Preparing New Instructors to Deliver the I-Corps Curriculum to Scientists and Engineers: A Pilot Training Program

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LEAD INSTITUTION: National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)PROJECT DESCRIPTION The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program helps NSF-funded scientists and engineers develop skills in evaluating their research for potential practical, economically scalable applications. The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) is conducting a "train-the-trainer" workshop to help develop a scalable model that can support the planned expansion of the I-Corps program. The associated I-Corps training activity involves an eight-week course that exposes I-Corps teams to the Lean Launchpad business model design and customer development process (developed by Steve Blank). NCIIA, in cooperation with the founding members of the I-Corps teaching team, is providing a workshop to train six new instructors; while also conducting a formative evaluation of the instructor-training program.BROADER SIGNIFICANCEWorkshop participants are leaving with an expanded set of skills that give them the tools necessary to evaluate and translate research into applications that can benefit society. As a result of the training, participants are able to determine the commercial feasibility of technology derived from NSF-funded research. Feedback from the evaluation process is informing improvements in both the instructor-training program and the I-Corps curriculum, in an effort to help guide the future program expansion to greater numbers of teams in different regions across the nation. The workshop is training an initial a network of instructors who can improve and adapt the program model as it is disseminated to new institutions and regions.