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Chris Downing, vice president and director of Enterprise Innovation Institute, announces retirement

April 15, 2019 By Nancy Cleveland

Chris Downing, VP of EI2

Chris Downing, who has led the Georgia Institute of Technology’s economic development efforts as vice president and director of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), is retiring after 31 years of service.

Downing, who has led EI2 since 2016, leaves behind a decades-long legacy of leadership experience at Georgia Tech in technology-based economic development, university outreach and technical assistance, entrepreneurship and start-up support, and program management.

His retirement is effective June 1, 2019.

“I feel very fortunate for such a diverse and challenging career and to have shared so many good years with the Georgia Tech family, and I am very appreciative of the many faculty, staff, and students who have made my time at Georgia Tech so interesting and inspiring,” Downing said. “Although I am leaving my full-time duties, I look forward to staying connected to Georgia Tech and supporting its mission of progress and service.”

After leaving IBM where he was a mechanical facilities engineer, Downing joined Georgia Tech in 1988 as a senior research engineer with the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

In 1996, he joined EI2 — then called the Economic Development Institute (EDI) — as the Griffin regional office manager and provided industrial extension and economic development services to the south metro Atlanta region.

Two years later, he was named group manager of technology services for the Economic Development Institute, where he was charged with overall management of technology deployment and information technology services to more than 200 EDI staff and associates located both on campus and in 12 regional offices across the state. In addition, this group provided technical research services for EDI clients in industry, business, and community economic development organizations.

In 2005, he was tapped to lead EI2’s Industry Services group, which included several key outreach programs: the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP), the Energy and Environmental Management Center, the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC), the Southeast Trade Adjustment Assistance Center (SETAAC), and the Georgia Tech Regional Office Network.

Downing was named EI2’s associate vice president in 2013 and vice president in 2016.

In that time, he spearheaded the three-fold expansion of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and created the Venture Center space that has helped to attract several Fortune 100 corporate innovation centers to Technology Square.

His technology-based economic development efforts helped Georgia Tech and the EI2 win the prestigious “2014 Innovation Award” from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the “2014 Outstanding Research Park Award” from the Association of Research Parks.

Most recently, Downing led the feasibility study for the expansion of Georgia Tech’s second research park, Technology Enterprise Park, into a broader life sciences and technology innovation district.

“Chris has been a tireless champion and supporter of our economic development initiatives, working to maintain strong partnerships across the state while creating new collaborations,” said Georgia Tech President G. P. “Bud” Peterson. “We appreciate his leadership role as Georgia Tech partners with the state to strengthen Georgia’s economy.”

Downing is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering.

Filed Under: Georgia Tech News Tagged With: ATDC, economic development, EI2, GaMEP, Georgia Tech, GTPAC, SETAAC, Tech Square, Venture Lab

Tech Square Innovation Week starts May 7th

May 7, 2018 By Nancy Cleveland

Technology Square on the Georgia Tech campus in Midtown Atlanta.

Technology Square is abuzz with the activity of startups, corporate innovation, and disruptive research, as well as outstanding student talent from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

For one week in spring 2018 — May 7-10 — the Tech Square neighborhood and the components that make it one of the nation’s most successful ecosystems of ideation and disruption will be on display as part of Tech Square Innovation Week.

The Georgia Institute of Technology’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and its Enterprise Innovation Institute are the hosts of Tech Square Innovation Week.

“With this week, we and our partners really wanted to show all the various components that make Tech Square the vibrant innovation ecosystem that it is,” said Jen Bonnett, ATDC general manager.

“Tech Square is a national model of economic development, ideation, and technology disruption. With Tech Square Innovation Week, this is the opportunity for visitors and event attendees to see how and why we’re succeeding and possibly join to continue that momentum.”

The week’s events include a “portfolio night” at Engage, the private startup accelerator and venture fund owned and operated by its 10 founding companies, the Georgia Tech Innovation Showcase of up-and-coming research ideas Georgia Tech students and faculty have developed, and the Atlanta Startup Battle at Tech Square Labs, with $100,000 at stake.

Tech Square Innovation Week also includes the Technology Association of Georgia’s FinTech South 2018, a two-day summit focused on the latest trends in the financial technology sector, and the ATDC RetailTech Summit, which will explore technological disruptions and opportunities in that sector.

