MIAMI SCHOOLS ENTER NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will award a grant to Florida International University and Florida Memorial College as part of a program initiated by the Kennedy Space Center Equal Opportunity Program Office. This is a partnership of Florida minority-serving institutions to promote high-tech entrepreneurship and to better acquaint NASA professionals with researchers at these institutions. Two additional grants through Kennedy Space Center Equal Opportunity Office were also awarded to Florida International University. NASA officials will officially announce the program at FIU on July 7, 1997 at 10:00 AM at the Center for Engineering and Applied Science, located at 107 Avenue and Flagler Street, one mile north of the University Park Campus, Room EAS 2300.

The partnership program, which is led by Bethune-Cookman College of Daytona Beach, and also includes Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, seeks to provide exposure for students and faculty at minority-serving institutions to the challenges and rewards of starting and operating high-tech small businesses. The concept is to involve the schools in existing, proven technology transfer programs established by NASA and the State of Florida through the Technological Research and Development Authority. The programs include commercialization of NASA technologies, assistance for companies seeking NASA Small Business Innovative Research Grants, the NASA Small Business Incubation Center, and the Technology Outreach Program. According to Jim Jennings, Deputy Director of NASA Kennedy Space Center, "The resources of these two institutions will have a tremendous impact on our commercialization programs, while faculty and students will be getting hands-on technical and business experience." Jennings will tour both facilities after the ceremony.

Florida Memorial College and Florida International University students and faculty will work with NASA commercialization representatives, engineers, and small-business owners to solve technical problems through the Technology Outreach Program. In addition, Florida Memorial participants will work with companies at the Florida/NASA Small Business Incubation Center in Titusville to assist and learn about small businesses. A two-week summer program for university faculties will kick-off the first of its kind partnership with training and briefings on the programs of the commercialization office at Kennedy Space Center. Representatives from the institutions will learn about the programs at KSC, and prepare to share the opportunities and how to access them with other faculty at their respective colleges.

Two other awards to FIU will be announced at the ceremony, which will include community leaders, state and federal government officials and college dignitaries. A grant will be awarded to the FIU initiative for "Applied Research in Industrial and Systems Engineering" (ARISE), which is designed to increase the number of minority students graduating with math, science or engineering degrees. This project provides for five engineering student internships for research.

The third award to FIU (project VISION) focuses on increasing the participation of middle school students in, as well as their understanding of, science, mathematics and technology. Engineering students at FIU and the University of Puerto Rico will aid teachers with hands-on science and mathematics curricula.

Florida International University, located in Miami, is a member of the State University System of Florida. A nationally recognized public research university, FIU currently serves 30,000 students taught by 1,200 faculty members at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Since first opening its doors in 1972, FIU has quickly grown to become the largest university in South Florida and one of the top three producers of university degrees to minority students in the country.

Florida Memorial College is South Florida’s only historically black college, and a member of The College Fund/UNCF. It offers degrees in over twenty disciplines on the undergraduate level through six of its seven academic divisions. The seventh, the Division of Extension and Continuing Education, is geared toward working adults. For more information on Florida Memorial College, contact the Office of Public Affairs at (305) 626-3624.

For further information contact:

Jay Diggs, NASA Kennedy Space Center, 407-867-2307
Barbara Edwards, Florida Memorial College, 305-626-3608
Maydel Santana, Florida International University, 305-348-1555
Gwendolyn De Cort or Mary Baker, Technological Research & Development Authority, 407-269-6330

• Participating Institutions are led by Bethune-Cookman College of Daytona Beach and include Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida Memorial College and Florida International University in Miami.

• The partnership is made possible by an $800,000.00 grant through the NASA-Kennedy Space Center Equal Opportunity Program Office.

• The partnership project was developed to take advantage of the existing technology transfer programs that are in place at NASA and gain support from the universities as well as exposing students and faculty to entrepreneurial activities.

• This is the first consortium of Florida predominately minority institutions to propose a combined effort for a NASA program.

• Bethune-Cookman College will act as the overall administrator for the partnership. In addition, faculty and students from the college will work to assist the NASA-KSC Commercialization Office with business assistance, will assist the Technology Outreach Program through the local Economic Development Commission, and will provide a faculty member for the summer to work at the NASA-KSC Commercialization Office.

• Edward Waters College will provide faculty from the school of business with experience in computer information systems, and student interns from marketing/business communications discipline to provide assistance to companies responding to Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) solicitations. They will also assist the Jacksonville area Technology Outreach Program, and participate in the Summer Faculty program in the NASA-KSC Commercialization Office.

• Florida Memorial College will provide a team comprised of a professor from the College of Business Administration and business and computer science students who will work with the NASA/Florida Small Business Incubation Center. They will also assist the Beacon Council and the Broward Economic Development Council with the Technology Outreach Program in Dade and Broward Counties, and participate in the Summer Faculty Program at KSC.

• Florida International University will provide support for the Commercialization Office in the areas of Technology Commercialization and Licensing, Technology Assessment and the Technology Development program. They will work with the Beacon Council and the Broward Economic Development Council to assist with the Technology Outreach Program, and participate in a Summer Faculty Program at KSC.

• The Technological Research and Development Authority (TRDA), as KSC’s state partner in NASA’s technology transfer, will assist B-CC with program administration to ensure that the defined objectives are maximized. TRDA will act in a support role to B-CC and all schools and assist faculty and project coordinators with all program coordination.

• The Technological Outreach Program establishes a NASA network throughout Florida to provide free technical assistance to Florida businesses with the goal of creating or saving jobs and creating new economic activity by accelerating the transfer of NASA technology to Florida industry.

• The Florida/NASA Incubation Center is located in Titusville, Florida and serves 7 companies in a variety of fields including updating/initializing business plans, marketing plans, financial planning, accounting systems and funding searches.