Overview of NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) Rathindra (Babu) DasGupta Program Director, Innovation Corps Engineering Directorate National Science Foundation

Mexico City August 12, 2014

2

Risk-Averse Culture Infects U.S. Workers, Entrepreneurs Updated June 2, 2013

NSF I-Corps™ Program Description

4

The Nation’s I-Corps “Fabric” I-Corps Nodes

I-Corps Sites

I-Corps Teams

I-Corps Mentors

This Presentation

I-Corps™ in A Nutshell

• Leveraging NSF investments in research

• Transcending the “Ditch of Death”

• Increasing Network Opportunities

• Aligns with NSF Strategy

6

Investors

Industry NSF

ove

rall

GO

ALI

STTR

AIR/

PFI

ERC

I/U

CRC

SBIR

STC

Reso

urce

s Inv

este

d

Discovery Development Commercialization

Foundations

Valley of Death

University

Small Business

I-Corps “Home”

“Ditch of Death”

I-Corps™ Background • Leveraging NSF-lineage of previous support

• Small grants to focus on creating a commercialization

roadmap

• Quick assessment

• Team-based • Curriculum-focused

I-Corps™ Team • Entrepreneurial Lead Post-doc or Student to move it forward

• I-Corps Mentor Domain-relevant & business-savvy, volunteer guide Proximity is preferred

• PI Researcher with current or previous award

I-Corps Grant Details

9% Course Tuition

10% F&A to Award Institution

81% Reasonable Efforts to Advance Commercial Readiness

Efforts may include, for example: •Prototype Development •Travel (e.g. course, prospective customer) •Equipment purchase •Expenses discussed in proposal budget

Strongly Discouraged: •PI & Mentor Compensation •Legal Fees

$50, 000 $50, 000

$50, 000 $50, 000

The National Science Foundation

I-Corps™ Curriculum

• Based on hypothesis-driven business-model discovery Pioneered by Stanford and Steve Blank

• Focuses on addressing market risk

• Requires getting out of the lab

AT LEAST 15 hours of prep per week

• Mandatory for all I-Corps participants First 3 Days (at one of the five nodes) 5 follow-on webinars with team presentations 2 Days (lessoned learned)

I-Corps™ Approach • Emphasizes experiential learning and feedback • Challenges teams to create their own business model canvas • Values revision and continual improvement of business

development elements • Expects teams to be inquisitive, motivated and capable of self

management • Full contact immersive class

It’s all about SEARCHING for a business model… MUST get out of the building to test their hypotheses… CANNOT outsource commercialization…

NSF I-Corps™ Flow Diagram

Recruiting processes

(NSF)

Pool of eligible Teams (from NSF): • Entrepreneurial

Lead • PI • Mentor

Team Selection

(NSF)

Node Assignment

(NSF)

Awarded I-Corps Teams (NSF)

Curriculum Delivery &

Refinement (Nodes)

Customer Discovery

(Teams/Nodes)

Business Model

Canvasses (Teams)

“Go” Decision (Teams)

“No-Go” Decision (Teams)

Resource Infusion

Strategic Partnership

Private Capitalization

Public Funding (e.g., SBIR, STIR, …. )

Private Sector

A Hectic First Three Years: Results

States With At Least One NSF I-Corps™ Team

A Hectic First Three Years… • I-Corps™ Teams:

319 Teams have completed the curriculum

Start-Up creations: 163/319 One acquisition

SBIR/STTR awards from various agencies

Private investments received

Entrepreneurial curricula developed

Licensing out patents, copyrights, or trademarks

65% (105 companies)

36% (58 companies)

22% (35 companies)

12% (20 companies)

2% (3 companies)

Zero female team members

At least one female teammember

One female team member

Two female team members

Three female team members

Percentage of Female Team Members of Companies Created by I-Corps Teams (n = 163)

A Hectic First Three Years… • I-Corps™ Nodes:

Bay Area (UC-B, UCSF, Stanford) NYCRIN (CUNY, NYU, Columbia) DMV (UMD, GWU, VT) GTECH UMICH

• I-Corps™ Sites: Fifteen (15)

• I-Corps™ Partners: ARPA-E NIH (Pilot activity scheduled for October) Others

Data from I-Corps Longitudinal Survey Round 1 (2011 and 2012 cohorts only)

I-Corps Influence on Career

Level 1 – Regional Training

Level 2 – Develop Tools and Resources

Level 3 – Blue Sky Research

Deliver a training program at least once a year, across disciplines

Build teams of students, faculty, researchers and other local/regional stakeholders

