entrepreneurship

George Mason and Fairfax City leaders visit Korea to advance entrepreneurship

Katarina Benson — Tue, 20 May 2025 18:33:25 +0000

George Mason and Fairfax City leaders visit Korea to advance entrepreneurship Katarina Benson Tue, 05/20/2025 - 14:33

A senior delegation from ��’s Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations and Costello College of Business, along with Fairfax City Economic Development, recently visited Mason Korea for a weeklong strategic engagement to promote entrepreneurship education and business development.

The Korea–U.S. Business Cooperation Delegation included Trishana E. Bowden, vice president for advancement and alumni relations and president of the �� Foundation; Lauren Bird, associate vice president for corporate and foundation relations; J.K. Aier, senior associate dean for academic affairs and global engagement at Costello; Patrick Soleymani, associate dean for outreach and strategic engagement at Costello and commissioner of the Fairfax City Economic Development Authority; and Chris Bruno, CEO and director of the Fairfax City Economic Development Authority.

Startup Park presentation. Photo provided

The delegation met with internal and external partners during their visit. Alongside �� Dean Joshua Park, they presented business collaboration opportunities to organizations including the Korea Data Industry Promotion Agency, Seoul Fintech Lab, and Incheon Startup Park. Their goal was to support local companies interested in expanding to Fairfax.

Park also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Global Digital Innovation Network (GDIN), an international platform promoting digital entrepreneurship and startup ecosystems.

The agreement establishes an internship program with GDIN to provide students valuable global work experience, while offering GDIN access to George Mason’s student talent. Additional plans include joint startup incubation programs, collaborative research, curriculum development, and co-hosting international events.

“The Costello College of Business is a nationally ranked R1 research university business school that leverages its prime location in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., to provide governments, businesses, and students with the best possible opportunities for industry-academic collaboration, internships, and career networking,” said Aier. “This agreement marks an important milestone in our continued efforts to position ourselves as a global hub for the rapidly evolving business environment.”

“Through this agreement, we will further strengthen our global connections with the U.S. campus and Fairfax City, providing students both domestically and internationally valuable experiences in the innovation ecosystem and real growth opportunities,” said Park. “We are also committed to enhancing Korea–U.S. collaboration in education and research, serving as a trusted bridge that helps students, businesses, and government agencies advance on the global stage through innovation, expertise, and entrepreneurship.”

Fairfax City presentation. Photo provided

The delegation also engaged with Mason Korea leadership, faculty, students, and staff, and the Costello deans connected directly with business students and faculty during their visit.

"Our goal in coming here was to strengthen international connections and explore opportunities to expand access to the transformative global experiences this campus offers,” said Bowden. “What we see emerging is exactly that—a dynamic ecosystem where education and industry converge to prepare students to lead and solve the challenges of tomorrow. It’s inspiring to witness how our students, faculty, and partners are advancing George Mason’s global mission—bridging innovation, education, and culture in ways that truly reflect the spirit of the Mason Nation.”

In This Story

Patrick Soleymani

Learn more about Mason Korea

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Mason Korea

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Costello College of Business

entrepreneurship

George Mason bioengineering team’s start-up is the next wave of athletic rehabilitation and performance

Shayla Brown — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 21:09:36 +0000

George Mason bioengineering team’s start-up is the next wave of athletic rehabilitation and performance Shayla Brown Tue, 04/22/2025 - 17:09

Based on their years of research studying how student-athletes move, �� bioengineering professors Parag Chitnis and Siddhartha Sikdar have created a start-up called Myokinetics LLC with the goal of providing personalized rehabilitation programs for injured athletes that can help them recover faster and prevent them from getting injured in the future.

Erica King (left) and researcher testing the Myokinetics device. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding.

This effort builds on more than $5 million in funding from the Department of Defense for developing wearable ultrasound technologies that help rehabilitate musculoskeletal injuries through a Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs grant, and two Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium awards, which is a funding mechanism that supports fast translation and development of new technologies relevant for military health.

For the past 10 years, Chitnis and Sikdar have been developing the Myokinetics device “to understand not only when musculoskeletal injuries occur, but to help track the recovery process from the injury as well as prevent re-injury,” said Chitnis, who along with Sikdar, co-directs George Mason’s Center for Advancing Systems Science and Bioengineering Innovation (CASSBI), formerly the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions.

