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倡议，以促进以市值为中心的研究，并在高增长技术领域发展更多样化的劳动力。通过鼓励教师与芝加哥技术生态系统中的行业专业人员紧密合作，并建立基础设施，文化和流程以支持这一点，Techforward旨在激发教师将他们的研究活动引导到应对关键社会挑战。与教师与行业专业人员进行翻译的研究还应增强技术转移的速度和效率，最终通过更快地将创新推向市场来使社会受益。 Techforward还将解决技术领域代表性不足的问题。认识到多样性和包容性是创新和进步的关键驱动力，TechForward将揭示出代表性不足的人群，包括第一代大学生和其他学习者来自芝加哥大都会地区多元化背景的其他学习者，以实现高增长技术领域的商业化实践经验。 Techforward对芝加哥人口种族多样性的关注非常重要。黑人和拉丁裔创始人仅占城市技术创始人的6％的事实强调了差异，这不仅限制了代表性不足的群体的经济机会，而且还阻碍了科技行业从更广泛的角度和才能中受益。伊利诺伊州理工学院在布朗兹维尔（Bronzeville）的位置，其中86.6％的居民是黑色的，它处于直接解决此问题的独特位置。该项目旨在通过利用芝加哥技术生态系统的行业专业人士的经验来加速伊利诺伊州科技的使用启发性研究，并在伊利诺伊州科技公司的intrepreneprenehip和Insovations and Insovations and Insovations and Insovations and Insovations and Insovations and Insovations and Insovations and Insovations and Insovation and Insovation and Inserovations。这些资源将建立开发市场驱动流程以识别，评估和推进种子翻译的研究项目的能力。 Techforward目标将至少40％的种子转换为商业机会，这是在选择加速项目后的2年内通过协商许可来衡量的。该项目将通过在研究商业化方面创建经验丰富的培训计划来培养芝加哥高增长技术领域的潜水人才库，该计划专为寻求学位的学生和非学位寻求从芝加哥大都市地区提供代表性不足的个人而设计。所有学习者都将通过商业化培训计划进行培训，并通过身体或在线交付，然后巩固以申请与教师和经验丰富的行业专业人员合作，以推进种子翻译研究项目。到项目持续时间结束时，TechForward将为至少150个寻求学生和100个代表性不足的非级寻求学习者提供商业化培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准通过评估来评估的支持。