I-Corps Sites: Bridging the Gap: Dartmouth's I-Corps Site for Translating Science and Technology Discoveries to Value

达特茅斯学院的这个项目创建了一个创新团队网站。美国国家科学基金会创新队（I-Corps）站点是由美国国家科学基金会资助的实体，建立在大学里，其目的是培养和支持多个本地团队，将他们的技术概念转化为市场。网站提供基础设施、建议、资源、网络机会、培训和适度的资金，使团体能够将他们的工作转化为市场或成为I-Corps团队的申请人。I-Corps站点还加强地方和区域创新，并为由导师、研究人员、企业家和投资者组成的国家创新网络做出贡献。达特茅斯学院的I-Corps网站为90-112个由学生、教师、研究人员和导师组成的团队提供密集的创业培训，这些培训遵循精益启动平台（Lean LaunchPad）的课程和资源，用于发现客户和分析市场需求。该项目将校园内科学、工程、医学和学生项目的研究联系起来，所有这些都可能导致潜在的创新——达特茅斯大学的创业和技术转移办公室（OETT）提供了一系列创业服务。达特茅斯I-Corps网站的智力价值在于创建了一个一致的课程，帮助科学家、工程师和学生在如何在学术机构之外使用他们的发现的背景下构建他们的发现。该项目帮助新生企业家将他们的发现分为三类：继续进行学术探索，在参与项目发现的市场中寻求其用途，或者重新评估，以确定市场和需求是否存在于完全不同的领域。达特茅斯I-Corps网站的目标是吸引和装备更多的学生和各级研究人员——本科生、研究生、博士后和教师——将他们的发现从学术界转移到市场上。达特茅斯I-Corps精益启动平台研讨会每年在12月和6月的达特茅斯过渡期间举行两次。团队将研讨会作为跳板，并从赠款中获得种子资金，从研讨会开始，并在研讨会结束后的三个月内，进行客户发现，形成价值主张，并确定市场需求和规模。完成课程后，参与者准备重新思考他们的发现或继续商业化。如果一个团队认为一项发现具有商业价值，那么这个团队将很好地利用OETT、NSF I-Corps项目、达特茅斯校友支持网络、当地天使投资者和其他组织的支持。更广泛的影响：这个项目的更广泛的影响在于它的目标是创造一个促进创新的校园环境，培养能够理解并参与定义价值和确定需求的毕业生，因为他们开始了自己的职业生涯。达特茅斯大学在本科和研究生STEM项目中，未被充分代表的少数族裔和女性的入学率大大超过了全国平均水平；在目前的高级和初级工程课程中，女性分别占42%和48%，在已宣布的计算机科学专业中，女性占30%。理科一直招收大约50%的女性。这所工程学院于2008年设立了首个创新博士项目，毕业生中有30%是女性或少数族裔。达特茅斯I-Corps Sites项目的参与者来自达特茅斯艺术与科学学院和三所专业学院的课程和研究实验室，并将这些传统上未被充分代表的人群纳入创新中，作为项目活动的自然结果。为了将影响扩大到I-Corps赠款之后的年份，研究人员将利用项目成果寻求校友支持，以便每半年提供一次现场课程和种子基金项目。

This project, from Dartmouth College, creates an Innovation Corps Site.NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Sites are NSF-funded entities established at universities whose purpose is to nurture and support multiple, local teams to transition their technology concepts into the marketplace. Sites provide infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and modest funding to enable groups to transition their work into the marketplace or into becoming I-Corps Team applicants. I-Corps Sites also strengthen innovation locally and regionally and contribute to the National Innovation Network of mentors, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors.Dartmouth's I-Corps Site provides intensive entrepreneurial training following the Lean LaunchPad curriculum and resources for customer discovery and market need analysis to 90-112 teams of students, faculty, researchers, and mentors. The program bridges campus wide research in science, engineering, medicine, and student projects, all of which can lead to potential innovations - with Dartmouth's suite of entrepreneurial services offered through its Office of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer (OETT). The intellectual merit of Dartmouth's I-Corps Site is the creation of a consistent curriculum that helps scientists, engineers, and students frame their discoveries in the context of how they can be used outside of the academic institution. The program helps a nascent entrepreneurs to place their discovery into one of three categories: continued academic exploration, pursuit of its use within the market discovered through program participation, or reevaluation with the intent of determining whether a market and need exists in a completely different area. The objective of the Dartmouth I-Corps Site is to engage and equip more students and researchers at all levels - undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, and faculty - to move their discoveries out of academia and into the marketplace. Dartmouth I-Corps Lean LaunchPad workshops are held twice annually during Dartmouth's interim periods in December and June. Using the workshops as a springboard and seed funding from the grant, teams perform customer discovery, form a value proposition, and determine market need and size beginning with the workshop and for a three-month period following the workshop. After completing the program, participants are prepared to either rethink their discovery or move forward with commercialization. If a team concludes that a discovery has commercial value, the team will be well positioned to take advantage of the support of the OETT, the NSF I-Corps program, Dartmouth's alumni support network, local angel investors, and other organizations.Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of this program lie in its objective to create a campus environment that fosters innovation and produces graduates who understand and can engage in defining value and identifying need as they launch their careers. Dartmouth's enrollment of underrepresented minorities and women in its undergraduate and graduate STEM programs significantly exceed national averages; women represent 42% and 48%, respectively, of the current senior and junior engineering classes, and 30% of declared Computer Science majors. Sciences consistently enroll approximately 50% women. The engineering school's first-of-its-kind Ph.D. Innovation program, established in 2008, has graduated 30% women or underrepresented minorities. Feeders into Dartmouth's I-Corps Sites program come from courses and research laboratories from across Dartmouth's college of Arts & Sciences and three professional schools and all levels and engage these traditionally underrepresented populations in innovation as a natural outcome of the project activities. In order to broaden impact to the years beyond the I-Corps grant, investigators will use project outcomes to seek alumni support for offering of the Site curriculum and seed funding programs semi-annually.