Their device personalizes the treatments and rehabilitation that's provided so that users can recover in the most optimal manner. Chitnis and Sikdar are also working with multiple collaborators including George Mason PhD students, George Mason Athletics, and the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD).

Margaret T. Jones is the director of the Patriot Performance Lab within CEHD’s Center for Sport Management. The lab conducts research and provides services that focus on athlete health and performance.

Margaret T. Jones (center right) with student athletes. Photo provided.

“The wearable ultrasound allows you to look at what the muscles are doing underneath the skin when they contract and what the contraction looks like,” said Jones, who has been working with the George Mason men’s and women’s volleyball teams since August 2024.

“The research methods vary based on the sport, but [the volleyball players] wear the ultrasound device and we go to their practice facility once a week. Since the sport involves a lot of jumping, we have them jump on what's called a force plate, which is sort of a fancy scale, and collect data to share with the bioengineering team that way,” she said.

In addition, Jones and the team monitor the athletes during their practices and games via the wearable microsensor, which assist in the interpretation of their findings from the weekly jumps and ultrasound tests.

As the team’s research scientist, fourth-year PhD bioengineering student Erica King, BS Bioengineering ’21, works closely with Jones and the Patriot Performance Lab.

“I’m using the device for specific applications and testing and validating against other gold standards that are currently in the market,” said King, who spent all four years of her undergrad on George Mason’s women’s swim and dive team.

“I've seen my fair share of injuries as an athlete, either my own or my friends, and it’s a continuous cycle. You'll rehabilitate the injury, feel better, and then when you go back to your sport or activity, you'll get injured again,” said King, who was in the Honors College.

“Being able to have a device to help understand what's going on at the muscle level during your rehabilitation to ensure that you're doing the exercises correctly to get the desired results and perform your sport while mitigating the risk of reinjury is so beneficial,” she said.

Partner collaborators include North Carolina State University, Cephasonics Ultrasound, and Infinite Biomedical Technologies (IBT). IBT CEO Rahul Kaliki is also a co-founder of Myokinetics LLC.

A close up of the device. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding.

“At CASSBI, different people and resources are pulled in to work on multidisciplinary projects like this one. This collaboration enables a lot of iterative prototyping efforts, which would not have been possible without the center,” said Abhishek Aher, MS Bioengineering ’24.

“I would like to see the Myokinetics device being used nationwide on the fields of major sports leagues. This should enable more metrics for the players,” said Aher, who is the Myokinetics team’s research engineer.

“For example, metrics such as how many points a player scored or how many minutes they ran are discussed pregame or postgame, but with our device, Myokinetic metrics can become an essential conversation point. That’s where I would like to see this go in the next five years,” he said.

King hopes to continue researching human performance after injury and focus on the most safe and effective ways that athletes can get back to their optimal performance.

“I hope to stick with Myokinetics and implement the devices and the metrics that we're currently developing into the rehabilitation setting. This is for the general population, but athletes will always have a special place in my heart,” said King.

In This Story

Siddhartha Sikdar

Parag Chitnis

Learn the origins of Myokinetics LLC

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College of Education and Human Development

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Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions

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Center for Advancing Systems Science and Bioengineering Innovation (CASSBI) takes on a new focus

Martha Bushong — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 11:51:21 +0000

Center for Advancing Systems Science and Bioengineering Innovation (CASSBI) takes on a new focus Martha Bushong Sat, 03/29/2025 - 07:51

Marvel superheroes use their superpowers to leap tall buildings and break through walls. Heroes at ��'s Center for Advancing Systems Science and Bioengineering Innovation (CASSBI) heroes use their "superpowers" to break through disciplinary silos and improve human health.

“It’s very unique the way CASSBI brought so many disciplines together,” said Amy Adams, executive director of the Institute for Biohealth Innovation. “Their human-centered approach has attracted faculty from all over the university, leveraging the expertise from so many fields of study.”

Professor Siddhartha Sikdar. Photo by Office of University Branding

CASSBI leaders have always understood research efforts don’t take place in a vacuum—the more collaboration, the better. And since its inception in 2019, CASSBI has leveraged faculty from disciplines as diverse as mathematics and social work, or kinesiology and mechanical engineering, all to improve human health.