Deliver the curriculum to NSF’s I-Corps teams

Compile assessment and evaluation data

Engage members from the local investment community

Develop near-term tools and resources

Identify models of effective innovation content, curricula, and teaching practices

Utilize a logic model to measure and analyze any commensurate changes/ success/achievements

Further build entrepreneurial capacity in the node environments

Identify and pursue longer-term R&D projects

Leverage and analyze data from Levels 1&2

Research how institutions can improve support for innovation ecosystems

Examine and track the I-Corps teams’ outcomes

Develop methods for scaling effective practices

Explore collaborations to support commercialization - independent of geographic location

Node Activities Creating a National Innovation Network

Lessons Learned

What Have We Learned? • Instructors – “Process” versus “Consulting” • “Adjunct Faculty” versus “Core” Teaching Team • Emotional Issues • Under-Performers versus High Performers • Mentor Pool as a National Resource • Past faculty recipients encouraging junior faculty participation • Scale-up: Local (NSF) and national inter-governmental coordination • Students report employability is enhanced by their participation in I-

Corps™ • Influence of I-Corps™ on careers • Others?

Curriculum Delivery &

Refinement (Nodes)

Customer Discovery

(Teams/Nodes)

Business Model

Canvasses (Teams)

Curriculum Delivery Oversight + Team, Teaching and Venue Oversight + Counseling/Advising Breakout Sessions + Tracking WebEx and Launch Pad Central + Lessons Learned + … it’s all about maintaining the consistency and quality of the educational experience.

Mentor Sessions

EL Sessions

PI Sessions

Oversight of “NSF I-Corps branding” is essential …

Success Stories

New way to organize, browse and share your photos.

Acquired by Dropbox!

Developed software to annotate a large number of images quickly and accurately

Combining human input with an annotation algorithm Facilitate image analysis

Founders Serge Belongie Professor at UC San Diego Peter Welinder Award-winning research in computer vision, machine learning and crowdsourcing. Boris Babenko Co-founder of @Anchovi Labs, Inc.

CISE Lineage

… Bio-Adhesive Alliance was selected as the $25,000 grand prize winner. The start-up company is a spin-out from NC A&T State University that has developed an innovative technology to produce liquid asphalt from swine manure. According to the company, “This technology provides a sustainable and cost-effective solution to swine manure treatment while reducing pavement construction and maintenance cost.” The Bio-Adhesive Alliance team completed the National Science Foundation’s commercialization program known as I-Corps.

Bio-Adhesive Alliance

ENG Lineage

The MadiDrop: A Novel Silver-Ceramic Tablet for Household-Level Water Purification

• A silver-impregnated porous ceramic tablet for household-level (point-of-use) water purification

• 103 customer discovery interviews

• Consumer segments ranging from large aid agencies to the hiker/camper market

• In Summer 2013, began its first field study on the technology in Limpopo Province, South Africa, enrolling 80 households

• A pilot production facility in Charlottesville, Virginia

ENG Lineage

“Smart and yummy educational animations, mini–games, and interactive tools that help mid-school learners better understand math concepts.” New Mexico State University

EHR Lineage

I-Corps: The Charge Tracker (University of Michigan Ann Arbor) – AGS/GEO Lineage

They started I-Corps with….

Nilton Harvey

Dave Gus

They ended I-Corps with….. a business

a team… a technology… The Charge TrackerTM capable of locating electric charge buildup on objects located tens of feet away from it.

$1.6 Million funding from NASA and NSF since June 2007

and a lot of ideas…

R.Montelli Ph.D., September 23, 2013

…and the startup received a microloan from the Michigan Microloan Fund Program ($50k), and received a NSF-SBIR Phase I ($150k)

Stephen DiMagno's fundamental research in chemistry has led to developing a new way to make imaging agents for staging and managing certain cancers, including pediatric cancers, cardiac disease, as well as various neurological disorders, like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. University of Nebraska - Lincoln Department of Chemistry

Researcher founds company that manufactures molecules that become imaging

agents for managing cancer, cardiac disease and neurological disorders.

MPS Lineage

What is new in I-Corps™?

What is I-Corps L? I-Corps L: Innovation Corps for Learning Question: Can the I-Corps™ course designed for start-up technological innovations help propagate scalable and sustainable learning innovations in the engineering education ecosystem? Goals: • Propagate scalability and sustainability of learning innovations initially

funded by NSF grants • Foster an entrepreneurial mindset within the education community to

impact the way innovations are designed and implemented

33 I-Corps L Timeline

Example of Sustaining & Scaling Success

A Project that is a Program:

Thank You !