Jun 5 2020

BSU Innovation-Corps Short Course - Final Presentations

1:00 PM - 5:00 AM

Bowie State University is launching its 2nd  NSF I-Corps Short Couse designed to take research ideas and innovations to market!

 

BSU 3-week Innovation-Corps™ Short Course will provide our faculty, students (doctoral, grad, and undergrad),  a new approach to accelerating research or idea with a $3,000 fund for customer discovery.

 

About I-Corps

The National Science Foundation Innovation-Corps enables teams of scientists, researchers, and engineers to explore the commercial potential of their research or innovation. By learning how to assess commercialization opportunities, teams gain a better understanding of their market, customers, competitors, and industry

 

Benefits of Participation

  • Develop entrepreneurial skills
  • Improve odds for commercial success of research or innovation
  • Validate your business model
  • Establish product-market fit
  • $3,000 grant for customer discovery
  • Achieve eligibility to apply for $50,000 I-Corps team grant

 

What You Will Learn

Teams will be introduced to the I-corps approach, and learn about business model development and the customer development process. Teams will also spend time outside the building, talking to customers, partners and competitors, and testing hypotheses. After the program, teams will present their findings from the customer development process and receive real-time feedback from the I-Corps teaching team.

 

What to expect

Day 1 - Introduction to I-corps and customer discovery (May 18, 2020, 1-5 PM)

The first class covers the key concepts of customer development and business model fit using the business model canvas. The class will also introduce the lean startup methodology, which uses the process of customer discovery through customer segmentation 

 

Day 2 - Business Thesis and product market fit (May 19, 2020, 1-5 PM)

Teams learn how to conduct competitive research and what the customer discovery process entails. Team lean best practices for successfully validating hypotheses from the I-Corps instructors 

 

Day 3 - Creating, Delivering and capturing Value (May 29, 2020, 1-5 PM)

Teams will get feedback on their customer interviews, customer segments, and business thesis. Teams will develop new hypotheses to develop their customer types, business thesis, and product-market fit 

 

Day 4  - Final Presentations (June 5, 2020, 1-5 PM)

Teams will present lessons learned and strategies discussed in the customer development journey. At this point, each team will have advanced along the customer development journey and will leave with a strategy for how to continue to build towards a commercial venture.

 

Team Composition

Students, faculty, and staff interested in translating their innovation and research into commercial ventures are encouraged to apply.

 

Application Deadline  May 6,  2020

Click here for the application and additional information

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An application is required to participate.

This is a free event.

If you have questions, contact Ayo Akinkube at aakinkugbe@bowiestate.edu.  

Location

Virtual

MD

Contact

Ayo

Website: https://www.bowiestate.edu/academics/special-programs/entrepreneurship-academy/i-corps/