Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Huang Awarded NSF I-Corps Grant for Technology Commercialization Research

Tuesday, March 6, 2018, By J.D. Ross
Share
facultyresearchSchool of Information StudiesSTEMStudents

School of Information Studies (iSchool) Assistant Professor Yun Huang has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program to explore commercialization of Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon technology that she has developed.

Large portrait of Yun Huange at top, with smaller portraits of three others at the bottom

Yun Huang, top, with Michael D’Eredita, Qunfang Wu and Yaxing Yao, from left

The I-Corps program prepares academic researchers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory and is designed to accelerate the economic and societal benefits of NSF-funded research projects that are ready to move toward commercialization.

Through the program, Huang and her team of doctoral students will identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from their research and will learn skills in entrepreneurship through focused training in customer discovery. The team also benefits from mentorship from established entrepreneurs.

Huang serves as the principal investigator on the grant. Doctoral students Yaxing Yao and Qunfang Wu work as entrepreneur leads. The team is also joined by iSchool Assistant Professor of Practice Michael D’Eredita, who serves as the team’s industrial mentor.

The project is rooted in work that Huang began in 2015, when she was working on a research project with Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety. When Huang learned that floor plans of University buildings were being uploaded to Google Maps, she began to explore ways to use technology to aid in building navigation.

Syracuse University’s Information Technology Services division provided Huang an initial $3,600 in seed money for mapping out indoor spaces of campus buildings, and Huang also pursued a Google faculty award, which provided another $38,000.

“I became interested in exploring the Low Energy Bluetooth technology in 2016 after Google’s grant came in,” says Huang. “The Bluetooth Beacons allow us to gather hyperlocal information about how people move through or co-locate at an indoor space,  like a classroom.”

“We started using the Beacon technology in Hinds Hall, with sensors across the ground floor areas,” Huang explains. “We were exploring different designs to promote social interactions among students when they were co-located in the same indoor area. The idea of using the technology to facilitate class attendance taking emerged shortly after.”

Huang’s team then developed a mobile app called SU Connect that leverages the Beacons mounted inside particular classrooms to verify students’ attendance. To enable automatically checking in to a class, students need to download the app on their mobile phones.

“The purpose of this NSF I-Corps grant is to move us beyond the University and explore the market for this Beacon technology in other sectors, like airports, museums, libraries and convention centers,” says Huang, “so we can see how this IoT (Internet of Things) technology might address real needs in creative ways.”

Commercial uses could include counting people and traffic within a public space, establishing traffic patterns and paths through buildings, and enabling people to better navigate within indoor spaces.

The I-Corps funding allows Huang’s  team to travel, talk to potential customers, research their proposed markets, meet with technology vendors and talk to end users. “I want the business to take off and be successful.” Huang explains. “Establishing this platform with a large number of active users will show societal impacts of the research and further allow me to develop new research agendas with diverse user populations.”

For Huang’s doctoral students, Qunfang Wu and Yaxing Yao, the I-Corps’ entrepreneurial focus provides a different kind of practice for the pair to learn and master. “I improved my interview skills significantly by practicing scientific methods and entrepreneurial approaches along the process, which can in turn benefit my research in the long run,” says Yao. “I learned a lot of new things, like how to use business language to communicate with others and how to use different tools to present and evaluate our ideas.”

“This project allows them to start thinking about research in very practical terms. There is a learning curve to this. I’m excited to see how they rise to this new challenge,” D’Eredita remarks. “A big focus of this grant is on educating the academic scholars, and preparing them to get their research to market if it is commercially viable.”

About Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private, international research university with distinctive academics, diversely unique offerings and an undeniable spirit. Located in the geographic heart of New York State, with a global footprint, and nearly 150 years of history, Syracuse University offers a quintessential college experience. The scope of Syracuse University is a testament to its strengths: a pioneering history dating back to 1870; a choice of more than 200 majors and 100 minors offered through 13 schools and colleges; nearly 15,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students; more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries; and a student population from all 50 U.S. states and 123 countries. For more information, please visit www.syracuse.edu.

  • Author

J.D. Ross

  • Recent
  • Syracuse University Ranked in the Top 25 for Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs by U.S. News & World Report
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • WAER 88.3 FM Welcomes New Sports Director
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By Mary Kate Intaglietta
  • The State of the Immigration Courts
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • Athlete, Activist Maya Moore Joins the Martin Luther King Jr. Virtual Event Series Jan. 27
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • Health Promotion Advocate and Alumnus Sidney Lerner ’53 Remembered
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff

More In STEM

Syracuse University Ranked in the Top 25 for Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs by U.S. News & World Report

Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies (iSchool) and the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) have been recognized as No. 11 for Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs for Veterans and No. 25 for Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs by U.S. News…

Data Privacy Day 2021: Is Your Personal Information Safe?

Jan. 28 is Data Privacy Day, an annual event to create and raise awareness about how personal information is collected, secured and shared in the growing digital world. A 2019 Pew Research Center report found a majority of Americans were…

Professor Rahman Awarded Google Grant to Engage Underrepresented Students in Computing Research

Electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) Professor Farzana Rahman received a 2020 Google exploreCSR award to fund the development of an undergraduate student engagement workshop program, Research Exposure in Socially Relevant Computing (RESORC). The RESORC program will provide research opportunities…

Arts and Sciences Welcomes New Director of Forensics Kathleen Corrado

After 25 years working in the field of forensic science and over two decades of executive experience as a laboratory director, Kathleen Corrado has been named director of the Forensic and National Security Science Institute (FNSSI) in the College of…

Hehnly Lab Awarded $1.2M NIH Grant to Research Critical Tissue Formation

A key process during the development of an embryo is tissue morphogenesis, where the number of cells in an organism increase through cell division and tissues begins to take shape. Heidi Hehnly, assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.