There is no denying that publications are an important cornerstone of an academic’s career. But, there is a burgeoning group of researchers looking beyond publications. Prof. SangHyun Lee (Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Michigan) is one of those researchers.
“I saw there were some workshops introducing faculty and researchers to I-Corps, and I thought it was cool to see how the research we’d been doing could be applied to the real world,” said Lee. “I was looking at the seminars and thought I would try. I wanted to see what they looked like and if it could also be applied to my research.”
The I-Corps program, funded by the National Science Foundation, helps researchers take their innovative ideas from the laboratory into the market through commercialization. I-Corps, which has programs at the local and regional level as well as nationally, teaches researchers how to assess the impact of their research in the real world and determine potential market opportunity.
Shortly after Lee, whose research focuses on sensorless motion capture technology, discovered the program, he signed up and attended a workshop with the University of Michigan College of Engineering.