Category: Economic Development Lab

Intentional Leadership in the Enterprise Innovation Institute

Juli Golemi recently completed the Leading Women@Tech program

Diversity, equity, and inclusion can sometimes seem like catch phrases that organizations use, but don’t really follow through on. At Georgia Tech, the Leading Women@Tech program, which is housed in Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI), is proving that the Institute doesn’t just talk the talk, it walks the walk.

Juli Golemi, at the introduction of cohort six (Photo: Kemi Griffin, Kemi Griffin Photography)

Leading Women@Tech provides women with the opportunity and curriculum to strengthen their leadership abilities, enhance personal and professional growth, and support overall career development, while facilitating connections among women across campus.

“A leadership program is important for women because leadership can be lonely and isolating,” said Pearl Alexander, IDEI’s executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. “And it’s probably one of the most challenging experiences that folks have. This investment helps support women in their career growth and advancement. A lot of programs are designed to grow skills. Ours is different in that we are seeking to help women increase their self-awareness. Any leader, male or female needs that. To be a really good leader, you have to know yourself well, know your strengths, your limitations, and possibilities.”

The development of women leaders has been shown to strengthen organizations and businesses, make them better places to work, and enhance the bottom line.

Juli Golemi, the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s director of Innovation Ecosystems in the Economic Development Lab (EDL), recently completed the program as part of the sixth cohort of women leaders.

“I really liked that it was a diverse group of speakers and a diverse group of participants,” Golemi said. “We all came from different backgrounds, representing different units, and we brought our own experiences.”

That diversity is one of the ways a cohort is selected, Alexander said.

The women leaders of the sixth cohort (Photo: Kemi Griffin, Kemi Griffin Photography)

“We develop the cohort with a number of variables in mind including diversity in perspective,” she said. “A lot of the value of the cohort is they’re growing together, they’re learning, and everyone contributes from their experience, from their knowledge base. That really shapes the power of the experience. With Juli, she had experience with international studies. She studied at a European university, as well as domestically. She’s part of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, which is doing some very innovative things.”

The two-month program, which paused during the pandemic, roared back to life last fall with 26 participants from across the Georgia Tech campus. Leading Women@Tech launched in 2016 as a result of feedback from the 2012 Climate Assessment Survey, which revealed a desire for more mentoring and networking opportunities for women at Georgia Tech. Since its launch, more than 120 women have participated in the program. It is offered to women at the director level and nominations for the next cohort will open in April.

“Our primary target year over year has been women in that director-level role, because they are the ones who have significant influence in the organization,” Alexander said. “They are usually leading very impactful initiatives, and they’re in the middle in terms of their career trajectories. It’s a pivotal time in their careers.”

The fall 2022 program consisted of in-person and online leadership development, hands-on activities to assess the participants personal leadership styles, and stress relievers including meditation practice.

“The hands-on skill-building sessions in the areas of emotional intelligence and storytelling were the highlights of the program for me,” Golemi said. “We also focused on the practice of mindfulness.  A spiritual teacher guided the group though a couple of meditation sessions. The practical approach of the sessions, followed by stimulating discussions made it an exceptional learning experience.”

The cohort may have completed the active part of the program, but as participants, they are members for life, and will be invited back to future events and programs.

“The program underscored the importance of being a mindful and an intentional leader,” Golemi said. “I lead a very diverse team, so keeping that cultural aspect in mind is where the intentional leading comes in. This program has provided me with the tools and skills necessary to intentionally lead my very talented team in achieving excellence.”

Lynne Henkiel Retires from Georgia Tech

Lynne Henkiel headshot
Lynne Henkiel has retired after 22 years of service to Georgia Tech. (PHOTO: Péralte C. Paul)

Lynne Henkiel, director of the Economic Development Lab in Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, has retired after 22 years of service.

