Thursday, March 14, 2013

Project Olympus Partners with the Don Jones Center Boosting Entrepreneurship Efforts at Carnegie Mellon

Project Olympus Partners with the Don Jones Center Boosting Entrepreneurship Efforts at Carnegie Mellon

Initiatives Will Combine Strengths in New Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University is bolstering its leadership in turning university research and ideas into commercial enterprises by establishing the Carnegie Mellon Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), which merges the strengths of Project Olympus and the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship.

The new CIE will be led jointly by Lenore Blum, founding director of Project Olympus and professor of computer science, and Dave Mawhinney, executive director of the Don Jones Center and assistant teaching professor of entrepreneurship. The CIE has three goals: 1) defining CMU as the "destination of choice" for individuals interested in entrepreneurship; 2) fostering an "inside-out" approach of creating winning commercial ventures from cutting-edge research; and 3) developing an extensive, vibrant network of alumni entrepreneurs.

"The Don Jones Center and Project Olympus have been tremendously successful in helping students and faculty take the crucial first steps in transforming research findings into products and services that people want to buy," said Mark S. Kamlet, CMU provost and executive vice president and head of the new center's governing body. "We are excited that the partnership between technology and business as embodied by the new center will create the same synergies we see when our faculty members reach across disciplines — and propel our university, and region, into the entrepreneurial forefront..." Read More»

Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science / Press Release