Achievement

Todd Alexander has advanced to the final stage of the i3 Innovation Competition at WPI. i3 is all about translating research into value and real-world impact. It encourages graduate students to consider how the ideas and innovations they are developing through their research could become the foundation for new products, new commercially valuable processes, and even new companies. It requires that they distill their work and its potential value into a brief presentation that can be made without the aid of PowerPoint or other visuals. Participants develop a three-minute presentation, or pitch, that explains how their innovation addresses an important commercial or societal need, why it is better than existing technology or processes, and how it might gain the interest of the marketplace. Todd says that participating in i3 forced him to think about his project in a in a new way, and to highlight the way research would impact the global community.