Professors Siddhartha Sikdar and Parag Chitnis, both from the Bioengineering Department in the College of Engineering and Computing, are co-leaders of the center that recently refreshed its mission and zeroed in more tightly on its translational research. They say that the new vision of CASSBI is advancing system science and integrating innovation with medical technologies.

“Our work has always been translational,” said Sikdar, “In our earlier version, the translational focus was more on centering the priorities of our community partners and addressing their needs through research and creating and disseminating tools that would benefit them directly right now. For example, one success story is a nonprofit we created called iConnect, which works with our community partners to support individuals in recovery from substance misuse. Now we are also working on supporting translation of technologies from the lab to the marketplace, and we will prioritize that equally," he said.

The center will emphasize spin-offs and start-ups from the technology developed at CASSBI in addition to community-engaged research.

Parag Chitnis. Photo by Office of University Branding

Sikdar and Chitnis are off to a good start with a new company that grew out of a Department of Defense grant on tendon and joint injury prevention and reduction using wearable ultrasound systems. In this case, the researchers saw that what they had developed for the military had a broader use and could improve more people's lives by marketing it to a civilian population.

“We’re trying to pursue research of consequence in a way where we are trying to understand the entire pipeline A-Z and how the activities that can be pursued at the academic level and the research lab or center level can eventually be brought to real world,” said Sikdar.

To the CASSBI team, this means all aspects of translation including preclinical, translational studies, clinical trials, commercialization, development of patents, and intellectual property.

Another important aim for CASSBI is to create a support structure for faculty, staff, and researchers to engage in these additional activities. Sikdar and Chitnis want to build out the enhanced support system for devise fabrication, and for navigating the regulatory pathway when working with federal agencies, or for obtaining grant funding that is not traditional academic grants. “We’re becoming more geared towards translational, entrepreneurial, and industrial activities,” said Chitnis.

Chitnis summarizes the new direction: "We're looking at a more holistic approach and how the impact of our science, research, and development can be felt outside of the university.”

In This Story

Siddhartha Sikdar

Parag Chitnis

Topics

Bioengineering

CEC faculty research

College of Engineering and Computing

Hea

Research

entrepreneurship

George Mason alumnus launches AI software startup for law enforcement training

Greg Johnson — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 16:05:48 +0000

George Mason alumnus launches AI software startup for law enforcement training Greg Johnson Wed, 02/26/2025 - 11:05

Delivering immersive, voice-driven simulations for law enforcement through building skills, gaining real-time feedback, and preparing for real-world scenarios, Kaiden AI is a software startup co-founded by its CEO Ali Aldubaisi, BS Neuroscience ’21.

Ali Aldubaisi

Aldubaisi had begun studying neuroscience at George Mason with the intention of going to medical school. However, the distance learning forced upon by COVID led him to think outside of the box and start his first company vRealm, an online tutoring platform.

After a few years working on the project, he co-founded Kaiden AI with his vRealm partner, Ali "AJ" Aldjaei. “When we first started, we were focused on the higher education market,” he says. “We initially built the AI platform for grading and evaluation. Like most startups, you build where you initially think is the right fit, and that’s going to be the market for you.” Throughout the process of building his startup and attracting investors, he would find each day bringing surprises.

After seeing limited traction in higher education, Aldubaisi and his team built a small-scale simulation demo to test a new direction. Among the first to see it was Steve Gladis, a senior scholar at George Mason’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being and a former FBI special agent. He immediately recognized its potential for law enforcement training and encouraged Aldubaisi to explore that path.

“We put the MVP [minimum viable product] in front of police chiefs and academy directors, and their reaction was completely different from our earlier demos,” says Aldubaisi. “That’s when we knew we had to double down.”

Now, Aldubaisi and his team partner with law enforcement agencies and regional academies to implement their simulation platform, with organizations like the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy currently piloting the technology. Recently closing a $1 million pre-seed round, Kaiden AI’s investors are venture capitalists largely outside of the law enforcement space.

Ali Aldubaisi (right) at the 2024 Patriot Pitch competition. Photo by John Boal Photography

Even though his current work does not appear directly related to neuroscience, Aldubaisi recognizes the value of his degree. In fact, he still keeps up with neuroscience journals, seeing the relevance between that field and running his company. Developing hypotheses and constantly experimenting has helped Aldubaisi and his team refine and optimize Kaiden AI, from its initial concept in January 2024 to its current phase today.

“A lot of the concepts mirror each other,” he says. “What goes into marketing, how to understand people, how people learn.”

In 2024, Aldubaisi led the keynote discussion at the Patriot Pitch Competition, an event organized by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to support ideas and early-stage business ventures from George Mason students and recent alumni. He is now in talks with Rebecca Howick, the center’s director of operations and engagement, about getting more involved with their efforts.

“Having a center where somebody in whatever discipline that they’re studying can articulate or put together an idea or experiment on ideas is so crucial,” says Aldubaisi. He knows there are many intelligent people with brilliant ideas who may be hesitant to pursue their ventures because they don’t know how they’re going to get the funding or backing.

Having gone through that process, Aldubaisi offers crucial advice to aspiring entrepreneurs that reflects his scientific background. “Having the courage to focus on that one thing that you’re trying to prove out is probably the biggest thing,” he says. “Second thing is always look at what your idea is as an experiment, and the goal is to prove or disprove as soon as possible.”

By following these guidelines, Aldubaisi and his team have surpassed fundraising milestones and are excited to put Kaiden AI into the hands of many more law enforcement students and officers.

In This Story

Rebecca Howick

Learn more about AI research at George Mason

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Costello College of Business News

Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

entrepreneurship

Center for Advancement of Well-Being

Artificial Intelligence

Alumni

Regional startups find support at annual Accelerate Investor Conference

Colleen Rich — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 19:15:31 +0000

Regional startups find support at annual Accelerate Investor Conference Colleen Rich Mon, 11/11/2024 - 14:15

In October, �� hosted its fourth annual Accelerate Investor Conference in Arlington, Virginia.

From left, Presidential Partner Nicole Washington, Mason Enterprise Entrepreneur in Residence program founder Farhad Chowdhury, US-AID CIO and Executive Director Mohamed Abdel-Kader, George Mason President Gregory Washington, grand prize donor and George Mason alum Manesh Gupta, MS Electrical Engineering ’91, and George Mason AVP for Innovation and Economic Development Paula Sorrell. Photo provided

The Accelerate Investor Conference spurs the region’s innovation and startup ecosystem engagement to a new level and showcases the Virginia, Maryland, and metropolitan Washington, D.C., region as a destination for business development, venture investment, and job creation.

Each year the event grows in size and stature. This year Mason Enterprise, which plans the event, reports there were 480 registered attendees, 19 speakers, 48 company pitches, 72 investors judged and participated, and 14 student teams that pitched.

The competition targeted entrepreneurs with early to mid-seed stage, high-growth businesses with the potential to have an immediate and positive impact on our local economy, as well as student concepts with longer-term business viability. After days of networking, engagement, and education, the winners were selected.

Company Winner: AGED Diagnostics

Student Winners: CarbonSecure, light your path, and DigitAIRE

"Accelerate 2024 has once again showcased the immense talent and innovation within our tech community," said Paula Sorrell, associate vice president of innovation and economic development at George Mason. "We've seen extraordinary companies that will shape the future of our local economy. The level of creativity and ambition has been inspiring."

AGED Diagnostics Founder and CEO Rachel Zayas (left) receives the grand prize for the company pitch competition. Pictured with Tien Wong (center) and George Mason alum Manesh Gupta. The Maryland-based company is using genomic innovation to develop the most accurate blood test for liver disease. Photo provided

The Mason Enterprise team helps recruit companies and investors, curates the program geared toward growing the tech economy in the region, and coaches the companies and students to pitch for funding, said Paula Sorrell.

Local sponsors support the event. Among this year’s sponsors were the nonprofit Smart City Works, GO Virginia, and Marymount University.

Companies that pitched in the first three years of the conference have gone on to raise $72 million in follow-on funding, and two companies have successfully exited.

"We can't wait to see what this new crew of entrepreneurs achieves," said Sorrell.

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George Mason KEEN on new teaching mindsets

Nathan Kahl — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 13:45:14 +0000

George Mason KEEN on new teaching mindsets Nathan Kahl Fri, 10/25/2024 - 09:45

In This Story

Girum Urgessa

Engineering Unleashed

Engineering Unleashed is a site where KEEN members share knowledge, creating “cards” where they publish projects and ideas. The following cards from George Mason faculty are on the site.

