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