Michigan I-Corps: Transforming University Research into Real-World Impact

On October 11, 2024, The Center for Entrepreneurship’s Michigan I-Corps program kicked off. Twenty teams of researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs began their journey learning about customer discovery, value propositions, and other foundational commercialization topics.

Michigan’s I-Corps program is a free, virtual course funded by the US National Science Foundation that helps university innovators discover if there is a commercial need for their innovation. The program challenges participants to get out of the building and interview potential customers and industry stakeholders. This way, participants can discover what customers need, and more importantly, are willing to pay for.

“I-Corps gives participants the opportunity to get out of the building and learn from industry and potential customers. Although this can be challenging at first, the program offers participants invaluable opportunities to learn from industry professionals and other stakeholders. As an instructor, it’s incredibly rewarding to see innovators integrate these practical insights into their research and commercialization efforts.”

Dr. Daniela Koniczek

I-Corps Instructor

The University of Michigan is the lead institution in the Great Lakes I-Corps Hub. The Hub, comprising 16 Midwest Universities, aims to educate scientists and engineers on the basic tenets of innovation. This enables more impactful careers, more opportunities, and economic growth across the Midwest.

Let’s take a look at one of the teams and their innovative technology:

University of Michigan Mechanical Engineering PhD student Chenyi Zhu is working on technology that can enable snow to be created at a warmer temperature. Snowmaking is critically important for ski resorts, and higher temperatures remain one of their biggest challenges for efficient operations. So far during I-Corps, she has interviewed ski resorts and snowmaker manufacturers. She hopes to use the insights from I-Corps to focus her PhD research to develop the technology further for an eventual application.

Our Fall program wraps up on November 22nd. Interested in joining the next I-Corps cohort? Check out our website: Great Lakes I-Corps Hub