Entrepreneurially Minded Learning in a New Civil Engineering Elective Course: Part I – Boom!, by Girum Urgessa

�� Navigator Project for freshmen students, by Humaira Akhtari

��’s College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) is making the most of its membership in KEEN (Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network), a nationwide network of 66 institutions, which it joined in December 2023.

Girum Urgessa, professor of civil engineering in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, and Director of Student Leadership and Success, is the school’s KEEN lead. His first step as a KEEN evangelist was meeting with all nine departments. “We discussed the benefits for our faculty, our student body, and our college,” he said.

Urgessa (right) at an Engineering Unleashed faculty development workshop. Photo provided.

KEEN’s goal is “instilling the entrepreneurial mindset in 100 percent of undergraduate engineering and computing students,” specifically focusing on a learning framework called the ‘3 C’s’: curiosity, connections, and creating value. When instilling KEEN elements into instruction, faculty don’t need to develop new courses but rather rethink their teaching approach.

“Faculty can be intentional about fostering curiosity, making connections, and getting students to integrate information from different sources in meaningful ways,” said Urgessa. “And whether through a classroom exercise or a co-curricular activity, we need engineering and computing students to think about creating personal or societal value in a larger context.”

Several CEC faculty attended three of KEEN’s 2024 summer workshops, fully paid for by the Kern Family Foundation, which launched KEEN. Urgessa calls these workshops a “gold standard,” helping faculty enhance teaching skills and elevate activities beyond the classroom, such as undergraduate research and student club engagement.

The KEEN Entrepreneurially Minded Learning Framework. Photo courtesy KEEN.

“The most common feedback I get from faculty is, ‘How can I incorporate and measure mindset learning?’” said Urgessa. “A great thing about KEEN is that there are already approved learning outcomes for this. One of my favorite outcomes is to ‘persist through and learn from failure.’ So when teaching, I can incorporate a problem where students fail several times before arriving at a final solution or design, but I intentionally allow time for them to learn from these repeated failures and reflect.”

To ensure full KEEN integration, CEC established the inaugural Mason KEEN Faculty Learning Community, a group of eight faculty from several departments who have attended KEEN workshops or conferences and meet monthly to share classroom implementation experiences.

By joining KEEN, CEC faculty are supporting students who are prepared to enter the workforce and are ready to make positive contributions in a rapidly changing world.

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Learning Communities

entrepreneurship

Students

Cybersecurity faculty teams pitch startup ideas at Commonwealth Cyber Initiative competition

Teresa Donnellan — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 17:11:08 +0000

Cybersecurity faculty teams pitch startup ideas at Commonwealth Cyber Initiative competition Teresa Donnellan Fri, 10/11/2024 - 13:11

In This Story

Liza Wilson Durant

Andre Marshall, PhD

On October 9, 2024, the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative’s Northern Virginia Node accelerator program (CCI+A) culminated in a final pitch competition in front of a panel of cybersecurity industry experts and entrepreneurs at Mason Square. Program participants, cybersecurity engineering academics from throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, spent the past few months bringing their ideas for businesses to life.

The program helped participants connect with mentors, identify funding and how to obtain it, investigate their target customer, further develop their minimum viable product and hone their elevator pitch. CCI Northern Virginia Node Director Liza Wilson Durant, who welcomed event attendees, encouraged participants to change their perspective from faculty member explaining the technical basis for their idea, to end user who is trying to understand the problem it will solve.

CCI+A 2024 participants and advisors. Photo by Teresa Donnellan.

Each of the eight 2024 faculty teams presented a pitch and received insights on the industry and investment landscapes from the esteemed judging panel. The panel included Jennifer Addie, chief operating officer of Mach37 Cyber Accelerator and VentureScope; Maria Swainson, a managing vice president at Gartner and a member of Citrine Angels, an investment group; Maurice Boissiere, chief customer officer at DataTribe; and, Alicia Lynch, chief information security officer at TD Synnex. Jamil Jaffer, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason and venture partner with Paladin Capital Group moderated the panel.

Faculty team products included everything from hardware to protect a person’s identity to encryption software. CyberGuard AI, led by Old Dominion University’s Peter Foytick; PrivacyGuard, led by Old Dominion’s Rui Ning; CyberSeQurity, led by ��'s Weiwen Jiang; EngineeRD Solutions, led by George Mason’s Brian Ngac; MedChai, led by William & Mary’s Ran Yang; Continuous and Lightweight Authentication for Wearable and Portable Systems (CLAWS), led by George Mason’s Sai Manoj Pudukotai Dinakarrao; RADAR - Real-time Anomaly Detection with Edge AI Hardware, led by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Jayasimha Atulasimhal; and, Machine Learning Operations Executed in an Encrypted Environment (MOXIE), led by Old Dominion scientists all presented pitches.

