Participating in an introductory I-Corps Course is a required component of commercializing technology at the University of Maryland.

I-Corps is a National Science Foundation (NSF) program designed to foster, grow, and nurture innovation ecosystems regionally and nationally. The University of Maryland is the lead institution of the NSF I-Corps Hub: Mid-Atlantic Region and a member of the National Innovation Network.

I-Corps provides real world training on how to incorporate innovations into commercially viable companies to solve societal problems. The curriculum is based on the Lean Startup framework, through which researchers can better understand the market potential of an innovation.

The program is comprised of two parts: the self-paced I-Corps Prerequisite, and the Mid-Atlantic I-Corps Customer Discovery Workshops.