National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)

Invention to Venture (I2V) is a workshop series sponsored in part by The Lemelson Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation. Through I2V, the NCIIA offers workshops and conferences in technology entrepreneurship for science and technology students and faculty as well as others from the university and business communities. We produce these workshops in collaboration with universities around the United States.

Our introductory I2V teaches technology entrepreneurship basics, helps build networks, and provides a framework for moving ideas forward. Advanced and specialized I2V workshops are also available. Attend the I2V sessions at this annual meeting or visit www.invention2venture.org to learn more.

The RAPID Network is a rapid prototyping and product realization resource for NCIIA E-Teams. The online network, developed in collaboration with the Swanson Center for Product Innovation at the University of Pittsburgh, provides E-Teams with reduced cost prototyping and product realization services from facilities at a growing list of institutions offering a variety of resources. Learn more at www.nciia.org/resources.

The NCIIA has helped support the development of N2TEC—a National Science Foundation Partners-for-Innovation Project with the purpose of creating and implementing a national technology transfer and commercialization network to coordinate and provide a variety of resources and knowledge so that members, particularly underserved schools and communities, can collaborate and innovate. NSF provided a grant to the University of Southern California as the principal investigator on the project.

Individuals from NCIIA member institutions who are involved in a commercialization project can apply for access to the portal to take advantage of N2TEC’s collaboration tools and resources and to provide feedback and contribute to this growing community of practice focused on technology commercialization. Learn more at www.n2tec.org.

Assess is an online resource created in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh. A database of assessment tools and best practices, Assess is a resource in development as part of the NCIIA’s ongoing effort to assist member institutions in conducting high quality evaluation of curricular programs and the work of E-Teams, in order to help document the success of our outcomes.

The NCIIA Web site (www.nciia.org) houses a rich database of profiles of funded programs and E-Team projects, as well as in-depth curricular models analyzing the scope and effectiveness of funded courses and programs.

For institutions that need to create or adapt an intellectual property policy, www.nciia.org has a database of links to IP policies from our member institutions, as well as a primer on what to look for and consider in establishing an IP policy.

Further online reference materials include a developing bibliography and two student guidebooks (Getting Started as an Entrepreneur and The Entreclub Handbook, also available in print - see the Resource Materials page for more information).