“Lynne has been an integral part of why the Enterprise Innovation Institute has been so successful our economic development mission,” said David Bridges, vice president of the Enterprise Innovation Institute. “She has been an invaluable resource, friend, and mentor across our organization and a vital conduit in the application of research and education from Georgia Tech into our economic development programming and activities.”

As Georgia Tech’s globally recognized economic development arm, the Enterprise Innovation Institute is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive university-based program of tech startup entrepreneurship, ecosystem building and development, business services and consulting, international outreach, and student-focused engagement opportunities.

“Her commitment to serving Georgia, her tireless pursuit in bringing resources to our state and leveraging opportunities for greater economic impact embodies what we strive to do every day,” Bridges said. “She will be greatly missed, but she helped us build EI2 into what it is today and positioned us to expand our mission and scope in Georgia and beyond.”

Under her leadership, the Economic Development Lab in 2022 worked in all 159 of Georgia’s counties and one country overseas, helped its clients secure more than $134 million in capital investments, created or saved 65 jobs, and train 1,002 economic development professionals in continuing education certifications.

“It has been a wonderful privilege to have served the state of Georgia and to help fulfill Georgia Tech’s promise of progress and service,” Henkiel said. “Being part of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, collaborating with my colleagues to create new opportunities to maximize potential in communities and organizations across the state and the world has been an honor.”

With Henkiel’s retirement, which took effect February 1, the Economic Development Lab, which assists governments, communities, foundations, and entrepreneurs, is being apportioned into two separate groups.

The Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR), which provides economic and fiscal impact and labor market analyses, strategic planning, and professional development, will now operate as a separate program. Alfie Meek, Ph.D., will continue to serve as its director. CEDR staff will continue to operate the Economic Development Research Program (EDRP) which offers affordable economic development and policy research to communities.

To address expanding demand from international organizations, governments, companies, and universities, as well as Georgia’s economic business environment the Enterprise Innovation Institute is creating a new program group — EI2 Global.

That program will be led by Juli Golemi. It will include Innovation Ecosystems, which helps launch, operate, and sustain success entrepreneurship and innovation programs; the EDA University Center, which supports strategic building of innovation clusters and regional economic ecosystems across the southeastern U.S.; and Soft Landings, which helps foreign companies evaluate and assess their pathways into the U.S. market.

Prior to leading the Economic Development Lab, Henkiel was director of Innovation Ecosystems. She also was the primary awardee for the EDA University Center grant to Georgia Tech for the last two award periods. She also received the EDA Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) I6 award in 2014 among other funding grants focused on developing healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems.

During her tenure at Georgia Tech, she developed incubation health and community innovation assessment tools, and she  was the driving force in the development of the Soft Landings program.

Henkiel’s career at Georgia Tech started with a focus on commercializing innovations from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the Stennis Space Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center.

In that role she worked with startup companies that licensed NASA technology, collaborated with entrepreneurs to help them overcome their early-stage pitfalls, and developed educational programming to bolster their success. In addition, she managed the dual-use industry partnerships for the Marshall Space Flight Center, which involved working with large and startup businesses.

Henkiel’s reach at Georgia Tech went beyond the Enterprise Innovation Institute as she created the U.S. Expansion Practicum course at Tech’s Scheller College of Business. That program partnered MBA students with successful business owners — Georgia Tech alumni among them — focused on U.S. business expansion.

A globally recognized ecosystem building expert, Henkiel has been called on to make presentations and write articles for groups and publications here in the United States and around the world.

Most recently, she led the Innovation and Technology Commercialization Professional course in China and Tunisia and efforts to expand the course for Spanish, French, and Arabic-speaking countries.

She is an active member of the Technology Association of Georgia’s International Society Board, and a board member of the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA).

Henkiel earned her master’s degree in the Management of Technology from the University of Miami, and had an extensive career in finance with IBM prior to joining Georgia Tech.

Meet Your New Colleagues

With remote work continuing, it’s often hard to get to know one another, especially for new employees. So, we’re looking for new ways to make connections. Meet this month’s two new employees, Ward Broom and Alberto Ponce. If you run into them or someone else you don’t know at a meeting or on Zoom or Teams, introduce yourself. Work relationships are important to well-being, and this is just one way to help cultivate those relationships.

Ward Broom, Automation & Robotics Catalyst, Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)

Ward Broom

Ward will oversee the ATDC Automation and Robotics Program — sponsored by Amazon Robotics. He will recruit startups, coach and mentor them, and market the program to those entrepreneurs looking to build and scale technology companies in the robotics or automation sectors.

A triple graduate of Georgia Tech, Ward earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and an Executive MBA. One of his sons is also a Tech grad with degrees in civil engineering and computer science.

He loves golf and travel – especially trips to the North Carolina mountains, where he can indulge both passions. His wife is a writer and his older son graduated from the Citadel and serves in the Army.

Alberto Ponce, Associate Project Manager, Economic Development Lab (EDL)

Alberto Ponce

Alberto will work in the Innovation Ecosystems group to support projects that develop entrepreneurship ecosystems in Latin America and assist with the Soft Landings program that helps foreign companies navigate their way into the U.S. market.

Alberto has experience running entrepreneurship programs and as an entrepreneur himself. Most recently, he served as the innovation center coordinator at the Medical Center of the Americas in El Paso, Texas.

A native of Mexico, Alberto exercises his creativity in his off time. He enjoys reading, watching classic and contemporary films, listening to music, and playing chess.

With a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico, Alberto looks forward to working on projects that help enrich communities around the world.

Jan Youtie Retires from Tech After 30 Years of Service

Family brought Jan Youtie to Georgia Tech. Her husband had a long history with the Institute, and she had always been impressed by his friends from Tech. She was also no stranger to Georgia universities, having received a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in political science from Emory University and worked at Kennesaw State University as the assistant director of the A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research.

In January 1992, Youtie began her own Georgia Tech journey as a senior research associate with the Economic Development Institute, now the Enterprise Innovation Institute, or EI2. She joined forces with the School of Public Policy (SPP) in 1998 as an adjunct associate professor.

In her time at Georgie Tech, Youtie has made notable contributions to economic development in Georgia and internationally, as well helping mentor more than 100 School of Public Policy students.

Jan Youtie.

“Jan is a very thoughtful and kind person who always wants the best for our team. She has a quiet demeanor with a deep wealth of knowledge and common sense that is a rare find these days,” said Lynne Henkiel, director of EI2’s Economic Development Lab.

Now, after 30 years of service to Georgia Tech, Youtie has retired.

Most recently, she served as director of policy research services and principal research associate in the Economic Development Lab. She also directed the Technology Policy and Assessment Center in the School of Public Policy (SPP), as well as SPP’s and EI2’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (STIP) co-lab. To round it all off, she retained another position in SPP as an adjunct research scientist.

Youtie’s research focused on technology-based economic development, advanced manufacturing, emerging technology assessment, bibliometric and patent analysis with peers in China, and innovation and knowledge measurement and evaluation. She is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, 20 book chapters, and two books.

“Georgia Tech is losing a very valuable asset in its portfolio of economic development focused on public policy. She will be sorely missed,” Henkiel added.

Far-Reaching Development Work

Youtie has teamed up with colleagues across the Institute to participate in research projects that reach across the state and country and even internationally.

Among other things, Youtie has worked alongside Philip Shapira, professor in the School of Public Policy, on the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

(GaMEP), funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the state of Georgia. The program, a unit of EI2, works to increase U.S. manufacturing productivity, efficiency, and technological performance, as well as reduce costs.

“Jan Youtie has made a lasting contribution to the Georgia manufacturing community and the state as a whole via her 25-plus years of effort in developing, managing, conducting, and analyzing the Georgia Manufacturing Survey (GMS) every two to three years,” said GaMEP Director Tim Israel. “The results of this survey have helped influence manufacturing policy and programs in our state and guided our companies’ growth and prosperity. I have greatly enjoyed working with her on the GMS for many of these years and will miss her dedication and intellect.”

Shapira and Youtie also teamed up to help create the Mid-sized Cities Technology Development Initiative, which led to the establishment of the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Centers of Innovation. Now, the Center works with businesses across the state to help them grow.

“In every project, I have been amazed by how Jan always manages to deliver research outputs that are creative, influential, robust, and on time!” Philip Shapira said. “That the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy and the Enterprise Innovation Institute are now widely recognized as thought leaders and analytical powerhouses in innovation policy and technology-based economic development is in no small part due to Jan’s extensive and groundbreaking contributions over many years.”

David Bridges, EI2 vice president, echoed those sentiments, highlighting how her work was foundational to projects overseas.

“Jan has worked extensively in Europe, Asia, and Latin America over her career,” Bridges said, “She and Juan Rogers in the School of Public Policy wrote and spoke extensively on the importance of technology extension in Latin America. That research led to projects in Chile and the large effort in Colombia.”

Bridges added that Youtie’s work also included developing foresight research on the future of innovations for the Army and pioneering societal and ethical impact analysis for a National Science Foundation grant Georgia Tech received in 2015 connected to nanotechnology infrastructure.

Preparing Students to Tackle Problems Head-on

As STIP director, one of Youtie’s areas of focus was to engage the next generation of public policy researchers. She led the STIP Georgia Innovation Internship program for University System of Georgia graduate students from its inception in 2015 through 2020, when the pandemic hit. In all, 50 students interested in coupling science and innovation to economic development and public policy went through the program.

For the past few years, Youtie served as one of the instructors for the School of Public Policy’s Policy Task Force program. In the two-class series, public policy seniors spend a year working with local clients to help solve their policy problems.

Youtie sees the program as yet another way to provide Georgia Tech students with a chance to see the practical applications of the skills they’ve learned in the classroom.

“The Policy Task Force mastery model lets students understand the importance of reworking deliverables so that the outcomes meet and, in most cases, exceed client expectations,” she said.

Youtie helped mentor this year’s task force students as they tackled issues ranging from clean energy to the racial wealth gap and economic development.

“Jan has become a great friend through our collaboration on task force, where she brought invaluable insight into practical, client-centered work that she deployed to guide the students learning how to marshal their analytical skills in service of solving client problems and producing professional-quality results,” said Professor Diana Hicks, the other task force instructor.

Youtie has assisted and guided over 100 students in the School of Public Policy, including 46 research assistants.

“Jan Youtie has made an indelible impression upon the SPP community,” said Cassidy Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton School Chair. “We are grateful for the many hours she spent teaching our capstone undergraduate course and mentoring graduate students in research projects. Jan brought an incredible expertise and generosity to the School — simply put, she is irreplaceable and will be greatly missed.”

Having spent a career at the intersection of the humanities and development, Youtie hopes that Georgia Tech students — particularly those in the liberal arts — aren’t afraid to put their skills to good use.

“Have confidence that what you have learned can help solve real-world problems,” she said.

Enterprise Innovation Institute to Host Spanish Technology Entrepreneurs for Training Series

Georgia Tech Administration and Finance Vice President Kelly Fox (left) and Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology Director General Javier Ponce Martinez sign a letter of intent to create a training program for Spanish technology entrepreneurs. (Photo: Matt Hummel)

In the fall of 2022, Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute will host 20 technology startup founders from the Kingdom of Spain in a training program designed to expose Spanish entrepreneurs to the startup ecosystem in metro Atlanta, Georgia, and the broader United States.

 

The initiative stems from a collaborative effort between the Enterprise Innovation Institute’s Innovation Ecosystems program and Spain’s Centre Para El Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology) to develop the training program for Spanish entrepreneurs.

 

As a part of Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation, the government office charged with fostering technological development and innovation of Spanish companies, the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology coordinates the funding and support applications for those startups’ national and international research and development projects. The Centre also manages, including managing Spanish companies’ participation in international technological cooperation programs.

 

Innovation Ecosystems works with communities, governments, and organizations to help them launch, operate, and sustain successful entrepreneurship and innovation programs.

 

From left: Georgia Tech Innovation Ecosystems Interim Director Juli Golemi; Kelly Fox; Javier Ponce Martinez; Enterprise Innovation Institute Vice President David Bridges; Centre Technical Innovation Director Carlos de la Cruz Molina; Economic Development Lab Interim Director Lynne Henkiel; and ATDC Director John Avery. (Photo: Matt Hummel)

The early-stage startup founders, who are tentatively scheduled to come to campus for a week in September, would participate in a series of workshops being led by some of the Institute’s flagship ecosystem development programs, including the Advanced Technology Development Center, VentureLab, and the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business.

 

Centre leaders — Director General Javier Ponce Martinez and Director of Technical Innovation Carlos de la Cruz Molina — visited the Georgia Tech campus to sign an agreement that establishes a framework for the training and curriculum, which includes an overview of the Georgia ecosystem, lean startup methodology, and innovating for sustainability.

 

“This is an opportunity to get together to collaborate together towards the future,” Martinez said during the signing ceremony. “The future looking at sustainability issues, industrial, and social activities. This is the starting point, and a great starting point.”

 

The organization has collaborations with other countries, but this is its first such effort in the United States.

 

The Enterprise Innovation Institute — Georgia Tech’s economic development arm — is the largest, most comprehensive, university-based program of entrepreneurship and startup company development, business and industry growth, ecosystem development, international outreach in the United States. As a globally recognized model of university-based economic development, the Enterprise Innovation Institute has hosted a number of international delegations in recent years looking to engage with Georgia Tech and its programs, including from the Bahamas, the United Kingdom, France, Argentina, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and South Africa.

 

“We are celebrating connecting globally and inclusive innovation and this agreement is at the heart of a space that is very important to the Institute,” said Georgia Tech Administration and Finance Vice President Kelly Fox, who signed the agreement on behalf of the Institute. “We’re honored that you are working with us, and we look forward to seeing how this grows from there.”

Lynne Henkiel Tapped to Lead Economic Development Lab

Lynne Henkiel has been named interim director of the Economic Development Lab in Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute effective immediately.

 

She succeeds David Bridges who, in November 2021, was named vice president of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Tech’s economic development arm.

 

Lynne Henkiel is interim director of the Economic Development Lab. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

The Economic Development Lab – through three focus areas — assists governments, communities, foundations, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in fostering value creation by applying innovative ideas, technology, and policy to economic growth-focused initiatives. The Economic Development Lab has had projects in all of Georgia’s 159 counties and in 24 international districts and territories. In 2021, its projects resulted in $11.3 million in investments to its clients and 174 jobs being saved and created.

 

Prior to becoming Economic Development Lab director, Henkiel led one of its focus areas, Innovation Ecosystems. That group works with communities, economic development organizations, and universities in assessing and planning local and regional ecosystems.

 

“Lynne is the ideal person to run the Economic Development Lab given her background and expertise,” Bridges said. “She has been an integral component in creating and implementing our innovative ecosystems development through the application of research and education.”

 

Henkiel, who has been with Georgia Tech for more than 20 years, is the primary awardee for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Agency’s (EDA) University Center award to Georgia Tech for the last two award periods. She also received the EDA Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) I6 award in 2014 among other funding grants. In addition, she is the developer for the incubation health assessments tool, community innovation assessment tool, and instrumental in developing the Georgia Tech Soft Landings program for international companies looking to expand into the U.S. market.

 

Her career at Georgia Tech started with a focus on commercializing innovations from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the Stennis Space Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center.