Robert Podswadt pitches MOXIE to a panel of cybersecurity industry expert. Photo by Teresa Donnellan.

Robert Podswadt, the development lead for MOXIE, made the winning pitch. His teammates include John Matter and Daniel Takabi. The panel praised Podswadt’s clarity, particularly his use of simple graphics to explain MOXIE, a proposed homomorphic computing encryption service.

“We’re leveraging our vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we’re leveraging our deep pool of cybersecurity talent here in Northern Virginia,” said Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact at �� Andre Marshall, who spoke at the event. He added that CCI was “a visionary initiative by the state of Virginia” whereby more than 40 academic units are working together to foster cybersecurity research and workforce development in Virginia.

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Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

entrepreneurship

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George Mason’s startup incubator puts CEO on path to developing accessible electronic health care records

Sarah Holland — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:23:15 +0000

George Mason’s startup incubator puts CEO on path to developing accessible electronic health care records Sarah Holland Mon, 07/15/2024 - 15:23

Jourdan Saunders is a licensed speech-language pathologist and CEO of The Resource Key, which she founded to assist organizations in developing accessible marketing solutions for people with disabilities and facilitate compliance with regulations related to accessibility.

Saunders met Toni Andrews, senior associate director, Community and Local Government Relations at ��'s Mason Square, via the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s Education and Workforce Development Committee, who connected Saunders with Paula Sorrell, associate vice president, innovation and economic development, Mason Enterprise.

Sorrell suggested that Saunders participate in the Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP), which helps Virginia’s inventors and entrepreneurs take the right steps in bringing new technologies and innovations to market. ICAP is part of Virginia’s Small Business Development Centers at George Mason and one of the many entrepreneurship programs offered at the university.

Jourdan Saunders. Photo provided

Saunders’ clinical experience exposed her to the need for industrial accessibility services. “As my clients transitioned into the workforce, there weren’t many opportunities due to a lack of accessibility and the perception that disabled people aren’t capable of working certain jobs.”

When Saunders met with Sorrell, they discussed the founding of her company and its next phase of growth—the development of a health care platform that would increase accessibility to electronic health records.

ICAP participants complete five three-hour sessions centered on customer discovery, conduct at least 20 customer discovery interviews, complete supplemental assignments, and meet with dedicated mentors.

Mentorship is a key component of ICAP. Each participant is paired with a dedicated mentor who provides feedback on each discovery interview, shares insight as an entrepreneur, and introduces mentees to connections that align with their goals.

“I’m grateful to have been introduced to ICAP,” Saunders said. “Having a dedicated mentor provide specific and actionable feedback following customer discovery interviews was very helpful.”

Program participants are also vital to network expansion. “Networking with my fellow cohort members expanded my reach,” Saunders said. “Many of my clients are in different states. However, through ICAP, I’ve made local connections that I can leverage as I grow my business.”

Once participants complete ICAP, they continue to have access to resources. The ICAP team stays engaged as a company progresses through its milestones, becoming a later-stage startup and eventually transitioning from a startup to a growth company and the unique needs this entails.

Since completing ICAP, Saunders has attended an industry conference and expanded her network. She expects to have a prototype of the accessible health care application ready for beta testing within the next six months.

“ICAP’s focus on customer discovery, mentorship, and resources are invaluable benefits for entrepreneurs,” Saunders said. “You become part of a community, an ecosystem, that’s continuous.”

George Mason’s Small Business Development Centers offer ICAP free of charge as part of the Mason Virginia Promise, a pathway to a bachelor's degree or help starting a business for any Virginian who wants one.

Mason Enterprise Center is the place for innovation

In This Story

Paula Sorrell

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Research

Mason Square

Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program

entrepreneurship

Economic Development

Small Business Development Center

Strategic Direction

Photography entrepreneurs continue to grow businesses while studying marketing

Greg Johnson — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:18:18 +0000

Photography entrepreneurs continue to grow businesses while studying marketing Greg Johnson Wed, 06/26/2024 - 10:18

Many students graduate from the Costello College of Business at �� with bold plans to start their own companies. Bethany Rivera and Alex Tugbang, both undergraduate marketing students and classmates in Jiyeon Hong’s marketing course, had already launched their respective businesses, Rivera’s Photography and Photuggraphy, prior to enrolling.

