This event was made possible through the collaboration of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (Office of Innovation and Commercialization) and the UHM Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship.
Date: Dec 5, 2023 9:00 – 10:00 am HST
Venue: zoom (registered individuals will receive zoom link before the event)
RECORDING
Description:
NSF has established Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) last year – the agency’s first new directorate in more than three decades. The establishment of TIP is a once-in-a-generation opportunity: striving to accelerate the pace of innovation and translation in emerging technologies, addressing the pivotal societal and economic challenges of our time, and engaging the diverse talent that exists in our country. Working collaboratively with the rest of the Foundation, other federal agencies, state, local, and tribal governments, academics, the private sector, nonprofits, civil society, and investors, TIP will ensure the nation remains in the vanguard of competitiveness for decades to come. This talk will provide an overview of ever-expanding opportunities in TIP, especially in the focus area of Translational Impacts (TI) that covers Translational Programs and Startups/Small Businesses. A few case studies will be shared.
Presenters:
Dr. Samir M. Iqbal, PFI Program Director, Division of Translational Impacts, Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, National Science Foundation
Dr. Debora Rodrigues, Partnership for Innovation Program Director, Division of Translational Impacts, Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, National Science Foundation
Dr. Samir Iqbal joined the U.S. National Science Foundation as an SBIR/STTR program director in 2021 and also serves as a program director for NSF’s Partnerships for Innovation program. Samir is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a minority-serving institution. He also had appointments in UTRGV medical school at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Prior to joining UTRGV, Samir spun off two companies from his NSF-funded research at The University of Texas at Arlington. Samir also served as a mentor for several startups, bringing together academics and industrial partners. He was instrumental in developing programs that provided meaningful research and education experiences in STEM areas for women and students from underrepresented backgrounds. His research has focused on cancer nanotechnology, nano-bio interfaces and novel measurement techniques for single molecule and single cell analysis. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and was a Presidential Fellow at UT Arlington in 2017, a Distinguished Lecturer for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and Nanotechnology Council for many years and was chair of the bioengineering subgroup of the Biophysical Society in 2021. Samir earned his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University.
Dr. Debora Rodrigues is the Ezekiel Cullen Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston, TX. She is also the president of the AEESP (Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors) organization. She is currently rotating at NSF and serving as NSF program officer for the Partnerships for Innovation (PFI), Mid-Career Advancement (MCA), Future of Work and the Human-Technology Frontier, Engineering Research Center (ERC), Accelerating Research Translation (ART), and Bioinspired programs. She also plays an advisory role at NSF for the ADVANCE program and Open Science Initiative. Her research interests are in the water-energy nexus field. Her unique and transformative interdisciplinary research has led to new alternative biotechnological and nanotechnological water treatment and membrane desalination technologies. As a results of her exceptional contributions to the water field, she was honored with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award in 2012, given to a small number of high-potential junior faculty nationwide. She also received several prestigious awards in her career, just to name a few, she was the recipient of the U.S. Dept. of Energy, the C3E Research Award in the area of water-energy nexus, and the Environmental Award honoree at the 28th HENAAC Conference. Her contributions were noted by the National Academy of Engineers, where she was nominated and invited to participate in the Prestigious Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) program of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the U.S. She has more than 100 publications with more than 8733 citations in her field of expertise.
About Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program:
The Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program within the Division of Translational Impacts (TI) offers researchers from all disciplines of science and engineering funded by NSF the
opportunity to perform translational research and technology development, catalyze
partnerships and accelerate the transition of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace
for societal benefit. PFI has five broad goals, as set forth by the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act of 2017: (1) identifying and supporting NSF-sponsored research and technologies that have the potential for accelerated commercialization; (2) supporting prior or current NSF-sponsored investigators, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations that partner with an institution of higher education in undertaking proof-of-concept work, including the development of technology prototypes that are derived from NSF-sponsored research and have potential market value; (3) promoting sustainable partnerships between NSF-funded institutions, industry, and other organizations within academia and the private sector with the purpose of accelerating the transfer of technology; (4) developing multi-disciplinary innovation ecosystems which involve and are responsive to the specific needs of academia and industry; (5) providing professional development, mentoring, and advice in entrepreneurship, project management, and technology and business development to innovators.
