerate UConn, an NSF I-Corps Site to move technologies more quickly and successfully from the lab to the market
Dr. Jeff Seemann, UConn/UConn Health Vice President for Research, and Dr. Timothy B. Folta, Professor of Management and Faculty Director of the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, are pleased to announce the teams selected to participate in the Spring cohort of Accelerate UConn, the University’s National Science Foundation I-Corps site. The following teams will receive special training and a $3,000 seed grant to help understand whether and how their technology might create customer value:
Dr. Abhishek Dutta, Ashwini Srishyla & Alexei Sondergeld (Faculty & Graduate Students), Drought Water Generator, School of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. Sandra Weller, Dr. Dennis Wright & Dr. Lorry Grady (Faculty & Postdoctoral Fellow), Small Molecule Inhibitors, Schools of Medicine & Pharmacy, Departments of Molecular Biology & Biophysics and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Dong Yu & Susan Jacob (Graduate Students), High Rate BioGas Conditioning, School of Business, MBA Program
Katie Boyle (Faculty), Novel Underarm Scrub, Center for Public Health & Health Policy
Caseem Ward (Undergraduate Student), Project Mobo, School of Business
Dr. David Han, Dr. Poornima Hegde & Veneta Qendro (Faculty & Graduate Student), Therapeutic Antibodies for Triple Negative Breast Cancer, School of Medicine, Departments of Cell Biology and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Dr. Rampi Ramprasad, Dr. Huan Tran, Chiho Kim & Arun Mannodi Kanakkithodi (Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows & Graduate Student), Polymer Genome Project, Institute of Materials Science
Faizan Khan, Ishita Banerjee & Natalie Miccile (Undergraduate & Graduate Students), Dermatat, Schools of Medicine & Business, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Departments of Mathematics, Physics, Immunology and MBA Program
The program includes seven weeks of intensive training to evaluate their business ideas and conduct customer discovery activities.
In cases where a single faculty member or student was accepted into the program, the AU staff helped identify appropriate Academic or Entrepreneurial Leads or Industry Mentors to round out the team.
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI) jointly operate Accelerate UConn (AU). As an NSF I-Corps Site program, AU was formed to foster entrepreneurship resulting in technology commercialization. I-Corps Sites are academic institutions that catalyze the engagement of multiple, local teams in technology transition and strengthen local innovation.
For more information about Accelerate UConn, visit www.accelerate.uconn.edu or email accelerateuconn@uconn.edu