“In my digital marketing course, I’m trying my best to keep my materials up to date and focus on skills and lessons of practical value, offering many opportunities for students to apply what they learn in class to real-world scenarios,” says Hong. “This is because the digital world is constantly changing, and I believe the best learning can come from hands-on experience.” Focused on their career ambitions and passions, Rivera and Tugbang knew what they wanted to learn more about to become even more successful entrepreneurs.

Bethany Rivera

Her family and friends knew it was only a matter of time until Bethany Rivera became an avid photographer. “Ever since I was born, I was surrounded with cameras and pictures,” she says. She fondly recalls her father giving her a Canon camera when she was 12 years old, but it wasn’t until high school that she realized she could make a living with it. She had taken a picture at a pep rally and sent it to her English teacher, who also taught the yearbook class. They selected the photo to use on the cover, and Rivera quickly became involved with working on the yearbook.

Since officially launching her business in 2021, she has steadily grown her clientele from people she knows in the local Hispanic community. In addition, many of her clients are of Indian background, connections stemming from befriending the owner of an Indian restaurant.

Alex Tugbang

Alex Tugbang’s passion for photography began more recently. Inspired by videos he watched on YouTube, he decided to bring a camera with him on a family vacation to Hawaii in 2016. At first, he wasn’t happy with how his pictures were turning out, but he continued to practice and teach himself until they got better and better.

“When I was in Hawaii, there was this crazy moment when the concierge sat me down and asked me if I made money off photography, and he walked me through how to open a business,” he says.

Shortly after the trip, he started doing photo shoots for friends performing activities like dance. As his content was put out there, dance studios began to contact him. As a graduate of Bishop Ireton High School, he became friends with the bishop who recommended him to several other churches in the area for projects. And so, his client network grew rapidly, all while being a self-taught photographer and videographer.

Both Rivera and Tugbang find their current coursework, especially Jiyeon Hong’s course, immensely helpful in growing professionally. “She doesn’t know this, but every time she’s teaching something I always make the changes on my website,” says Rivera. “Like when she was talking about SEO and how to optimize your SEO and everything, I was on my website making those changes in real time.” One of the course’s projects that Tugbang finds particularly helpful is analyzing a company’s website and social media presence to make recommendations. In fact, it’s something he finds himself doing often for his business. “For example, this dental company reached out to me, and I could see they didn’t even have a website and needed this and that,” he says. With an analytical eye and a strong marketing skillset, he can help clients reach their goals. “I’m very proud of my students who are pursuing their entrepreneurial spirits while managing their academic responsibilities,” says Hong. “I wish them all the best for the continued growth of their businesses.”

Rivera is already doing professionally what she’s always wanted to do. Now her goals are just bigger and more ambitious. In addition to photography and marketing, she finds much to love about being an entrepreneur. “Before I started my business, I was a homebody who didn’t go too far unless it was with family or friends,” she says. “Now that I have clients in different locations, I get to see different locations I wasn’t aware about, and I get to connect with different people from different cultures.” The sky is the limit for Tugbang’s business as well. “I definitely want to keep focusing on my business,” he says. “It allows me to grow myself and grow the community as well because there’s other photographers I’m helping, and they help me with my own projects as well.” With ever-expanding client networks and skillsets, Bethany Rivera and Alex Tugbang are excited to continue growing their businesses to new heights.

Topics

Costello College of Business News

Costello College of Business Students

Marketing Area

entrepreneurship

Students

Learn more about the Marketing Area's Academic Programs

In This Story

Jiyeon Hong

Blimps and business collide at the Mason Innovation Exchange

Sarah Holland — Fri, 24 May 2024 15:01:55 +0000

Blimps and business collide at the Mason Innovation Exchange Sarah Holland Fri, 05/24/2024 - 11:01

Building a drone and building a business are, at first glance, two very different tasks. Academically, you’d be hard pressed to find a robotics course in a business school, and vice versa. But at the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX), all that separates these two is a staircase.

