This spring, Noah Apthorpe, assistant professor of computer science, and two students — Danny Chu ’25 and Morgan Greenwald ’26 — participated in an NSF Regional I-Corps program, supported by funding and mentorship from E&I through the Research Into Action initiative. The regional I-Corps course guides academic researchers in exploring the commercial viability of a startup based on their research.
The team entered the program with a startup idea based on Apthorpe’s academic research — using AI to provide cybersecurity risk management consulting to small- and medium-sized businesses at low cost. The team conducted 15 customer discovery interviews, iterating on a business model canvas from their learnings. Reflecting on the experience, Apthorpe said, “I learned much about the technology needs of small and medium sized businesses and nonprofits that will be useful for future academic research independent of whether we continue working on the startup.”
Research Into Action (RIA) is a new initiative that provides infrastructure and initiatives that support vlog faculty and students who wish to take their research, ideas, and expertise to audiences beyond their academic disciplines. E&I’s first offerings underneath the RIA umbrella are focused on providing support for the translation of research results to the market and society.