 

As part of her responsibilities in working with startup companies that licensed NASA technology, she collaborated with entrepreneurs to help them overcome many of the early pitfalls of they were likely to face, as well as develop educational programming to aid in their successes. She also managed the dual-use industry partnerships for the Marshall Space Flight Center, which involved working with large and startup businesses.

 

Henkiel also created the U.S. Expansion Practicum course at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business, which partners MBA students with successful business owners — including Georgia Tech alumni — focused on U.S. business expansion. She has written several articles and is a sought-after ecosystem building expert who has delivered many presentations across the United States and internationally.

 

She leads the Innovation and Technology Commercialization Professional course in China and is evaluating strategies to expand the course to include Spanish, French, and Arabic-speaking countries.

 

Henkiel is an active member of the Technology Association of Georgia’s International Society Board, a board member of the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA), a member of the State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI) and a subject advisor to the New Space effort for the government of Chile.

 

Henkiel holds a master’s degree in the Management of Technology from the University of Miami, and had an extensive career in finance with IBM prior to joining Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech Economic Development Agency University Center Seeks Applicants for Community Development Studies, Training

ATLANTA — The Georgia Tech Economic Development Agency (EDA) University Center is now accepting applications from communities in need of assistance to identify, define, and support its workforce talent.

 

To date, Georgia public health officials report more than 1.5 million cases and 26,621 deaths from Covid-19. The workforce analysis, which also includes the creation of skills development and talent pool programs, professional and leadership development, and core business training, is designed help communities recover from the economic impact of Covid-19.

 

The Georgia Tech EDA University Center will provide workforce development services at no charge to communities, with all costs covered by a grant from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.

 

Juli Golemi is director of the Georgia Tech EDA University Center.

“As the state of Georgia builds its resiliency and maximizes economic development potential for its communities, our goal with the CARES Act grant is to offer services that combine data collection and analysis with a training-driven approach,” said Juli Golemi, director of Georgia Tech’s EDA University Center program manager. “We’re committed to comprehensive stakeholder engagement that builds local capacity and economically stronger communities across the state.”

 

In addition to the workforce assessments, which typically take 60 to 70 days to complete, the Georgia Tech EDA University Center will provide technical assistance to entrepreneurs, businesses, and communities to assist in their recovery efforts from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Finally, Golemi said the Georgia Tech team will conduct, share, and disseminate applied research to address specific challenges, meet defined needs, and solve select problems resulting from the coronavirus’ economic impact on communities, businesses, innovators, entrepreneurs, economic planners, and cluster-based industries.

 

“Assessing all the data and turning research into action, we will make recommendations to direct future workforce development efforts that help communities navigate the changes to their employment and occupation environments,” Golemi said.

 

TO APPLY, PLEASE NOTE:

 

About the Georgia Tech EDA University Center
The Georgia Tech EDA University Center is a program funded by the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) through its EDA University Center. As part of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, the University Center has been assisting Georgia communities for more than 50 years. Its outreach activities promote job creation, development of high-skilled regional talent pools, business expansion in innovation clusters, and the development and expansion of regional economic ecosystems in Georgia and other states within the EDA’s Atlanta region (Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). Since July 1, 2017, the Georgia Tech EDA University Center team has worked on 27 projects, with 2 currently in progress. As of May 2021, the program’s work has helped create or save 321 jobs, $10.2 million in private investment, and $30.7 million in public investment. To learn more, visit grow.gatech.edu/eda-university-center/grow.gatech.edu/eda-university-center/grow.gatech.edu/eda-university-center/.

EI2 Hosts Colombian Delegation for Bootcamp Training

The Enterprise Innovation Institute hosted a delegation of technology professionals from Colombia for a week long bootcamp on technology extension services.