Tech Square Innovation Week will culminate with the 2018 ATDC Startup Showcase on May 10 at the Georgia Tech Academy of Medicine and the Renaissance Atlanta Midtown Hotel.

Now in its 32nd year, the ATDC Startup Showcase is Georgia’s largest spring startup confab. The event, which draws nearly 1,000 attendees,features more than 80of disruptive technology companies from the state of Georgia.

About Tech Square Innovation Week:

Tech Square Innovation Week — May 7 through May 10, 2018 — is a weeklong celebration that highlights and celebrates different components that combined, make Technology Square in Atlanta’s Midtown neighborhood, a national economic development model that entrepreneurship, disruption, research, corporate partnerships and investment. For more information, please visit techsquareinnovates.com.

 

About the Advanced Technology Development Center:

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, is the state of Georgia’s technology startup incubator. Founded in 1980 by the Georgia General Assembly which funds it each year, ATDC’s mission is to work with entrepreneurs in Georgia to help them learn, launch, scale, and succeed in the creation of viable, disruptive technology companies. Since its founding, ATDC has grown to become one of the longest running and most successful university-affiliated incubators in the United States, with its graduate startup companies raising $3 billion in investment financing and generating more than $12 billion in revenue in the state of Georgia. To learn more, visit atdc.org.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Here’s the rundown of Tech Square Innovation Week events:

  • MAY 5: Day One Innovation Summit (All Day) at The Garage at Tech Square – The Day One Challenge is open to students in accredited Georgia high schools and this year’s contest will focus on artificial intelligence.
  • MAY 6: Creative Hack (4 p.m.- 5 p.m.) at The Garage at Tech Square – High school students from Frederick Douglass High School and Forrest Hill Academy will pitch their ideas integrating technology for financial management to help their peers in Southwest Atlanta. Students apply the design innovation model to present their creative ideas.
  • MAY 7: Tech Square Innovation Week Kick-Off Party (5 p.m.) – in the ATDC Lobby.
  • MAY 7 & 8: FinTech South 2018 (All Day) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium – FinTech South 2018 is a global exchange of insights, innovations and trends fueling tomorrow’s financial tech industry.
  • MAY 8: Atlanta Startup Battle (6 p.m.) at Tech Square Labs – Atlanta Startup Battle is the freshest and most unique pitch competition in Atlanta. With 100+ ideas and 2 days of competition, the top participants develop their ideas with seasoned mentors and present to investor judges, real VCs from Atlanta and Silicon Valley, all in an effort to help Atlanta build, scale, and fund the next generation of outstanding tech companies.
  • MAY 9: Georgia Tech Innovation Showcase (1 p.m.-3 p.m.) at Tech Square Research Building – See Georgia Tech’s best student teams, student startups, and research projects currently being commercialized at the Georgia Tech Innovation Showcase. Hosted by ATDC and its partners, VentureLab, and CREATE-X.
  • MAY 9: ATDC Retail Summit (9 a.m. – 5 p.m.) at the Hodges Room in Centergy – A gathering of retail executives and innovators gather to discuss the future of retail and the technologies impacting it.
  • MAY 9: Engage Spring Portfolio Night (4 p.m. – 7 p.m.) Engage will present its new portfolio of startups to investors and corporate executives at Invesco Global Headquarters, Two Peachtree Pointe, 1555 Peachtree St. NE.
  • MAY 9: ATDC Investor Dinner (7 p.m.) at Community Smith – A gathering of local and out-of-town investors.
  • MAY 10: ATDC Startup Showcase (11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.) at Renaissance Hotel – The ATDC Startup Showcase is the premier Atlanta technology event where more than 800 investors, corporate partners, entrepreneurs, and researchers converge to discover the most promising and emerging technologies, network with each other, and forge new relationships and partnerships.
  • MAY 10: Tech Square Block Party (5:30 p.m.) at Centergy Courtyard – Food, games, drinks, & a live performance from a Georgia-based Grammy Award Winning Act.

RELATED LINKS

  • Tech Square Innovation Week
  • 2018 ATDC Startup Showcase

CONTACT INFORMATION

Péralte C. Paul

404.894.8727

peralte.paul@gatech.comm.edu

Filed Under: Georgia Tech News Tagged With: ATDC, Georgia Tech, innovation, Tech Square, Venture Lab

National Science Foundation awards Georgia Tech’s VentureLab a 5-year I-Corps grant

September 28, 2016 By Nancy Cleveland

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $3.4 million Innovation Corps (I-Corps) grant to the Georgia Institute of Technology’s VentureLab program to expand its work in teaching entrepreneurship, support research and innovation.

