How can we top a year that saw UNC talent bring international recognition for world-class work on stopping the spread of AIDS? Ask our entrepreneurial students, faculty and staff! Innovation is off to a great start for 2012 at Carolina.
Last weekend, the Chancellor’s Student Innovation Team and Carolina Creates led a sell-out crowd in thinking big to take on the world’s most pressing problems at TEDxUNC. With UNC’s Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence Dennis Whittle (co-founder of the World Bank’s Global Giving) as emcee, Chancellor Thorp laid out his vision for universities as the place to take on tough issues, and treated us to a performance with student musicians MipsoTrio. We heard from speakers as varied as Liquidia co-founder Joe DeSimone, WSJ Deputy Editor and J-School alum Alan Murray, and the captain of Afghanistan’s first women’s soccer team Shamila Kohestani. They expanded our thinking and challenged our hearts to do more, better. Check out student news site reesenews for video from the event.
Meanwhile, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and the RTP are all leading strategic conversations on how to strengthen local innovation ecosystems, attract more startups and investors, and grow the regional economy. And our friends at CED in Durham just released this important report on the State of NC’s Entrepreneurial Economy, authored by UNC researchers in public policy and planning.
Carolina is part of these discussions and working to lead through our programs. The CarolinaExpress License is fast-tracking faculty research start-ups. Carolina Kickstart and Launching the Venture continue to support UNC entrepreneurs. CarolinaChallenge is readying the next set of student enterprises, a new Social Innovation Incubator at the Campus Y will support the launch of social ventures, and we are building partnerships to help keep UNC start-ups local.
It promises to be a great year in Chapel Hill – stay tuned.
Judith Cone
Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
@innovateunc
