The Carnegie Mellon Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) has received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to establish an Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Site that will train entrepreneurial faculty and student teams to commercialize university STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) research and ideas.

The training program will implement a systematic and replicable agile startup methodology focused on customer discovery and product adaptation, and will include workshops, mentoring, funding for projects, and incubator space.

A model for promoting university innovation, entrepreneurship and regional growth, the CMU I-Corps Site will leverage CMU’s strengths and track record of success in fusing technology and entrepreneurship.

The principal investigator on the project is Lenore Blum, professor of computer science and co-director of the CIE. Co-PIs are Randal E. Bryant, dean of the School of Computer Science; Robert Dammon, dean of the Tepper School of Business; David Mawhinney, co-director of the CIE; and Robert Wooldridge, director of the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation.