A place where innovators thrive

As the year draws to a close I was reflecting on the impressive work of our talented Carolina community in 2011. A little more than a year after the launch of Innovate@Carolina and the release of the Innovation Roadmap, we have accomplished much.  Yet it is just the beginning.  Students, faculty and staff from literally every conceivable area across campus have answered Chancellor Thorp’s call to innovate for the greater good, sparking our imagination for what’s possible and helping our campus community think differently about the world.  

In this work I get to meet with so many people, and I am continually inspired by their drive and passion to help find solutions to big problems.  From the discovery of a way to stop the transmission of AIDS, to pushing new boundaries in developing a nanoparticle vaccine for prostate cancer, Carolina innovators are hard at work.  And, those not in the sciences are looking at their work through a new lens asking how they can better translate their knowledge and push the traditional boundaries.

In 2012, Innovate@Carolina will be ramping up our efforts to make sure you know their stories. We will launch version 2.0 of our website with more content on the day-to-day innovation and entrepreneurship activities and results coming out of UNC.  You will be able to sign up for enhanced newsletters and join the conversation on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. We want to hear from you as we all work together to ensure that Carolina is a major force in translating its knowledge to practical benefit.

In the meantime, here are some highlights from the past year.  Enjoy!

UNC's Myron Cohen leads major advances to stop the transmission of AIDS     

Engineering a new generation of Vaccines, UNC spin-off Liquidia continues to attract investors and UNC scientist and entrepreneur Joseph DeSimone, Ph.D., joined an elite list of speakers at this year’s TEDMED Conference in San Diego

Big win! UNC spin-off Entegrion receives $43.7 million from DoD to develop plasma substitute

Synereca Pharmaceuticals grows out of innovator Scott Singleton's research group in UNC's School of Pharmacy

UNC's Med School working more closely with B-School, names Cam Patterson Associate Dean for Health Care Entrepreneurship   

And the Chancellor’s Student Innovation Team was hard at work bringing UNC’s student talent to broader audiences through Carolina Creates.  Don’t miss the incredible lineup of speakers and ideas they’ve organized for TEDxUNC January 21.

Investing in human capital

Last week I attended an important event co-hosted by Chancellor Thorp and Chancellor Randy Woodson from N.C. State. "A Way Forward: Building a Globally Competitive South" (full report produced by UNC’s Global Research Institute here) brought together leaders from across the region to consider the Triangle’s progress over the past 26 years, and look at strategies for helping North Carolina strive in the coming decades.

One theme that emerged in the conversations that afternoon, which goes hand in hand with our culture of innovation here are Carolina, is the importance of investing in human capital. Talent. How we get it, how we keep it, how we support it. From Smart Start to K-12 to North Carolina’s top community college system to our institutions of higher education, our investments in human capital pay off in a highly-prepared workforce, an innovation economy and a healthy society.

Here at UNC, our faculty and student body represent a wealth of human capital, ready to unleash their intellectual abilities to create solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. What do they need to thrive? Here are some ways that UNC’s investment in its human capital is yielding big results:

Reducing the transmission of AIDS

Helping middle and high-school students find their voice and showcase their talent

Delivering "mega results" with nanotechnology

Feeding the education pipeline — here and here

Making sports safer for young athletes — here and here

Just a few of the ways Carolina's human capital is changing our world.

Innovative research

“Research is an expression of faith in the possibility of progress. The drive that leads scholars to study a topic has to include the belief that new things can be discovered, that newer can be better, and that greater depth of understanding is achievable. Research, especially academic research, is a form of optimism about the human condition.” -- Henry Rosovsky

This quote by Henry Rosovsky was used by Joe DeSimone in a recent presentation, and it nicely describes the relationship between research and innovation. At a research university like Carolina, they are inseparable. Research is the foundation for our change-making innovations, and a university that accelerates innovations regularly puts important research to use. A quick scan around campus produced some diverse and exciting examples of the ways that Carolina faculty and students are demonstrating the 'possibility of progress' through their work: 

• A RENCI research software developer creates tool to map the reach of UNC's research impact 
• Making surprising connections, an undergraduate researcher explores music as therapy for chronic pain
• At Kenan-Flagler Business School, a researcher looks at the science behind high-performing teams
• And in the evolutionary battle between plants and the diseases that threaten them, flora gets the upper hand thanks to new research techniques.

 

Hot summer innovations

It's August first, and, with the hot temperatures outside I thought we could use some cool innovation news from on campus and around the globe:

-Innovating to solve the world’s biggest problems? UNC wins $32 million federal grant to eradicate AIDS. http://global.unc.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2260&Itemid=94

-UNC hosts camp that helps young entrepreneurs build "app"-titude: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/18/1351027/technology-camp-builds-app-titude.html

 -Fostering community innovation is critical to our own innovation pipeline.  Carolina joins a national collaboration to make that possible. http://www.gig-u.org/

-UNC Entrepreneur in Residence and Huffington Post blogger Buck Goldstein scopes out Google’s secret to creating an innovative environment: foster joy and curiosity:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/buck-goldstein/google-new-york-headquarters_b_913072.html

-And 30 years ago, their innovation forever changed how we “listen” to music: Happy Birthday MTV. http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/aug/01/mtv-30-years

Enjoy!

Innovation-related recent news

Just in time for the first day of summer, here are some innovation-related stories that you may have missed this spring:

-The Kenan Institute has posted an interview with entrepreneur Ping Fu, head of GeoMagic Inc., who serves (along with Chancellor Holden Thorp) on President Obama's National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). Check it out here.

-And speaking of the chancellor, he spoke recently at TEDx Chapel Hill about how the world needs universities to solve its greatest problems. Watch his presentation at the Varsity Theatre here.