The Enterprise Innovation Institute’s (EI2) Innovation Ecosystems program recently hosted a delegation of 43 Colombian professionals, including presidents and executives of the Chambers of Commerce, SENA (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje) instructors, and government officials during a week-long bootcamp program on Technology Extension Services (TES) Oct. 4-8.

This program is part of the EI2’s ongoing collaboration with Confecámaras and Colombia Productiva to support the design of a TES public policy and the implementation of the country’s signature Fábricas de Productividad program of technology extension.

Since 2017, the Innovation Ecosystems has trained a total of 155 Colombian professionals at Georgia Tech and assisted 40 companies in Colombia. The Fábricas de Productividad has served more than 3,300 companies since its launch in 2018. It is recognized as the largest and most successful national program of Technology Extension in Latin America and the Caribbean for its reach and impact in a short period of time.

Enterprise 6 Students Share Experiences in Working on Economic Development Projects

Six Georgia Tech students spent the summer working on various economic development projects as embedded Enterprise 6 (E6) interns in the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2).

 

The six interns were selected from more than 200 students who applied for the slots for the inaugural internship cohort.

 

The 13-week, paid internship was funded by the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and open to all Tech undergraduate and graduate students.

 

As Georgia Tech’s economic development arm, EI2 is comprised of a dozen programs across a host of sectors ranging from manufacturing and technology entrepreneurship, to minority business and community and regional planning and development.

 

“We were really excited about this opportunity and grateful for the support from EVPR’s office,” said David Bridges, EI2’s interim vice president. “We had students from a variety of disciplines including industrial engineering and economics and city planning.

 

“One of our goals with this was to show these students how they could use what they are learning in the classroom and the skills they are learning all have uses and applications in economic development.”

 

The students worked on challenging projects that allowed them to use their skills and classroom learning and apply that to economic development initiatives.

 

Mansi Mahajan, a graduate student studying quantitative and computational finance, interned with the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation, a public-private effort launched in 2020 to lead coordinated, statewide efforts to position Georgia as the technology capital of the East Coast.

 

“We’re building a fund for investing in social impact startups, so I developed the financial model for the process and how it would be forecasted and what the returns would be depending on our investments,” she said. “I hadn’t worked in the finance field as much as I did in this internship, so this I found very rewarding and it was a very great experience working with them.”

 

For Dylan Both, an economics major in the Ivan Allen College for Liberal Arts, the E6 opportunity was his first internship.

 

Both worked with the Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR), which works with local communities, governments, and regional economic development organizations on a variety of initiatives, including impact analyses reports, strategic planning, and professional development.

 

Both researched best practices that communities around the country developed following natural disasters to evaluate for a recovery and resilience plan being created for southwest Georgia.

 

“Southwest Georgia suffered from Hurricane Michael and COVID. I was finding similar areas, similar regions that suffered from a natural disaster. And whatever best practices we learned from those, we gathered them up, chose which ones would be a good fit, and wrote about it,” he said. “My favorite thing was doing actual meaningful work.”

 

See what all the students shared about their experiences as E6 interns:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Success Story: Innovation Commercialization Technology Commercialization for Professionals Pilot Course in China

by Lynne Henkiel

 

Customer Profile
The Economic Development Lab in the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2) at Georgia Tech recently developed and launched the Associate Level Innovation and Technology Commercialization Professional (ITCP) course through Tech’s Professional Education program.

This asynchronous course contains the latest instruction of best practices in technology commercialization, and utilizes the Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC)’s Handbook specifically developed for its members’ use and reference of technology commercialization practices. The International Technology Transfer Network (ITTN) developed this handbook at the request of the APEC. The Georgia Tech ITCP course launched its pilot cohort in March 2021. Working with ITTN, EDL was able to create the course and translate it into the Mandarin language for the Chinese speaking population that was identified as the intended test audience. Delivered on-line in China, the course targets Chinese professionals with two years or less of relevant professional experience in the field of technology commercialization. It is intended to provide Chinese researchers, innovators, technology transfer professionals, technology commercialization professionals, and others in the field with a fundamental understanding of how to:

  1. feed more innovation and talent into research institutions and the local innovation ecosystem,
  2. energize technology transfer practices with leading edge commercialization methods to insure that more innovation is successfully commercialized in the market and society in an equitable manner,
  3. nurture the growth of local innovation ecosystems across a country to stimulate commercialization between industry, academia, government, and startups, and
  4. foster cross-border collaborations to move innovation into global markets. The educational materials will be applicable to professionals regardless of size of economy, development status, and location (Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas, Oceania).

