23Apr
17Apr
2024 Top 100 US Universities Announced by the National Academy of Inventors
Three institutions from the NSF I-Corps Hub: Desert and Pacific Region were named to the National Academy of Inventors’ 2024 list of Top 100 U.S. Universities Granted Utility Patents: UC San Diego (part of the Regents of the University of California) ranked #2, Arizona State University ranked #9, and the University of Arizona ranked #31. The full list of ranked universities is available in the article below. Read full article
26Mar
Top 5 Lessons Learned from Participating in NSF I-Corps
By Cristy Salanga, Patent Manager, and I-Corps Program Director Northern Arizona University Embarking on the NSF I-Corps journey is an eye-opening experience for researchers and entrepreneurs alike. The program pushes participants to step out of their comfort zones, engage with real customers, and rethink how they approach innovation. Here are five key lessons learned from participating in NSF I-Corps: 1. Customers Are Your Compass One of the biggest takeaways from I-Corps is that your customers—not your assumptions—should guide your decisions. You may start a course thinking you know what your customers need, but many times, this assumption is off base from their true problems and needs. Through customer discovery interviews, you’ll learn what your target customer truly values, helping you align your product with their needs. 2. Be Ready to Pivot Innovation rarely follows a straight line. Many participants enter the course with a clear idea of their product’s purpose, only to discover that their initial assumptions of who would buy in to their solution were off target. I-Corps teaches you to embrace feedback and pivot toward better opportunities. 3. Feeling Uncomfortable Means You’re Doing It Right Customer discovery is a rewarding and insightful process, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy journey! Reaching out to initiate conversations and talking to strangers can be daunting, and fortunately, it gets easier the more you do it! If you are feeling uncomfortable, you’re doing it right and getting out of your comfort zone. The program instills a mindset of constant learning and iteration, encouraging participants to remain curious, adaptive, and customer-focused...
13Mar
Triton Alumni Shine on 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 List
UC San Diego alumnus Sai Zhou is pushing the boundaries of med tech innovation. A former I-Corps participant and founder of CircuCare Inc., Zhou is revolutionizing patient care with a hands-free, wearable ultrasound device for continuous cardiovascular imaging. His entrepreneurial journey, shaped by UC San Diego’s Institute for the Global Entrepreneur, has earned him a spot on the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 Science list. Read more about how Zhou is transforming research into real-world impact. Read full article
17Feb
Customer Discovery: The Core of NSF I-Corps
Cristy Salanga, Patent Manager, and I-Corps Program Director Northern Arizona University Entrepreneurs and innovators often fall into a common trap: assuming they know what their customers want. While passion and conviction are essential, they can sometimes blind us to the realities of the market. That’s where customer discovery comes in. Whether you're thinking about developing a new technology or launching a niche product, customer discovery can mean the difference between success and failure. Here, we’ll explore what customer discovery is, why it’s crucial, and how NSF I-Corps helps teams master this critical skill. What is Customer Discovery? At its heart, customer discovery is a process of validating your assumptions about the market, your customers, and their problems. It involves directly engaging with potential customers to understand their needs, pain points, and decision-making processes in the use and adoption of new products (or services). Rather than building a product based on your own assumptions, customer discovery ensures you’re solving a real problem for a specific customer. The process is rooted in the lean startup methodology, which emphasizes iterating based on feedback rather than following a plan based on just what you think. Why is Customer Discovery Important? Avoid Wasting Resources: Building a product or service without validating your assumptions about the problem, the scope and scale of the problem you purport to solve and for whom, and market realities can be expensive and time-consuming. Customer discovery helps you refine your idea before committing significant resources. Understand Customer Needs: Talking to potential customers reveals their true problems and priorities, often uncovering...
13Feb
Charge your vehicle with BreatheEV
Max Bregman, founder of BreatheEV, took his venture through the I-Corps program, using customer discovery to refine his vision for sustainable EV charging solutions. Now, his work is making an impact at ASU and beyond! Read full article
28Jan
New year, same you (and that’s okay!)
Ji Mi Choi NSF I-Corps Hub: Desert and Pacific Region Director The beginning of a new year is often the time people make resolutions to start doing new things or stop doing old things. We often hear, read, and see things like New Year’s resolutions to exercise more or drink alcohol less—Dry January anyone? And at the beginning of the year, there is a proliferation of articles and lists like top ten lists—‘top ten ways to eat healthier’, or ‘top ten ways to stop procrastinating’, or ‘top five harmful habits to break’. A concomitant part of the ‘new year, new resolutions’ narrative is failure—so much so that the second Friday in January has become known, harshly in my opinion, as “Quitter’s Day”. Thank goodness we are past January 10th! Since failed resolutions are often attributed to setting unrealistic expectations, some resources advise us to start small: to commit to one step or one part of a larger objective to avoid becoming a quitter or getting derailed before we can even really start. In my experience supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, three commonalities I have encountered from people of all types are: 1) there’s a problem to be solved or an improvement to be made, 2) there’s a hope that someday, they’ll be the one to do that, and 3) there are pre-conditions whether it’s more money or more time for that someday to be today. The NSF I-Corps™ program is specifically designed to support that ‘someday’ being now. Through just a four-session, live online course,...
15Jan
10 years of I-Corps: NSF entrepreneurship training program impacts the economy and shapes careers
NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan shares his personal experience as an I-Corps participant. Read full article
27Nov
NSF names three new I-Corps Hubs expanding the National Innovation Network across the U.S.
NSF I-Corps Hubs now include 128 colleges and universities across the country Read full article
23Sep