NSF Programs for Innovation and Commercialization

With Dr. Barbara Kenny, NSF Program Director for the Partnerships for Innovation: Accelerating Innovation Research (PFI:AIR) program

3:30 pm Talk/Presentation
4:30  pm Reception

UCI Calit2 Auditorium

RSVP to events@research.uci.edu

Abstract:

Dr. Kenny will present information and answer questions about the NSF and programs offered in the Directorate for Engineering, with an emphasis on the programs offered in the Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP).  IIP programs include the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC), Grant Opportunities for Liaison with Industry (GOALI), Innovation-Corps (I-Corps), Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI:BIC) and Partnerships for Innovation: Accelerating Innovation Research (PFI:AIR).  The IIP Division funds approximately $250M per year in research projects related to moving technology to commercial application.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Barbara Kenny is the Program Director for the Partnerships for Innovation: Accelerating Innovation Research (PFI:AIR) program, a position she has held since May 2013.  She has been at NSF since 2006 and formerly served as a Program Director in the Engineering Research Center program.  Prior to NSF, she worked for NASA at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio in the Power and On-board Propulsion Division in the area of aerospace power systems.  Her research there involved the control of flywheel energy storage systems.  She received her BSEE from Cornell University, her MSEE from  University of Texas-Austin, and  her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  After graduation from Cornell, she served in the U.S. Air Force for 4 years of active duty followed by 20 years in the Air Force Reserves, retiring in 2006 as a Lieutenant Colonel.  She is a Senior Member of IEEE and serves as an ABET Program Evaluator.