U.Va. Innovation Lab Expanding Across Grounds and Beyond

Group of individuals stand next to the iLab sign

Housed at the Darden School of Business, the iLab will soon expand its services to service the entire University and the local community.

The University of Virginia’s Innovation Lab is expanding both its physical space and its institutional reach to become a hub for entrepreneurship and innovation education serving all 11 U.Va. schools and the local community beyond Grounds.

To support its enlarged role, the i.Lab, located in Sponsors Hall at U.Va.’s Darden School of Business, is being renovated and expanded. The renewed facility will reopen and be formally renamed the “W.L. Lyons Brown III Innovation Laboratory” at a special April 11 event. 

The new space will offer a design-inspired learning environment and experiential programs, a prototyping lab and an expanded state-of-the-art business incubator program that will bring together U.Va. students, faculty and local entrepreneurs.

The recently admitted 2013-14 incubator class consists of 24 companies, including seven community-based ventures. The other 17 companies represent a mix of students, faculty and staff from five U.Va. schools. Venture mentor Kathryne Carr will head the expanded business incubator.

A new faculty advisory council will oversee the i.Lab curriculum and programs. Chaired by professor Bernard Carlson of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, it will include representatives from all 11 U.Va. schools.

The offices of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Vice President for Research will also be involved in expanding the i.Lab’s offerings.

“The pan-University i.Lab demonstrates a structural commitment to cross-school collaboration, one of my strategic priorities for the University,” U.Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan said. “The expanded i.Lab, U.Va. Innovation, OpenGrounds and related initiatives enable U.Va. to provide students, faculty and members of the local community with a compelling environment to advance knowledge and create new businesses.”

“The faculty advisory council will play a critical role in helping the i.Lab realize its full potential,” said Philippe Sommer, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which will operate the i.Lab. Sommer will also serve as the new i.Lab’s director. “The i.Lab will enable students across the University to learn about, conceive, launch, grow and engage with entrepreneurial ventures through a diverse array of educational and experiential programs.”

To advance U.Va. discoveries to the global community, the i.Lab will partner with U.Va. Innovation.

“U.Va. Innovation is a pan-University initiative designed to maximize the impact of U.Va. discoveries through entrepreneurship and strategic partnerships,” said Mark Crowell, executive director of U.Va. Innovation and associate vice president for research at U.Va. “The i.Lab will be a key contributor to U.Va.’s robust entrepreneurial ecosystem.” 

The i.Lab is named after U.Va. alumnus W.L. Lyons Brown III, a 1982 graduate of the College of Arts & Sciences and a 1987 graduate of the Darden School,  who donated generously to the creation of the new state-of-the-art incubator, along with 50 other donors and friends.   

The expanded i.Lab will formally open April 11 as part of the kick off of the Tom Tom Founders Festival, a four-day series of events catalyzing innovation in Charlottesville, presented in partnership with U.Va. Innovation.

Sullivan and Robert F. Bruner, dean of the Darden School, will preside over the April 11 i.Lab reopening activities, which will begin at 3 p.m. Activities will conclude with the U.Pitch. C’ville Decides” community pitch competition, developed in partnership with the Tom Tom Founders Festival. The Batten Institute will award $10,000 in total to the competition’s top three winners, who will be selected by event attendees.

The members of the i.Lab faculty advisory council are:

  • School of Architecture: Jeana Ripple
  • College of Arts & Sciences: TBD
  • Darden School of Business: Jeanne Liedtka
  • McIntire School of Commerce: Brendan Richardson
  • School of Continuing and Professional Studies: Donna Klepper
  • Curry School of Education: Justin Thompson
  • School of Engineering and Applied Science: Bernard Carlson
  • School of Law: George Geis
  • Frank Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy: Christine Mahoney
  • School of Medicine: John Lazo
  • School of Nursing: Karen Rose
  • U.Va. Innovation: Mark Crowell

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H. Brevy Cannon

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Matt Charles

Office of University Communications