Michael Matkin, Assistant Director of CITRIS Santa Cruz, writes about three UC Santa Cruz student-helmed companies that got started via the CITRIS Foundry.
Santa Cruz Tech Beat: CITRIS is a multi-campus University of California institute that helps develop information technology solutions for society’s most pressing challenges
UC Santa Cruz students and faculty work on innovative research every day — such as using advanced algorithmic design, robotic laboratories and new synthesis techniques to revolutionize drug discovery — and increasingly they’re taking that research and applying entrepreneurial skills to create companies based on those novel ideas.
One campus organization that supports their entrepreneurial drive is the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute. CITRIS is a multi-campus University of California institute that helps develop information technology solutions for society’s most pressing challenges in many ways, including through funding and support.
The CITRIS core seed funding program provides financial support for inter-disciplinary work by faculty, which has gone on to attract more than $60 million in follow-on support from federal, state, industrial, and private sources. The CITRIS Foundry incubator program has supported the launch of over 70 high-tech startups by faculty and students. The Tech for Social Good program, which just launched on the UCSC campus this month, provides funding for student projects and events, several of which on other campuses have gone on to successfully expand their project ideas into companies through the Foundry program.
Even prior to the launch of the Tech for Social Good program on campus a number of UC Santa Cruz students have successfully participated in the Foundry program, and the center anticipates this increasing with the earlier stage support the new program offers.
Photo cred: Adriel Olmos