PRINCETON, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — An innovation hub at Princeton University is helping researchers from other schools in the region turn their ideas into business opportunities.
The program is called I-Corps, and its goal is to turn breakthroughs in the lab into products and services that can improve everyday life for everyone. Princeton is providing the training for researchers to think like entrepreneurs and bring their ideas to the market.
Rowan University is one of the program affiliates. Dr. Nidhal Bouaynaya, associate dean of Rowan's college of engineering, said this will help scientists and engineers in a variety of fields see innovation from a different angle to get the most out of their work.
"How to take a technology from the lab to commercialization," she detailed. "How to build a commercialization plan, how to talk to customers, how to build an evidence-based commercialization plan."
Related
Bouaynaya said she participated in a similar training years ago in Seattle, and it sort of rewired her brain.
"It transformed my vision also of research itself," she said. "Now, I actually don't see academic research disconnected from the marketplace. I actually see a two-way path basically. The academic research should serve the marketplace and the marketplace should influence our academic research."
Bouaynaya believes having this hub closer to home will bring obvious benefits and is excited to see how it influences the next generation of big thinkers.
Temple University, Rutgers University and the University of Delaware are also part of the program.