NCIAA, Washington DC

Well I just got back from the NCIAA Open 2011 conference that was held in Washington DC. RIT professors Carl Lundgren, Jon Schull, and Stephen Jacobs submitted a paper entitled Undergraduate Student Experiences at a Summer Research Fellows Program in Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Student Innovation (CSI).

Eliza Hammer, Luticha Doucette, Devin Hamilton, Beth Kiefer, Kenneth Stewart, and I (Justin Lewis) attended the conference and presented on our personal experiences with the program.



While at the conference, we had attended a few different panels and presentations. During one panels that we attended about the student perspective of entrepreneurship education, we were asked to join the panel to give out thoughts. That was pretty interesting because our experiences and perspectives differ as we are at a different stage of the entrepreneurship cycle. The innovation center deals with the beginning stages, the innovation where the other panel members were at the later stage of running the business. I think it was pretty interesting to have the contrast.

One of the other panel discussions I went to was with the NCIAA Student Ambassador team. They were discussing their experiences in the Ambassador program as well how the program has impacted their universities. It was a very interesting talk. I was able to take away a few good ideas from the talk that might help move the fellows program and the Innovation Center along. I think in the near future, we may even apply for the ambassador program. Until then, we can use some of their suggestions to improve activity and productivity of our program.

Aside from the conference, this was the first time I have personally been in Washington DC. So we took half a day to explore the capitol and visit a few museums. Overall it was a great experience!