URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2024_M

RISING ST RS

disciplinary and diverse. They work on one project/ challenge, but they present to each other weekly and share learning and feedback. The programs are designed to naturally flow from one to another. For example, a student may take PIE-D and then develop the idea for a company in Ideation Studio that they take to market in Patents2Products, mentored by a faculty fellow. Along the way, they learn from and teach their peers to, hopefully, create an ecosystem of innovative startups. After the initial grant, the Navy already has appropriated money for follow-up funding, and Rumsey hopes their financial support will continue for up to five years. “Fundamentally, we’re working on creating a baseline undercurrent of translating research into real-world companies and products,” Rumsey says. “The more we can do that, the better it is for the University, the students, and the state.” “Fundamentally, we’re working on creating a baseline undercurrent of translating research into real-world companies and products, the more we can do that, the better it is for the University, the students, and the state.” -Peter Rumsey

Christine de Silva has been working through her Narragansett, RI based company, Juice Robotics, to enable the future of ocean exploration and defense with robust and modular marine technology components. “The vast majority of technologies cannot access waters that are deeper than 200 meters—and those that do exist are often prohibitively expensive and require huge ships to deploy,” she says. Juice Robotics pots the electronics of sensors into epoxy, meaning their products do not require air filled housings CHRISTINE DE SILVA JUICE ROBOTICS making them “rugged, extremely pressure-tolerant, and affordable,” explains de Silva, who graduated from URI’s BlueMBA last spring and is a Ph.D. student at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. “The vast majority of technologies cannot access waters that are deeper than 200 meters— and those that do exist are often prohibitively expensive and require huge ships to deploy.”

PETER RUMSEY Chief Business Development Officer, URI Research Foundation Adjunct Professor, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, URI College of Engineering and College of Business

and government, students develop a business plan and eventually a minimally viable product. A third program, Faculty Fellows, gives faculty funding and support to incorporate startup methodology into their curricula. Joe Loberti, URI BS ‘88 and MBA ‘90, an independent entrepreneur serving as a consultant for the initiative, says, “They’ll be charged with saying, ‘how do we take the bones of the program and make it permanent inside the curriculum’.” Finally, Pathways to Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Defense (PIE-D) is a semester-long, hacker-type course for advanced undergraduate or graduate students, who take on real-world problems presented to them by the Navy or private industry and come up with cost-effective solutions. In the current course, for example, the Navy has challenged a group of highly motivated, cross-disciplinary URI students with redesigning uniforms for female officers and finding an efficient way to recover an incapacitated underwater vehicle (UV). At the same time, Regent Craft, a sea glider company recently relocated to Rhode Island from Massachusetts, has challenged students to develop a way to charge electric vehicles in the middle of the ocean. The student teams are cross

JOE LOBERTI Lead Consultant and Industry Expert 401 Tech Bridge, RISE-UP Program

- Christine de Silva

Page 50 | The University of Rhode Island { MOMENTUM: RESEARCH & INNOVATION }

WINTER | 2024 Page 51