ART: Illinois Tech Forward Initiative

ART：伊利诺伊州科技前沿计划

• 批准号: 2331458
• 负责人: Maryam Saleh
• 金额: $ 600万
• 依托单位: Illinois Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2028-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2331458&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ART; Illinois; Tech; Forward; Initiative

The project supports the TechForward initiative at Illinois Tech to foster market-focused research and develop a more diverse workforce in high growth technology sectors. By encouraging faculty members to collaborate closely with industry professionals in Chicago’s tech ecosystem and building the infrastructure, culture and processes to support this, TechForward aims to inspire faculty to direct their research activities towards addressing critical societal challenges. Having faculty paired with industry professionals to translate their research should also enhance the speed and efficiency of technology transfer, ultimately benefiting society by bringing innovations to market faster. TechForward will also address the issue of underrepresentation in the tech sector. Recognizing that diversity and inclusivity are critical drivers of innovation and progress, TechForward will expose underrepresented populations, including first-generation college students and other learners from diverse backgrounds in the Chicago Metropolitan Region, to practical experiences in commercialization within high-growth technology sectors. TechForward's focus on the racial diversity of Chicago's population is of particular importance. The fact that Black and Latino founders represent only 6% of tech founders in the city highlights a disparity that not only limits economic opportunities for underrepresented groups but also hinders the tech sector from benefiting from a wider range of perspectives and talents. Illinois Tech's location in Bronzeville, where 86.6% of residents are Black, places it in a unique position to address this issue directly.This project aims to accelerate the translation of Illinois Tech’s use-inspired research by leveraging the experience of industry professionals from Chicago’s tech ecosystem and the programs and commercialization resources at Illinois Tech’s entrepreneurship and innovation hub to the technology transfer process. These resources will build the capacity to develop a market-driven process to identify, assess and advance seed translational research projects. TechForward targets converting at least 40% of the seed translational research projects into commercial opportunities as measured by negotiated licenses within 2 years after projects are selected for acceleration. The project will cultivate a diverse pool of talent within Chicago's high growth technology sector by creating experiential training programs in research commercialization, designed for both degree-seeking students and non-degree seeking underrepresented individuals from the Chicago Metropolitan region. All learners will be trained through a commercialization training program, delivered physically or online, then solicited to apply to work with faculty and experienced industry professionals to advance seed translational research projects. By the end of the project duration, TechForward will have provided commercialization training to at least 150 degree seeking students and 100 under-represented non-degree seeking learners.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目支持伊利诺伊理工学院的 TechForward 计划，鼓励教师与芝加哥科技生态系统中的行业专业人士密切合作，并建立基础设施、文化和流程，以促进以市场为中心的研究，并在高增长技术领域培养更加多元化的劳动力。为此，TechForward 旨在激励教师将他们的研究活动引导到关键的社会挑战上，将教师与行业专业人士配对来转化他们的研究成果，这也将提高技术转让的速度和效率，通过更快地将创新推向市场，最终造福社会。 TechForward 还将解决以下问题认识到多样性和包容性是创新和进步的关键驱动力，TechForward 将使芝加哥大都市区的第一代大学生和其他来自不同背景的学习者接触到高水平商业化的实践经验。 TechForward 对芝加哥人口种族多样性的关注尤为重要，黑人和拉丁裔创始人仅占该市科技创始人的 6%，这一事实突显了这一差距。不仅限制了代表性不足群体的经济机会，而且还阻碍了科技行业从更广泛的观点和人才中受益。伊利诺伊理工学院位于布朗兹维尔，该市 86.6% 的居民是黑人，这使其处于直接解决这一问题的独特地位。该项目旨在通过利用芝加哥科技生态系统行业专业人士的经验以及伊利诺伊理工学院创业和创新中心的项目和商业化资源，加速伊利诺伊理工学院的使用启发研究向技术转移过程的转化。 TechForward 的资源将建设开发市场驱动流程的能力，以识别、评估和推进种子转化研究项目，目标是在项目启动后 2 年内将至少 40% 的种子转化研究项目转化为商业机会（以谈判许可衡量）。该项目将通过创建研究商业化的体验式培训项目，为芝加哥大都市区的攻读学位的学生和非攻读学位的弱势群体培养多元化的人才。学习者将通过实体或在线形式的商业化培训计划接受培训，然后被邀请申请与教师和经验丰富的行业专业人士合作，以推进种子转化研究项目。在项目结束时，TechForward 将向以下人员提供商业化培训。至少 150 名寻求学位的学生和 100 名代表性不足的非学位学习者。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。