Customer Discovery through NSF-funded Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Hub Program
NEXT UAF COHORT: Spring 2026.
Interest form
Questions: Email to Prof. Peter Webley
NSF I-Corps Northwest Region Hub Member: Find out more information
Customer discovery is the process of understanding customers’ needs and then using that information
to pivot product development or target customer-segment.
Center ICE, through its National Science Foundation I-Corps Hub program, delivers
customer discovery training and support.
Center ICE’s I-Corps program is available to University of Alaska faculty, staff,
and students as well as the broader community in Alaska. The I-Corps program is delivered
a few times each year and lasts approximately four weeks.
Understanding the needs of the customer, stakeholder, or end-user is essential to
evaluate the value of your solution to their specific pain points. At Center ICE,
we provide NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Hub programming to accelerate academic research and startup business projects that are ready to move
toward commercialization.
Through our program, we provide training and access to a mentor network to support
you and your team in their customer discovery process. Please contact us to learn
more about our I-Corps program and the start date of our next cohort.
Participants learn how to move technology out of the lab as well as business startup
best practices. Your team will obtain customer feedback that will help launch your
product/business or develop an evidence-based commercialization strategy.
I-Corps Program
I-Corps is a highly-experiential, 4-week-long program. Participants/teams will:
- Attend Weekly Classroom Sessions: Members of each I-Corps team are required to attend -hour long sessions, including
one at the beginning to kick-off the program and one to wrap-up the discovery process
and lessons learned from your feedback. One team member must check-in weekly with
the program instructor.
- Conduct 20 Interviews: This is the hard work, but this is also how you’ll learn the most. To best align
your idea with real-world needs, teams test their assumptions through interviews with
industry representatives and potential “customers.” Each team will conduct a minimum of 20 interviewsover the course of the program. As part of the I-Corps program, all participants will
learn best practices for how to conduct stakeholder interviews.
If you’d like to join the next cohort of the I-Corps program at Center ICE, please
complete the application form at the link below. A member of the Center ICE team will
contact you to talk more about your value proposition and the next steps to get you
started.
Apply for an upcoming cohort using the Airtable links below
Northwest Hub I-Corps Training available
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Applications will be reviewed by the UAF team and interviewed by the Faculty Instructor.
Teams accepted into the program will be assigned to a cohort based on availability.
Qualified applicants may be invited to an interview with the program instructor as
part of the application process.
Team eligibility requirements include:
- Team members committed to attending required workshops and completing assignments
(20 interviews) .
- An idea or project that is based in the STEM fields or has a technology component
– this idea can be very early-stage, and teams are not required to have prototypes.
- Open to both university and non-university affiliated teams – teams including faculty,
students, staff, and alumni from the University of Alaska are given first preference,
but all teams located in Alaska may apply for I-Corps.
- Curiosity and enthusiasm.
We do not recommend that teams have more than four members. Typically, teams consist
of at least one scientific or technological expert who is responsible for the team’s
idea (“the academic/technical lead”) and at least one business focused team member
interested in conducting entrepreneurial research and directing group efforts (“the
entrepreneurial lead”). The entrepreneurial lead may or may not have prior business
experience but must be committed to leading or organizing team activities. For more
information on how to form a team for I-Corps, contact centerice@alaska.edu
I-Corps Team members highlight the benefits to the program
I-Corps provided an environment to investigate new ideas and assess the customer and
stakeholder needs as well as evaluate the timing for us to pursue new opportunities.
We now incorporate the customer discovery process each fall to ensure we provide our
customers the experience that they expect for us.
Meredith Noble and Alexandra Lustig, Co-Founders, Learn Grant Writing
I-Corps gave me the first opportunity to interview specialists in other fields and
determine the end users for the innovation developed in my senior project. I-Corps
teaches you to iterate on your design and to speak with, listen to, and empathize
with the end-user. I use the skills I learned in I-Corps daily. I-Corps is a fun program
and I recommend it to anyone interested in finding out the broader impacts of their
innovative research.
Abigail Leigh, 2021 UAF Engineering Graduate.
The customer validation training helped us in validation of our innovation, and gave
me and my team the opportunity to strengthen our ties with collaborators and provide
guidance on our software and interfaces. I-Corps has provided me with insights and
business guidance. I recommend it to any startup.
Kelly Lucas, Founder, Jawlogic
The I-Corps program opened up the business world for us in a way I can't imagine achieving
by any other means. I'm extremely grateful to have gone through the program and will
recommend it (any already have recommended it) to anyone starting out in the same
way. Especially for us, all of us coming from technical backgrounds, the opportunity
to get in front of people and learn how to message what we're doing was simply irreplaceable.Jay Byam, CEO, Kartorium