The NSF’s I-Corps program — a boot camp that shows what it’s like to form a startup — helps NSF-funded researchers learn how to commercialize their findings and determine if a market actually exists for what they developed.

“I-Corps nodes support the national innovation ecosystem and help some of America’s brightest researchers test the commercial potential of their discoveries,” Grace Wang, acting assistant director for the NSF Directorate for Engineering, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to support these regional innovation hotbeds, which will help to foster local economic development and expand access to more researchers of all different backgrounds who seek entrepreneurship training.”

The grant, one of five the NSF awarded to schools across the country, supports innovation hubs called I-Corps nodes.

i-corps-south

 

This new NSF grant expands Georgia Tech’s efforts and creates the I-Corps South Node, which includes Tech, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business.

Because of its long experience with forming companies from university research, Georgia Tech — through its VentureLab incubator — was selected in 2012 to be among the first institutions to become “nodes” teaching the I-Corps curriculum. VentureLab is Georgia Tech’s technology commercialization incubator that primarily serves Tech faculty, staff, and students who seek to launch startup companies from the technology innovations they have developed.

“This effort underscores Georgia Tech’s economic development mission and commitment to creating the next generation of entrepreneurial problem solvers,” said Chris Downing, who is the I-Corps South Node’s principal investigator and vice president of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), Tech’s chief economic development and extension outreach arm. “Through our collective service efforts to entrepreneurs, business, researchers, and innovators, Georgia Tech and our partner schools in Alabama and Tennessee are working together to design a foundation of regional innovation in the Southeast.”

Specifically, the I-Corps South Node aims to:

  • Accelerate the development of the South’s entrepreneurial ecosystems
  • Provide for increased partnership opportunities between academia and industry
  • Focus on underrepresented minorities through programs at historically black colleges and universities and in Puerto Rico to increase the participation of individuals from those communities in research pursuits and entrepreneurship

“We are extremely excited to partner with these three premier schools to collectively leverage our extensive industry relationships, partnerships, mentors, and funding connections to bring economic development through startup formation, workforce development, and entrepreneurial education,” said Keith McGreggor, VentureLab director and I-Corps South Node co-principal investigator and executive director.

“Through this partnership, the I-Corps South Node has the potential to reach more than 500,000 graduate and undergraduate students, and many thousands of the nation’s research faculty at research universities and historically black colleges and universities across the Southeast and the island of Puerto Rico.”

NSF created the I-Corps program in 2011 and since then, more than 800 teams have completed the NSF curriculum, from 192 universities in 44 states. That’s resulted in the creation of more than 320 companies that have collectively raised more than $83 million in follow-on funding.

At Georgia Tech, more than 40 teams have finished the I-Corps program, leading to the creation of more than 20 spinouts that have collectively raised more than $4.5 million in follow-up funding.

About VentureLab:

VentureLab — ranked as North America’s No. 5 university-based startup incubator — is Georgia Tech’s technology commercialization program that provides comprehensive assistance to faculty, staff, and students who want to form startups. VentureLab helps those entrepreneurs turn their ideas into early-stage companies through business model development, making connections between the innovators and seasoned entrepreneurs, locating sources of early-stage financing, and preparing these fledgling startups for the business world. Since its 2001 founding, VentureLab — a program of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Tech’s chief economic development arm — has launched more than 250 technology companies that have attracted more than $1.5 billion in outside funding. Visit venturelab.gatech.edu for more information. For additional information about I-Corps South, visit icorpssouth.com.

About NSF I-Corps: 

The NSF I-Corps program, a public-private partnership program established in 2011, connects NSF-funded scientific research with the technological, entrepreneurial, and business communities to help create a stronger national ecosystem for innovation that couples scientific discovery with technology development and societal needs. Visit www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/ for more information.

Source: http://innovate.gatech.edu/news/national-science-foundation-awards-georgia-institute-technologys-venturelab-5year-icorps-grant/

Filed Under: Georgia Tech News Tagged With: Georgia Tech, I-Corps, incubator, innovation, National Science Foundation, NSF, science, technology, Venture Lab

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