-And speaking of entrepreneurs, Carolina's own Ted Zoller speaks about the science of startups, here.

-Grants are available for local governments and school districts who want to make technology-based innovations to improve citizens' lives. All the details, including application deadlines, are here.

Can a social venture be financially self-sustaining?

Recently, a local radio program, The State of Things, discussed innovation on college campuses. Most of the hour-long show focused on efforts at N.C. State University, including the Garage, an on-campus business incubator for student entrepreneurs.

Carolina’s own Micah Gilmore, Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Innovation, was a guest on the program. He said that entrepreneurs are still learning how to apply skills learning in profit-making ventures into the nonprofit world.

Question to Micah Gilmore from host Frank Stasio: Can all socially responsible ideas be for-profit ventures? Is there a place in the world for nonprofit? How do you see things working with those two worlds – the nonprofit world and the smaller profit world?

Micah Gilmore: That’s exactly the question. For us, and the work I do at UNC, it’s really about helping students understand ways in which to generate revenue for their ventures. But more importantly, there are things that need doing in terms of the larger societal impact piece that are not profitable. It’s not profitable to provide education to low-income students, or to give medical care to folks that don’t have insurance. There’s no way to really make money doing that. So the question for social innovation is: How do we take what we’re learning in the entrepreneurship space and really translate that to the context that really can impact the larger societal problems? So, job creation is a piece of that, but it’s not the end-all be-all in terms of solutions for our society.

Looks like there is opportunity for innovation in social entrepreneurship.

 

Kenan-Flagler Business School to host 'boot camp' for female, minority entrepreneurs

UPDATE: it appears this event has been canceled.

What a fantastic idea. The three-day boot camp (June 8-10) costs $95 ($115 after May 24).

"Going Global: An Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Minority Female Students” is designed for female undergraduate students from North Carolina and surrounding states who have interests in business and entrepreneurship. It is a program of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

More information, including registration and contacts, can be found here.

Video from the Case-Deshpande visit

Do you have an IT-related business that needs funding?

Carolina Launch Pad, UNC's pre-commercial business accelerator program, is now taking applications.

Deadline: April 11.

Who should apply: aspiring IT entrepreneurs who are part of the UNC community (faculty, staff, students) and who have not yet developed their business ideas into funded startups.

Social entrepreneurship in turbulent times

We are so honored and pleased to welcome the President's National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) at Carolina today. We also thank the council's co-chairs, Gururaj  "Desh" Deshpande and Steve Case, who spoke yesterday to students about their many experiences as entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

More events discussing, examining and celebrating different aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship are happening all the time on the Carolina campus. Here is another one:

Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Nourish International and UNC Student Government present

“The Social Entrepreneur's Dilemma: Creating Change in Turbulent Times”

Cheryl Dorsey
President, Echoing Green

Monday, March 21
5:30 p.m., reception to follow
Nelson Mandela Auditorium, FedEx Global Education Center


RSVP to rsvpkenan@unc.edu

www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/TurbulentTimes

Students: a design competition for you

The Carolinas Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) announces the Carolinas Student Product Design Competition 2011.

Who: Students at colleges in North and South Carolina are eligible to submit a design a new product or service of their own creation to the Carolinas Student Product Design Competition 2011. Submissions will be judged based on originality, feasibility, and market potential of the product or service concept. Submissions may come from individuals or teams who developed the product during Fall 2010 or Spring 2011. Submissions will be evaluated by experienced new product developers and product management professionals from Carolinas PDMA and Enventys (http://enventys.com).

Awards:

·         Graduate and Undergraduate categories, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams.

·         Cash and services totaling $10,000 divided between the winning teams. Details to follow.

Winners will receive an invitation to present their product or service at the Innovate Carolina conference in Charlotte on April 15. Teams will have two hotel rooms reserved for them at the conference hotel.

Dates
·         Intent to submit, with team members’ names and brief concept description: March 1, 2011

·         Deadline for submission: April 1

·         Announcement of winners and invitation to present: April 8

·         Conference and presentation of awards: April 15

Entries should be submitted in PDF or Word formats.

Sponsors
Enventys, the Charlotte-based product innovation company, is helping sponsor this event.

PDMA is the premier advocate and comprehensive resource for the profession of product development and innovation. http://www.pdma.org/chapter_home.cfm?pk_chapter=7

Additional criteria will be posted on the Carolinas PDMA and Innovate Carolina 2011 conference web sites. http://innovatecarolina.wordpress.com/

For more information, contact Carl Turner, Ph.D., PMP
VP of Academic Outreach, Carolinas PDMA
cturner3rd@hotmail.com

Join us as we discuss the entrepreneurial university

Next week, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp will be a featured speaker at The Atlantic Monthly's "Jobs and the Economy" summit in Washington, D.C. The Feb. 9 event at the Newseum will be webcast live at this site. Hope to see you there, in person or online.

UPDATE, Friday, Feb. 4: We now have more details about the event. It is called "Finding Work, Finding Our Way: Building the Economy & Jobs of the Future," and will run from 8 a.m. to noon. We are excited that UNC-Chapel Hill and Miami University of Ohio are the only two universities invited to participate. Chancellor Thorp will speak to the group, our students have submitted videos on innovative projects, and a handful of students will attend in person and virtually. For all the details, see this UNC news release.

Hello, I'm your guide to innovation at Carolina

I'll be blogging here from time to time, hopefully pointing you to links about innovation at Carolina, and elsewhere. Let's get started. The University Gazette (the faculty-staff newsletter for the Carolina campus) published a profile introducing me to campus. If you wish, read it here.