Kunitz to Lead Next TechPort AfterHours

Dan Kunitz, executive director of the DC I-Corps Node, will present an information session Thursday, January 16, 2020, from 4 to 6 pm at the TechPort UAS Incubator at St. Mary’s County Regional Airport to describe the opportunities available to entrepreneurs through the NSF I-Corps programs.

The TechPort AfterHours briefing, I-Corps Info Session & Evidence Based Entrepreneurship, is open to the public. Register here to attend.

I-Corps is a National Science Foundation program designed to foster, grow, and nurture innovations regionally and nationally. The program provides real world, hands-on training on how to successfully incorporate innovations into successful products.

I-Corps’ goals are to:

• Create new ventures or roll out new products into new markets.
• Orient researchers and technology entrepreneurs towards solving problems that will benefit society.
• Learn the process of business model generation and customer discovery.

The I-Corps session, to be led by Mr. Kunitz, who is also a national instructor in NSF’s I-Corps program, is designed to explain the details of the I-Corps program. Included in the session will be information about funding opportunities available to participants during and after I-Corps.

Mr. Kunitz will present the principles of evidence-based entrepreneurship that provide the structure underpinning the I-Corps program.

The National Science Foundation I-Corps program prepares scientists and engineers to focus beyond a university laboratory. I-Corps is designed to accelerate the economic and societal benefits of NSF-funded, basic-research projects that are ready to move toward commercialization, according to its website. Mr. Kunitz will discuss these opportunities at the TechPort AfterHours session.

Through I-Corps, NSF grantees learn to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs.

TechTalk AfterHours I-Corps Info Session & Evidence Based Entrepreneurship will be held at the TechPort Hangar at 44185 Airport Road, California, MD 20619-1900.

TechPort is a key component of the Aviation Technology Park at St. Mary’s County Regional Airport. It is located next to the University of Maryland Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site, an international presence in the field of unmanned systems. The Test Site targets the transfer of knowledge and research capabilities. As a leading voice in the civil/commercial UAS field, the Test Site has created relationships across a wide variety of stakeholders and capabilities.

For more information on the opportunities at the growing technology park at St. Mary’s County Regional Airport, contact Ken Reed of S. Hunt Aero at [email protected], St. Mary’s County Regional Airport, 44174 Airport Road, California, MD 20619

To learn more about S. Hunt Aero, visit its Leader member page.