 

Part of the target audience for the ITCP Course: 2021 Teacher Training Course on Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Higher Education.

Situation
China was selected as the pilot location for a variety of both strategic and opportunistic reasons. China is a rapidly growing market for technology commercialization professionals with well over 100,000 potential ITCP students.  As the world’s two leading economies, it is critical that the United States and China work together in practical ways to establish globally accepted best practices. This can be accomplished through the ITCP training program. The U.S. State Department, Tech’s EI2, and the International Technology Transfer Network (ITTN) were closely involved in developing and vetting the APEC Handbook of Technology Commercialization which has been a key underpinning of the pilot ITCP program. This handbook establishes a consensus on some of the most important terminology, best practices, and know-how for innovation and technology commercialization professionals around the world. In addition, the ITCP program is strategically aligned with Georgia Tech’s commitment to global service, international impact, and economic development. While the pilot course was launched in China, the intent is to establish the ITCP program as an international standard to level the playing field for smaller and less developed countries. These objectives are directly connected to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. Particularly, goal 4 – to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all; goal 8 – to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; goal 9 – to  build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation; and goal 17 – to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development, convergence of unique capabilities, global connections, and impactful opportunities. Finally, China is a thought and opinion leader in the region which could lead to a rapid and smooth expansion of ITCP to other Asia Pacific countries.

 

Solution
As one of the largest and most comprehensive, university-based organizations in the world focused on the practice of innovation-led economic development and technology commercialization, Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute is globally recognized and uniquely qualified to champion the ITCP program. Additionally, Georgia Tech Professional Education has instructional design capabilities and technical framework for developing and delivering asynchronous remote learning at the scale needed in China. The city of Shenzhen is home to one of Georgia Tech’s flagship international campuses outside of Atlanta; the ITCP program will bring added reputational awareness and potential collaborations to this campus from across China. As Chinese is one of the strategic languages taught by Georgia Tech’s School of Modern Languages, the ITCP program will provide practical, cross-cultural, and enriching experiences for Tech graduate students learning Chinese, especially students enrolled in the Global Media and Cultures program.

 

Results
Through this collaboration, the EI2 and ITTN teams have asynchronously executed four pilot cohorts containing 960 total students coming mainly from technology (40 percent), university, research and development (17 percent) and government (12 percent) careers. With an average student age of 36, and with more than half of all students having less than 5 years of experience, this program has been validated by its initial targeted audience. Even though this course targets students with almost no experience, students with vast experience also benefited from the course structure and content and reported they were not previously exposed to a formal and standardized course that covered the main topics a technology transfer professional should know. In terms of gender, the course has been almost equally attended by highly educated males and female students, with 11 percent of all students who participated in the pilot programs having a doctorate degree, 52 percent earning a master’s degree, and 31% having a bachelor’s degree. The role of entrepreneurs and startups in an innovation ecosystem (52 percent) and the role of universities and research institutes in an innovation ecosystem (57 percent) have been the two most learned topics and skills among the enrolled students. Nearly 80 of the total students who graduated from the ITCP course reported they were extremely likely (42 percent) and very likely (37 percent) to recommend this course. 

 

In total, 785 Chinese learners have completed the ITCP Course to date and received a certificate from Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE).

 

Based on the positive feedback and interest in the technology commercialization topic expressed by the Chinese students, a principal level and senior level is under consideration for future development.