Welcome to FAU's Innovation Center

Creating new ideas, technology and scientific breakthroughs

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What we do

The culture of innovation permeates throughout Florida Atlantic University. Students, faculty, staff and community members are tapping into one of many university programs designed to help them take a kernel of an idea and turn it into a thriving business.

The virtual FAU Innovation Center serves as a central point for the university community to find the right program for you. Are you a student who wants to test an idea and learn the skill set for doing that? For faculty, have you made a breakthrough in your research that has the potential to be commercialized? Or as a community member, do you already have a start-up and are in the need of some expert advice?

The programs across FAU's six campuses all focus on creating new ideas, technology and scientific breakthroughs that can impact not only our lives, but the world we live in.

FAU Tech Runway’s Innovation Center: text description

Entrepreneurial Hub

FAU Tech Runway

Startup Hotbed

FAU Tech Runway serves as a hub to accelerate technology development and incubate student, faculty and community startup ventures. Since 2014, it has created nearly 300 jobs, generated more than $23 million in sales revenue and launched 52 startup companies that collectively have raised more than $46 million in capital.

It offers collaborative workspace for entrepreneurs to house, educate, mentor and fund their companies from inception through to venture funding.

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Research Park at FAU

Stimulating Economic Development

The Research Park at Florida Atlantic University provides a supportive environment where companies engaged in the research and development of new and innovative products can thrive. The university provides many essential resources necessary for the success of its tenants.

The Research Park is home to 24 high-tech, high-wage companies and five support organizations, including the premier Technology Business Incubator in our region; New World Angels, a structured angel investor group; and the Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research, a clearing house for Florida’s technology transfer offices and other publicly funded research institutes.

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Tech Development

Taking Inventions to Market

FAU faculty work on breakthrough discoveries and new technologies that advance our society in health, engineering, the environment, basic science and more. That’s when FAU’s Office of Technology Development steps in. It guides intellectual property and the innovations to market by providing advisement on legal protections, commercialization strategies and licensing deals.

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The Adams Center for Entrepreneurship

Creating Entrepreneurial Leaders

The Adams Center for Entrepreneurship brings students, faculty and the community together in the spirit of entrepreneurship to fuel the innovation needed to create new opportunities in the ever-changing global marketplace.

If offers an entrepreneur boot camp for small business owners and an entrepreneur-in-residence program where students, faculty and alumni get one-on-one mentoring. The center also administers the FAU Business Plan Competition.

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Small Business Development Center

Expert Business Advisors

We’re home to the Small Business Development Center at FAU, which provides intellectual capital and expertise to meet the needs of existing and emerging small business owners in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Certified business consultants work with business owners one-on-one at no cost to help them with marketing, government contracting, strategic planning, access to capital, loan proposal development, cash flow management and more.

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I-Corps at FAU

Commercializing Research

The I-Corps South regional cohorts curriculum is a five-week program for teams of two to four persons interested in commercializing research. The course consists of a one-day kickoff workshop, customer discovery interviews and a one-day closing workshop.

Participants are eligible for a $50,000 National I-Corps grant to cover travel costs as they interview prospective customers. Teams must apply and be accepted in order to participate. Apply now to kickstart your technology journey.

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Student Innovation

FAU Wave

Sparking Students’ Ideas

FAU Wave is an undergraduate research and entrepreneurial competition challenging students to develop innovative ideas targeting societal problems.

e bring diverse students from across the university together to translate novel concepts and technologies into projects, competing against each other for grants and monetary prizes. Some of those projects have become the basis of start-up ventures.

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Senior Design Showcase

Engineering Solutions

In their final year, students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science work in teams on advanced engineering and computer science projects that address real-world problems. It requires them to ideate, design and produce a solution.

Students work under conditions closely resembling what they will encounter in industry and sharpen their skills in teamwork, time management, self-discipline and technical writing.

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Undergraduate Research

Next-Generation Innovators

From the moment they step on campus, students will find opportunities to dive into high-quality research, scholarship and creative experiences. The Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (OURI) works to integrate research assignments into the curriculum, expand student research opportunities and increase the support for faculty who mentor these students.

In 2017, the national Council on Undergraduate Research recognized OURI with its Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishments, a major achievement.

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Kenan Social Engagement Program

Advancing the Social Bottom Line

Students at the Wilkes Honors College are making a difference through entrepreneurship. The college’s Kenan Social Engagement Program provides financial assistance to those who combine the best practices of academic service learning, social entrepreneurship, and public-private partnerships.

The program teaches the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, helps students develop plans for addressing social needs, assists them in partnering with nonprofits, and aids them in funding a start-up.

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Community Partners

CAKE @ FAU

Industry-University Cooperation

The Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (CAKE) connects industry partners with faculty to drive innovation. It’s a National Science Foundation-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center.

The center is successfully bridging academia, industry and government in a coordinated research effort focused on big data analytics, multimedia and data mining, video and multimedia processing, cloud computing systems and sensors and networks. It’s one of only 15 such centers in the country.

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Business Connections

Growing Together

Together with our business community, we drive innovation and create economic opportunity. Industry can tap faculty expertise or connect with alumni or students to hire for open positions. Companies big and small can also access specialized equipment at the university through service agreements.

FAU faculty and students collaborate with many industry partners on research, education and entrepreneurial ventures. We can work with you, your company or firm as it seeks key competitive advantages by partnering with one of the country’s fastest improving and most diverse research universities.

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Business Development Board

Creating Jobs of the Future

Working in tandem with the Palm Beach County Business Development Board, we’re strengthening our existing businesses one at a time. With fresh ideas attracting new companies into the area, together we’re accelerating the growth of our knowledge-based economic future.

We’re educating a workforce that will be ready for the high-wage, high-tech jobs that our combined efforts support.

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