From the fabrication floor to the incubator’s loft, the MIX is demonstrating how principles of entrepreneurship and innovation aren’t so easily siloed with two new courses: BLIMP and Student Innovator Mastermind.

The MIX BLIMP workshop was an outgrowth of an Office of Naval Research-funded Bio-inspired Lighter-than-air Instructional Mechatronics Program, developed to expand unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)—or drone—education, with a desire to build a pipeline for students to participate in the biannual Defend the Republic lighter-than-air robotics competition. In this course, students learn introductory concepts of UAVs and, within small interdisciplinary groups, build their own blimps with flapping wing mechanisms.

Daigo Shishika helps students flight test their blimps in the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC). Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“We use organic life as the inspiration for these builds,” said instructor Daigo Shishika, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Students study the biomechanics of fish, insects, and birds, and then use those principles of flight and motion to create their own blimps.”

Each group learns how to build, program, and control flying robots. Using balloons made of mylar films, the students construct the blimp bodies and mount the electronic components—circuitry, motors, and microcontrollers—while ensuring that the blimp is well balanced.

At the end of the course, groups present their design and describe what creatures inspired their works: butterflies, stingrays, tuna, and even dragons were referenced when building.

“This process is meant to be exploratory,” explained Shishika. “I didn’t want to discourage the groups from trying out-of-the-box ideas. The dragon, for example: I wasn’t confident it would work. But they proved me wrong, and demonstrated some technical benefits of that type of wing.”

“As much as we’re teaching them the basics,” Shishika continued, “they’re teaching us new ways of thinking about design and fabrication.”

Along with the microcredential the students earn upon completion of the course, Shishika hopes they leave with a better sense of creative design and confidence in their ability to design, develop, and deploy robotics.

“It’s fun to build something from scratch and see it fly,” he said.

BLIMP flight testing in the MARC aviary. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

The Student Innovator Mastermind course uses a similar approach: building foundations while allowing space for creativity and innovation. George Mason alum Lisa Shapiro, BA Psychology ’03, Med ’06, is a seasoned business owner and entrepreneur. When she started at Mason as the MIX’s assistant director of entrepreneurship programs, the entrepreneurship incubator on the MIX’s second floor was empty.

“I wanted to reinvigorate the space and provide student innovators with a place to share ideas, develop their businesses, and form a community with other entrepreneurs,” she said.

The Student Innovator Mastermind program is a six-week mastermind group where 10 Mason student innovators and business founders gather for peer-to-peer collaboration and workshops. The inaugural mastermind cohort included students developing video games, a skincare line, mobile applications, and a business that supports the elderly population with nutritional needs—which was one of the finalists in the 2024 Patriot Pitch competition.

A key part of the programming was what Shapiro calls “transformational talks”: presentations from industry professionals that the students can immediately apply to their work. Speakers cover topics such as mindset, marketing and branding, goal setting, customer segment, and advice for business ownership.

“Being able to take what they’ve learned and immediately apply it is super important,” said Shapiro. “Entrepreneurship is super hard. You need the right mindset to be able to handle the ups and downs. I want to get them started off in the right way so they’re better prepared.”

The incubator is also a space for the students to learn from each other. Sharing ideas and challenges is, Shapiro said, a necessary part of the process. “We’ve had a phenomenal response from the students,” she said. “They’re helping each other, recommending professors and other people to meet that could help with their ideas.”

Honors College student Sahil Jagtap, who is majoring in computer science, participated in the Mastermind and the drone-prototyping programs this semester. “I have a passion for building, making, and breaking stuff. I love doing research on new and unique technologies and their potential to solve real-world problems,” he said.

The course offerings at the MIX were an opportunity for Jagtap to get hands-on experience in developing and launching tech-based solutions. “The skills I acquired from both programs, such as project management, teamwork, and technical expertise, are invaluable,” he said. “In addition, the mentorship and networking opportunities have connected me with industry professionals and potential collaborators, which will be beneficial as I continue my career in technology and entrepreneurship.”

Most of all, Shapiro and Shishika both hope that this type of programming keeps students coming back to the MIX.

“Now that they’ve had a taste of the full process,” Shishika said, “they can focus on the aspect they enjoyed the most and dig deeper, whether that’s robotics, electronics, fabrication, or something else.”

“The MIX is a space for prototyping,” Shapiro said. “It’s a place for anyone with an idea to come and try to make it a reality.”

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

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