New opportunities at USC will give students and faculty from a variety of backgrounds a chance to explore their potential when it comes to turning their ideas into profitable products.
USC is now a National Science Foundation Innovation Corp Site, the first of its kind in the Palmetto State. In addition to a $500,000 grant for "innovation and entrepreneurship," the program allows participants to work in teams to develop new technologies. The teams learn how to develop a business model and a product.
Ehsan Jabbarzadeh, the I-Corp director within the College of Engineering and Computing, explained that the program goes far beyond campus. The teams who show the most potential will have a shot at advancing to national-level I-Corp events. They are also eligible for more grant money.
"Through this funnel we can help them move forward," he said. "It provides a process."
Although the ideas must be related to technology, any student or faculty member at USC's seven campuses can apply for the program. As such, the project's scope reaches far beyond the College of Engineering and Computing. Jabbarzadeh worked with Juliana Iarossi of the Darla Moore School of Business for over a year to bring I-Corp to USC.
"As an engineer myself, we cannot foresee how customers perceive [products], how to commercialize things effectively," he said. "That's [how] the business school helps us ... The collaboration is a must."
Iarossi is grateful for the chance to share what the Moore School has to offer with USC's other colleges.
"The fact of the matter is to do something, to take on these initiatives we are, one of us can't do it on our own," she said. "The business school has only one perspective of how to execute ideas, but the fact of the matter is that we don't know often how these things work, how to do them, what the solutions are."
One of the core components of the I-Corp program is mentorship for each team. Iarossi believes this aspect is greatly improved by the partnership between the College of Engineering and Computing and the Moore School.
"All of us need and rely on other people to give us advice, to help us how to do something we don't know how to do," she said. Iarossi also emphasized how the mentors help participants to network.
Jabbarzadeh and Iarossis' shared hope is that the nature of the I-Corp program will help to decrease the divide between the work being done by USC's various colleges.
"At USC there are a lot of siloed efforts to basically foster entrepreneurship ... just one NSF funded program would basically capture opening a lot of people from different colleges to work together" Jabbarzadeh said.
USC's I-Corp site is part of a node that is based at Georgia Tech but encompasses the Southeast. Teams from USC will work with others from Georgia Tech and other schools like the University of Alabama.
"I-Corp nodes basically are where different [I-Corp] sites collaborate," he said.
In addition to the I-Corp site, the College of Engineering and Computing is introducing a new masters of science program closely related to the I-Corp vision. Students who have a bachelor of science degree in a science or engineering based field can now spend one year earning a master's degree in technology innovation and entrepreneurial engineering.
These graduate students will learn about both the science and business sides of entrepreneurship. They'll also be encouraged to try to participate in I-Corp and take advantage of other opportunities like the USC Incubator and the USC Office of Economic Engagement.
"[It's] an avenue ... a pipeline of students who are gonna take advantage of I-Corp," Jabbarzadeh said.