CREST hosted two seminars on February 29, 2024 at the Grove School of Engineering as part of its Entrepreneurship and Business Development pillar activities. The first seminar was on National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) and the second seminar was on Entrepreneurship.
The seminar on NSF IUCRC provided insights into the program and how the City University of New York (CUNY) can participate. Barbara L. Ransom, Program Director, NSF Division of Research, Innovation, Synergies, and Education (GEO/RISE) served as the speaker and not only provided an overview of the program but also helped interested members learn about various resources as well as answer questions.
Commenting on the importance of the seminar, Dr. Reza Khanbilvardia said, “the seminar gave a unique opportunity to engage in a productive dialogue with NSF program director on the topic of research, innovation, and education ”
The second seminar helped the audience explore entrepreneurship as a path to put their science into practice. Barbara L. Ransom, Program Director, NSF Division of Research, Innovation, Synergies, and Education (GEO/RISE); Jose L. Pillich, Founder, IQSpatial and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technologies (CREST) Alum (2018); and Andoni Mourdoukoutas, Associate Director, City Innovations Collaborative served as speakers.
Mr. Harry Cikaneck provided an overview of the City University of New York (CUNY) resources to support entrepreneurship followed by Barbara L. Ransom provided insights into NSF funding opportunities supporting entrepreneurship and how the same may be leveraged. Further, Jose Pillich shed light on his perspective as a Ph.D. alum turned into Entrepreneur by Jose L. Pillich and Andoni Mourdoukoutas talked about the City Innovations Collaborative -a new organization to support life science and engineering entrepreneurship in West Harlem. Speakers enthusiastically answered questions from the audience and encouraged them to use the Entrepreneurship resources available to them. Recording of the seminar is available here.
